Over the past week or so, my students have been reading a text called “How Bad Could it Be?” This text is about two students, named Ben and Kevin, who like to teased another student, Truman. We are emphasizing Ben’s motivation for pulling the prank of pulling the chair out on Truman before he sat down. A lot of the motivation is tied to how it would impact his friendship with Kevin. Anyway, at the end of the story, once the prank has been done, Truman gets hurt and Ben volunteers to take him to the nurse. The story ends by having Ben use this opportunity to apologize. This ending left me with a lot of opportunities for interpretation. “Light-bulb: ON!”
I knew that I wanted to use Google Story Builder as a conversation piece, so I decided to have my students work on pairs to collaborate on a conversation between Ben and either his parents, Truman, or Kevin. The conversation that they were going to create on Google Story Builder were going to show Ben and one of the other characters having a conversation if the story were to continue. There were some very important points that I thought students should know before they got started:
I started the lesson by showing a Google Story Builder that I made previously. Instantly, the students were excited, which made me overjoyed. I explained to them the directions, put them in pairs, and sent them to work. When the pair was completed with their conversation, students were to post them on Google Classroom to share with the rest of the class. This way students would have the opportunity to view others and comment on them. Here are several of the Google Story Builders created by my very own 4th graders: Carson and Jesse https://goo.gl/FjohK7 Ume and Erin https://goo.gl/oXJC4p Marisa and Mallory https://goo.gl/N9Qblm Lorenzo and Katie https://goo.gl/g3DoxR The kids LOVED this! They were so engaged and I loved that it was so easy for them to use! Once their story was created, they shared them with their classmates on Google Classroom. How have you used Google Story Builder in your classroom??
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I have tried recording presentations in the past from my iPad and the volume was not always audible, which made it hard for any serious viewing reasons. This time, I tried using my iPhone. I gave it a practice round with a group and the phone seemed to pick up each of their voices well enough. I figured now, if students miss any of the presentations they will be able to view the recording that I made, and another benefit is that I don’t need to scramble and try to miraculously grade these group presentations while they are presenting. This way I can rewatch the videos and assess each person individually. I feel like this was going to give me much more accurate evaluations on their speaking and presenting. Once I had all the groups present and I recorded them, I uploaded them into my Google Drive. From there, I decided I would post these videos onto Google Classroom. I also realized that any of the students would benefit from going back and watching these videos. After all, their writing assignment is requiring them to use the factual information from the presentations to write their RAFT piece. As you can see, I attached each of the presentations to Google Classroom. When I presented this RAFT tasks to the students they were so excited and I was so happy to see them jumping into this task with a positive attitude. When they we released to begin, so many more students revisited the presentations to review the information in their notes!
This makes me wonder, what other things can I easily record and give access to my students?! Hi! Elizabeth here. I’m excited to share with you a favorite, and a Google Original. I created one of my favorite Google uses myself. Since it is one of the most tools that has streamlined my classroom I thought I would share it with you! The sites also track the number of books they have read in each genre. This is not something that I was not able to track when I used paper copies. I also love that students can compare their monthly minutes to previous weeks.Interested in setting up a Google Reading Log in your classroom? Watch these tutorial to learn how. |
Today, I am home with my sick baby. Double ear infection and pinkeye. Yuck! Luckily, she is very content playing on her own, so I have been sitting on Pinterest for a greater part of the morning. It started with some healthy meals, some exercise plans, and then made my way to using technology in the classroom. I came across this great blog at alicekeeler.com about using Google Sheets as a discussion board. It’s fantastic because she already created this template for you and you just need to make a copy to use in your classroom! She goes through step by step with visuals. I suggest checking it out if you are interested! For the last 3 weeks my students have had their Erin’s Law lessons with the social worker, so our Monday morning meetings have been on Google Classroom so all students could share at the same time and still have the opportunity to respond/react to a few of their classmates. After students each made their own post and then replied to several posts, I would have a long thread of unnecessary things on the Google Classroom feed. This is why I found this blog to be intriguing. First Attempt: I warned students multiple times that this was our first time trying this. A few things I noticed:
Second Attempt:
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**New learning: At first, I thought other students would be able to respond to each other's comments in the “response to comments” column, however, I learned that only the teacher can respond to the student’s comments. Since I am not the creator or this script I contacted Alice Keeler to see if that was even a possibility. I will keep you posted on my findings.
Overall, I am going to continue to play with this script because I think it has a lot of potential!
Overall, I am going to continue to play with this script because I think it has a lot of potential!
Our students are spending time learning the parts of a water cycle. Jenny shared the Study Jams video on the water cycle. As you may begin to notice, we collaborate and share our goodies a lot! I’m not sure what I would do without her. This video did a great job of describing the parts of the water cycle. I loved having the students watch the video independently on the chromebooks. They were able to go back and rewatch parts they were confused about or pause in order to jot down notes. This group of students tends to struggle to remain engaged in whole class lessons. The simple act of holding the video in their hands, and listening to it on the own personal headphones really supports the engagement. If you have the opportunity, check out your iPads, or computers to watch your next video. I bet you’ll see an improvement in their engagement and comprehension of the content.
After watching the video I need my students to work on identifying the parts of the water cycle correctly. Instead of giving the students a paper diagram, I decided to make the lesson more Googly. I was extremely excited to play around with Google Drawing. I kept hearing great things about the versatility and application it a classroom. This was an Google App that didn’t work on the iPad so I had not yet explored it. It does work beautifully with Chromebooks though, so armed with a cart of Chromebooks, a PDF of the a Water Cycle diagram (thanks to Itsy Bitsy Fun) my students hit up Google Drawing. The simply drag and dropped the water cycle labels to the corresponding location on the diagram. My students found this to be a fun and easy to use application. They were able to easily manipulated the images and text boxes. One additional benefit of this is they can scramble the terms up and repeat as many times as they want as a study tool.
Today we started learning about the water cycle. Not too long ago, I came across a great resource for science…… It’s Scholastic Study Jams. Have you ever heard of them? If not, you’re missing out! I love these videos so much more than BrainPop because they seem less corny and much more informative (in my opinion). My students would agree! Click here for the video I showed my kids.
As Elizabeth mentioned in a previous post, our school is lucky enough to have 1:1 iPads, but also be piloting the ChromeBooks. Sadley the Study Jams don’t work on the tablet, so I have just showed the videos whole class in the past. This time, I checked out the Chromebooks, so the students could individually watch the video. This was great because during the video the students needed to record notes about each of the stages and then they had to complete a “Water Cycle Diagram.” Student could watch the video as many times as they needed and/or pause to jot down notes. This assignment was shared with students through Google Classroom. How did we ever teach without Google Classroom?! With just a few clicks I can instantly have copies of a document for each student, that already has their name on it AND I don’t have to carry the papers around in my teacher bag! It’s been a lifesaver.
Anyway, the “Water Cycle Diagram” was created in Google Drawing. Elizabeth and I were looking for a way to use Google Drawing in the classroom and while researching Google Apps for Education we came across a blog that talked about using Google Drawing to create a venn diagram and students arranged the ideas accordingly. So, Elizabeth was so kind enough to create this diagram below for students to identify the parts of the water cycle. All they needed to do was move the text boxes at the bottom to the appropriate place in the picture. Given that this was the first time students were using this type of document, most did well. I did need to explicitly teach them how to move the text boxes and not adjust the text boxes. They needed to hover the cursor over the text box until it show the 2 perpendicular arrows. See example below:
As Elizabeth mentioned in a previous post, our school is lucky enough to have 1:1 iPads, but also be piloting the ChromeBooks. Sadley the Study Jams don’t work on the tablet, so I have just showed the videos whole class in the past. This time, I checked out the Chromebooks, so the students could individually watch the video. This was great because during the video the students needed to record notes about each of the stages and then they had to complete a “Water Cycle Diagram.” Student could watch the video as many times as they needed and/or pause to jot down notes. This assignment was shared with students through Google Classroom. How did we ever teach without Google Classroom?! With just a few clicks I can instantly have copies of a document for each student, that already has their name on it AND I don’t have to carry the papers around in my teacher bag! It’s been a lifesaver.
Anyway, the “Water Cycle Diagram” was created in Google Drawing. Elizabeth and I were looking for a way to use Google Drawing in the classroom and while researching Google Apps for Education we came across a blog that talked about using Google Drawing to create a venn diagram and students arranged the ideas accordingly. So, Elizabeth was so kind enough to create this diagram below for students to identify the parts of the water cycle. All they needed to do was move the text boxes at the bottom to the appropriate place in the picture. Given that this was the first time students were using this type of document, most did well. I did need to explicitly teach them how to move the text boxes and not adjust the text boxes. They needed to hover the cursor over the text box until it show the 2 perpendicular arrows. See example below:
This is an example of the diagram each student was assigned.
I enjoyed using this Google feature and I am still left wondering what ways we can use Google Drawing in the classroom in a very purposeful way.
Today my fourth graders explored the Google Extension, Read Write. Students installed the extension by following along with a Google Slide presentation explicitly stating each step. Having this presentation was very helpful when students returned from orchestra and they were able to use the resource to help catch themselves up. |
Once students installed the extension, they were able to explore some of the features. At this time, it was recommended for students to experiment with the “prediction”, highlighting, and playback features. I am excited to see how the playback feature helped students catch run-on sentences and misspelled words within their papers. I know the prediction feature was a helpful accommodation for those who struggle with spelling.
I look forward to exploring this app more in future projects!
Our Chromebooks were a new endeavor that began the middle of January. It couldn’t have been better timing let me tell you! You see, the middle of January is also when we were sending our fourth graders in the scary world of research. I have never really fallen in love with research. To mean, research means I spend my day running around checking in with each student to make sure they are understanding a text that is most likely above their reading level. Chromebooks and research. A match made in technology heaven. You may be wondering, how would a chromebook help with research besides give them a one to one device. Since we already have iPads having the ability to easily put websites into the hands of our students wasn’t a real benefit. The benefit in the Chromebooks came from the extension Read Write.
My students used Read Write from the onset of their research. The benefits? All students were able to access all resources that pertained to their topic. Students highlighted important information making it easier to record their notes later. Students were able to define words they didn’t know. Simplicity of use. Once students began typing, word predict helped students branched out to try words they may have otherwise not tired. Students who struggle to spell can spend more time focusing on their ideas and less on spelling a word, thanks to word predict again. Students listened to their writing to catch grammatical and typing errors. The negatives? Students loved the ‘read it to me’ feature and used it even if they didn’t need that additional support. I got a lot less steps because I didn’t need to chase all around the room.
My students used Read Write from the onset of their research. The benefits? All students were able to access all resources that pertained to their topic. Students highlighted important information making it easier to record their notes later. Students were able to define words they didn’t know. Simplicity of use. Once students began typing, word predict helped students branched out to try words they may have otherwise not tired. Students who struggle to spell can spend more time focusing on their ideas and less on spelling a word, thanks to word predict again. Students listened to their writing to catch grammatical and typing errors. The negatives? Students loved the ‘read it to me’ feature and used it even if they didn’t need that additional support. I got a lot less steps because I didn’t need to chase all around the room.
In case you haven’t tried it yet, see Jenny’s slideshow about how to install Read Write. Once installed, simply play with the toolbar. The icons are pretty self explanatory.
How have your students become better problem solvers, thinkers, learners through Read Write?
How have your students become better problem solvers, thinkers, learners through Read Write?
Throughout this blog you will see the voices of two teachers. If you are new here, take a moment to get to know who we are. Look for Jenny's posts in red and Elizabeth's in blue.
Hi! My name is Jenny. I am a teacher. I teach 4th grade at Richmond Intermediate School in St. Charles, IL. I have been teaching there for the past 5 years. I enjoy looking for new ways to engage students through technology and rigorous activities. I am also a wife and a mom. I have been married to my husband, Jeff, for 6 years. We have a daughter, named Riley, and we are enjoying every moment with her! Over the past year, I have worked to find the balance between work and home and Google has helped me with just that.
Thank you for joining me on my blogging journey!
Thank you for joining me on my blogging journey!
Hi! My name is Elizabeth. I am so excited to have you join us on our Google and Technology journey. I am a fourth grade teacher at Richmond Intermediate. Our school is unique amongst the district. Our uniqueness comes from have only 3rd through 5th grade students, having an additional 40 minutes a day where students take SciTech, and a foreign language, and being a 1 to 1 school. Right now we are utilizing iPads with our students but we are also piloting Chromebooks and have multiple class sets throughout the building. Our school is constantly innovating our instruction and finding new ways to reach our students. I have been teaching for eleven years, with fourth grade filling 9 of those years. When I am not teaching I love training for and competing in triathlons, writing, or spending my time with my three amazing blonde headed boys. My husband and I are kept busy by their constant curiosity and movement.
Author
My name is Elizabeth, I am a mother of 3 boys, and a 4th grade teacher of Math and Science. I teach at 1 to 1 Chromebook school and love to innovate in order to reach my students.
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