Periscope= The World at Your Fingertips. I'm Serious.

Interested in teleportation? If yes, then this app is for you! The app, known as Periscope, is revolutionizing experiences all over the globe. Amazingly, the app is free. Periscope allows you to live stream anything from anywhere. The image you see above is of places around the world where people are live streaming right now as I type this post. I just clicked on a number in Poland and it takes me to a LIVE Matisyahu concert in the last remaining synagogue near Auschwitz. I kid you not! Want to livestream with a geologist or a grandparent? It can happen by downloading this free app. You can make your broadcasts private too, which prevents your broadcasts from showing up on the map and also only notifies your followers that you select to be a part of the broadcast. In order to broadcast privately, you and the other user must be following each other. I urge you to explore this app. Here are some of the livestreams that I've seen just now: a tourist walking through Disney World for the first time, someone on a sailboat near New Jersey, a guy sharing a fitness venue in Honolulu, Hawaii with the rest of the world. It's all pretty random at the moment but it really does feel like you have the world at your finger tips. 

It is important to note that Periscope is owned by Twitter. As a result, you can follow PeriscopeEdu to learn more about Periscope and its role in education by clicking here. In order to explore this app in education, I would want to really set up my privacy settings so that my broadcast was controlled and I knew who was watching. Once I've gained the appropriate followers, it is pretty simple to do this. I can't wait to see where this app takes us (literally). 

What Could Me More Fun Than Meme-Generating?

We're baaaack! It's day two of school and so far, so good. In fact, it's been really good. A couple of weeks ago, I was brainstorming some ways to reorient my students while having a little fun and I came across some great ideas for generating memes. Today, I tried it out in my classroom and here's how it went:

After I took some nuggets from Andy Plemmons blog about digital leadership, reviewed our iHelp job chart, and shared some "housekeeping" information, we were ready to create our own memes as a get to know you kind of exercise. Using the Meme Generator app that can be found in the Windows app store, students created some fabulous memes while sharing what excites them about starting school again. Here's some of my favorites:

And my personal favorite:

Nothing like a little sarcasm:

In all seriousness, meme generating can be used in some pretty helpful ways. Here are some additional ideas: rule reminder posters, share content that was learned, reflect on a story character and create a meme that demonstrates empathy for that character, create propaganda, share studying do's and don'ts, create digital citizenship-related meme posters, and so much more! The opportunities for creative learning are endless. The Meme Generator app is on each of the computers in the upstairs computer lab so please take advantage of this fun teaching tool. 

Shabbat Freebie: PowToons

Thanks to @SteinatDavis for this valuable tech tip today! Click here to sign up to receive a free Powtoons classroom account on August 15th. Powtoon allows you and your students to create animated videos and presentations. Check out these Language Arts videos created with Powtoon below to see what you and your students can do with Powtoon:

https://youtu.be/uClHPuhwBd8 (Literary Elements)

https://youtu.be/fYe6DsEbJTU (Diagramming)

http://www.powtoon.com/show/c5sbS9Ta0ri/mr-show/ (Euphemism Slide Show)

Click here for eleven fun, creative, eye-catching ways to use Powtoon in your classroom.