Month: May 2015

Word Clouds in the Classroom

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Students and teachers can benefit from technology and lessons that are interactive. With the Visual Poetry app the students or teacher can create an interactive word cloud in many different lessons or projects. The word cloud I created below could be used in a first or second grade classroom to teach or review nouns, verbs, and adjectives. I chose a bunny, but you can choose a different shape or draw your own. Then I chose adjectives, verbs, and nouns that connected or described bunnies. Lastly, I used a tool and color coded each word to the part of speech it is.

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This app could be used in a classroom for many other purposes as well. It could be used to introduce new vocab words or write a poem and put it with a matching shape. Students could create projects on a topic to present to the class. It could also be used to introduce all the concepts for a unit for the students and parents to have an idea of what they are going to learn in the unit. For vocab words the students can change the color of the words as they memorize or learn them. Maybe they want to change the color so they know which ones they need to go back and study more. Students can share and interact with each others words clouds.

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Description:

Make beautiful text collages with Visual Poetry. Type your text or phrase and watch it instantly arrange as a mosaic in a variety of shapes and styles. 24 symbols are included or you can draw your own shapes.

How to Visualize Your Poetry:

1. Choose or draw your shape and style

2. Type your text. Watch as it instantly arranges as a mosaic

3. Perfect your shape by pinching and dragging words to resize and rotate.

The app Visual Poetry-Word Collage is simple to use, gives plenty of options and variety, and is only $1.99 in the App Store. Here is a tutorial that can help you get started.

I enjoyed using the app it was simple and straight forward. It took some messing around with to find the perfect style and one downfall was it was kind of difficult to draw on. The students I think would have an easier time drawing with their smaller fingers and hopefully they aren’t as much of a perfectionist as me. Overall, I am happy with the $1.99 I spent and would recommend it for a classroom.

#DED318

Thinglink in Education: Butterfly Metamorphosis

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Thinglink is a free app that creates an interactive image. Links, photos, videos, music, and text can be added to any photo. This can be extremely helpful in the classroom for a teacher and students. It can be used to introduce a lesson, guide the lesson, or end the lesson. The students can also create their own Thinglink or interact on their own with a teachers Thinglink. The options are endless.

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The app can be found in the App Store for free and anyone can use it! In the App Store Thinglink is described as:

Make your images come alive with private video, notes, or even music from YouTube. Holiday, family, interiors, sports, and personal images can be shared privately or with your network on Facebook and Twitter.

In language arts a teacher can use Thinglink to teach vocab words or summarize a book. In math it can be used to teach formulas or terms. For a social studies lesson a teacher could use it to teach a historical moment or about a famous historian or president. In science a teacher could use Thinglink to teach a process or concept. For example, in a third grade science class a teacher could use a Thinglink to present butterfly metamorphosis.

 

With each click on the icons within the picture the students will learn something new about butterfly metamorphosis. Included are links to websites, photos, YouTube videos, and text. With each one they learn something new and they can explore it by themselves or with a partner. With the advances in technology and the creation of Thinglink classroom experiences can be fun and engaging for the students and the teacher.

 

#DED318

Week 2 Blog Reflection

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I hated textbooks! I mean I still do and who likes them anyways? So when I saw a blog titled Ditch That Textbook I was there. After looking through several articles and following some of the advice I couldn’t stop reading. This guy knows what he is talking about. One article he wrote that caught my interest was one titled ” Deposits and Withdrawals at the Relationship Bank” He even starts it off with a little diagram. I do not care how old we are diagrams and pictures always make reading a little more interesting.

relationship-bank-trust-1024x768This article in particular was interesting to me because I never thought of relationships with kids as a bank account. As a teacher you will have children that love you, hate you, and anywhere in between. On the other hand, you will have students you love, struggle with, or somewhere in-between. In this article Matt Miller mentions that one of the most important lessons as a teacher is know make connections with every student. If every child has a relationship bank with their teacher, a simple wave a or simple compliment will add a balance to the account. On the other hand, calling a student out or embarrassing a child can withdrawal so much out of the account. A classroom is not an environment you can walk into everyday and say the same thing everyday and treat every child the same. To motivate the students they need to feel respected and cared about. They need to know you are talking to them as individuals not just scripted. Each child needs their own “bank account”.

This blog also had some tips on websites to find resources, how to attend a conference, how to obtain materials from previous conferences, how to get him to speak at a conference, and edtech resources as well. Overall, he provides a great resourceful blog.

#DED318

Week 1 Reflection: 2nd Grade The Grass is Always Greener

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After reading the blog 2nd Grade-The Grass is Always Greener, I gained some ideas for my future classroom. In their school they are the 3 collaborating teachers and their rooms are even semi-opened having a third of the walls open. This is beneficial for them because they can use each other to meet all the students’ needs. Three minds and three sets of ideas is always better than one. One idea that really caught my eye was the Daily 5. The daily 5 was the same idea of centers, but instead of going to all centers in one day they were given enough time to finish about 3 a day and then they go back the next day and do the 2 they didn’t do the day before. After they complete them all they can start to repeat again. The topics in the daily 5 were read to self, work on writing, read to someone, word work, and listen to reading. Within these rounds they use the books and resources that are in their book boxes that have materials at their reading level.

Students reading with and to each other can be beneficial to improve fluency and can also be helpful to hear themselves reading out loud. It also gives them a time within centers to share something and to enjoy something with someone else. Together they can check for understanding and work through the words that challenge them. In the classrooms I have worked in I have never seen this center. I have experienced reading to themselves, practicing writing, and other individual work. I really enjoy this idea and hope to bring it into my future classroom. I would love to have a little reading area for it. Possibly a small couch or bean bags for the students in an area of the classroom by itself to avoid distractions. With proper set up and instruction this could be a very successful and beneficial center!

OSMO in the classroom

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Today I was introduced to the Osmo Apps and games. This experience was an eye opener of what technical resources and what advances are out there that can really be beneficial for any teacher in any classroom. With Osmo Tangram the students can use their math and pattern skills to use shapes to put into a picture, Osmo Words can assist a student with spelling and reading while having fun and increasing their speed, and Osmo Masterpiece can take a student with no artistic confidence and assist them with creating a masterpiece they can be proud of. My favorite of the three was the Osmo Tangram. It had the choices of different levels and the hardest ones challenged me (It is a little embarrassing to say that as an adult I was unable to complete one)!

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This app could be used in my classroom when learning shapes and patterns. It would be involved in a math lesson. Having different levels it will be beneficial for all students at every level. In every classroom all students are at different levels and to keep each child challenged at the the needed level Osmo Tangram can help with this. It starts off easy and gradually gives you harder ones to choose from. If they are not ready to move up they do not have too.  It is also helpful for visual and tactile learners. Instead of a teacher standing in front of the class lecturing about patterns and shapes the students are personally making these patterns and pictures themselves. Although it can be challenging the Osmo Tangram is so easy to use. It can connect to any iPad and is only 2 pieces with a super simple set up.

osmo-product-photos17The white base adjusts to different sizes to fit all iPads and the red piece fits on over the camera. It has a mirror on it that reflects what is in front of the iPad and reflects it into the iPad camera (isn’t that amazing)! So with a few FREE apps and the Osmo games you can go so far in your classroom! 

Here’s another picture of me completely struggling with a super hard puzzle!

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Update:

I have now used the OSMO website to create my very one Verb vocabulary game! On the website after it is published students will be able to click on each picture to see the vocal words that go along with the picture. They can use is as flashcards and see if they can guess before seeing the words. They can use it to be introduced to the words in the beginning of the unit. Either way they use it, it can be beneficial for the students. The only thing I could complain about is that in order for the students to use it the OSMO company has to approve your vocab game and they take awhile to do it. This is definitely something you would have to do ahead of time in order to use.

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1. Run, Jog, Sprint         6. Smile, Grin

2. Hop, Jump                 7. Roll, Skate

3. Skip                            8. Sleep, Snooze, Nap

4. Climb                          9. Dance, Boogy

5. Swim, Dive                10. Laugh, Giggle