PBS Kids Appy Hour

If you're attending the PBS Kids EdCamp on May 11th, this will be a great follow-up for you! This session will discuss PBS Kids digital tools and how they can be applied in your classroom in purposeful ways. Open to all pre-K - 3rd grade teachers in the Billings area! BPS teachers, register at the district PIR Day Trade site, as well as bit.ly/AppyHourPBS for this FREE day of learning!

Weekly Tech-y News

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Weekly Tech-y News

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Publishing Opinion Writing Using Apple Clips & PicEdu

Students in Mrs. Heringer's 2nd grade did a fantastic job publishing their opinion writing pieces using PicEdu, Apple Clips & Seesaw. The results are creative, engaging videos that tell their opinions and give voice to their stories. Keep reading to see how they did it!

Mrs. Heringer's students worked on their opinion writing pieces and drafted their writing on paper. Students used a graphic organizer to organize their thoughts, using the Step Up to Writing method, then wrote finished drafts onto lined paper.

Because students' writing was organized into four groups (first, next, then, last), we had them use the app PicEdu to create four illustrations for their stories. We allowed them to use web search, drawing, stickers or the camera to create their illustrations - our main focus was that students created illustrations that made sense with the words they wrote.

Once illustrations were done, we showed students how to use the app Apple Clips to finish their projects. If you haven't used Apple Clips, it is a wonderful FREE app for easily creating videos with lots of elements. Kristen Brooks has a great tutorial here. 

Students chose a "poster" to use for their title, then added their illustrations and recorded themselves reading their stories. We had them add photos of their writing at the end, then add music and share to their Seesaw journals using the export button (rectangle with an arrow) in the bottom corner.

Here are some examples of how these projects turned out!

Goodbye to The Palms

Goodbye to The Palms. She sold today, and will continue on with a new couple who have two little dogs. She'll be much happier with them, exploring new places, roaring down new roads, than sitting on the side of my house. Onward and upward, sweet motor home. She was perfect, and I'll miss her. This is one of the early photos I took of her, visiting my kids.

So...  that chapter of my life is closed, and I have lots more adventures ahead.

Right now working on the new house is on the top of my list.  Landscaping, fencing, changing out windows and doors.  Patios and pergolas. Shutters and window boxes.  Big things and little things.

She's finally furnished and comfortable, and is going to be a great little house for me and Charlie - who just dug a huge hole in the backyard.  It looks like he's trying to help the contractor dig post holes.

I think about all of you out on the road.  I'll keep in touch from time to time.

You all take care,

Me and Charlie  ❤ 🐾🐾 😊

Why do we edit and filter our selfies?

This was a digital literacy lesson I did with Year 4 last week:

I have also posted a more in-depth step-by-step tutorial for what we did and how we did it exclusively for the supporters of my Facebook page. You can access this and everything else on MrPICT.com by clicking the picture below:

Weekly Tech-y News

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Weekly Tech-y News

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Weekly Tech-y News

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MontanaPBS Cyberchase STEM resources

Are you in need of STEM resources for your elementary classroom? Get free Cyberchase STEM content on a weekly basis for 4 weeks. Students love it and it is easy to implement!

Teach Your Monster to Read App - FREE this week!

The wait is over! Teach Your Monster to Read is free to download across all app stores this week!

From today (Monday March 4th) to Sunday March 10th, you can download the app completely free.

Once downloaded, there is no subscription cost or in-app purchase after the free download period ends.

Are you ready to go on an adventure? Three, two, one... let's go!

• apple.co/2s8oX0b  (iPad & iPhone)
• http://bit.ly/2cohkeR  (Android)
• http://amzn.to/2lNa0xS  (Kindle Fire)

 K-2 BPS teachers, submit a help ticket to have this app installed on your classroom iPads!

Weekly Tech-y News

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Class 4A's Guide to Social Media Apps

I think Social Media is a tool for good. Unfortunately, at the minute not everyone is using it positively. It comes down to choices. In 2019, we don't have a choice about using social media, the choice we make is how well we do it.

Just this week the DFE announced that lessons around mental well-being linked to the internet and social media will be compulsory next year. I have been saying this needs to happen for the past few years. I do think education is crucial to prevent the issues we are seeing around mental health, screen addiction and relationships.

Over the past few weeks, I have been working with my year 4 class to learn more about some of the social media apps they are aware of. I wanted to cover both the positives and negatives and make children aware of how to stay safe and act responsibly when they are old enough to use these tools.

The genre in English was non-chronological reports and the children looked at three subheadings of:

• What is it?
• What are the dangers/risks?
• Top tips for staying safe.

Using the apps Apple Clips and Chatterkids, the pupils performed their writing as a video:

We have also collated all of the children's videos into an eBook which we have published online:

Class 4A’s guide to Social Media

Click to read this book, made with Book Creator

https://read.bookcreator.com

Please feel free to share this with your pupils and parents.