One More Reason to Love Twitter

Twitter. Hashtags. Tweet. Likes. Re-tweet.

If you are looking for one more reason to love Twitter from a professional standpoint, I have it for you! In my previous blog post I discussed ideas of how to use Edpuzzle in an Elementary Classroom which you can read here. I then tweeted out a message and added the Edpuzzle hashtag to my tweet. Edpuzzle saw my tweet, tweeted me back, and asked if I would be interested in chatting with me and sharing my example with others. I responded and followed up via email. A wonderful lady at Edpuzzle emailed me back and set up a Google Hangout chat that took place yesterday. Turns out, I was speaking with Marta, an Edpuzzle employee, and Quim, the founder and CEO of Edpuzzle! What a cool experience! Marta and Quim were incredibly friendly, professional, and the conversation was extremely easy. We ended up talking for over an hour and discussed how I used Edpuzzle with elementary students, middle school students, how I share ideas with other teachers, and they ran some ideas and updates to Edpuzzle by me and asked for my input. Had I not tweeted about my blog post, the connection with Edpuzzle would never have occured. I challenge you to get out there and tweet! You never know who you will network with and where the tweet could eventually lead you.

MLK Day and Public Speaking Idea

The other day a fellow 4^th grade teacher approached me and said, “When I told the students that Monday was MLK Jr Day and we were out of school, the kids asked me who MLK was. That surprises me!” Well, time to teach those 4^th graders who MLK Jr was and what he did in our nation’s history!

As I was searching the internet for an idea, project, lesson, whatever you want to call it, I decided that I wanted my students to not only learn who Martin Luther King Jr. was and what he did for our nation, but I also wanted them to come up with dreams of their own and share them with the world. So after a lot of research, I think I have managed to compile a few wonderful ideas into one plan that should take about 3 class periods. Enjoy!

Homework: Students will watch the “History: Bet You Didn’t Know- March on Washington” vimeo video and answer questions via Edpuzzle. Find the Vimeo video here.

Here are the questions/answers I inserted into the video:

Minute 1:19: King was honored to present last at the March on Washington gathering. Answer: False

Minute 1:41: King was supposed to speak for 4 minutes. Answer: True

Minute 2:00: King had not planned on giving his “I Have a Dream” speech that day, so why did he end up giving the “I Have a Dream” Speech? Answer: Mahalia Jackson from the audience yelled, “Tell ‘em about your dream!”

At the end of the video I posed the following challenge: Tomorrow in class we will be writing our very own “I Have a Dream” speeches. Take some time tonight to jot down a few dreams you have that would positively affect our world and bring it with you tomorrow in class.

Next day in class activity: As a class, we will watch the “I Have a Dream” video found on Youtube. (Click here to access video.) After we view the video, we will de-brief and discuss where his dreams came from and why he felt that way. Students will then use this template which I found as a free download on Teacherspayteachers.com. After students fill in their template, we will record them giving their speeches using the camera app on their iPads. We will then add their recordings to our school Youtube page so that parents, friends, and anyone else who is interested can view our dreams. I can’t wait to see their finished products!  

Edpuzzle Social Studies Idea

I have blogged about Edpuzzle before and I am so excited to give it a try in my own classroom! Edpuzzle is awesome if you have not checked it out! It allows you to upload your personally created videos (Educreations, Show Me…) or choose a video from their pool. The videos may be from Khan Academy, You Tube, Ted Talk and so forth. After you upload the video, you can then crop the video, add your own voice and even insert questions for the students as they view the video. (Web-based and an App)  

Here is an idea of how/why you would use Edpuzzle:

Normally, when we assign homework for our 4^th graders in social studies, their homework consists of reading part of the chapter and then responding with 2 concrete details they learned and 2 remaining questions they have after reading. I still enjoy this style of homework as it provides great conversation pieces for the next class period. However, we were ready to give Edpuzzle a try to see if our students’ learning could be taken to the next level. We have noticed that our students have a hard time connecting with what they read out of a textbook because they cannot connect to life in the 1600s, for example. This is where Edpuzzle comes into play!

Assignment: Read 2 sections out of their textbook then view 2 edpuzzle videos that relate to their reading. In this particular circumstance, the students are reading about life in colonial Williamsburg so we found 2 You Tube videos that related to what they read about. As they viewed the videos, we inserted questions along the way. Edpuzzle allows our students to read content and then view the same content to hopefully create visual for what they read and relate better to the information. The fact that you can pause the video and insert questions makes it that much more engaging! Now, I challenge you to go make an Edpuzzle!

5 Picture Story

As the Learn21 Specialist at my school for grades 4-8, (Fancy title… What do I do? My role is to partner with teachers by observing their classes and meeting with them in groups or one-on-one to share ideas on how to incorporate 21^st century lessons that may or may not include technology.) I met with one of our amazing English teachers today to develop an idea that she had. Her students are currently reading Watsons Go to Birmingham, and she wanted to connect the theme of family to her students by creating an “Alphabet Autobiography.” Originally, her idea was for each student to create a book with 26 pages, one for each letter of the alphabet. For page “a”, for example, the student would add images that reflect something in their life that starts with the letter “a.” For example, on my page “a” I may add an image of Avery Kate, my rowdy 20 month old daughter, because her name starts with the letter a and when I present, I could tell stories about our relationship. However, the English teacher quickly realized that having 6^th graders create a 26-page book, may end up taking an eternity. Here is where we came around to the “5 Picture Story” idea thanks to Wesley Fryer and CogDogBlog. (Click on both to look at their awesome ideas to use in your classroom.)

So here is what she will be doing with her class:

Students will be assigned one letter of the alphabet. (Depending on class size, some students may have more than one letter to complete the book.) Each student will find 5 images that relate to that particular letter to tell their story. Students will use the Pages app to create their page. Each student will then send their flyer to teacher and she will create an alphabet book with all of the pages.

Presentation: Students will present by showing their flyer (in our case, students will use their iPads and connect to Apple TV). As their flyer is presented, they will verbally explain their 5 picture story.