ISTE Technology Standards

Did you know there are technology standards for administrators, teachers, and students? The NETS have been in place for many years. The NETS have however been changing over the last few years from simple mouse, typing, and word processing skills to modeling how teachers and students should use technology to enhance learning and the school environment. These standards are not meant to be a benchmarking tool for grade levels or yet another piece of the assessment puzzle. Instead, they are to be used as a guideline for teachers as technology is embedded into the classroom. The six standards are based on key skills of the 21st century that students will need in their future workplace and lives. I encourage you to take a look at the ISTE Standards (formally known as NETS) as you begin to plan for the coming school year. Perhaps you are not ready to implement every standard to it's full extent for various reasons, but would consider choosing a few to begin implementing. The key is finding a starting place and building from there. As you read the standards, think about how the standards can be used within lessons and units you are already teaching to reach students of the 21st century.

Follow these links to each set of current technology standards:

• ISTE Standards for Students
• ISTE Standards for Teachers
• ISTE Standards for Administrators

Typic Kids - Fun Photo Editor

A fun new app for any age is Typic Kids. With this app, kids can easily edit a picture, add filters and frames, write captions, and even add stickers. Navigation throughout the app is simple as the user swipes between each editing option. Here is an example of a photo my daughter and I edited... (We were very excited about the prize we found at lunch!)

Besides this being a fun app to use at home, I'm wondering how could it be used in the classroom? Because I am beginning to think about the beginning of the school year, my first thought is for students to edit a picture of themselves for a classroom or hallway display. The picture could easily be paired with an "All About Me" writing. My students love scavenger hunts, so why not use this for students to record items they have found on a hunt. The scavenger hunt could include hunting for nouns in the classroom, shapes, items that have phonetic skills in the word, or whatever you may need students to focus on. Captions could be required so that students have to describe or name the picture. Or maybe your students are writing a book review and instead of them drawing the character or book cover, they take a picture of the book or character, making sure to add a caption.   This would also be a great tool to use if you would like students to record and reflect on stages of a project they are completing. 

My favorite part about Typic Kids... it is FREE! Of course there are in-app purchases you can make, but at least there is a free option. This app is so easy for even the youngest of learners to use, and great fun to keep the older learners engaged. 

Kids React to Old Computers

Here is some lighthearted technology fun for your Friday evening. It's amazing how far technology has come. I remember these Apple computers in my 2nd grade classroom!

7 Apps for Teacher Productivity

As summer break has reached its halfway point for most of us, it is very hard to believe that in four or five short weeks we will once again begin writing lesson plans, communicating with parents, and adding things to our ever growing to-do lists. My desk at school is typically covered from head to toe in post-it notes with reminders of everything I need to do, people I need to call, or things I need to plan... the list can go on and on. To (hopefully) make my life a little easier this coming school year, the list below is of several apps that I am going to begin using to help keep me organized.  Some of the apps, such as Remind 101 and StickPick, I have used in the past, but added them to the list in case you have not tried them. Each app name is hyperlinked to the Apple app store for easy purchasing and downloading. Also, if you would like to save this list for future reference click here. Have a great last few weeks of summer!

DocScan	Scans all documents, even pages with curls, creating a pdf. Add drawing and enter text notes. After scanned document becomes a pdf it and can be placed within a folder. Easily share pdfs through Facebook, Google Drive, Dropbox, Evernote, and many more. Free and paid versions.
Confer	Note-taking app for teachers. Take notes about students in math, reading, and writing in a small group or individual setting. Quickly create flexible small groups by sorting students based on notes taken. All data can be uploaded to your Google Drive account as a spreadsheet. Free and paid versions.
WorkCam	This app helps keep your personal and professional photos separate. While at work or school, take pictures through this app and the pictures will automatically back up to your Google Drive or Dropbox account - instead of your camera roll. Photos can also be organized automatically sorted into folders. If you forget to use WorkCam, photos can be imported from your camera roll.
Easy Behavior Tracker for Teachers	Record positive and negative student behavior, view reports of student behavior, contact parent’s immediately through email, sms, or phone call directly from the app. Several classes can be added within the app for teachers with multiple class periods. Class history can be exported  to save or print reports.
Teacher’s Professional Development Log	Enter professional development, who it was conducted by, and how many hours you have logged. This app will keep a running total of your hours logged and will display how many more hours you need.
Remind (Previously Remind 101)	Communicate with students and parents through texting messages, photos, or documents. All phone numbers are private and messages are one-way - replies are not possible. If you have used Remind101 in the past, you will want to check out all of the incredible updates to the new Remind.
StickPick	Randomly choose a student and use question starters during classroom discussions. A question stem mode can be utilized in which questions are based on Bloom’s, Bloom’s Revised, ESL, or no stem. Classroom discussions can easily be differentiated by linking question stems and difficulty based on student needs. Track and assess student answers by rating student answer. Multiple classes can be created in this app. Small groups can also be made with question stems assigned, allowing students to work independently asking and rating each other’s questions.

Mother's Day Gift

Do you have a Mother's Day gift ready yet? Usually at this point in the year it seems that I am scrambling to put together a cute gift from my students for their mothers and grandmothers. Not this year! :) I have been so excited to try this gift out since December. As I was blog hopping through my favorite blogs, a teacher shared how they made each of their students a word cloud with words describing them, put it in a frame, and gave it to them as their Christmas gift. I absolutely loved the idea so much, it came to my mind that my students could make their own word clouds for their Mother's Day gifts. So... that's exactly what we created this week! This is by far my favorite Mother's Day gift my students have ever made. Although it can not be seen in the photo below, the students also glued a small picture of themselves holding a "Happy Mother's Day" balloon in the corner of the word cloud.

If you are looking at the calendar and realizing you only have 3 school days left until Mother's Day and no gift from your students... have no fear! In less than an hour your students can create this cute, thoughtful gift. Here's how...

1. Download this word cloud brainstorming page for students to fill out 

2. Open AbcYa! Word Cloud on a computer or iPad (the iPad app is free for a limited time)

3. Type in words from brainstorming page, customize font, colors, word order, and more

4. Save, print, frame (Instead of framing you could also use as the front of a student-made card)

So easy and great for ANY age! Have fun creating and Happy Mother's Day!

Safeshare.tv

If you use YouTube videos in your classroom or school, no matter the age of students, I highly recommend running the videos through SafeShare.TV. This website will take out all advertisements and make the video "safe" for viewing. It seems these days that the majority of YouTube videos have a random advertisement at the beginning, and a lot of them are inappropriate for students. SafeShare.TV not only removes the beginning advertisement, but all popups, advertisements, and "related" videos around the videos are blocked. The picture below is a snapshot of what students will see when a video is played through SafeShare. Click here if you would like to watch Frozen's Let It Go through SafeShare. 

So how does it work? It's actually a very easy, user friendly, FREE site that anyone can use. No log in or registering is necessary. To begin, locate the YouTube video you would like to view. This can be done ahead of time, as SafeShare will provide you with a link that you can save, share via Facebook, Twitter, email, or attach to a QR code for scanning. So, after you have chosen the YouTube video, click on share under the video, and copy the link. For example...

Next, open SafeShare.tv and paste the link into the SafeShare box and click generate Safe Link. 

A safe link is now created for your video. At this point there are a few options. To directly view the video, click the red Take me to the safe view link and the video will begin playing. Or you may copy and paste the NEW YouTube link into your browser, a document, QR code generator, or anywhere you'd like the link to be. Finally, at the bottom you will notice it says customize video. This will allow you to change the background color of the viewing screen (right now it is black), change the video title, and how long you would like the video viewed. This would be used if you would like to play only a clip from a video, you can create a SafeShare link for only that portion of the video.

In my opinion, SafeShare is one of the best tools out there for protecting our students. There are a few things to consider though. Yes, this is a much safer way to utilize YouTube in your classroom, but keep in mind that as the video plays the YouTube link will still be present in the right hand corner and will take you back to YouTube if clicked. I have also found that most videos can be played full screen through this SafeShare link by clicking the full screen icon, however there are some that will not.

Now... this is my favorite part. How can this be used in our classrooms? I'm glad you asked! :) Here are just a few ideas for running YouTube videos through SafeShare...

1. Whole class viewings of YouTube videos
2. Whole school assemblies or pep rallies
3. Creating a QR code link to specific videos for students to view independently via iPads or other handheld devices
4. Professional Development sessions... although adults will not need "shielded" from advertisements, it would be great idea to have the distractions before and around the video taken out

Good luck and be safe out there!

Bookflix... how have I not known?

Do you know about Bookflix?? Why am I just now finding out about this fabulous FREE pre-k through 3rd grade resource?? At any rate, through a mass email from Scholastic I received the following email...

Bookflix has paired fiction and non-fiction texts in 8 different topics ranging from animals, people, music, science, celebrations, and more! The fiction text is an animated read-along of a book, while the non-fiction text is a digital book that has the option of being read aloud. In the top right hand corner of the homepage is a special section called "Resources". Included in these resources are instructions for using paired texts, classroom activities, and parent/child resources. In this area you can also search for specific paired texts by title, number of pages, Spanish versions, and reading levels.

One thing I love about this site is that it is very thorough, and yet not too overwhelming for young students with extra graphics and links. It is a very simple, yet engaging site. As I mentioned, Bookflix is FREE to all Ohio teachers, parents, and students. To receive a username and password, simply click here to make a request.

In the past two weeks I have used this resource in a few ways... at the Listen to Reading center, during our research portion of Writer's Workshop, and at the end of the day on the Promethean board. How can you see yourself using Bookflix???

P.S. Bookflix works perfectly on iPads, as other online reading sites with flash do not. :) Enjoy!