Did you know google has this amazing tool called VOICE TYPING which is built into google docs and google slides. It allows you to voice type and dictate your ideas into your work, without having to type! You can even edit, format and add punctuation with your voice too! This tool has so many positive impacts for the classroom and yourself as a teacher!
Check out the Tech Tip to easily show you where to find the Voice Typing tool!
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My passion at school is with using Seesaw. I came across it in 2016 and immediately saw the possibilities it offered for my class and school. We had been struggling with parent engagement and this learning journal app opened the door for new avenues with families and whanau. If you don't know what Seesaw is or how it works, check it out here at https://web.seesaw.me/.
This year, we have moved into our second year of using it school wide. I personally feel my teachers have learnt a lot since implementing Seesaw and are becoming more competent users. For my strategic plan with ICT this year, I came up with an idea for Seesaw Week. This would involve 5 small challenges that students can complete and be awarded with a badge. This badge could be physical (printed out) or digital and be awarded upon completing the Seesaw challenge of the day. Seesaw Week's 5 challenges for 2018: Monday = Use the draw feature Use the draw feature to summarise a picture of something you have done today. Tuesday = Use the note template to fill in the answers to these questions with emojis: What is your name How old are you What is your favourite food What is your favourite animal What is your favourite colour Choose your favourite emoji Wednesday = App smash Use a different app on your device to complete an aspect of your work (reading, writing or maths) and share it on Seesaw Use the screenshot feature or app smash it through your app! Thursday = Write a comment on a friends work Use the voice comment or text comment to write a constructive feedback on their work. I like your…. This is great because… I love the way…. Wow! Your work is…. How did you…. Friday = Share your wow work Use the photo or video to take a picture or video talking about your wow work and why you are proud of it This is my wow work because…. If you would like access to the Seesaw Week plan my school will be using please click here to make a copy for yourself or view the activities >> Seesaw Week 2018 If you have not heard of Solvemoji I'm not sure where you have been hiding.
Solvemoji is a fantastic website that creates maths puzzles and challenges for students to complete. There are different levels for students to work on, with a new addition for juniors! The puzzles are easy to complete with children working out the numbers which represent the different pictures, and what the ? represents. They are colour coded based on difficulty level and get increasingly harder as they progress. The offer addition, subtraction, multiplication and division problems. The puzzles are accessible on their website https://www.solvemoji.com/ and you can even sign up to complete them online and join the leaderboard with your results! For my teachers at school, I downloaded a few from each level and combined them into a slideshow for easy access. These could be used as class warm ups, group activities or independent work. If you would like access to the slideshow please click here >> Solvemoji - Juniors slideshow and you can make your own copy of the slides or download for your needs. Did you know google has this amazing tool called EXPLORE which is built into your google apps. It allows you to search the web, images or your drive for information relevant to your activity, but without having to tab switch! So handy for your students!
Here is a Tech Tip to easily show you where to find the Explore tool! Who doesn't love Bitmoji's?? They are a great picture representation to add to your work that represent your feelings or what is happening. They are easy to use, and can be added into your work. Bitmoji's can be copy and pasted into your chosen document, or drag and dropped in.
Here is a Tech Tip to easily explain how Bitmoji's work! So lots of people use Google apps and G-Suite in their classrooms. These teachers being in the middle or senior school and have their students using google docs and apps. When I came across the book 'Google Apps for Littles' I started thinking about the bigger picture and if my students really could use google apps in our classroom.
As previously mentioned, I brought the book, read it and immediately starting using it the next day! I created their little log in cards, put colour coded tabs on the laptop to help them, have laptops assigned to them to help with logging in, and use Google Classroom. I am currently trialling using Google Classroom with my Y5/6 classes while I do CRT release so thought why not! So since first implementing Google Classroom into my programme (2 weeks ago) I assign my students 1 quality learning activity to be completed over the week. As I job share, I am only in the class 3 days a week so want to make sure it is done when I am in there. The activity is targeted for their needs and learning intentions and are monitored by me (of course). Some of the activities are shared on Seesaw but not all of them - we haven't got to app smashing yet! Here are a few pics of my kids using Google Classroom and their activity: -a high frequency word colour activity that is assigned through Google Classroom. Its great as it makes children in that group their own copy of my template and they complete it, then hand it in. -a blend and rime drag and drop activity. Students drag the word into the right column then hand it in once finished. The children in this group love this one and always race to see who can do it first. Each child has their own little login card, which is colour coded to the laptop keys (as you can see). They simply look on their login and find the key in the right coloured row. For safety purposes his password is scribbled out. My students know not to share their login card with anyone and it sits on their laptop next to them. If my 5 and 6 year old students can use Google Classroom, yours can too! I have a long way to go and will of course have our challenges. But we are on the right track and I can't wait to use it more over the year! On Friday I participated in #seesawchat which is a fortnightly chat run by Seesaw. As you know, I am Seesaw crazy and love sharing what I do with Seesaw and how others use it in their class. Seesawchat is a great way of getting involved with others across the world and this weeks chat was focused on goal setting and tracking. The last question was around how we as teachers use Seesaw to track our own learning or goals. In 2017 I started my own personal Seesaw journal for myself to use as an evidence gathering and sharing portfolio. In New Zealand, we need to collect evidence of the 6 teaching standards to show we are continually working on upskilling and staying relevant. I shared a screenshot of my portfolio and have since had so many people DM me about what/how I use it. So I thought this blog post might be relevant! Here is a screenshot of my Seesaw teachers portfolio. Im the only student in my journal as it's just for me to sharing my own learning. My senior leaders and team leaders have access to it to be able to see what i am sharing. Basically I use it to upload anything and everything related to the 6 teaching standards New Zealand have. I keep them linked using the 'folders' feature on Seesaw. Its a great way to tag the posts I upload and I can use the folder search to look at particular folders for evidence. As you can only have up to 10 family members signed onto a journal, I needed to think of a way of being able to have more than that on my journal. Then I realised the perfect seesaw feature - the seesaw blog!
I use everything that I post in my Seesaw journal and share it onto my seesaw blog. Such a easy way to make sure everyone at my school can view it and be involved. It is password protected (to ensure my confidentiality) and to make sure others are not viewing my private goals or documents. I have used blogger and wikispaces before this. And was a passionate blogger user up until I came across Seesaw 3 years ago. I hadn't thought of using this for my own professional development until 2017 when it just sort of clicked. I use Seesaw all the time for my students so why not for myself? And the google drive integration is perfect for sharing things I am working on. If you have any questions on how I use this in specifically please contact me info@mrspriestleyict.com. I'd be more than happy to share and talk with you! Room 11 loves using QR codes. QR codes are easy to use and make. They are linked to different websites or youtube clips, that children can scan with a QR code reader and be taken to that website.
QR codes are used with listening to reading in Room 11! They love hearing online stories so helped me to create some for our top 10 books we love to hear. These are printed out for students to use in the class and access easily. Our top 10 books include: -The Hungry Caterpillar -The Wonkey Donkey -The Tiny Seed -The Rainbow Fish -We're going on a bear hunt -The Gruffalo -Room on the broom -Harry the dirty dog -Hey, thats my monster! -Green eggs and ham If you would like to download these and use them in your classroom please click here, for access to the pdf >> Room 11 Top 10 books!
I team teach in Room 11 this year and find that there are always things going on at our school and in our class. In order to keep on top of everything, I decided to come up with a newsletter template to help share all the events, information and details with our parents.
These newsletters come out once a week on a Monday and have everything the parents need to know for the upcoming week. These newsletters are published on Seesaw (the app we use to communicate with parents) and allow for further communication opportunities. This is an example of what our newsletter looks like for each week. I have attached a template here that you can make a copy from and use for yourself. Click on that link here >> Class Newsletter template So I came across this cool post on the NZ Teachers Facebook page, and immediately had to make these things called 'Book boats'. I went out and brought the containers, had huge difficulty cutting the lid in half with a saw and decorated them on my teacher only days.
School has only been back a few days. We brought them out on Monday for 'read to self' time in reading and the children were in love. They all wanted a turn and couldn't wait to read in it. As we only made 5, we had to leave them only for 'read to self' time when they could then choose to read in them on the deck. You can see in the picture, the children are so engaged with their reading. So cute and comfortable! The best thing I've made for my classroom this year! The 2018 school year just started back on Wednesday! It has been a very hectic last 3 days of routine implementation, getting to know students, learning about them and what makes them tick, and trying my best to begin ICT implementation and Seesaw.
I found that many of the students I have this year to have a limited experience of using Seesaw, despite being implemented school-wide. This has caused me to rethink how I have provided teacher PD on Seesaw but also how to make it more clear for students to see. So I created this Seesaw wall in class with clear resources for the students to use, to help with the implementation of this. I used the resources you can download from @PanaAsavavatana to use as a troubleshoot when they are unclear of a tool or its purpose. They are amazing posters that explicitly explain the tools of Seesaw. I also used the 'request a selfie' product from that I created (see previous post) to engage my students in taking ownership of their learning to share on Seesaw. In NZ we are just about to head back to the new school year! We are all so excited about starting our new classes and a priority for me is getting Seesaw up and running. In the school wide PD session I ran last week, we talked about making sure parents and families are connected to their child's journals from the first day. This will foster the home-school partnership and ensure the success of Seesaw over the year. But sometimes parents are a little apprehensive over what Seesaw is and how it works. So for the parents at my school, I created this handout which explains what Seesaw is in. Its double sided, with a scattering of information on all the important parts about Seesaw. In our first Seesaw Parent meeting in 2017, parents received this handout and found it very useful when starting out on the Seesaw journey. If you would like to download a copy of the letter please click here >> Seesaw Parent Handout I came across this image on Facebook and Twitter but couldn't find a pdf version to download. Me being the creative quick ICT guru, I made my own version on google drawing! It was easy to make and I added it onto Teachers pay teachers for people to be able to download. I get a real sense of satisfaction, knowing that what I make is being used by others. I love making things that people want and can use in their classroom.
If you would like to download your own copy, click on the link here >> https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Request-a-Selfie-pdf-3614003 Update! As some people use Class Dojo to share their learning, i had a request to make one for Class Dojo. So if you would like the words to say using 'Class Dojo' instead of the Seesaw one, you can download that here >> https://www.teacherspayteachers.com/Product/Request-a-Selfie-Class-Dojo-3615191 I came across a lady @smalchow on Twitter who had made individual Rainbow word templates as an activity to be done in class. I decided to then take her idea and put them into one image so children could do more than one word in the activity.
I grouped them into word groups that suit the children at my school. They can then be imported into Seesaw and used as an activity for students to practice their words. I found my children loved using these in independent activities and aligned nicely with my reading and writing programme. Click here to download them for yourself! >> Rainbow word templates If you would like a look at her individual templates, check her blog post here to download them >>http://malchowsreflections.blogspot.co.nz/2017/10/rainbow-words-seesaw-way.html |
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