4. LET’S JUMP IN AND HAVE
SOME FUN!
Photo Courtesy of office.com (free)
Activities I am using target 5th-grade, but
can be adjusted to fit most students and
the curriculum that they cover in grades
3-12.
5. Big Huge Labs
• Can be used to
create posters,
trading cards,
magazine
covers, and
other fun
graphics to
show
comprehension.
www.bighugelabs.com
Look at THIS
trading card
about ME!
7. You can make a cube with
pictures and blank sides to
add your own text. Folding
directions are provided too.
8. Curriculum Applications
• Students will research different animals and make trading cards to tell
about them. Then, students will classify the trading cards
(vertebrates/invertebrates)
Science 5.5b)Classification of organisms using physical body
characteristics, structure, and behavior of the
organisms.
• Other possible uses for bighugelabs.com includes reporting research
facts or descriptions on such topics as characters in stories, scientists,
planets, historical events or people, etc.
Photo Courtesy of office.com (free)
11. Curriculum Applications
Students could create their own pixieclip videos where they explain how to work a decimal problem and then share
the videos in class.
Math 5.5 The student will
a) find the sum, difference, product, and quotient of two numbers expressed as decimals
through thousandths (divisors with only one nonzero digit); and
b) create and solve single-step and multistep practical problems involving decimals.
Other Ideas:
• Draw story maps that show the sequence of plot in a story.
• Draw and label the parts of animal/plant cells.
• Write words and divide them into syllables
• Draw a map of the state of Virginia and label the regions
Photos Courtesy of office.com (free)
14. Curriculum Applications
• Students could design posters or flyers about a topic they are studying in class. This could include a famous
person, a book or story they were assigned to read, historical figures, states, animals, etc. The resulting project
must include pictures and facts learned from the research process.
(English 5.9c: Use technology as a tool to research, organize, evaluate, and communicate information.)
Other Ideas For Using Canva:
• Make a poster about someone you had to interview.
• Make a flyer to describe things you have learned in a class.
• Design a poster that describes your favorite book (Read Across America Week)
• Make a flyer that tells about your school (something that would tell new students all about what your school
has to offer them.)
• Design a poster that tells about one of your vocabulary words (origin, pronunciation, definition, part of speech,
synonyms and antonyms, etc.)
Photo Courtesy of office.com (free)
17. Curriculum Applications
• The student could be required to summarize notes that were taken in class and to share their thoughts about
what was discussed.
(English 5.9e: Develop notes that include important concepts, summaries, and identification of
information sources.)
Other Ideas:
• Book reports
• Lab reports
• Create practice study guides/questions for tests that are coming up.
• Research project results
• Poetry (favorites read AND original creations)
• Math Word Problems (created and worked out)
Photos Courtesy of office.com (free)
19. My contact information:
Susan Appleton
Email: sappleto@mail.dps.k12.va.us
Website: http://www.futurelibrarian2016.blogspot.com
Hinweis der Redaktion
Estimated Time: 2 mins. Talk about the greater emphasis placed on technology and how that role is really being placed on the school librarian. We are the catalyst for change in our school and many of the teachers will follow our lead if we are EXCITED about using technology and teaching our students to use it. Explain that as we discuss the 4 “cool tools” we will have time for brainstorming ideas for using them. We will write ideas on post-it notes and attach them to chart paper for everyone to review and discuss. (Have the chart paper on the wall and post it notes available for them to write on).
Estimated Time: 2-3 minutes Who Am I? Classroom Teacher (18 years in grades 7 and 5)
BS from Averett University, Danville, VA (1996)
Married
Mother
Graduate Student: Old Dominion University
Aspiring Librarian
Pet Owner
Singer
Creative Writer
Emphasize that we each bring great life experiences to the table and as life-long learners we convey that love of knowledge to our students. Talk about how each of our students is going to bring their experiences with them too and we have to have classrooms that are going to allow them to be creative and express their individual outlooks about what they are learning. Technology gives them a voice and a chance to share “who they are” with those around them.
Estimated Time: 2 mins. Why Use Technology? Prepares students for the 21st Century
Makes your lessons more interesting and appealing to students
Engages students who think “outside of the box.”
Gives students practice using technology
Increases student participation
Results: fun and attractive student presentations
Promotes sharing of ideas
Emphasize that with the new SOLs, there is a greater demand for 21st Century Technology instruction in our classrooms. We have to teach students to use the technology so that they will be more prepared for a future filled with jobs that require an understanding and application of technology skills.
The BEST way to appreciate these tools are just to play with them and see what you can do. You can also pull out the VA SOLs and look at them in conjunction with each tool to discover ways to apply the use of the tool with our state standards. Librarians could also collaborate with classroom teachers to see what is being taught in the classroom so that the librarian could plan instruction and practice using the tools with the students in conjunction with what they have been learning (or will learn) in the classroom instruction.
Estimated Time: 3 mins. Students could make trading cards about themselves at the beginning of the year or about their heroes or favorite authors. They could also summarize books they read or report on research they have done about topics such as animals, explorers, scientists, planets, rocks, etc. They could interview other people, take a photograph of that person, and create a trading card about him/her.
Estimated Time: 3 mins. You easily upload a picture and then type in descriptions about the subject. This could be a picture of a scientist, explorer, character from a book, subject of a poem, a country, an animal, etc. The possibilities are unlimited. The student would have to research and know a lot about his/her subject in order to be able to come up with descriptions.
Estimated Time: 3 mins. Imagine what the students could create cubes for that would show comprehension about subjects across the curriculum! They could fill up to 6 sides with pictures, but you may want to have some empty sides for them to add text. I made this one in less than 5 minutes!
Estimated Time: 2 mins. Even though 5th-grade is being targeted, stress that all grade levels have certain topics that lend themselves to being researched and reported on. Why not make the reports more interesting by using these technology tools? Students will respond to doing presentations with more enthusiasm when they get to be creative and in the end, they will produce products that show mastery of the concepts while also being much more visually exciting!
Estimated Time: 4 mins. As a group, take a moment to list on chart paper some ways you could use the bighugelabs.com to cover topics that you know are in your curriculum for YOUR students.
Estimated Time: 4 mins. Lets you make video explanations. You can see one here that I made where I worked a problem about adding decimals. Pixieclip lets you record your own voice while you are also drawing on the board. It’s a great way to write AND explain at the same time. It is a little hard to control the “pencil” while you’re writing/drawing.
Right click on the picture to open the hyperlink that shows the pixieclip I created for adding decimals. Make sure the sound is turned on and is loud enough for everyone to hear.
Estimated Time: 2 mins. You may want to stress to them that using the writing tool will be difficult and messy at first but one they practice with it, it will get easier and look much neater.
Estimated Time: 4 mins. As a group, take a moment to list on chart paper some ways you could use the pixieclip.com to cover topics that you know are in your curriculum for YOUR students.
Estimated Time: 3 mins. Students can use this tool to help them design flyers, posters, etc. about different topics. One of the downfalls is that most of the pictures available on Canva cost money, so students need to have their own pictures saved to upload.
Most of the pictures that are available on Canva.com cost $1.00 but if you have your own pictures/photos you can upload those for free. There are other graphics available for free on Canva such as the speech bubbles, the admittance ticket and the cell phone graphic that I used in the poster for Open House. I had the picture of the bulldog in my own pictures.
Estimated Time: 2 mins. Be sure to tell them that if they want to save the things they create on canva.com, they will need to go through the steps to create their free account.
Estimated Time: 3 mins. As a group, take a moment to list on chart paper some ways you could use canva.com to cover topics that you know are in your curriculum for YOUR students.
Estimated Time: 3 mins. Blogs can be created by the teacher and students given permission to post projects, comments, etc. OR students could be given the assignment to create their OWN blog where they respond to the teacher’s directions for assignments. They could also be taught to use various tools such as vocaroo or imagechef to voice messages and images. Students could also share new technology tools that THEY discover. A portion of the class time could be spent each week allowing students to share what THEY discover and learn to use to enhance their blogs. If using a class blog where everyone responds, be sure to provide parents with the URL so they can see what their children are posting and sharing. If using individual blogs, be sure to spend time talking to students about what is and is NOT appropriate and make them aware of the fact that you, the principal, their classmates, and parents will be looking at the blogs.
Estimated Time: 2 mins. Talk about the different things that students could post on a blog? How can teachers use the blogs to show mastery, comprehension, research, etc.? How will the blogs be managed and supervised? Will students have a roster of classroom blogs so that they can check each others’ blogs? Teachers need to decide if class time will be given to allow students time at school to work on blogs or will blogs be used for homework/at home?
Estimated Time: 2 mins. As a group, take a moment to list on chart paper some ways you could use blogger.com to cover topics that you know are in your curriculum for YOUR students. Would you have a class blog and students all comment on that blog, or would you allow each student to have their own blog? What would you do to accommodate students who do not have internet access at home?
Estimated Time: 2-3 mins. Allow time for any questions or any ideas that someone may have come up with during the presentation. Talk to them about just “playing” with the tools and having fun with them. Don’t be intimidated by it………just play!