Dynamic Projects with Weebly

Today’s session will be rescheduled. Check back here to find out new date and time!

Please join us next Thursday, February 26th from 4-5pm EST/-5 GMT (click here to find out when the event is in your time zone) for a presentation by weebly-solarenergyJacci Erney of Tucker Elementary School. Jacci is a 4th grade teacher who has lots of great ideas about how to use Weebly in the classroom. Use this link below to access our talk. (Link will be live 30 minutes prior to the start of the session on February 26th)

Link to TLP-C Weebly in the Classroom

weebly-hannahIn this session we will review what Weebly is, how it works and how to create student accounts. We will share some student project examples and discuss the pros and cons of using this website creation services for school projects. Whether you have never heard of Weebly before or use it every day, we hope you can join us to ask questions, share ideas and contribute your thoughts.

Bloggers = Writers = Authors

Thank you to Kristin Orwig for sharing her adventures of blogging with Kindergarteners. Kristin gave us a great overview of how and why she introduced blogging to her class. If you missed our live session, you can still watch the recording!myPic

Recording of TLP-C Blogging in Primary Grades – January 2015

This was a wonderful introduction to how blogging can be used to give students a chance to share their voices with the world. Kristin shared that she wanted to introduce her students to becoming digital citizens by making their writing public and by learning to comment with each other. She was also interested in having them consider authentic audiences when they wrote. She found that her students loved blogging and she was able to see their writing growth through the blog.

Kristin learned a lot as she began blogging with her kids. Below are some tips she would like to pass along to you:

  • Use students’ lunch PIN for a password!
  • Get parent and principal permission
  • Use #comments4kids to get teachers to comment on your students’ posts
  • Check out Matt Gomez’s blog for more ideas: http://mattbgomez.com/
  • Use blogging as a centercodekids

We also had a great discussion about how to expand blogging across more elementary classrooms and secondary classes as well. Some ideas were:

  • Connect a Kindergarten class with a 2nd grade class
  • Start with a Blackboard blog to get comfortable with the process first
  • Take pictures of students’ writing (and post to blog) to encourage a balance of handwriting and keyboarding

If you have more ideas about how to incorporate blogging in your classes, please share here!

Blogging in Primary Grades

Join us Thursday, January 22nd from 4-5pm EST (click here to find out when the event is in your time zone) to learn more about blogging in the primary grades. Kristin Orwig, kindergarten teacher at William Ramsay Elementary School will be sharing her adventures with getting our youngest learners writing online. Use this link below to access our talk. (Link will be live 30 minutes prior to the start of the session on January 22nd)0115150941

Link to TLP-C Blogging in Primary Grades

Don’t teach the little ones? Still join us, you will be amazed to learn what these kids can do and how blogging changed how they thought of themselves as writers. You’ll find inspiration in hearing their stories.

Already having your kids blogging? Please join us and share your own experiences and ideas. TLP-C is a group of teachers learning together and we are thrilled when our participants have stories to share.

Augmented Reality Augments Interest in Reading

This month we had a wonderful presentation on Augmented Reality from Laura Davis, 6th grade Language Arts teacher at George Washington Middle School. It was really exciting to hear about how her students used the app Aurasma in her Language Arts class. If you missed the live session, you can listen to the recording right here!

Recording of TLP-C Augmenting Interest with Augmented Reality – December 2014

Aurasma-logoIf you are not familiar with Aurasma, it is a very powerful app that allows you to take a device (iPad, tablet, smart phone, etc.) and hover over an image. Once Aurasma “finds” that image, that image acts as a “trigger,” and begins playing a video over the image. The result is much like the posters in Harry Potter where you are looking at a 2D image but viewing a 3D, moving image. If you don’t have a chance to watch the recording, you can still view how Aurasma works by clicking right here: How Aurasma Works.

Laura began her presentation with this quote: quietest-student

Many shared their thoughts about how technology gives some students a way to express themselves beyond class discussion. 0410141340aLaura then began explaining how she used Aurasma in her class. Basically, she had students write a 30 second commercial for a book. Laura had them write this out and rehearse it several times. Students then used iPads to record each other and used the cover of the book as the “trigger” image. Laura also shared several tips and tricks like make sure you use images that are clear and vibrant, spread your students out so their recordings don’t have too much background noise, and have written instructions for when the students get stuck.

Participants shared a lot of great ideas about how they could use Aurasma in their classes. Here are some neat ideas that came up:

  • Virtual Art Gallery – have students use their art as the trigger image and launch a video of them talking about their art (highlighting aspects of the art they worked on)
  • Manipulative Math Solutions – have a math problem as a trigger image that goes to a video of a student using manipulatives to solve the problems.
  • Chinese Character Drawings – the Chinese character could be the trigger image and the video is the character being drawn (showing the steps of drawing that character)
  • Library Orientation (TC Williams High School librarians are doing this!) – have stations where there is a designated trigger image and then the video explains what that part of the library is for (this has gotten rave reviews from the high school students)

Want to know more? Listen to the recording! Have you used Aurasma? We’d love to hear your ideas, tips, tricks or questions. Leave us a comment below.

What a Skitch!

A big thank you to Lois Lansing, 3rd grade teacher from MacArthur Elementary School, for sharing how she has used Skitch in the classroom. It was so helpful to hear her ideas about how she used Skitch and to listen to stories from her classroom. If you missed our live session, you can watch the recording by clicking righerosion1t here:

Recording of TLP-C Skitch Lessons You Can Use October 30, 2014

Skitch is an app as well as a desktop application that allows you to annotate images   with captions, arrows, and other drawing tools. This is a great tool for anytime you want students to show what they know about an image. And, it is a great tool for app-smashing because the images you annotate in Skitch can be pulled into other apps or software or websites to create awesome digital stories and presentations.

erosion2Lois shared a wonderful lesson she did when she was a 2nd grade teacher. After spending a few days learning about erosion, students were charged with the task of identifying erosion around their school building. Students then used Skitch to annotate those pictures: using arrows to draw attention to what they saw, using text boxes to explain what they saw and using other drawing tools (circles, squares) to highlight these examples of erosion. Next, Lois had the students import their Skitch images into PowerPoint to make recommendations about what the school should do to improve the school and slow down the erosion.

As we discussed using Skitch, we talked about some good tips like:

  • giving students some “play” time to take selfies and learn the Skitch tools
  • be clear about expectations if taking iPads outside
  • have iPads set up to email images to teacher to use the images with other applications on the computers OR set up Dropbox accounts on iPads for image sharing
  • partner students to promote collaboration

Another great tip Lois shared was that you can use the blurring tool in Skitch to blur students faces. So if you want to post public pictures of students but don’t want them to be identifiable, you can use this helpful tool to do so!text-mark-up

Lois shared another fantastic way to use Skitch which is for highlighting text features. This was a really neat idea where students could highlight topic sentences, add questions they have, or even point out citation information like the URL for the website. More ideas that were shared were:

  • let the students take the selfies and then label (eyes, ears, nose) in a target language (Spanish, French, Chinese, etc.)
  • take pictures of student artwork and have students label skills they are working on (perspective, lines, negative space, etc.)
  • have students make addition stories using counting bears and use Skitch to explain the addition
  • take pictures of primary sources or maps and have students label important items

Have your own ideas about using Skitch or questions about how to use Skitch? Leave us a comment below!!

Skitching Things Together

Join us this Thursday, October 30th for a great session on ways to use the app Skitch in the classroom. Lois Lansing will share some successful lessons she’s done, showing student work and exploring the best ways to use the app.skitch

Already familiar with Skitch? Join us and share your ideas and tips.

Never heard of Skitch before? Come by and learn a little bit about this versatile and easy-to-use app.

The lesson starts at 4pm EST (-5 GMT). Use the following link to log in.

https://acps.blackboard.com/webapps/bb-collaborate-bb_bb60/launchSession/guest?uid=6ea0fbca-0459-4bd0-b427-16c3fd7113a3

Hope to see you there!

How many apps can you smash?

appsmashing2 A huge thank you to Caroline Doughty for launching our first 2014-2015 session of TLP-C this week. We had a lively crowd that was enthused about trying out app smashing in their classrooms. If you missed our live session, check out the recording:

Recording of TLP-C App Smashing September 25, 2014

If you are tuning in for the appsmashing3first time, the first 20 minutes or so cover what TLP-C is, our goals and protocols and a brief overview of Blackboard Collaborate. Caroline’s section will start about 22 minutes in.

Caroline began by defining App Smashing. Basically, app smashing is any time you are using more than one app together!  Caroline then explored why she thinks it is an effective strategy in the classroom. She emphasized the critical thinking involved as well as the creativity that was unleashed in her students. What was also really interesting was that she also found it to be a great way to increase oral fluency and to track the progress of her English Language Learners. Apps that were used early in the school year could be smashed with those used later on and the progress in students pronunciation, word usage and sentence structure was marked. What a powerful form of assessment!

Caroline shared some of her favorite ways to app smash. Those included using PicCollage to take a photo of a blank clock and to add the time.  Students then opened Tellagami and imported the PicCollaged clock to explain how they knew the time. We loved how Caroline structured these activities so that they were differentiated (different clocks) and provided time for students to see each other’s examples. She found students learned so much about the mathematical skill of time telling as well as about app smashing when they had time to see their classmate’s smashed apps.

Some other apps that Caroline has smashed, or that you might want to try smashing, include:appsmashing1

  • Garage Band
  • My Story
  • Skitch
  • Doceri
  • Explain Everything
  • Base 10 apps
  • Aurasma
  • Comic Touch Lite
  • iMovie
  • Word Cloud
  • Glow Draw!

The possibilities are endless. And the more students are exposed to using different apps, the more they will want to use them together. Kids love smashing – why not let them app smash!!

We hope you get a chance to watch/listen to the recording. Leave us a comment below if you’ve app smashed or if you have more questions about how to smash!

Our next live session will be Thursday, October 30th from 4-5pm EST (click here to find out when it will be in your time zone)

 

App Smashing, Creativity and Critical Thinking

We are so excited about our first TLP-C of this school year. We will be hosting 2nd grade teacher, Caroline Doughty from George Mason Elementary School. Caroline has a great session planned where she will talk about App-Smashing. Join us this Thursday, September 25 from 4-5pm EST (to find out when we are live in your time zone, click here). To join us live use this link (will only work from 4-5pm 9/25/14) Can’t make it live? The recording will be posted here on this blog shortly after the live broadcast. Watch this space.tellagami

So, what is app-smashing, you are wondering? Well, it’s as simple, and as complicated as you’d like it to be. In its basics, it is using two apps at once. A student might draw a diagram using a image making app like PicCollage and then insert that diagram into a Tellagami or another app that allows them to explain the diagram. Lost? Come join us and hear Caroline explain it and see the products her 2nd graders have made. Don’t have access to iPads at your school? Get inspired to see how they can be used as learning tools or how these same lessons can be used with Web 2.0 tools. Have experience with app-smashing? Please join us to share your expertise, tips, ideas and advice.

Getting ready for our 2014-2015 TLP-C Launch!

We are super excited to launch our 2014-2015 TLP-C. We are looking for some great teacher leaders that want share how digital tools are impacting teaching and learning in the classroom. Uncle_Sam_(pointing_finger)

If you would like to be a Developer for the 2014-2015 school year, please indicate your interest here: Developer Interest Form

If you would like to be a Committed Participant for the 2014-2015 school year, please indicate your interest here: Committed Participants Interest Form

The professional development strand in ACPS called Teacher Leadership Program – Collaborate (TLP-C) is an opportunity to build and continue a community of practice collaborating, modeling and implementing relevant, engaging and innovative technologies in the classroom.

Each month we have a virtual meeting that is co-facilitated by ACPS teachers through Blackboard Collaborate, an online collaboration platform. Teachers present virtually on digital topics based on teaching and learning in their classrooms.

All teachers are welcome to participate in TLP-C. Levels of participation are Drop-in and Committed Participants. Drop-ins will attend sessions as they are able or can listen to recorded sessions posted on this blog. Committed Participants must be active participants in at least 6 of the 8 live sessions (active participants will be engaged in chatting, raising hands, active in polling, etc) and be present for the entire live session.  Committed Participants will also complete 3 reflections throughout the year and provide evidence of the implementation of the tools and strategies presented in the sessions.

If you would like to be a Developer for the 2014-2015 school year, please indicate your interest here: Developer Interest Form

If you would like to be a Committed Participant for the 2014-2015 school year, please indicate your interest here: Committed Participants Interest Form