Innovative Teaching and Learning Showcase

For the 7^th Year, Talladega County Schools have showcased PBL and Technology.  There are 55 tables to show their student’s hard work.   Here are just a few of the tools that were shared during this amazing showcase. Our theme this year was ENDLESS DISCOVERY.  Through PBL and Educational Technology your students also have ENDLESS POSSIBILITES.

1.    Discovery Education:  Discovery Ed was a huge focus this year during Innovative Teaching PBL throughout the year.  Board Builder from Discovery Ed was seen across the arena last night.  Board Builder is an exciting tool from Discovery Ed that allows you to create multimedia posters.  You can create posters and projects that include text, photos, and video.  To access Board Builder from your Discovery Education account, just click on the Builder Tools drop down menu and select Board Builder. It is a great way to house activities to assign to students or have students show knowledge that they have mastered.

2.     Story Kit: This is a free multimedia storytelling app. Students can create stories with text, drawing, and pictures.  There is room for one sentence of writing on each page.  This is a simple way to publish writing.  It gives you enough options without having to many bells and whistles to confuse a younger student.

3.    Green Screen App:  Green Screen let’s you travel to far away places without ever leaving your classroom.  Green Screen is used in the movies to make it look like the actors have landed on the moon, and it's used on TV to make it look like your local meteorologist is standing in front of an animated weather map. This app works by combining images from multiple sources into a single video. This app makes it easy to create incredible green screen videos right on your iPad. Classroom-tested by kids and teachers, this app emphasizes ease-of-use and simplicity while still enabling you to get fantastic results. With this you can tell a story, explain an idea, and share an idea in a creative way.

4.    Videolicious:  This app lets students make a video in just a few minutes.  Choose your pictures and let videolicious do the rest.  It is a fun way to tell a story in a great video without having to do a lot of work.

5.     iMovie:  This puts everything you need to make a video at your fingertips.  You can combine Videolicious videos, pictures, or almost any other video into a longer video or a Hollywood style trailer.  Students can share their videos on your cameral roll, you tube, or any number of other video services.  The possibilities are endless!

Have a great weekend!

National Symbols

When planning for upcoming topics and units in Social Studies are you thinking about a PBL unit?  Second graders are asked to identify acts of patriotism and symbols of the United States.  Students can be asked to research one of the symbols to learn about the importance of one of the US symbols to share with families at our school that are new to the United States.  The essential question could be Why are these symbols important to Americans? 

Here are some sites to help with research and projects to present their findings to a new family.

1.                      Ben’s Guide to Us Government for Kids:  This is a great site that is provided by the Government Printing Office.  It is divided into age groups for sharing age appropriate resources.  Their goal is to teach how government works, about American symbols, and ways to carry out civic responsibility.  There are great resources in the K-2 section on the American Symbols.  This is a great place to start the research for the national Symbol PBL unit. 

2.                      Brain Pop Jr. and Brain Pop:  Both of these sites and apps have a lot of great videos that introduce many topics.  Brain Pop Jr. has a free video on US Symbols.  Brain Pop Educators section you can find background information and activities for US Symbols. You will also find a matching game for US Symbols on the website.

3.                      Sekai Camera:  With a little Prep work students can go on a virtual scavenger hunt in your school.  You can place digital “post-its” in the air.  Place a picture of each symbol virtually around your school.  Have students find the symbols using the ipad camera.  Have students comment to name the symbol or a reason it is important.  This would be a fun quick check of student learning.

4.                      Find More:  Pinterest, Discovery Education and Teachers Pay Teachers are great resources to find more ideas to implement this unit in your classroom.  During my quick search I found book ideas, writing prompts, craftivities, and videos.  Students could write about being green like the Statue of Liberty or watch a video on Discovery Education.

5.                      Aurasma:  Here’s the project using Augmented Reality.  Have students draw a picture of the symbol they researched.  Students will then record themselves answering the essential question and telling why their symbol is important to Americans.  Put the two together and create an Aura.  Use the pictures as a display and post instructions on how to view the Aura.  Erin Klein has lead many face-to-face and virtual workshops on Aurasma.  She has a free step-by-stepdirections PDF on Teachers pay Teachers.

 I can’t wait to teach this unit in my class in November. What PBL units are you looking forward to teaching?

Have a great weekend!

Let's Get Started!

Here are some tools and ideas that can help you get started with your next PBL project and to show your students’ creativity.

1.    Storiesabout Me:  This app is pricey ($5.99) but you may find that it is worth it.  Students can create stories that have pictures, text, and audio.  It is simple for young children to tell the story of their project.  It can also be shared through a drop box option. 

2.    Another App Smash:  App Smashes are apps that work together to create one product.  Tellagami is one of my favorite apps to create talking Avatars.  With Tellagami you import your own backgrounds.  If you create a background in a drawing app such as Kids Paint or Kids Doodle, your Avatar appears in front of the picture explaining the picture.  This would be great to show vocabulary words or steps in the PBL process.  Several completed Gamis from Tellegami can be dropped into iMovie to create a great finished project.

3.    ComicBook App:  This app let’s you use a photo from your Camera Roll. Choose the template you want to use, add your pictures with a tap.  Then you can add speech bubbles and text.  There is a wide selection of image filters, comic fonts, captions, and classic comic graphics.  You can save to a PDF.  The app is $1.99 and expansion packs are $0.99 each. 

4.    Using Screen Shots:  Screen shots can be used in so many ways in the classroom.  Students can take pictures of score screens in games.  These screen shots can be emailed to you to put in a digital portfolio.  It can also be shared through any app that allows you to upload pictures.  Edmodo, Dropbox and Showbie are just a few.  They can also be used to create step by step directions for using app that require explicit directions.

5.    Recording your PBL Project:  Add the class job of class photographer.  Have the class photographer take one picture each day, post it to your class blog and write about why that picture was important.  If you rotate jobs, it gives every student the responsibility of sharing your classes learning.

Bonus:  For those of you who have class stores or earn points for prizes, I read about a reward that was near the top of the price list.  Students were able to earn the ability to “Text the Principal.”  What a fun free reward for the privileged few.

Have a great weekend!