Weekly Tech-y News December 10th-14th

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Using Fill in the Blank on Classkick

Classkick is one of my favorite tools to use in the classroom - if you haven't tried it, be sure to visit classkick.com to check it out. Classkick is FREE, and can be used on computers, Chromebooks or iPads. It's such a terrific way to send multiple-page assignments to students, allowing them to respond with text, audio, drawing, photos and video. And HUGE BONUS: teachers can watch their students complete work and provide feedback in real time!

The lesson I made in Classkick was created using the first 10 words on the Fry Sight Word list, and was made to satisfy standard RF.K.3.C in the kindergarten phonics & word recognition strand. Using Classkick allows me to say the word to the student using the audio feature in Classkick, rather than having to pull students back one-on-one for an assessment, or repeat myself many times. I love that by using a digital tool like Classkick, teachers can place this activity in a center or reading group rotation, and students can work independently while the teacher is working with a small group. Such a better use of teacher and student time in the classroom!

To create this activity, I recorded a separate sight word on each page, and used the fill in the blank feature to make this a self-checking activity. Using fill in the blank, I was able to add an acceptable answer. This will allow teachers to quickly glance at students' responses to see if the sight words they entered are correct.

By toggling on the "show students their grades" option under "View Student Work", the assignment will self-correct and students will receive immediate feedback on whether or not their response was correct. How cool is that?!

If you'd like to try this activity with your own class, you can grab a copy here that you can share with your own students. The Classkick assignments are also super easy to duplicate, so you can make your own versions with different sight words, or even differentiate the assignment for groups of students in your room. 

Gingerbread Men in PicCollage Kids

This was such a fun, simple way to introduce students (and teachers!) to PicCollage Kids, and the concept of setting an image as a background and having students complete a project. You could either send students an image (via Seesaw or AirDrop), or let them use the web search tool in PicCollage to find a blank gingerbread man template.

I like the idea of using Seesaw Activities to distribute the image to students, plus give them directions. Teachers can give students audio AND visual directions on how to complete the task in PicCollage, then upload to Seesaw under Activities & it will be organized if you tag a skill or folder. I also like that when using Activities, I get the grid view where I can see which students have completed the task, and which I'm still waiting on.

Here's what you'll see:

Here's what they see:

To access this Seesaw activity and add to your own library, click here. 

Once the image is on the iPads, students open PicCollage Kids and set the gingerbread template as a background. They could do a web search for eyes, nose, etc. I let them use the free sticker packs (choosing from the tons of Christmas stickers) and doodle tool in PicCollage Kids to decorate their gingerbread people. The students then used the text tool to add a sentence or two about their creation, then saved to the camera roll and uploaded to Seesaw. They loved this activity!

Weekly Tech-y News December 18-22

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Christmas Books with Green Screen Awesomeness

This project was so much fun! Inspired by Brigitte Hollohan, we used the DoInk Green Screen app ($2.99) to take photos of each student in Mrs. Parisien's first grade in front of an image of Santa in the night sky. We used this image, but you could use any you like. It would be really fun to let students make their own using the Make a Scene: Christmas app ($2.99).

Once the pictures were taken, we could have done any number of things with them! Print them for cute Christmas cards or gifts, add to Seesaw and type or tell their story, create a collage in PicCollage Kids ... really the possibilities are endless! We decided to have each student write a Dear Santa letter using this cute FREE template, then load all the photos into Book Creator app, and have students read their "Dear Santa" letters onto each page. It easily shared to Seesaw, and turned out absolutely adorable!

Weekly Tech-y News December 11-15th

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Christmas Tree Apps

There are several fun, free Christmas tree apps for your iPad that allow students to be creative and decorate their own Christmas trees. Use these apps for math problems: Have them create arrays or simple equations on the trees using the ornaments, then put into Seesaw or another app to annotate, solve and explain their thinking. You could also have them create illustrations for stories and upload to apps such as Seesaw, Shadow Puppet Edu, or Book Creator, where they can add text and voice.

15 Things to Know About Your New Chromebook

I think every Chromebook should come with this page. Print it out and put it in the box this Christmas! And if you see something we left out, please comment on this post and let us know.

15 Things to Know about Your New Chromebook

1. There are a few things you can do with your Chromebook offline, but you will like your Chromebook best when it is on a wireless network.

2. You can log in with any Gmail address and password, including your work account if your company or school uses Google.

3. Any apps or themes you install in your Chrome browser on your computer will appear on your Chromebook automatically.

4. You do not have to just use Apps from the App Store; almost any website will work on a Chromebook. For example, Animoto.com, Prezi.com, etc.

5. Go through the tutorial to learn about right clicking and scrolling by using two fingers, pushing down instead of just tapping, and using ALT+Search to turn caps lock on and off.

6. Microsoft Office (and other traditional software) lives on your desktop computer; on a Chromebook, we use Google Docs.

7. You can save pictures or other files right to your cloud-based Google Drive, a USB drive, or the small hard drive on the Chromebook itself, but the Google Drive is best.

8. Startup and shutdown take only a few seconds.

9. Closing the lid puts your Chromebook to sleep but does not turn it off. Hold down the power key until the screen goes completely black or click the shutdown button in the bottom right hand corner to completely turn off your Chromebook.

10. The battery will last about 8 hours.

11. Multiple users can use the Chromebook simply by logging off and back on; no data will be lost.

12. Apps are listed at the bottom and can be accessed by clicking the grid icon.

13. You can use any USB mouse with your Chromebook.

14. Using Google Hangouts and the built-in camera on the Chromebook, you can video chat for free with up to 14 people (or 9 people if you use your personal Gmail account).

15. Install Webcam Toy to take cool pictures with the built in camera http://goo.gl/DNXO4.

Printable Copy in Google Docs

Best Wireless Headphones EVER for under $60

I love these headphones so much that it would be wrong of me not to tell you about them. I'm not recommending them for work so much as for pleasure, though I love them in all settings. They connect to my phone via Bluetooth--no wires-- and work flawlessly with my iPhone 4s and Galaxy Note 2 (though I must admit I've never been able to get them to hold a connection to my MacBook Pro, that doesn't matter much for me) . I use them to hear something besides what's going on in my house all the time and they allow me to remain calm and composed when something loud and annoying is happening that would normally stress me out. I also wear them in the bathtub, though I'm sure this isn't safe, so don't try this at home. I'm an expert :-). And I wear them in the store so I don't have to talk to anyone unless I feel like it (think #introvertgift). After a few hours my ears start to hurt, but so far, I have never found a pair of headphones that stay on where this is not the case, and these are more comfortable than most.

I am a sound freak. I carry these speakers with me almost everywhere I do presentations because no one else's are ever good enough, and to me, these headphones sound just as great as the speakers. If you normally spend $500 on headphones, I can see how you would probably have higher expectations. I, however, do not, and for around $60, I am not sure unless I did a side-by-side I could tell the difference anyway. If you strongly disagree with me and would like to send me a truly great pair of headphones, please go right ahead!

I don't normally endorse products, and at this time, I do not make one dime off this blog, and I am sure Creative doesn't need my help, so don't feel compelled to buy these things unless you are just looking for a great set of bluetooth headphones.

I love them so much I'm thinking about buying another set so I never have to wait for these to charge, and also, what if they stop making them?!? Hmmmm. Anyone have the next step up with the micrpohone? If so, let me know how you like them.

Oh, one final thing, they use a mini-usb charger which is the same as my Galaxy Note 2 and old trusty Kindle. Handy!