Thanksgiving Resources and Ted-Ed Lessons

I can't believe it is already November.  Thanksgiving is right around the corner and I wanted to highlight a great resource to use in your classroom.  Scholastic has many great resources, but their Thanksgiving resource is filled with multimedia to help reach every learner.  Please visit my post from last year to see some of the great resources available.  This site contains resources for K-8.

My second resource this week is Ted-Ed.  I know many of you utilize TED talks in your classroom.  This site has designed lessons around these videos to help you integrate them even easier.  Check out Ted-Ed to browse the many great resources available.  Here is a great video to introduce Ted-Ed.

Staying Organized

Organization is a key skill for all of us.  In the world we live in we are constantly bombarded with information.  I will show you a few tricks using 2 simple tools that may help you organize all the information you encounter daily.

The first piece that is key is to have a calendar where you can record all of your information in.  I prefer Google Calendar because it talks nicely with all of your devices and can be accessed anywhere/anytime.

The second tool you need is a task manager to help you keep track of your tasks.  Google Calendar conveniently has a task manager built in. 

 

The third tool that is important is some way to manage your tasks on your mobile device.  I use an app that works on android and apple products called Gotasks.

Digital Storytelling

Digital storytelling is an art and engages the viewer in the content versus merely sharing the information with them. I did some research for a class looking for some alternative presentation methods and focused my search on digital storytelling tools.  Below I have listed my top 4 along with a list of links to other resources.

Meograph

  

Capzles

Here is a link to an example of a Capzle for education - Capsule Example

Animoto 

Here is an example of a book trailer created using Animoto-Animoto Book Trailer

National Archives Digital Experience

 This site allows you to use resources from the National Digtial Archives to create a movie or poster.  Here is a quick example I created - Test Movie

Here is a list of other resources I have collected if you want to check out the other options available for digital storytelling - Digital Storytelling Links

SMART Board as an Instructional Tool

This week I am going to take a break from assessment tools and share some SMART Board resources with you.  The SMART Board can be a great instructional tool but sometimes we can get in a SMART Board "rut" and not know what else we can do with it.  My hope is with the following resources you will give you some ideas to jump-start your SMART Board use this year.

Below I have listed some links to videos featuring some of my favorite tools in SMART Notebook.  I also created a list of my top 11 sites to find free interactive SMART Board resources.

Topics:

·         Interactivity

o   Lesson Activity Toolkit

o   Lesson Activity Toolkit and Tools

o   Lesson Activity Builder

·         Video and Audio

o   Link to audio

o   Embed Youtube

·         Customizing and Using Lessons

·         Finding Lessons online-Top 11 sites for finding resources

Please leave a comment with any other great instructional ideas or resources I can add to the list.  Also, let me know if I can support you in any way with your use of the SMART Board in your classroom.

Assessment Tools Part 3-Poll Everywhere

Poll Everywhere-Poll Everywhere is a great tool to engage your students and gather feedback from them using their cell phones.  As a teacher you create the questions which can be anonymous or you can purchase the very reasonable teacher edition which will allow you to set up classes and automatically grade responses.  There is also a free version that will allow you to get started using this great tool.  Below you will find some helpful links to get started setting up your first polls.

• Making cell phones and Poll Everywhere work in your classroom
• Mobile Presenter Tools 
• Word Clouds in Poll Everywhere
• Voting on Images
• New Poll Everywhere questions 

This tool is very easy to set up and get started using in your classroom.  If you have used this tool before please leave a comment on how you have used it.  Also, if you want support getting started please invite me into your classroom.