Wordsalad

Have you ever heard of a word cloud?  A word cloud is a visualization of a group of words that bring focus to main ideas.

Some ideas on how to use word clouds in your classroom are: 

• To brain storm a topic or create a discussion either inside the class or online
• Use them to teach vocabulary
• Give important ideas from a discussion or video
• Show understanding of a concept or vocabulary word
• Highlight class expectations
• Use students' first names to create a class word cloud
• Describe a character in a book
• Express ideas in a different way
• Make posters

A free app that is free and easy to use to create word clouds is Wordsalad.  With this app, you can customize the font, color and layout of the words, and words that are more important can be made bigger.

Wordsalad comes with word clouds already made to give you some examples, but it is super easy to generate your own!

First, tap the + on the top left hand corner.

A "New Salad" menu will come up.  

In the top white box, you will type the words you want to be in your word cloud or "salad".  You can type the words out by hand or copy and paste a group of words from Safari or Notes.  

You can choose to turn "Stop Words" on or off, which will take out commonly used words such as articles, prepositions and conjunctions out if you turn it on.  This option also lets you choose which language you are typing in.  

The "Auto Fill Words" option will add words to fill the space.  When this option is on, the size of the words are chosen randomly.  

"Use Join Character _" means that if you want 2 words to stay together, then put _ in between them.  For example,  Roland_Story will be treated as Roland Story instead separating the 2 words if that option is turned on.

"Skip Numbers" will take out all numbers if that option is turned on.

To make more important words larger, type the those words multiple times.  As you can see, I typed out character_counts and the pillar words several times to make them bigger in the word cloud.

 Next, you will tap "Start" in the top right hand corner of the screen, and your word cloud will generate!  In the blue box on the bottom of this screen, you will find different options to customize your word cloud.  The briefcase in the bottom right will allow you to decide exactly how you want it to look.  The paint brush lets you change the font and even customize a pallet.  The letter A allows you to change the font.  The sheet of paper changes the format, orientation, and density of the words.  The ruler then will let you change the layout of the words.  If you tap the arrow on the right side of that blue box, it will close that menu.

Now you have options at the bottom in the blue box that will make changes for you instead of you choosing the exact settings you want.  You can also save your word cloud when it looks the way you want it to.

This is what your finished product will look like!  To get rid of the watermark in the middle of the picture, you will have to download the paid version of the app instead of the free version. 

Sources: http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2013/09/6-great-apps-to-create-word-clouds-on.html, http://charactercounts.org/sixpillars.html

Bluster

Bluster is an educational game from the McGraw Hill Education Group.  When implemented correctly, games can be a great educational tool!  Bluster focuses on word study with games that match rhyming words, prefixes and suffixes, synonyms, homophones, adjectives, and word roots.

This games includes over 800 vocabulary words.  The goal is for the player to makes matches of three in whatever skill they choose.  Ten matches wins a round.  Different levels makes this game appropriate for several grade levels.  

Students can choose to play individually, work together as a team, or go head to head in versus mode.

Students look through the word list and drag three matching words to the word boxes.  In Single Player mode, the student completes the goals by themselves.

In Team mode, the two students work together to complete the goal of matching three words.  The two students have the same list of words, and they drag the correct word to the box. 

In Versus mode, two students race to match three words as fast as they can.  The students have the same list of words in this mode.

I recommend checking this game out to use with your students!

News-O-Matic

News-O-Matic is a daily newspaper for kids. It provides appropriate stories at their level. Each day there are featured articles. By scrolling down, students can view previous news stories, so there is always a ton of articles available!

As an example, I selected the "Team Time for with Kittens" article. Once in the article, there are many cool features. Simply use your finger to scroll through the article to see the entire thing. 

If you select the 'fact' button on the left side of the screen, a fact about something related to the article will appear. Click the red 'x' when you are finished reading it to return to the article.

There's also an 'act' button on the left side of the screen. If you select that, a similar box will appear, but instead of a fact, it will tell you to do something related to the article. 

Throughout the article, there are blue highlighted and underlined words. These are words that students may not understand. If they select these words, a definition box will appear, as seen below.

In the top right corner, there is a globe. If you select it, a map will appear. This will show where the article is talking about in relation to the students. It also provides facts about the distance and other things. Click the red 'x' in the top right corner to return to the article.

On the right hand side of the screen there is a 'play' button. If you select it, a video related to the article will appear. Click 'done' in the top left corner to return to the article.

Underneath the 'play' button, there is a 'plus sign' button. If you select that, additional pictures related t the article will appear and you can use your finger to swipe to the left to see them all.

And my favorite feature…. the read to me option! On the right hand side there is a button labeled 'read to me'. By selecting this, students can have the program read to them. This is awesome for younger elementary students who may not be able to read the entire article themselves.

Finally, if you select the blue button in the bottom right corner with a triangle in it, a few options will appear. The top one, with a person in it, allows students to learn about the author of the article. The other two options are only available if you create an account, which is not necessary.

Overall, this is a great tool to use in your classroom. It provides students with daily news that is appropriate and easy to access. There are many awesome features that this app offers - I highly recommend you try to incorporate this into your students' daily work.

Kid's Journal

Kid's Journal is a free iPad application that allows students to keep a digital journal ongoing. It is very student-friendly and easy to begin using. No account is required. 

Upon opening the app, you will see this screen. Tap the box to add a new journal.

Now you can begin personalizing your journal. Tap on the 'Name' and type yours! Click the camera at the bottom of the screen or the camera in the middle of the journal to add a photo.

You can add a photo from your camera roll on the iPad or take a photo.

Next, select the paint bucket at the bottom of the screen to change the color of your journal.

Once you're finished personalizing, click the purple mouse holding the checkmark to begin writing! The journal will open up to today's date. There are 4 boxes on each page. The first is a spot to choose an emotion to express how you feel. Use your finger to scroll through the options, there are more than just the first ones you will see!

Next, there is a picture box to select where you are on this day: home, school, or away. 

Another text box that is available is a weather choice. Select what the weather is like on the day! If you select the 'Photo of the Day' box, you will be asked if you want to take a photo (camera icon) or import a photo from your iPad's camera roll (pile of pictures icon). Select a photo to represent yourself, your classroom, or even the weather outside to document the day.

The calendar feature at the bottom of the screen allows you to quickly jump from day to day to see your journal entries.

There is an option to export journal entries by selecting the paper airplane icon at the bottom of the screen. The choices are the entry you have open, all entries, or entries between a certain date. Select one of these and click the blue 'export' button. 

Once you select one of those options, you will now have to decide how you want to export it. I chose Showbie, because this would allow students to virtually turn in their journal entries so the teacher can view and comment on them.

Once you select Showbie, it will open up the application. I was logged into Showbie as a fictional student.  This student is logged into 3 classes, so I had to select a class. 

After I selected a class, I had to choose an assignment. The only assignment 'Johny Jones' has right now is a journal assignment. I selected that.

Then it will ask you to add the file. Click the 'add file' blue button.

Now you can see the PDF file named 'Jenny' is uploaded to showbie and available for viewing.

You can click on the file in Showbie and see it, annotate on it, etc.

This is a great way for students to document their writing over the entire year. It gives teachers the ability to have record of their progress. By combining this app with Showbie, teachers have easy access to students' journals. It is a very developmentally appropriate app for elementary students - especially K-2! 

Try it out in your classroom!

Pic Collage

Pic Collage is a free app that does not require an account.  It allows you to create collages with pictures, frames, text, and stickers.  Pic Collage can be used in many different ways to showcase students' work.  Here are some ideas on how to use Pic Collage as an educational tool in your classroom:

• Arrange pictures in frames to make comic strips, instructions, plan a narrative, or sequence a story.

Retrieved from http://mrparkinsonict.blogspot.com/2013/10/pic-collage-more-than-just-making.html

• Clip photos (double click the picture and select clip photo), cut around people and objects so that they can be added other backgrounds and places.

Retrieved from http://mrparkinsonict.blogspot.com/2013/10/pic-collage-more-than-just-making.html

• Share ideas.
• Study vocabulary.
• Assessment. 

If you have any ways that you use Pic Collage in your classroom that you'd like to share, feel free to leave a comment!

Now that you have an idea on how to use Pic Collage, I am going to give you a step-by-step tutorial on how to make a collage.

After opening the app, you will tap in the middle of the screen.

Then, you can tap anywhere you would like to add pictures, text, or stickers.  You can also click on the plus sign at the bottom of the screen to add items.  You can add pictures from your camera or take a picture right then.  You can also add pictures from the web or from screenshots you have taken.  

In the bottom left hand corner, there is a small icon that looks like a collage.  Tap that and you will see that you can change the layout to add frames or change the color of the background.  Your collage can have pictures all over the place or you can set it to have pictures in a frame.

If you click on the ? at the top of the screen, tips will show up. You can also click in the middle of this screen for more tips if you forget how to do something.  

When your collage is done, click the arrow in the bottom right hand corner.  From there, you can post your picture to various social media sites, save it to your camera roll, or send it in an email.

Some other quick hints: Double tap a picture to edit it, edit the border, clip the photo, set as background or copy it.

Here is a quick example of a collage I made showing ideas about my favorite baseball team.  I set a picture as my background, added pictures from the web, and added text and stickers.  

How to use the Technology

There are so many tools, apps, and websites out there, sometimes it is hard to know which ones are the best, or which ones will improve student learning the most. Something I learned in a class I took at Iowa State University this semester, is as educators, we must challenge ourselves. Technology can be used in 4 ways: to substitute, augment, modify, or redefine (SAMR). Check out the model below for a visual.

Retrieved from [http://learningexchangewi.wordpress.com/2013/06/13/how-to-integrate-technology-using-samr-model/]

As teachers, it should be our goal to redefine education with technology: make something possible that used to be impossible. This is not always easy, and I catch myself merely substituting using technology all the time. It is something we must strive and work for.

Next time you think about using a tool, ask your self, am I substituting the paper/pen method with a digital method? Or am I creating a learning opportunity for my students that never existed before?

Penultimate in Your Classroom

Check out this page to find out how to use Penultimate.

Penultimate is a great tool to use in your classroom! Here are some ideas:

Students can use it to take their spelling tests and turn in digitally using Showbie.

Students can write in their digital notebook daily to show progress over a period of time.

Students can write acrostic poems and embed images in their writing.

Students can annotate images of bugs to identify the parts they have learned.

The ways this tool can be used in your classroom are unlimited! 

Have you used it in a different way? Please share your ideas with us.

Penultimate

Penultimate is an Evernote app that allows students to create and maintain a digital notebook. In order to use this application, students will have to create an account with an email.

Once their account is created and they are logged in, their notebook will appear. To open it, click the front cover.

The first example page will appear. Click on this page. When you are in the page, select the trash button on the top right bar to clear the page so you can begin annotating! 

Now that we are in the application, I will go through what each of the tools within the app do. The first one, on the left side of the middle bar is the pen tool. There are different widths and colors of pens available. Select one to begin writing!

This is an example of what writing can look like. Now, to add a photo, select the button seen on the picture below and choose either camera or photos. 

Once you add a photo and have it selected, you can change the size of it using the blue border. 

Continue writing to fill up the page! Once your page is full, at the top of the page, you can swipe to the right to bring a new empty page up.

The button I selected below allows you to choose what kind of paper you want.

Look at the photo above. On the top left hand side, underneath the home button, there are 6 squares. If you select the square buttons it will bring you to the page that is shown below.

This is a list of all your pages. If you need to get to a page quickly, get to it this way rather than swiping through your notebook. 

When you are finished, you can save the page as an image, email it, print it, and do many other things.

It's a great way for students to document their writing and save it digitally!