Publishing Opp: Children's Web Magazine

The CIPLC elementary classes indulged in our first author’s visit of the year earlier in September, with Ms. Margriet Ruurs traveling all the way from British Columbia to spend three days with us in Gecko territory!

While in Venezuela, Ruurs shared her passion of writing, explained the inspirations for some of her +23 books with classes, and taught invaluable writing tips to students during class sessions. 

Her passion for literacy and poetry was contagious, and the students wrote up a storm upon her arrival in each grade level’s classroom.  Each class took on their own unique poetry task, from poems depicting colors to verses displaying what personal items powerfully convey about each student’s character.

One of the aspects students were most excited about was the opportunity to have their writing published online in a safe but accessible format.  Margriet is the editor of a children’s writing site that publishes children’s work so that they can share it with peers from all over the world.

If your students would like to publish his/her poems or prose on Ms. Ruur’s web magazine so that students worldwide can view their masterpieces, please visit www.kalwriters.com/kidswwwrite.  What better place for your children to read stories from peers around the world and to take part in a global community of writers?!

For more information about Margriet Ruurs, please visit http://www.margrietruurs.com/schoolvisits/school_visits_talks.html.

Brain Breaks

There are so many short videos out there for you to to explore and share with your students as brain breaks.  YouTube has a wealth of them, but there are other websites as well.  Find some that are age-appropriate and that you know will hook your own students!

Case in point (enjoy!):

Recite This

Recitethis.com allows students to create or find quotes and place them on a related background.  Quick and easy, creating quotes is a fun activity for students to identify main ideas or themes in a book, or to create quick "Who Said Its" for comprehension checks.  The images may be downloaded, shared, or emailed for assessment or saving.  

Check out my example:

Quick Brainstorming, Exit Ticket, Review Options Part 2

Here are a few more sites and Apps to check out for quick assessments:

Nearpod – This is a quick assessment or presentation tool to use with less than 40 people.  It’s nice because you can make your own Nearpods as well as explore others’ presentations on all subjects and pre-made questions.

Socrative – Create quick questions, surveys, polls, and quizzes.  The site allows you to add in pictures, descriptions, and explanations to answers and questions.

Infuse Learning – Use this App on student iPads and your SMARTBoard to gather quick assessments.  Students can draw pictures for responses, answer true or false and multiple questions, order events or subjects, and more.

 (See this example of the optional "drawing" response students can "infuse" into a lesson!)

Plickers – Plickers are Clickers, simplified.  Simply sign up to create paper clickers (AKA “plickers) and then create polls or quizzes to present to your class.  Then use the Plickers App on your device to read student responses depending on which way they’re holding their plicker, and the results will automatically pop up on your screen.  This is an assessment method that shows immediate results and allows you to know which students need reinforcement on topics during the actual, “real time” of assessment.

Explain Everything, Show Me, and Educreations

These are Khan Academy-style Apps that allow both you and students to create educational videos.  All are very similar to each other, although I have found Explain Everything to have more uploading options and Show Me to be easier to share than Educreations.  

My preferred uses for them are to A:  Create flipped classroom videos with them to post on my blog for the next day’s upcoming classes, or B:  Challenge my students to create their own “How To” videos in order for me to use them with my future classes while teaching the subject.

• Explain Everything is particularly useful because it allows you to add in YouTube videos, personal clips, and items from Google Drive, Dropbox, Evernote, etc. with ease.  (This is a personal favorite!)
• Show Me is useful in that it also allows you and your students to view previously created videos according to subject whether or not you have actually logged in for an account.  See Valentina's example!
• Educreations is very similar to Show Me, with a slightly different format.  Here's a quick example of what you can do with the App.  Enjoy!

Quick Brainstorming, Exit Ticket, Review Options, Part 1

Here are a few quick and easy tech tools to easily squeeze into classroom brainstorming or to use as quick “pulse checks.”  In order to participate, students will have to have online access via your choice of device:

Answer Garden:  “Plant a Question, Grow Answers!”  Create a question on Answer Garden, set a time limit for your class to be able to access it, share the link, and that’s it!  Immediately on the screen, you’ll see their answers in Wordle form, with the most common responses appearing the biggest on the screen.

This image is the start of an Answer Garden as it automatically pops up on the screen during student response time.

Kahoot:  Create game-based multiple choice assessments or surveys.  Simply create your assessment, share the “game pin” with your students and allow them to either respond to the survey or complete the quiz.  For quizzes simply direct students to create screen names, display your quiz on the SMARTBoard, and watch as the class zooms through your quiz as a friendly competition of who earns the most points!  Kids are crazy about this one because it’s fast-paced and automatically keeps track of the top competitors. When you’re done, download the results into Excel and record in your grade book.

Here's a look at the Excel results for you as the teacher, and the pre-game screen as you await student log-ins to begin the game:

 

Welcome!

This blog is a collection of teaching tips and technology ideas that I have begun to accumulate during my time teaching at Colegio Internacional Puerto La Cruz, better known as CIPLC.  CIPLC is a thriving community of international students, staff, and parents that encourages all community members to take risks as we strive for innovative, global education.

In the short two months that I've been here, my professional development opportunities and risk-taking within the classroom have increased ten-fold.  This is in large part due to the collaborative and stimulating environment fostered here within the school.

I look forward to sharing new ideas with you as I come across them!