Last week, I had the privilege to present at the North Dakota Library Association Conference. With help from my good friend Brenda Beiswenger, we created this symbaloo webmix highlighting our favorite digital tools. Next, we compiled some student work samples in this presentation. We highlighted the role of the classroom teacher and the role of the media specialist in each of these projects. Typically, the media specialist contributes to the project at the beginning stage, during the research. Then, the media specialist supports the project at the end during digital publication. What are your favorite digital tools? Share in the comments below.
0 Comments
I am in love with Kidblog! Kidblog has been around for while, but it is still a great tool for classrooms because it engages students in collaboration, but in a safe digital environment. Teachers have many settings to control who sees the blog (password protected or not) and can set whether or not the teacher has to approve the posts before they appear. It doesn't require student's personal information and it is super easy to have students enroll themselves in your class (saving you some work!). Here is a great tutorial from Adam Bellow. I love Kidblog because it has endless possibilities! Students can write like a normal blog, or they can upload pictures, videos, or audio. Additionally, students are able to easily embed creations. Which means, you can have students share the Wordles, videos, Voki's, animations, VoiceThreads, Google presentations, Prezi, etc. WITHOUT printing them or having each kid stand in front of the class to present them. This makes Kidblog a great place to "catch" and share all digital projects. Plus, students are more engaged in others' work when they are expected to provide feedback. As a media specialist or teacher, Kidblog is great because you can have different classes or groups of students. Students can be enrolled in one or many of your classes. I've used this to easily create a blog for all my classes, Kidblog bookclubs, and special interest blog groups. You can toggle between classes easily. How are you using Kidblog in your library or classroom? Share in the comments below!
Little Bird Tales is a great tool for digital storytelling! Students can add voice and text to images to create their very own story. The images can be uploaded from your computer, or illustrated right on the site. Then, you can easily share your story via a link or embed code. Below is a intro video about this tool. I have used this tool as a way to publish student writing. In this second grade class, students created personal narratives with their classroom teachers during their writing instruction. Then, I helped them use Little Bird Tales to illustrate and publish their work online. Here are a couple of examples: Little Bird Tales let you create a free account, but it has limited storage. I recommend the free version for families that want to create at home. I purchased the premium teacher account for $24.99 a year. You do have to set up each students' account (or you can do it in a batch), but it is really easy for the students to use once it was all set up. It is a great tool for the classroom! How can you use Little Bird Tales in your classroom/library?
Whenever I tell friends that I've made the switch from classroom teacher to librarian, jaws drop. They have a traditional librarian pictured, and I don't fit that mold. I don't want to conform to the stereotype they are imagining. I have been deeply inspired by all the fantastic educators, librarians, and media specialists out there. I’m a wannabe! I wannabe an effective collaborator, leader, learner, problem solver, innovator, and teacher described by Jennifer Lagarde in this ThingLink: I wannabe a zombie fighter, as presented by LaGarde and described by Matthew Winner in this article. Zombie librarians have stopped learning, stopped changing, and stopped putting students first. I wannabe the zombie fighter, debunking the stereotypes and exposing the value of libraries and librarians in this digital age.
I wannabe like Cari Young and Jessica Lodge! They create meaningful and engaging centers for their libraries, and SHARE them with all of us. They provide rich learning activities and opportunities for students to be creative, collaborative, and critical thinkers. I wannabe a library leader and innovator too! I wannabe like Shannon Miller! She creates and facilitates powerful Project Based Learning activities for her students. She uses technology to support student learning, and is always trying new things. She collaborates with teachers and experts in and out of her building. I desperately wannabe a master of collaboration and technology integration. Lastly, I wannabe like Andrew Miller and Myla Lee! They are educational leaders, and PBL gurus. They explore and share educational best practices, support others through their journey, and have a strong Personal Learning Network. I wannabe an effective promoter of Project Based Learning and model continuous learning and professional growth. I am a wannabe and proud of it (who ever said a wannabe was a bad thing?)!! I am inspired and challenged to continuously improve myself and practices. What kind of educator do you wannabe? ThingLink is a great digital tool for students! You just upload a picture (or a collage pic), and then you can tag the photo with text, links, videos, etc! You can share it with a link, via social media, or using an embed code. I've used this tool with students in grades 1-6. Here a first grader shows what they know about prairies after some research: Here is an example from a 5th grader. This project was about comparing and contrasting past and present Olympians and Olympic sports. I've even seen examples where students illustrate or draw a key concept, upload it, and then tag all the key ideas or components, like an interactive diagram. ThingLink is a great way to assess students' understanding of a concept, or to publish a final product. How can you use ThingLink?
Learn more about ThingLink from their "Learn" Page. Learn about the ThingLink Educator Challenge here! Skype is a great way to connect with authors! Author and Educator, Kate Messner, has a great website where she lists authors that are willing to Skype for free. Or, you can contact authors through their websites to see if they are willing to visit with your students. Last Spring, my kindergartners visited with author, Jennifer Ward, via Skype. I was excited for them to read her books because she has a great collection of fiction and non-fiction books. She talked about being an author, read one of her new books, and answered LOTS of questions. After visiting with Jennifer Ward, the students in Mrs. Meschke's class were inspired to write their own book. They followed the pattern of Ward's books and created a book titled, "There was an Old Farmer." They wanted to write a books about animals that live around North Dakota. So, they brainstormed all the animals they could think of and sorted them by size, to create the order of the story. Then, they did some math and art lessons. We printed pictures of all the animals and the students studied the pictures to find shapes they could use to recreate the image. They practiced a lot, then added color. Look at these great Kinder Artists! The students researched each animal and added a fact page to the back of their book (just like Jennifer Ward does in many of her books). Lastly, the kids groups the animals together and thought of rhyming words to make the sentences. Their final product was adorable, and they were so excited to send it to Jennifer Ward. The best part of this project was that the kids were so motivated and had complete ownership of the book. They did many rewrites and re-drawings, until they all were pleased. Along the way, they studied parts of a book, learned shapes, practiced rhyming words, researched, and became writers. At the end of the year, I asked the kids to write about their favorite thing about Kindergarten. Many students wrote "Meeting Jennifer Ward." This is a project they will remember!
To learn more about using Skype to connect with others, read this inspiring article by Shannon Miller. http://www.iste.org/explore/ArticleDetail?articleid=10 How can you use Skype in your classroom? Symbaloo has been around for awhile, but I still think it is the best bookmarking site for me. The reason being, it is visual and its easier for younger students to locate sites by a picture. You can pick an icon or upload your own image to represent that site. There is also a Chrome extension to make bookmarking even easier! I've made Symbaloo webmixes for special projects, databases, holiday links, and for favorite sites. You can borrow others webmixes, adapt them to fit your needs, or simply create your own. You can preview the ones I've created by going to the websites below! How have you used Symbaloo in your library or classroom? Please share your ideas in the comments below.
|
AuthorMisti Werle is the newly hired Library Media Systems Innovator in Bismarck, North Dakota. Archives
June 2015
Categories
All
|