Book Trailers with Tellagami & QR Codes

Students love watching book trailers! They created and recorded trailers with the QR codes using different apps that successfully would record and create an http: link.  I have really enjoyed watching the students make their own book trailers!  

We started using Croak.it! Croak.it is a voice technology tool that allows users to discover, collect and convey thoughts and expressions on-the-go over voice in 30-second audio snippets.  Recently we started to use Tellagami. Tellagami is a mobile app that lets you create and share a quick animated Gami video. Check out a couple of the 4th graders work samples.  Here are three examples of how the kids make book trailers using Tellagami.

Telagami

Croak.it!

 

 

 

Love Reading! Record, Link, and Share!

I have enjoyed reader’s workshop more than ever this year by getting my students to read, write, record, send and share.  LOVE that kids have enjoyed reading more than ever!  Some are easier than others to engage into some of their favorite books but at the same time they LOVE the high expectations of reading.  Reporting out to their friends electronically and individually in our conversations is when things start to happen. Honestly, creating a book report online has become a collaborative conversation verses, “Why do we have to do this?” These students enjoy sharing their books verbally and electronically as they have learned to persuade others to read similar books.  

 

State Testing TIme

Ready....set.....go!  AIMS is right around the corner! This marvelous group is ready for serious business!  They had a great time making their own video to show they were ready for AIMS baby!

https://vimeo.com/user15565954

Japan in 4th Grade

Welcome to Japan! 

This winter was we had Around the World Day at our school.  After reading, Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes it was an easy choice of what country the students wanted to learn about. Here is a link but please read to enjoy the activities! :) 

 http://get-puppet.com/s/yi80-UeVLIk?autoplay

From: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:Sadako_and_the_thousand_paper_cranes_00.jpg

We started out by decorating our own Kimonos as we learned about the traditional dress of the Japanese.  In the story Sadako receives a Kimono from her mother as a gift while in the hospital, it was a good connection to the story for the kids. 

The Japanese fan was our next creation!  After watching a beautiful fan dance of a women in her kimono we started making fans. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=-NJhVZtNFDw I used decorative Japanese style card stock on one side and the other side was up to the kids to decorate.  They loved coming up with their design, many kids asked if they could look up images online. This happened to be the day and time my principal popped in with our state representative and a couple other adults!  Always fun!  

After spending some time shopping around different craft stores I came up with a few more ideas.  One was the Japanese Cherry Blossom. I brought one into the classroom from the craft store to hang in our room.  Thank goodness my mom was there to help me organize this painting project.  We went step by step....first the kids had brown to paint the branch then each student was given red and white and they made their own hue of pink. They practiced on the newspaper first! 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=A9spHPYOl4c

We tried to do a little something everyday for two weeks.   The dolls and blossoms were more time consuming projects than others, but I tied to do something little each day. Daily the kids came in wondering what we were going to add to our portfolio page of Japan.

First we learned where Japan was geographically.  We colored the map and labeled the capital, Tokyo and city, Hiroshima. In the story we read it took place in Hiroshima where the main problem arises due to the historical bombs being dropped.

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Then I gave each of them a flag make out of card stock and red sticky dots. We added the flag to the portfolio and wrote what it resembles.  The red circle represents the red sun and the white resembles the white fields. 

                                         

The currency of Japan is Yen, I printed it in color, glued and labeled onto the portfolio sheets. 

 

The Great Wave was next.  We labeled the famous painting: "The Great Wave off Kanagawa."  Then we talked about and labeled the important symbolization in this famous painting to Japan.  Mt. Fuji, the boats with people that are used to transport the fish within the heavy waves that are about to break.

After studying the painting this naturally took us to Tsunamis in Japan.  This man-made utube caused some good conversations

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=k8IAgUNr6x4

Next we learned how to write numbers in Japanese

and how to make Organmi by folding special paper to make a paper cup.

Our last exciting moment was having our own feast.  I had a parent come in and she explained all of the different traditions as well as mannerisms of how Japanese eat properly.  Starting out with the tea, someone else must pour yours first.  Then we tried teriyaki chicken and sushi.  Each child had there own set up chopsticks and some slightly picked it up, some tried real hard and others just were not there yet.  It was a fun day of learning about another culture.  

 Check this out the video made with the app 'Puppet'  to see more pictures of the kids in the classroom! 

http://get-puppet.com/s/yi80-UeVLIk?autoplay

Croaking!

Croaking novel summaries and making QR codes is coming right along!  Today's focus was reading summaries fluently in the 30 second time period and croaking the summary on the app Croakit.  After practicing and recording the students had to navigate the iPad to listen to their recordings, save it and then send the link off.  In the next lesson the kids will be using the link to make a QR code.  One step at a time! I pushed a few kids that could follow the steps and they were able to create and send me the image of the QR Code! Yay!   In the next mini lesson everyone will be on board. :)

My favorite part of the day was listening to students coach each other, "The word is An-tarc-ti-ca, try it!" She broke apart the works by syllables for her partner then she said Antarctica 2-3 times, they decided she was ready to record. It was a loud room of sharing until recording time, over half the kids went out side in different areas to illuminate distractions or extra noise. 

Partner Practice with timing and focus on reading fluently. Her example 1 below.

Mini lesson was on what good readers sound like to read fluently. This is the rubric I will use to score them this time around, thank you Kagan!

Final time to summarize on Croak it.   

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Example 1: Ms. Frisby and the Rats of NIMH

https://croak.it/h/mcid5273dbbaba007

 

Example 2: The Hobbit http://croak.eu/1aZHKZQ

ISTE 2013

Going to the ISTE 2013 was a fabulous experience and hopefully we will get the opportunity to go back one day soon.  I am so amazed with what technology  offers our kids, which is such an advancement from what I had as a child.  I heard so many innovative ideas that my brain is still over flowing.  I am just starting to sort them out. 

The organizers were phenomenal- they were inspiring, kind, and so passionate about kids learning in new creative ways. Two people that stood out to me that I couldn’t help but ask to personalize my book with a signature and get a picture with were two innovative science teachers, Jon Bergmann and Aaron Sams.  These two are the founders of the ‘Flipped Classroom’ methodology.  

It was an exciting moment meeting Moby, a unique friend to us all.  Kids love him! He keeps ideas so simple and real! Group photo time!

There are so many people I can talk about that I truly enjoyed.  I feel like I just blinked my eye at what was offered here.  Leslie Fisher, Hall Davidson and Grey Tang were just a few of the sessions I went to that I could write about. So many more classes and opportunities going on at the same time. AMAZING LEADERS in technology education!

 

One of my big takeaways was was the idea of promoting curiosity in children. Every child is curious about something.  We need to give them the opportunity to combine their creativity with their curiosity.  Engineering ideas though kids!  Bored students….YUCK! Kids deserve to be enlightened and excited. It stems from that excitement and knowledge that they become passionate from their own curiosity and learning.  

 

 

My goal this year is to spend more time guiding kids and giving them opportunities to create and make  learning their own with their ideas through the content. 

In all, ISTE 2013 was an amazing experience. I am very thankful that I was asked to help deliver Creighton School District's iAchieve presentation and given the opportunity present with my own district leaders.  I am thankful both of them provided this unique opportunity to my sister and I both.

San Antonio was a unique city to check out while we debriefed, shared or gathered our new ideas and drew conclusions with good friends.

This was a special treat!

Blogging begins....!

The River Walk had lots of great tastes and we learned all about the history of San Antonio on this little cruise.

My dear sister and I had lots of quality time learning together, one passion we both love most!

Took a tour of the Historic Alamo.

Enjoying the evening view from our hotel! 

Passion for 4th Grade

Blogging... wow, not what I thought I would ever do. I am excited to learn how to blog as well as keep a journal of my experience flipping my classroom. Last year was my 7th year teaching fourth grade but my first year "flipping" the classroom.  It has changed my teaching pedagogy.  I LOVE it!

www.edudemic.com

I also love 4th grade.  Why......I don't know I have never taught another grade level. I tell myself it's the developmental age, the content in science or the math, maybe it's that the kids are ready to start reading more involved chapter books.  I just love the opportunity to open kids eyes to how numbers really work, what they mean mathematically.  I will tell you I am looking forward to the common core standards due to a solid foundation of number sense.  I love teaching science and putting scientific ideas into kids heads to ask more inquisitive questions and think about ideas at a deeper level.

Recording the daily weather to find patterns.  Each kiddo was the expert meteorologist on a different US city.

OIL SPILL!  Each pie plate represents an oil spill.  The kids had different devices that demonstrate different methods of how to clean up an oil spill.  They had to draw conclusions about which methods work best and why.

As far as reading, I love opening kids eyes to new author's and classic stories like Number the Stars, The Evolution of Calpurnia Tate, Bridge to Terabithia, there are so many.  I find joy in helping them find their just right level and pushing them to read books at their level while building their confidence about their love for reading.

Working together to ask different types of questions and how to find the answers.

Nonfiction short stories with cause and effect.

We loved participating in "Battle of the Books!"

With flipping they have had so many opportunities to create videos about their learning, make projects and presentations at their finger tips.


So flipping....it started a whole new game.  More to come.  I'm not sure I am the blogger type or that anyone will to read these but it will be  a nice way to keep track one of my favorite passion- teaching in the classroom and now flipping the classroom.