Voice Thread

I created a blog last spring and have continued to use it to share my thoughts on technology and teaching. Check out this post about Voice Thread to find out how to use it and why it could be useful in your classroom!

Learning is Happening!

Check out all the badges we've awarded!

We have been in many classrooms helping teachers log their students into email, log into Tales2Go, teach lessons, and show the students how to use the iPads. 

I had some great conversations with 3rd graders about digital citizenship and the appropriate use for their emails. They are excited to have this privilege and get started using it!

Mr. Gilroy (4th grade) and Mrs. Phelan (3rd grade) are using Google forms to communicate with their students. 

Congrats to these teachers for pushing themselves to learn:

Mrs. Hauer

Mrs. Nelson

Mrs. Sanderson

Mrs. Thein

Mrs. Hull

Mrs. Olson

Mrs. Rule

Ms. Hyatt

Mrs. Phelan

Mrs. Bauman

Mr. Gilroy

Mrs. Greenfield

We look forward to continue to learn as the year goes on!

Learning is a Lifetime Process

Our teachers are open to learning! 

Today three of our teachers earned LEARNING BADGES for inviting a technology intern into their classroom. 

Mrs. Thein and Mrs. J. Nelson asked myself, Jenny, to come into their classroom and help their students login to Tales2Go. It can be a process with a classroom of students but with extra hands we got it done in no time! Check out this blog post for more information on Tales2Go.

Mrs. Hull invited myself, Jenny, into her classroom to teach a lesson using Toontastic. The students were engaged, great listeners, and very excited about the process. I appreciate the opportunity to teach and Mrs. Hull was able to learn about the app. We wrote about Toontastic last spring so be sure to check out the post! It's a great app to use with a variety of grade levels. It is helpful for students to create a draft of their story before they use the app. I have posted the draft template that we have used with students on Teachers Pay Teachers. It is a free download so check it out!

Roland-Story Technology Joined Pinterest!

Roland-Story Technology Joined Pinterest!

(pinterest.com)

Tired after a long day at school? Searching for a particular app to use but don't want to take the time to look through the blog? Look no further! We decided to create a Pinterest account to make it even easier for you as teachers to access our blog! 

Follow: Roland-Story Technology
(http://www.pinterest.com/rolandstory)

Our Pinterest account will allow you to easily access our blog posts by topic or gain insightful ideas to effectively integrate technology into your classroom. We have compiled resources for the computer lab, to use on your laptop, and even useful social media ideas for the classroom! 

While we were putting together the Pinterest account, we stumbled across "The 20 Best Pinterest Boards About Education Technology." We followed all of them to help provide you with the best resources as possible! Check out our Pinterest board and start pinning! 

(someecards.com)

What Pinterest boards do you follow to gain ideas for your classroom?

Start earning badges!

The chart is up in the teacher's lounge and we are ready to graph our hard work! 

Start earning badges today and let's see how far we can go!

Blog Incentives

B.I.G. things are happening at Roland Story Elementary!! 

School is back in session and we (the tech team) couldn't be more excited to see where this year takes us! We have had some exciting changes here at Roland Story: new positions added and many new faces throughout the district. This year, we hope to do our best to help the elementary teachers, new and seasoned, with ways to integrate the iPad into the school day, how to use new apps, and to model for students digital citizenship.

One way we aim to achieve our goals is through this blog. We have created the Blog Incentive Game (B.I.G.) to motivate our teachers to use this blog to learn and grow. This blog provides communication, education, and opportunity. 

To our teachers:

Here's the plan, we will continue posting on the blog throughout this school year with iPad ideas, app how-to's, and many more. The more involved you are, the more badges you earn. 

What are badges?

- Badges come in every shape and size! 

- You will earn different types of badges based on what you do to earn them.

- You can earn multiple badges of the same type. 

How can you earn badges?

- In many different ways!

- Check out the three types of badges you can earn and see what you need to do to start earning!

What do badges do for me?

- Pride.

- Show your knowledge gained.

- The more badges you earn, the closer you are to the grand prize!

- At the end of the semester we will see who has earned the most badges and count up the points.

Where will the badges be displayed?

- We will post on our blog as badges are earned, but there will also be a chart in the teacher's lounge to graph each teacher's progress.

Types of Badges

Comment Badge - the smallest and easiest badge to earn (worth 1 point). Share your thoughts on what we post and you will earn this badge. 

Learning Badge - the next size up (it takes a little more to earn and is worth 3 points!) Show your willingness to learn by inviting an intern into your classroom to learn about a new app or tool. 

Initiative Badge - the largest type of badge you can earn (worth 5 points!) Do some research on your own and share it with colleagues or the interns to earn this badge. It will show the initiative you took to share or research new ideas.

The more you earn, the more you learn!

Let's get started. Are there more badges we should offer? Leave a comment if you have another idea. Think we covered everything? Still leave a comment! 

Google Templates

The teachers at Roland Story are wonderful. We are so lucky to work with such great people! Mr. Gilroy, a 4th grade teacher, approached me with a question this morning that required me to do a little research. He wanted to customize google forms he is using in the classroom. I searched on google to find the answer and here is what I discovered...

While customizing your own theme is not yet possible for Google forms, there is another way to have more options. Check out this website to find existing templates you can use for your own documents, forms, spreadsheets, etc. It will ask you to sign in to your Google account. Once you're signed in, this screen will appear. There are 4 tabs across the top. The first is 'Public Templates', this is where you will find hundreds of templates you can use. To sort through the hundreds, use the 'sort by' options on the left side of the screen, or specifically search for what you're looking for using the search bar at the top.

The second tab is labeled 'Roland-Story Schools Templates'. That appears for me because I am logged in with my Roland Story school email address. If I select that tab, all the templates created and uploaded by Roland Story users will be shown. The third tab is labeled 'Templates I've used'. Once you begin using templates, all the ones you use will be shown in this tab. If you ever want to go back and use the same one again, it can be easily accessed using this tab.

The last tab is labeled 'My Templates'. This is where you can upload your own template you've created. Why would you ever want to create your own template? Well, there are many reasons!

1. You have a document you wish to use again (i.e. lesson plan, newsletter, etc.)
2. You have a document you wish your students to have access to and edit (i.e. an assignment you set up that they must edit)
3. You want to reuse the same form every week to assess your students.
4. You give the same presentation every year with new information.

Even if you don't want to create your own template, try out the ones available to you! They are useful and there's many options.

Doodle Buddy

Doodle Buddy - the application that allows students to draw, scribble, annotate, and create. There are many things you could do with this app in your classroom and it is very easy to use; even better, it's free! Whiteboards are a common form of quick assessment in elementary classrooms, and Doodle Buddy could serve as a digital whiteboard to avoid an extra material needed in your classroom.

With Doodle Buddy comes some features that I will explain. As I stated before, it's really easy to use and you will pick up quickly once you start playing around with it! First of all, there are buttons across the bottom of the screen. Beginning on the left, we have the undo button. By selecting this it will undo your last action. Moving to the right, we have the trash can button. This will clear your entire drawing and leave only the background. The next button is the drawing tool. It allows students to select a color and type of writing utensil. The size of the pencil or brush can be changed by moving the white dot across the link at the bottom of the gray screen. Then they can begin drawing, annotating, or scribbling.

The next button is for stamps, or stickers. You can select small or large based on the size you need. There are many different types of stamps/stickers. I added this cute smiley face!

Next are the stencils. Pretty self explanatory - they work like regular stencils!

The next button is labeled "Tt". This allows you to add text. By selecting the button, a text box will appear and you can type your desired text. The choices across the top are the font options (helv, type, felt, times).

Then we have the option of selecting a background. There are some included within the app, but you can also use a photo you've already taken or take another.

I chose an existing picture on my iPad of the beach.

When you're all finished, select the wrench button on the right side of the screen. This will give you some options. Saving to the camera roll is the easiest for students! They could upload the finished product to Showbie so the teacher has access.

There are many ways you could use Doodle Buddy in your classroom. As you can see below, you could ask students questions and they could use the app to record their answers. Spelling tests could also be given using this app. 

Share with us how you use Doodle Buddy in your classroom!

Write About This

How many times have you heard your students complain about not knowing what to write about? I'm sure a lot! Elementary students have a huge imagination, yet when it comes to writing, it seems to disappear. Write About This is an application that erases this problem! It provides writing prompts for students to spark some ideas for their writing. There is a free version and a paid version for $3.99. The free version has a lot of limitations, but there are ways to getting around those if you aren't willing to pay $3.99.

I will go through how to navigate these 6 icons and the basics of the app. 

First, the search icon! This can be used to search for a specific topic or idea a student might have.

Next, the categories icon. This is where students can search for a topic by category. Unfortunately, with the free version, only one topic per category is available.

I chose animals as an example category. This lion picture is the only topic that was available since I have the free version. It provides a question at the bottom of the screen. Students can click the 'voice' button to have the question(s) read to them. When they are ready to write, they click the pencil, 'write' button.

Once they select 'write', this screen will appear. There is a space to provide a title and begin writing. If they wish, students can also record and audio about the writing prompt. It also includes the date, which is a great way to monitor students' progress over the course of the year.

To record an audio, click the 'record audio' button. The screen below will appear. When you are ready, click the 'record' button and begin speaking. Once finished and satisfied, click 'save audio'.

To begin writing, click on the notebook paper and your keyboard will appear. When you are finished, click the very bottom right button (icon of a keyboard) to make the keyboard disappear.

Before saving, you must create an author profile for yourself! Choose a existing picture or take one.

Then your picture will appear to show that you wrote this piece. When you're completely finished, click 'save to camera roll'. This will export the write about to your iPad's camera roll. However, with the free version, you can only save 1 write about at a time. If you don't have the paid version and still want to save it, you can take a screenshot by holding the home button and power button at the same time. This won't save the audio, but it will save the writing! The screens hotted photo could be uploaded through Showbie so the teacher has access.

The next icon on the home screen is 'random'. By selecting this, a random writing prompt will be chosen for the student. Once the screen below is shown, the same process as stated above is used to begin writing.

The 'My Write Abouts' icon will take you to all the saved Write Abouts.

The 'Create a Prompt' icon allows you or the students to create a writing prompt. The screen below will appear and you can create your own: adding a picture, text, and audio. 

For example, I took a picture of the ocean and added a question as a prompt. I added an audio clip to read the question aloud.

To save these prompts, click the 'Save to Category' button. The prompts made will appear in a 'Custom' category, found on the categories page.

The 'Quick Write' icon allows students to begin writing right away, without a prompt. By selecting this icon, the screen below will appear. Students can add photos, record, and begin writing immediately.

Next time you hear your students complain that they have nothing to write about, refer them to this app!

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.