Flippity Flashcards/Digital Learning Day/EduWin for Carla Dunavan

While Common Core wants our students to delve deep into topics, sometimes they just need to commit things to memory, think math facts, spelling words, vocabulary words. Flippity makes it super easy for you or your students to make flashcards using Google Spreadsheet.

Before you begin, you'll need to be signed into your Google Account. Then, on the Flippity site, download the template. You will need to edit the template. Start by editing the title of the Spreadsheet, and don't edit row 1. You'll notice that most cells have only text. Side 1 being the challenge, with Side 2 the response. However, note that you can add images or YouTube videos by inserting the URL. You can also choose the CardColor and TextColor. To edit a cell, double click, and the cell text kinda pops out. Delete what is there and enter your text.

When you are finished, choose File, Publish to the web. Share the Document and copy the link. Back on the Spreadsheet, first open "Get the Link Here" at the bottom of the page. Second, paste the URL into Row 3 on the page that opens. Third, click on the link in Row 6 to open your flashcards on the Flippity site. Once you do, you can create a shortened URL (see below) to make it easier to revisit the page. Here's the URL for the Flippity Deck I created for fun.

Digital Learning Day

Today is Digital Learning Day.  USD has come very far in digital learning in just six months, so it is a day to reflect and celebrate our evolution towards creating "Future Ready" students. While we strive to move farther in the SAMR model, teachers and students are embracing the tools and pedagogy that is transforming learning. 




http://blog.elanco.org/elemtech/files/2014/01/dld.jpg


Today is also a good day to  review Digital Citizenship with your students. This poster from Edutopia, might be one to use to begin a conversation.






EduWin for Carla Dunavan

Thanks, Carla, for developing this Google Presentation on How to Make a Shortened URL. A great skill to know when wanting to share those cumbersome, long URLs with your students.

If you or one of your colleagues are doing something in your class that uses edtech tools, please let me know. I'd love to share it with other teachers.

Padlet/EduWin for Larissa Rehm

Welcome back to school! I hope you all had a wonderfully restful and restorative holiday break. 

Now that we are back and all Third through Eighth classrooms have enough Chromebooks for each student (pretty awesome, thanks to all the voters who supported Bond Measure J), you may be looking for an easy, quick activity to access with students. Padlet might be something you would like to consider.

Padlet is a virtual stickyboard where users can post short notes, images, videos, and URLs. It is easy to create a Padlet board, and you don't even need to sign up for an account to use your first Padlet. Here is a short YouTube video made by Richard Byrne of  http://www.freetech4teachers.com/ showing you how to set up and use Padlet:

Once you create a Padlet, it will be assigned a unique URL. As we all know, URLs can be a bit of a problem for students. Using a URL shortener is one way around it. I really like to use the goo.gl URL shortener. You copy your longer URL and paste it into the box, click "Shorten URL" and you'll have a URL that is easier for your students to use. If you are signed into your Google account, it will keep a record of your URLs and even generate a QR code you can give students who are using tablets or other smart devices. 

Another great URL shortener to use is shoutkey.com The advantage is that the URL that is generated uses words, eg shoutkey.com/kingdom. The downside is that each shoutkey stays active for a maximum of 24 hours. However, if you have created a Padlet account, you will still be able to revisit your Padlet, and you can create a new shoutkey if you would like to make a Padlet board available again for students to add to at a later date. However, you might like to create the shoutkey ahead of time to make sure the word is accessible and appropriate for your students.

There are many ways to use Padlet in your classroom. Here are just a few:

• have students brainstorm questions they would like to research about a certain topic
• create columns on a Padlet and have students indicate where they are in the writing process by placing their name in the appropriate column
• have students post examples of a ELA concept, eg: "Write a metaphor." "Give an example of an adjective."
• if you have a library of photos/images, students can post them. An example might be in a primary class, "Post a picture of a word that has the long o sound."
• have students post pictures that represent a math concept, eg. "Post a picture of an object that includes a right triangle."
• have students write a short book endorsement and include a picture of its cover
• post a question for students to respond to, "What evidence do you have that the main character...?"
• use it as an exit ticket, "What is your most important take-away from today's lesson?"
• create a bank URLs of websites they find that can be used to research a particular subject. 

I'm sure you can find many of uses for Padlet I haven't begun to think of. If you find yourself using Padlet a lot, you can install a Chrome Extension from the Chrome Webstore. (Let me know if you need help with this). Then, it will sit on your toolbar and you'll be able to Create (a) New (Padlet) at a moment's notice.

EduWin for Larissa Rehm

Being a Fourth grade teacher, Larissa and her class are deep into the Mission Project. This year, her students will use Google Presentation to write their report, complete with pictures they have sourced from the internet. This is a great way to familiarize students with a new tool and teach them about giving attribution to the creators of those images, while completing a traditional Fourth Grade project. 

Larissa is also planning on having students create science notebooks using Google Presentation. Her long range goal is to have students save and showcase their work on a website. Way to jump in, Larissa!

If you or one of your colleagues are doing something in your class that uses edtech tools, please let me know. I'd love to share it with other teachers.

The Hour of Code

Forty-four USD teachers reported introducing the Hour of Code to their students. All grades were represented! Thank you to all who participated. The names of all the teachers who filled in the Google Form were put into a random name picker for a thank you drawing. Christina Le, a Kindergarten teacher at Lietz, was chosen. A MakeyMakey kit has been ordered for her. We hope she and her class will enjoy using it.

Collecting Parent Info at Back to School Night/Todd Sinclair's EduWin

As you are preparing for Back to School Night, one of the forms you might be thinking of making is a sign-in sheet to collect information from families. I always liked doing it electronically. This way, any information I choose to include gets automatically uploaded to a file in my GAFE and has less chance of being lost or misread.

Here's a screencast that walks you through the process. It also shows how the URL shortener goo.gl creates a smaller URL to easily use to sign in to multiple computers, and creates a QR code so families can even use their smart phones to respond.

This week's EduWin

Todd Sinclair went to the Tech I training at the Krause Center for Innovation this summer. In addition, Todd was very excited to attend the Union School District Technology Innovation Summit. Starting the year off with a Chromebook cart, Todd decided to jump right in. One of the first projects he introduced to his students was one Lisa Highfill demonstrated in her opening Keynote address. Students fill in a Google Form, reporting on their summer vacation. This information is used to populate a Google Map Engine Lite. From there, students can add information to the pins.

Here's Todd's students' map:

View Room 19 Summer Vacation in a larger map

Now that you know how to make a Google Form, you may want to try this in your class. Here is a How-to YouTube video made by Joe Wood, one of the presenters at the USD Tech Innovation Summit. Start the video about 3 min 40 sec. to see how to do it.