Notebooking, Teaching, and Technology

Last spring, the second week we were out for distance learning, a friend asked if I would teach some middle school students how to Sketchnote online. She said it would be voluntary and most likely be a small group. I agreed, because I wanted to see how difficult it would be to teach sketchnoting online...for a week. I had five engaged children...all girls...who didn't mind being "guinea pigs" for a daily "Lunch and Learn" session. Shortly afterward a teacher who had booked me to introduce sketchnoting to her class, prior to the pandemic, asked if I would consider doing it virtually (she taught 4th grade). I agreed, based on my earlier "success" and ended up with between 15-17 students. In order to get links and material to her students I had her added me as a co-teacher in Google Classroom. I used a 1 hour block of time and most sessions ended between 50-60 minutes. Monday - I did an introduction presentation with built in challenges ( copy o...

Video Link -  https://bit.ly/2YygqEK I was recently asked what the best program is to record a read aloud. This got me thinking about one of my favorite read aloud follows on YouTube, Glenn Malcolm. He does  read alouds for his grandson  and posts them to YouTube. I like how his face is on the screen during the read aloud in a moveable "dot". The only program I know that can do a circle webcam like that is Loom. Luckily Loom is offering their full account  FREE (forever) to educators . I recorded the  read aloud b elow to test the program. I used a children's book that I found online in one of four places I have access to online children's books: - Hoopla Digital (offered through our local library) - cloudLibrary eBooks (offered through our local library) - Sora (our district's online library for students) -  Epic  (library website that is free for teachers to use in the classroom) dagd I could have snapped pictures of each pa...

We are in our last week of April and I am wrapping up a four part series of online poetry activities for National Poetry Month. This last idea, paint trip poetry, came from Mrs. Hall's Fabulous in Fourth blog . From Mrs. Hall's Blog I really liked the idea and made it digital using Google Slides. I created a template that teachers could use and modify if they wish. Once you click on the link you will be asked to make a copy. Once you have copy in your drive you can adjust as needed for your students. This activity is appropriate for grades 3 through 5. We use Google Classroom in our district so it would be easy to assign it. Below is how the assignment might look in Google Classroom: The finished poem "Grey Is" (above) was one I created and used as a sample for students in the template. Definitely check out Mrs. Hall's blog to see other samples of student work. She had a linked worksheet for student brainstorming and I copied those instruc...

April is National Poetry Month. I have been trying to share some poetry ideas for tech integrated lessons (ones that can be used in a remote learning environment). This week's lesson is on Reverse Poems. The idea of a Reverse Poem is that it has meaning when read from one direction (top to bottom) and an opposite meaning when read in reverse (bottom to top). To try it out, and make a student sample, I made a reverse Cat and Dog poem ( YouTube video embedded above). I was proud of the poem and video. It definitely is tricky. I would recommend this activity for upper level elementary GT and Middle/High students. The entire concept of a "Reverse Poem" came from this "Lost Generation" poem . This got me thinking about how I would teach the concept to students (particularly in a remote learning environment). This resulted in creating a Google Slides instructional template that could be assigned to students. To be clear, I have not tried it with anyon...

I like to use the Facebook Messenger effects to make video messages for students. I used to teach teachers how to do when they were out and wanted to leave a "video note" for students when they had a sub. Using the effects makes the message more engaging and more likely to be watched.  With distance learning in full swing in our district I thought it would be a great way to kick off the school week with students (giving them something new for the week to watch that lets students know what is due).  It is super simple to make. I created the video instructions above or you can link to it HERE . I use my iPhone or iPad and I have my Google Classroom and Seesaw accounts linked to both devices. Linking them makes it easier to upload the finished videos into the student classrooms that I have set up.  Seesaw Upload Instructions: Google Classroom Instructions: If you find any other uses for the Facebook Messenger effects please let me...

Last week I noted that April is National Poetry Month and this year most of us will be celebrating/observing it at home as we isolate ourselves amid the Covid-19 crisis. I decided to post four online/tech activities, one each week, that teachers (upper elementary/middle school) could have students do. My first post featured creating a simple Quarantine Haiku using Google Drawings. My second idea is to...host a remote poetry slam. Here is a great article featuring "5 Tips for Slam Poetry" Teachers can use Flipgrid  (free for educators) as the "performing space". Students would record their original poetry (Flipgrid has blur and pixelating options for children who didn't want their face shown). You can indicate a time recording maximum to keep children focused. There are several student Poetry Slam videos on YouTube you could share to get students thinking about their poems. I really liked this one from a 12 year old Australian . If you host a onlin...

April is National Poetry Month and many of us will be observing/celebrating it from home in the midst of the Covid-19 crisis. As a tech coach, I have been posting remote learning ideas for teachers and thought I would try my hand at providing four online poetry activities/projects students could do involving poetry (one for each week in April). Since we have a short week (we have Good Friday off) I thought I would start with something relatively easy...Quarantine Haiku's. The idea came from this YouTube video -  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=LC35ibZd1LE I made a four minute instructional video for students (which you are more than welcome to share with children) -  https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_S2K8_Wl1hM . The video briefly explains what a haiku is and walks them through how to create their finished poem using Google Drawings. Here is a copy of the  Haiku Google Drawing Template if you wish to use it. You will be forced to make a copy before you can as...

Our district has a subscription to Kami and we love it! They have a free version, which would work for most basic assignments, but I love their premium features (which they are offering for free with school shut downs ). One of my favorite features is the ability to "embed" a YouTube video into an assignment via the comment box. This means that students don't have to move in and out of an assignment to complete it. A couple of things to note, this only works with YouTube videos. You can create a link in the comment box to a video elsewhere (Google Drive as an example) but the link will take the student outside of the assignment to view. If YouTube is blocked in your district it will still be blocked within Kami. I made a 2 minute video for teachers walking through creating an assignment with "embedded" videos. If you like the assignment I have provided all the links below: Teacher Video - http://bit.ly/2WoGwdo Graphic Organizer - http://bit.ly/39Vi1I...