This document provides suggestions for using various digital tools in the classroom for the new school year, including Animoto, Glogster, Wordle, and Storybird. Animoto allows students to create video presentations using pictures. Glogster is useful for creating interactive posters on various topics. Wordle generates word clouds that can be used for vocabulary, character traits, and more. Storybird and KerPoof are recommended for digital storytelling projects. Overall, the tools highlighted can be used for a variety of projects including reviews, biographies, book reports, and presentations.

1. Tech Ideas
For The
New School Year!
8/20/12

2. Animoto
Animoto is an intuitive, versatile tool for you and
your students to use this year!
Example of First Day Of School
Classroom Project

3. Animoto
How to Use Animoto:
1. Sign up for an Animoto Educator account by clicking
. Use code - a4emacc4a0480
2. Make sure to sign up with a different password than
your school password.
3. You will need to reapply every 6 months.
4. Good idea for students to collect pictures before
they are introduced to Animoto.
5. Have students credit pictures and
sources on a PPT slide to upload
later (save the PPT slide as a jpg)
6. If a picture won’t upload to Animoto – resave it as a
JPG

6. Examples of Glogster
Earth Unit Posters
(Presentation mode – paid account)
Nonfiction Text Features
Pythagoras
Benjamin Franklin
Integers
***Click here for a Glogster rubric

7. Glogster

8. Glogster Ideas
1. End of Unit review
2. Biography
3. Country study
4. Poems
5. “Wanted” poster for a historical figure
6. Glog on a math topic including word problems
and links
7. Book poster
8. Movie poster to go with your Animoto video
9. Have students summarize a chapter in Science
10. Interactive presentation tool
GLOGSTER’S USES ARE ENDLESS!

9. Wordle

10. Examples of Wordle
Character Traits Confident/Not Confident

11. Mystery Wordle

12. Math Vocabulary
Word Match

13. Classroom Values
Student of the Week

14. Word Clouds
How to use Word Clouds
1. Wordle is an easy to use site to make
Word Clouds – no login needed
2. First, type what you want in a Word
document – Wordle has no spell check.
3. The more times you type a word, the
bigger the word will show up in your
Wordle
4. To use numbers go to LANGUAGE and
uncheck NUMBERS
5. Use the ~ sign between words to
keep them together (ex – Twenty~one)
6. Stay away from the Gallery – no filter

15. HOW TO USE WORDLE
1. Character traits
2. All About Me
3. Mystery Wordle
4. KWL
5. Paste student stories to see “over used” words
6. State Report/Character/Book/Science Topic
7. Word Wall
8. Student of the Week
9. List what the class in comfortable with and uncomfortable with
regarding a certain topic
10. Guess the definition
11. Paste text to find main idea for fiction and nonfiction
12. Thank you notes
13. Gifts for parents
14. Poetry

16. Digital Storytelling
Click
Storybird
Great for collaborative stories
Students select artwork or teacher preselects and writes a story based on the artwork
Free account allows teacher to create assignments
Stories can stay online to share, embed, or purchase a hard copy

17. Digital Storytelling
Click
KerPoof
Fun for all ages!
KerPoof has fantastic suite of tools to produce great stories
Great beginner spelling game
Has TONS of ideas and resources for teachers

18. Extras…
Mystery State