It's An Artistic Bunch!

Sometimes we are reminded that we don't know what we don't know. I recently realized that faculty may not be aware of the amazing digital portfolios that our students are creating on Artsonia, which is essentially the world's largest kids' art museum. Our fabulous art teachers have been showcasing our students work on Artsonia for years. I mention this because as a teacher, you have the ability for your students to continue to grow their artistic portfolio in Artsonia as well. If your students create a visual project in your particular class, they can upload it via Artsonia. This is also a great place for students to pull from to add to their middle school digital portfolios that they will take with them when they graduate. If you haven't seen one of our student portfolios on Artsonia, it is worth checking out! To see the art projects that have been uploaded since this school year started, click here. It is so incredibly impressive! 

Listen Up!

Today's tech tip is all about listening and listening wisely. The resource is called Listenwise and it was brought to my attention by one of our esteemed colleagues who loves art and language arts and happens to teach 6th graders. Listenwise is described as being an award-winning listening platform harnessing the power of listening to advance literacy. It's goal is to develop good listeners so they can become good readers. Teachers can use Listenwise to introduce topics, listen as a class to scaffold and discuss topics, support students who need additional literacy practice, explore content with curricular connections, and assess listening comprehension. There is a huge section on current events in which students can choose the current event that most interests them by reading a short blurb and then listen to the entire current event. What an amazing alternative for students learning about current events in school! 

Listenwise also has listening challenges so students can initially test their listening comprehension. Listenwise can also be shared with Google Classroom. Since we are working with students beginning in fourth grade to create their own podcasts, this would be a great literacy center activity too. Although Listenwise curates the podcasts, teachers should further curate them to ensure they are appropriate for their age group as some of the podcasts are more suitable for older students. This is a great find! 

Teach Your Children Well

Disaster has struck in Houston and you can be sure your students are talking about it. How can we harness those conversations into powerful teachable moments in which we not only consider the charitable acts of giving but also, how we can learn from our current state of events? Luckily, the American Association of School Librarians is always on the prowl for useful new apps and has discovered one entitled Disaster Detective. How timely. 

Disaster Detective is a free app developed by the Smithsonian Institution that teaches kids how to prepare for disasters. Analyzing data using tools such as Doppler radar, anemometers, barometers, and seismometers, students learn how to consider past and current data to make predictions. The app was created with middle schoolers in mind but can actually be used with any age. What better time than the present to work this into your learning? For another great resource on hurricanes, click the image below to view a movie and lessons via BrainPop:

Google Gold Mine

Today's Tech Tip is a gold mine. It's also new. It's called Google's Applied Digital Skills. Sounds boring but it is not! It is an entire curriculum that you can use with upper elementary students through high school to teach kids how to be successful online. It helps groom them to be successful in representing themselves "professionally". The activities are awesome in that they are relevant to the projects that you are currently doing with your students. Here are just a few examples:

• Interactivity in Learning: Students are taught how to create an interactive If/Then presentation in Google Slides. Very similar to Choose Your Own Adventure. How fun would this be to show what they know?
• Test for Credibility: Students choose a topic to research (or you give them choices) and using that topic, they are walked through the process of evaluating credible sources. Then, they are given the opportunity to learn a little coding to show how websites (credible or not) are created to look appealing. 
• Create an Editing Tool with Programming: Students are taught how to program their own tool to identify overused words in their Google docs. We all remember the overuse of the word "sardonic" in a trilogy that she not be named here:) Help students avoid that same over usage by creating their own editing tool while developing computer skills at the same time!
• Math and Movies Can Go Together: Students are taught how to predict the next box office hit analyzing data and then presenting that data in ways that are amazingly creative while developing new technology skills.

I've only listed four of many amazingly relevant, fun and engaging activities that speak to so many of your lessons. Consider how you can integrate these valuable projects into your teaching! I know I will be tackling some of these in my classes! Click here to see the full curriculum.

See It with SeeSaw

Welcome back to a new school year! I assisted a teacher yesterday with this tool that I have been using with my 5th graders since last year and thought I would share with the rest of you. The tool is called SeeSaw and it is a great online collaboration tool as well as a fantastic way to show off what the students are doing in your classroom. As you can see from the screenshot below, students can post their work (images, video, text) and others can comment on it. There is also a journal feature, a blog feature, and announcement feature. When I post a message to my students in SeeSaw (I can select if I want the message to go to one student, a few students or the entire class) and I can invite parents to be able to view their work as well. I also love the easy set up to create a class in SeeSaw as well as the ability to email the students with instructions to follow to join our SeeSaw class. SeeSaw makes it quick and easy for teachers, students, and parents to join.

CSI: Mathematics

Looking for online math enrichment for grades K thru 8th? Georgia Tech has put together an impressive resource. It is called CSI: Mathematics. Click here to check it out! Advertised as a mathematics resource for teachers, students and parents, it is a free list with links to useful activities and games organized by area of focus. It is great for enrichment recommendations for parents to share with their children, center activities, homework practice, and indoor recess options. CSI: Mathematics was created by the Center for Education Integrating Science, Math, and Computing (CEISMC) at Georgia Tech, in partnership with the Georgia Department of Education. Enjoy!

You're Famous!

You may have noticed that I haven't shared many Tuesday Tech Tips lately. It's not an accident either. Truthfully, I have struggled to identify tech tips that are new and exciting. Rather than create one just for the sake of sharing well, that didn't feel very authentic. Why bombard your inbox unnecessarily? It wasn't until today that I came across something fun, easy and probably quite useful. That something is called PhotoFunia. Plaster your face or anyone else's face inside a host of fun, creative designs (see my cute friend's face above on the billboard). If you don't like the idea of creating fun images, interesting text-filled designs can be created too. Check it out:

Even better, create an unusual scene using multiple subjects, such as this one:

Have fun with Photofunia by creating masterful photos for Young Authors Night, book reports, presentations, back to school events, digital portfolios, math museums, community helper projects, or whatever else aligns with your curriculum. Warning: a lot of time can be spent getting lost in the creative spark of PhotoFunia!

Toontastic Turns Fantastic

A number of us have used the Toontastic app over the years. The latest and greatest addition to Toontastic, however, is that now you and your students can create cartoons with this free app in 3D! Fantastic for learning a foreign language, learning parts of speech, creating word problems, enhancing reading groups, and more. In fact, I made one that you are welcome to check out here. I warn you: this is another episode of me embarrassing myself but we do it for the kids, right?

It couldn't be easier so please try it out, integrate it into your learning, and have fun.