News for Kids - At their Level.

At the SLATE Conference this week I attended a session on Blogging and backchannels in the classroom.  While the presentation was not about literacy specifically, there were a number of resources discussed that encourage digitally literacy.  One in particular that I got excited about was Newsela because it can be used with Google Docs and encourages the use of non-fiction reading strategies while providing literacy at the student's level.  It is like the classroom trifecta!  It is collaborative, literacy based, and naturally integrates the use of technology.
Newsela is an innovative way for students to access relevant non-fiction resources from today's news. As a teacher, you register your class and this resource brings an article at various lexile levels from grade 4 to college-level.  Articles also have assessments that are aligned to common core.  Teachers can assign articles, monitor progress with assessments and track common core mastery.
The presenter shared that he has students send the article to their Google Drive, share it and then make comments on the article as they read.  Their thinking as they read is digitally highlighted, comments are recorded and kids are engaged while learning.  Such a great resource, how will you use it?

OK Google Show Us What You've Got!

Recently Google launched a new extension that might be very useful for students.  It is called, Google Voice Search Hotword.  This extension, when downloaded, allows you to talk to Google, hands-free, no typing. Once on the Google search page, simply say, "OK Google" and then ask your question.  The extension sends your question to Google only when it hears you begin with the catch phrase: "OK Google".
For some students who are not strong spellers, a Google search is difficult.  Students with poor typing or even vision difficulties might find this is helpful as they do not need to navigate to the tiny microphone icon that appears in the Google Search Bar.  Yikes that is small! For some of us the idea of our computer just laying in wait listening until we command it is creepy but for a student who struggles, this might be a life saver!

Sumo Paint - Creativity and Usefulness!

SumoPaint is a great drawing tool with advanced features is is hard to believe that it is free.  The above graphic was created using SumoPaint in a manner of minutes!  This online resource does not require any log in, email and allows you to save your drawing in jpg or png formats.  What makes this an exciting classroom tool besides the above mentioned features, is that this tool allows you to begin a drawing with an image that you upload from your computer.  So, what if students were to upload and label a map, an image to label or something to add information learned to?  Students have so many creative elements we often do not tap into and this might be a way to reach some of them.  Could students design a class, team or personal logo?  The possibilities are endless with such a great tool.

Math Support

Sometimes you just need a little help.  Jenny Eather's Maths Dictionary and Printable Posters for kids is a great resource for kids Elementary to beginning algebra.  The dictionary contains hundreds of terms, examples, animations and colorful explanations.  All terms are laid out alphabetically in such a way as to make it useful for kids who might not be the best spellers and then dictionaries are difficult.  This site is great.  The poster site is a great place to seek out for printable posters and pages for the classroom.  The posters are colorful and helpful with examples and clear illustrations.  Why reinvent the wheel when you begin the next unit?

Peanut Gallery Silent Films

Peanut Gallery, a fun Chrome experiment lets you explore with new technology using the old fashioned media - silent films and text cards.  You launch Peanut Gallery, select a film to use, allow the use of your microphone and explore.  As you speak the actions of the film, the computer translates your speech to text and places them in the movie.  A variety of movie scenes make this a ton of fun.  When your movie is complete you can retitle the movie, and collect the URL of the movie you have created. Peanut Gallery would be a great activity for kids to use to explore characters, settings and new vocabulary.  Have a little fun with the Peanut Gallery!

Google's introductory video is here:

Socrative Classroom - Student Response Easy!

Every teacher wishes they had a better handle of student understanding as they progress through a lesson they are teaching.  Teachers know there are shy students who do not raise their hands to ask questions, rarely demonstrate their knowledge around others or are simply content to let others do the participation for them.  We often have students complete Exit Slips as they leave the room to demonstrate how much we might need to reteach, or specifically which students we need to target.  But what if that feedback could be instantaneous and didn't require you to take on additional grading of papers each night?
Socrative, a digital student response system that works on computers, tablets, iPods, Chromebooks, etc. is a simple solution to this tool.  Students in a Chromebook Classroom can participate using a Chromebook but in other classrooms using the laptop carts or the BYOD open network can have students bring in those devices to be used in class purposefully.
Teachers control the questions posed to the class, watch results and monitor the feedback of the class.  Socrative will even email the teachers a summary of the class results for review and further study later.  This is a great way to gather feedback from kids in real-time while collecting data that is useful for further instruction.  A quick introductory video can be viewed here.

Comic Relief!

Comic Strip humor has always been fun for kids and as they get older and can appreciate more mature humor they become increasingly aware of comics.  One of the commonly used resources for creating comics requires the use of an app or a subscription.  While it is creative and fun, it isn't usable for all in that format.  One tool that has been around for some time is Make Beliefs Comix.  This online comic Strip creator does not require you to have an account, log in or learn a tough interface.  See the sample I created below.  Make Beliefs Comix is nice as you can easily create 2-4 pane comics, there is a good variety of characters in various poses as well as backgrounds and objects.  Once you have created your comic, you can email the comic to someone or print it out to share.  There are many ideas on the Make Beliefs Comix if you click on "for educators" at the bottom of the main page.  I think there is great value for kids to do a quick exit slip of a character explaining a topic or term, a demonstration of a foreign language, or new vocabulary in context.  This could even be used by the educator to assign homework as a character from a book being read in the class.