ToonTastic!

How can I access Toontastic?

ToonTastic is an App that can be downloaded to an iPad for FREE! Currently, it is just for iPad, but that may be changing. Here is the link: ToonTastic App

What is the purpose of Toontastic?

ToonTastic is an app that allows users to design their own stories with pictures, animations, voice, and sound effects. Also, they are able to save multiple stories and share them. This app also has many different story elements and is clearly laid out for the user to follow. This is a great way for students to show their creativity with their own stories. 

How do I use Toontastic? 

Toontastic is very user friendly. When you first open the app, you will be directed to the story arc page. This page has different sections with different parts of the story as shown below. You will click on the first section and follow the steps I have provided below. You will complete these steps for all of the sections. 

1. Choose a setting. This can either be a preset setting or you can make a custom one. After this is chosen, tap the arrow in the top right corner.
2. Now it is time to choose characters. Again, these can either be chosen from the preset ones, or you can create your own. 
3. Now it is time to record and animate the pictures. You will talk through the story while you click and move the characters around. Remember, this first box is only the setup and not the whole story. 
4. On the next screen you will choose the emotion. This is the music that will play in the background of that scene. 
5. Repeat all of these steps for each box of the story arch. 

How can I use this in my classroom?

One way to utilize Toontastic in your classroom is by doing a lesson on elements of a story. In 2nd grade, students begin to learn about the structure of the story including how the beginning sets up the story and the ending concludes it. Toontastic would be a great way to introduce this to students. On their story arc, there are sections for setup, conflict, challenge, climax, and resolution. When having students create a story, they are able to see how the different parts of the story flow and work together. 

Although we usually see Toontastic used in reading and writing, it can also be integrated into other subject areas as well. In a math class, at any grade level, students could use this app to talk about a story problem. Students would be able to write their problem as a background, and then use the slides to talk through it. They could also use the characters as a fun and engaging aspect. The students would probably not use the slides how they are intended (setting, conflict, etc) but they could use different slides to talk about each part of the problem. Students would be able to show their work on the background and also be able to talk through it. This could be used as a way to assess if students are understanding the whole problem and not just getting an answer. 

~Elise 

Meet Elise!

Hello! 

My name is Elise Maeder and I am excited to be a part of this technology team this semester! I am an Elementary Education student at Iowa State University. Along with my major, I am getting endorsed in math and reading, also I am getting a minor in learning technologies. When I am not doing homework or study for an exam, I love being active and spending time outside! I hope you find our blog entertaining and helpful!

If you have any questions please let me know! 

Hello from Brogan!

Hi everyone,

Most of you probably know me by now as this is my second semester here at the elementary school as an intern. For those of you who don't (or may have forgotten), my name is Brogan Sales and I am in my third year at Iowa State. I am majoring in Elementary Education, minoring in the Learning Technologies, and endorsing in Math and Reading. Unfortunately my time here in Story isn't long due to the fact I will be student teaching in the Fall of 2016 and hope to return to my hometown, Sioux City, to complete my student teaching journey. I have already learned so much from my position here in your school and look forward to to learning more and working with all of you for the remainder of this semester. In my free time (what little I have) I enjoy being outside hiking, fishing, or golfing. I also enjoy relaxing, playing games, and watching movies with friends and family. 

Feel free to contact me with whatever questions you may have. :)

-Brogan

What's the Story With "Our Story": iPad App for Creating Stories

 As a teacher, it is important we have a variety of high-quality, student-centered, educational apps at our finger tips (literally). In my personal experience, it seems the older I get, the more children are enthralled with technology. They love using it, they are excited to use, and most the time they can use it better than I can. ;)
      Today, I wanted to share an app with you that I have come across called, Our Story. I am going to break my review of it into 5 main topics: accessibility, compatibility, purpose of the app, how to use the app, and possible uses for the classroom. 

Accessibility
     The Our Story app can be downloaded for FREE (music to our ears) from the iTunes app store. Usually we don't have much of a budget for apps in the classroom, so when an app is free it automatically make it THAT much better!

Compatibility 
     This app is compatible with iPads and as of right now, it needs iOS 6.0 or later. This is great news for those of us who have access to iPads, not so great news for those of us who don't! If you have chrome books or other laptops available, I would recommend finding a similar alternative. I have tried but so far haven't had any luck.

Purpose 
     The purpose of this app is to provide students with a new, or alternative way, to express their ideas and get their thoughts published. Our Story is a different way of creating or building a story, rather than the 'old-fashion' way of writing on paper using a pencil. It allows students to be as creative, imaginative, and unique as they wish as they create digital stories. 

How to Use
      I will start with a disclaimer: Our Story is EXTREMELY easy to use! I spent twenty minutes creating my own story over a trip I took this summer and in that twenty minutes I had thirteen pages, six of them accompanied with voice recordings and the rest with typed sentences. Honestly, the most time consuming part is deciding which pictures to use! 

1. Choose your pictures
      The first step in creating a digital story in Our Story is selecting your images. You can choose to import them from your camera roll, or you can snap new pictures from the app. As you select your pictures, you organize them in the order you like along the bottom of the screen. 

2. Insert text or voice

     The second step is adding wording to your image. To do this you simply click on the picture you wish to annotate. From there you can simply tap to add your desired text or you can select the mic icon if you wish to record your voice to add to the picture. Once you are satisfied with that picture

3. Publish your work!

      Our Story makes it easy to publish your work, just hit the green button with an arrow at the top of the page! You can share it in a Dropbox, email, or on iTunes. 

Classroom Ideas

     To wrap up my post for this week, I want to share just a couple ideas I had for using this app in your classroom. 

Click HERE to visit the Our Story site in iTunes

1. Weekly newsletter

     With different modifications I believe this could be suitable for any grade level but I vision in working best in a fourth or fifth grade room (primary grades would need more teacher involvement). My thought is to have a couple designated students each week to be in charge of the classroom's weekly letter (rotating the students each week so everyone has a turn). The students would have to take pictures throughout the week of the different activities done in class and then compile them in Our Story to add written descriptions or audio explaining the different activities that happened. 

      I think parents would love this variance of a newsletter because it would give them the chance to see their child's classroom, through their child's eyes rather than the teachers. It would also be beneficial to students because it would be an extended writing assignment that gives them an extra special responsibility in the classroom their assigned week. It would allow them to collaborate in a partnership or small group, give them the feeling of ownership and responsibility, and the opportunity to display their work with a larger audience.

2. Personal Dictionary

    Again, this is an idea that could work at any grade level. Instead of the traditional, here is a word now write a definition. Students could use Our Story to create digital dictionaries. They would have to find an image that helped them remember the word and then write their definition or record themselves say the definition. I believe this would be a great alternative from pencil and paper because it could be more geared towards each learning styles. You can reach the visual learners with the images and the auditory learners with the recording. If students prefer to see the written words they can choose that option as well. 

I would love to hear what ideas you have for integrating Our Story into your classroom; please share your ideas in the comments below! :)

Hip-hopping Monday

                                                  
Flocabulary is a great resource on the web for education brain breaks with hip-hop videos. This resource could be used by both the teacher and the students. The songs and videos are for ages K-12 in subjects including Language Arts, Math, Science, Social Studies, Life Skills, Vocabulary, and Current events. Some videos are not available without setting up an account (either a 14 day free trial or it costs for access to all videos), but there are many options without setting up an account. Check out this video about the five elements of a story. Go to the link up above to check out more of the free videos and if you like you you may look into an account.

Hi, I am Amanda!

Hey there!

My name is Amanda. I am a new tech intern for the elementary school starting in the Spring of 2016. I am currently in my third year of college with student teaching in the Spring of 2017, which will come faster than I would think. I am an Elementary Education major with endorsements in Reading and Mathematics, and a Learning Technologies Minor. I also work at Child Serve and grade Math 196 papers through Iowa State University. When I am not busy with school and work, I like to hang out with my family and friends, especially watching movies, baking, and doing something outside, such as walking and fishing. This semester is already going fast, and I cannot wait to keep learning along side all of you.

Happy Monday! More blogs soon to come. :)

Happy Friday

Happy Friday!

I recently found these great VOCABULARY apps for your classroom:

Winning Words:

Winning words is like a matching game. The series contains 6 different apps; synonym match, antonym match, homophone match, singular and plural match, compound word match, and double letter match.

Vocabulary Catcher:

Vocabulary Catcher is a game where students read and hear the word and they must pop the bubble with the matching picture or symbol. The series contains 6 different apps; Vocabulary Catcher (VC) 1 - number, colors, and fruit, VC 2 - animals, VC 3 - toys and classroom objects, VC 4 - number and prices, VC 5 - weather and seasons, VC 6 - clothing and sports.

World’s Worst Pet:

This app provides students with over 1,000 tier 2 vocabulary words that increase in difficulty as they pass up to 6 levels through the game. This game is aligned with Common Core standards.

Feel free to click on any of the links and explore!

Contact us if you would like any of them for your classroom!

Hello From Allie!

Hello!

My name is Allie and I am a new tech intern for the elementary school. I worked at the middle school last year, 2014-2015, and this past fall semester of 2015. I will now be working at the elementary and middle school throughout my spring semester! I am very excited to be working with the iPads again (not kidding, they are actually kind of fun and intriguing to troubleshoot)! I am currently a senior and will be student teaching this coming fall. I am an Elementary Education major with a specialization in Special Education, an endorsement in Reading, and a minor in Learning Technologies. I absolutely love school and cannot wait to inspire students to learn! I love to craft, play golf, and watch movies!


Let's have a fabulous semester!

Thank You from Courtney

Today is my (Courtney's) last day at Roland-Story Elementary as a technology intern. This summer I will be interning with Raising Readers in Story County coordinating their summer literacy programs. If you are looking for something to keep you busy this summer, we are looking for tutors! :) In the fall I will be student teaching at Willowbrook Elementary, part of Southeast Polk, in their Early Childhood Special Education classroom. My second placement is in Hanawalt Elementary, part of Des Moines Public Schools, in a kindergarten classroom.

I am so grateful for the opportunities I have had while working here at Roland-Story. I have grown not only in my confidence in implementing technology, but also in my teaching abilities. A big thank you to the teachers who opened up their classrooms to me to teach lessons to their classes. I appreciate the entire staff's patience while troubleshooting. Technology is great when it works, right? I am sad to leave such a fantastic school district but excited for the new opportunities ahead. Thank you for leaving such a lasting impact on my teaching career!

I summarized my experience below using a Wordle. Try it out in your classroom!

Thanks again for everything! Keep in touch!

Courtney

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!  

Kahoot! is a Hoot!

Lately, a few of the second grade teachers have been using Kahoot!, so I thought it would be useful to write a post to teach the rest of the building how to use the tool. Kahoot! is a game-based classroom response system. The purpose of the tool is to ask thought-provoking questions in an engaging way through an audience response system. It provides instant feedback that shows the correct answer, allowing for discussion of the question and to check for understanding after each question.

To get Kahoot! in your classroom, first create a free account on their website. From there, there is the option to create your own "Kahoot" (as they call them) by making a quiz, starting a discussion, or polling the class through a survey. If you don’t want to create your own, there is the option to search from the hundreds of thousands of public Kahoots that already exist. Compared to other classroom response systems I have used, I like how there is the option to search from public Kahoots with this program. No need to reinvent the wheel, right? This also gives the option for grade level team members to use the same Kahoots, as they would just search and find the Kahoot created by one of the team members. This allows for simple, yet effective, collaboration.

After you have created or chosen the Kahoot you would like to give your students, it is time to use it. Students can participate in a Kahoot with virtually any device that allows them to connect to the Internet. The second grade teachers have been having the students use their iPads. Students go to kahoot.it on that device using any browser, where they are prompted to enter the game-pin. Each Kahoot that is created or accessed comes with a unique game-pin. As the teacher, you provide the pin to your students. What is nice about this program is no account is necessary for students to play a Kahoot. The only thing needed is the game-pin. To allow for seamless technology integration, add kahoot.it as an icon to the home screen.  

Necessary pieces of technology for a successful Kahoot! experience:

1. Teacher laptop or iPad to log into Kahoot! to present the Kahoot. 

2. A projector to show the teacher's screen to the class (this is the only place the questions are displayed)

3. Student iPads

Below is a screenshot of what would be displayed on the projector from the teacher's device. Students will enter the game-pin into their device. 

After entering the game-pins, students will then enter their names. This allows you to gather assessment data on your students at the same time!

  

Once students are in, they will see the following screen.

The teacher will see the screen below. As you can see, this shows the number of players (1), allowing the teacher to know when all students are in. Under "Kahoot!" you can see my name (Court), allowing students to search for their name, so they know they are in. 

Now it's time to take the quiz by the teacher clicking "Start Now." The question is only displayed on teacher's screen, making a projector necessary as a visual cue. The number 12 on the left is the timer, allowing students to move through the questions quickly. The "0 Answers" on the right shows how many students have answered. 

Below is what students see on their screen. This makes this program appropriate for lower elementary as well with the visual cue. Students would select their answer. 

After all students have answered the question or time is up, the answers are shown in the form of a graph. The check marks indicate the correct answers. The numbers on the top of each bar indicate how many students chose each particular answer choice. This allows for an instant assessment, allowing the teacher to know how much discussion is needed on the particular question. The Kahoot won't move on until the teacher clicks next, allowing for as much discussion as necessary. 

And the end of the Kahoot, the overall results are shown. It would rank the students by correctness. Depending on the nature of the quiz and the competitiveness of the class, this could be really fun. If this does not appeal to you or the nature of the classroom, then simply stop projecting your teacher screen. It prompts you to move to this screen. In the black rectangle, it allows you to "Download results," allowing you as a teacher to go back and view the results of your class. 

When using public Kahoots, the program allows you to preview each Kahoot. This allows you to simultaneously see your screen and the students' screens at the same time, while also reviewing the questions. This allows you to go through the public Kahoots quickly and check them before having the students play. 

What are ways you have used Kahoot! in your classroom? If you don't use Kahoot! yet, contact a tech intern to help your students get Kahoot! as an icon on their home screen! Or this blog post will show you how as well.

Happy Kahooting!  

Hello Everyone!

 Hello everyone! My name is Summer Illg and I am one of the new technology interns here this spring.  I am looking forward to getting to know each one of you! I will be working here Tuesday and Thursday mornings so please do not hesitate to come ask me any questions you may have or stop by my office. :) I have learned a lot this past week and am excited to see what is to come. I am currently a junior at Iowa State University majoring in elementary education with endorsements in mathematics and reading, along with a minor in learning digital technologies.  I am from Des Moines, Iowa and I have lived there my entire life until moving to Ames a few years ago.  I have one brother, my favorite color is pink, I love dogs, and my favorite season is fall (I know your probably thinking it should be summer!)  I hope to get to know you all a little more and look forward to seeing you in the hallway!

Hello from Katherine!

Hello! My name is Katherine Carpenter and I am one of the new technology interns here at the elementary school. I interned at the middle school this fall, and will continue to work at both the middle school and the elementary school this spring. A little bit about myself, I am majoring in Elementary Education with endorsements in reading and English/language arts, and minoring in learning digital technologies. I also have a twin sister and twin brothers, and absolutely love Dr. Seuss books! I am very excited to meet everyone, and look forward to learning about technology and teaching at the elementary level. Stop by the tech office anytime to say hello or ask for help, I'd love to jump right in! Thank you in advance for your patience, I hope to learn everything quickly! :)

Elementary Tech Intern Spring Schedule

As you may or may not have noticed, we have new faces around the building as your new tech interns for the spring semester. Jenny and Jill are off student teaching, so they have been replaced by Summer Illg and Katherine Carpenter. Summer is new to Roland-Story while Katherine was an intern at the middle school last semester. Be watching the blog for a post introducing themselves! 

There will be a tech intern here at the elementary Monday through Friday at some point in the morning.

Day of the Week                       Time                               Intern      

Monday                                  8am-12pm                         Courtney

Tuesday                                  7:30-10am                         Summer

Wednesday                            8am-12pm                          Courtney

Thursday                                7:30-10am                         Summer

Friday                                    8am-12pm                         Katherine

I am excited to be back and the new interns are excited to begin here at Roland-Story. Let us know how we can help! 

Thank You from Jenny

Today is my (Jenny's) last day as a technology intern here at Roland Story Elementary. After winter break, I will be back, but as a student teacher. I am excited for the next chapter, but also sad to see this one end. As I reflect back on the last year and a half of working at Roland Story elementary, a few words come to mine:

[created using wordle.net]

I want to thank all the teachers, staff, and students for all the support you've given me. It has been a learning experience and I appreciate all the patience and kindness everyone always gave me. 

Coding

You might have seen articles about "How all students need to learn how to code" or "Hour of Code" or "Why are we teaching our students how to code?"  Watch the TED Talk and Check out Hour of Code for more information on why students should learn how to code.

If you are like me and enjoy TED Talks, then you should check out this TED Talk all about teaching kids how to code Mitch Resnick: Let's teach kids to code.

If you don't have time to watch the video, here is a quote from it that I think is really good:

"...a lot of times people feel that young people today can do all sorts of things with technology. I mean, all of us have heard young people referred to as "digital natives." But actually I'm sort of skeptical about this term. I'm not so sure we should be thinking of young people as digital natives. When you really look at it, how is it that young people spend most of their time using new technologies? ...there's no doubt that young people are very comfortable and familiar browsing and chatting and texting and gaming. But that doesn't really make you fluent.  So young people today have lots of experience and lots of familiarity with interacting with new technologies, but a lot less so of creating with new technologies and expressing themselves with new technologies. It's almost as if they can read but not write with new technologies.  And I'm really interested in seeing, how can we help young people become fluent so they can write with new technologies? And that really means that they need to be able to write their own computer programs, or code.  So, increasingly, people are starting to recognize the importance of learning to code."

I've read some of the articles about coding, and I agree that not every student NEEDS to learn how to code -- especially at a young age.  I took a class a few semesters ago called Toying with Technology and we learned how to code Lego Robots.  After we learned how to code them to do various things, we taught students at United how to code the robots and students from all over the state came to ISU to learn how to code the robots.  My mind was BLOWN at how fast these students picked up on how to code.  It was amazing!  They were doing things in an hour that had taken us weeks to learn.

December 8-14 is Computer Science Education Week.  To celebrate that, a campaign was started to get tens of millions of students across the world to participate in the Hour of Code.  The Hour of Code is a one-hour introduction to computer science, designed to demystify code and show that anybody can learn the basics.  I actually participated in this last year and was surprised how easy it is.  There are so many options including Code with Anna and Elsa and Write Your First Computer Program.  Check out http://hourofcode.com/us or http://code.org/learn and encourage your students to participate in the Hour of Code this week!  Coding can be used with people ages 4-104 so don't think you are too young or too old to learn!  There is also an iPad app that can be used: Codecademy: Code Hour.

If you would like to learn more about coding, want to add the Code Hour app to some iPads, or have any other questions about it, feel free to ask me!

Thank You from Jill

The end of the semester is near, which means my time as a technology intern is almost done.  I will be student teaching next semester in Storm Lake, which is about 15 minutes away from my hometown.  I am sad to leave this great school district with awesome teachers, but I am also excited to move on to the next step in my journey. 

 I just wanted to take the time to thank each and everyone of you for helping me grow and learn so much more about technology.  I am extremely grateful for this opportunity, and I will never forget the things I learned.  Not only did I improve my skills in working with technology, but I was able to teach lessons in the classroom using technology.  I was not able to receive that opportunity in any of my practicum experiences, so it was so great to be able to do that here.  Hopefully I was of some assistance to you, and thank you again!  - Jill