What's Up With Weebly?

Check out my Prezi presentation on the program, Weebly! It's a great resource for teachers and students to use as a blog site, and help students learn to love writing for a purpose. It includes some information on how to access it and what you can do with it! :) Enjoy!

http://prezi.com/qh409z7v4q7u/?utm_campaign=share&utm_medium=copy&rc=ex0share

Become a Comic Creator!

Visual learning can have a big impact on how students learn in the classroom, and there are some great websites for teachers to use with our awesome, visual learners. One resource that I was recently introduced to is, StoryBoard That. This site is a lot of fun for students to use because it provides frames for them to create a story, whether that be about a certain topic or their imagination. This looks very similar to developing a comic strip, which a lot of students are interested in recently! This website is free, for the most part, because students can design up to six frames with no charge! Here are the steps to use it:
1. Click on the link and you will see a screen like this pop up


2. Click on the tab that says "My Account" in the top righthand corner.



3.  Press, "I'm a new user" and then fill out the information they need for you to create an account! It should just be your username, email and password.



4. Then click on the "Register For Storyboard That" button to have your account created!

5. Click on the big button, "Create a Storyboard" to begin.



6. Create your story! You can add characters by clicking on the "characters" tab, or scenes, text bubbles (called textables) as well as shapes and other objects! It's a lot of fun, but some of the features are a little tricky to manipulate so this might be something the younger students may need some guidance with. Overall, it's an excellent way to get students writing!


I made a quick example of one about Roland-Story elementary school, the school where I  intern as a technology aid! I only did three frames, but remember, you have up to six for free! Enjoy! Let me know if you have any questions at all! :)

Haiku Deck

I first learned about Haiku Deck when I went to the Waukee PLAYDATE, a professional development opportunity where I spent the morning simply “playing” with technology. 

Haiku Deck, an app on the iPad or usable on the Internet, is a program that allows you to make presentations in a simple, fun, and visually appealing way. The program can be accessed for free by visiting their website or downloading the app. The website below gives you access to both options. 

https://www.haikudeck.com 

To create “a deck,” as they call them, you will first select “new deck.” From there, you will choose the layout of the slide on the left hand side of the screen. These enter text and image boxes for you. As you type your text, Haiku Deck automatically resizes the text as you type to fit the screen. The less text, the bigger the font. 

Next you would select an image, background color, or chart. You can upload your own or select from their beautiful options by entering key words to narrow the search. The image on this slide is one I found on Haiku Deck.

There is also a chance to change the font or theme (top of the slide.) This automatically changes the font and size for you. Once the slide is complete you can add more slides as you wish. Once finished, you can export the slides to PDF or PowerPoint format or share the slides on the Internet.

This program doesn’t necessarily give you a lot of freedom when selecting font, font sizes, font placement, etc., but these same restrictions can be very useful and powerful when used in an elementary classroom. Haiku Deck is also very user friendly, walking you through the tool in simple steps! 

What I like most about Haiku Deck is the visually striking images. I can see this being used very powerfully in a classroom for students to create posters to then be hung up in their classroom. They will be very visually appealing and students have ownership of class rules, philosophies, etc.

It could also be used as a visual to go with a poem students wrote. These beautiful images have the capability to really bring student work to life, making it seem more "official" when published.  

Another way to use this program would be to create a class book that features student work. When compiled onto Haiku Deck, this book now has the capability to be shared with the world, an authentic learning opportunity for students. Here is an example of a few slides from a class book I found in Haiku Deck’s gallery: https://www.haikudeck.com/anacondas-education-presentation-OVVbKYQ3TJ

What are other ways Haiku Deck could be used for an educational purpose within your classroom?

QR Codes Book Talks

As you all know, our past tech intern, Jenny Kersten, student taught in Mrs. Rule's second grade classroom here at Roland-Story for her first placement. She is passionate about incorporating technology into her teaching to enhance student learning. 

This week I want to share the blog post she wrote about using QR codes for her students to share their book talks with their peers. What I appreciate about her post is her willingness to try new things to help students learn! She is also very honest in her post about when technology wasn't working as she hoped. She demonstrated how her perseverance created a worthwhile learning experience in the end. 

Check out her blog post here!