Book Creator

Great news!  Our iPads now have the Book Creator app!  Try it now - this could be a great way for your students to show their learning during the last few weeks of school, and a chance for you to explore this new tool to get ideas for how you could use it next year.

Your student's book can become a video and be posted to YouTube for parents and friends to enjoy.

Please coach your students to refrain from editing other students' books, as this app is shared with the entire school.

Beth can come to your classroom and help or coteach as you explore and use Book Creator.

Want to . . . 

make How-To books?

present facts in Social Studies?

document an experiment in Science?

have students each make a page and combine them into one class book?

create a book to share a field trip experience?

Please contact me to discuss how I can help you try this in your classroom.

** There are 5 more licenses available for teachers who would like to put Book Creator on their class iPad.  Let me know if you are interested! **

Click here to see a short video about what this app looks like.

High School Space

Welcome to my new office!  Dave has given me a space at the high school (in addition to my elementary location) so that I can be more accessible to the high school staff!  I am located adjacent to the HS Media Center and copy room.  Please feel free to stop in anytime.

Wondering when Beth is in the office?  

Click here.  

And as always, the best way to contact me is by email - haglinb@maplelake.k12.mn.us - or by using the contact form on the right side of my blog.

Student Web Presence: Maple Lake Exemplar Teachers

Image from: imgarcade.com

My last two posts were about allowing students to post their learning online and seeking an interested audience to view and respond to their content.  Next I would like to focus on teachers in our district who have invested in providing an online platform for their students and/or procured an audience.

First grade teacher Sue Schmitz

Student Blogs

Learning Posted: Sue's students share their writing as well as photo updates about classroom projects and daily learning.  

Audience: their blog has been visited 1,292 times and has received 183 comments in response to their posts.

Fifth grade teacher Amy Kosloski

Student Blogs

Learning Posted: Amy's students share their thoughts about a read-aloud book.

Audience: combined, her three blogs have been visited 5,628 times and have received 163 comments in response to their posts.

HS Spanish Teacher Kim Fynboh

Student Blog about Spain Trip

Learning Posted: Kim's students share their experiences in real time while on a class trip to Spain.

Audience: parents and friends back home view posts and leave comments about students' experiences.

These three examples have harnessed the power of giving students an authentic audience - their audience has been actively involved in responding to the learning they have posted.  

Many other teachers in our district have created the initial infrastructure of placing student work online.  See more examples of online student work that has been shared:

HS Math Teacher Casey Pack

PC Structures Project

Third Grade Teacher Ann Hagen

Videos of Election Campaign Speeches

Sixth Grade Teacher Vicki Decker

Power Point Presentations About Careers

Third Grade Teacher Rhonda Carlson

Pictures of Student Work Posted on Class Blog

HS English Teacher Naomi Durst

Photos of Brit Lit Wax Museum

First Grade Teacher Tami Kolehmainen

Penguin Power Point Presentations

Kindergarten Teacher Annie Jost

Pictures of Student Work Posted on Class Blog

Second/Third Grade Teacher Tanya Malwitz

Pictures of Student Work Posted on Class Blog

Computer Technology Teacher Nicole Casebolt

MLE News Video Clips Created by Elem Students

Kindergarten Teacher Carol Tongen

Pictures of Student Work Posted on Class Blog

Computer Technology Teacher Nicole Casebolt

MLE Video Archive

What a great variety of student achievements!  If you haven't used your online space to give your students a voice, start today! 

Did I miss anyone's online display of student learning?  Let me know on the contact form located on the right side of the Shamrock Tech website. 

Student Web Presence: Sharing Learning With an Authentic Audience

Communication

Image from: langwitches.org

After students create online content:
Who will view it? 
Anyone online can view your students' content . . . but who are the people motivated to explore and digest this information?  The #1 viewers will always be the parents.  Additional interested parties might be relatives, peers, teachers looking for ways to present content to their students, or students from other schools who are looking for learning resources.  Online student work can also be viewed by your incoming students as examples when beginning a project.  Experts in a field may be willing to view and respond to students' content if notified.

How will this audience become aware that content has been posted?
Teachers can take an active role in notifying the target audience of new online content.  As a teacher, you can set up your infrastructure early in the year so that contacting your audience is simple and even automated.

One easy way to notify parents (or a larger audience) is by creating an email list.  When content is published, send one email to the entire list.  (Please remember to send it BCC so that email addresses are not shared with everyone on the list!)

Also, be sure that you use your webpage as a way to communicate with parents.  Promote high participation by sending home a letter and even offering to help parents subscribe to email updates.  By posting updates to your webpage, you can take advantage of the "be notified" option for parents. They will not have to come find your content - it will come to them.  Post links to your students' online content, and explicitly request that parents visit and comment.

Partner with teachers at different schools, sharing your students' content with them and exposing your students to other students' projects online.  Exchange comments and feedback. 

You as the teacher have the power and the responsibility to create a safe online community for your students.  Digital literacy and citizenship will be an integral part of their lives - so let's start building those skills now.

Student Web Presence: A Necessary Infrastructure to Facilitate 21st Century Learning

Communication

Image From www.slicktext.com

Our goal in educating students is to prepare them for their future.  The Partnership for 21st Century Skills has identified 4 key skills students must possess to succeed in tomorrow's workplace.

Collaboration

Critical Thinking

Creativity

Communication

Your students explore important topics all year long, and in today's world it is important for them to learn to share information online appropriately and respectfully.  This is a critical part of 21st Century communication.

Have you established the infrastructure to make online sharing available at just the right times?

Just as you pave the way for all other classroom infrastructure (procedures, routines, core skills) at the beginning of the year or quarter . . . pave them an online space.  Spaces for student sharing:

Kidblog.org

Google Sites

Tackk.com

Prezi.com

YouTube

PiktoChart

Blogger

If you have other favorites, please link to them in the comments.

Does the list seem overwhelming?  Pick one - familiarize yourself by trying it out.  Then, make the path ready for your students to access the site.  Set up accounts and create examples.  Click here if you would like Beth to contact you about getting this started.

In my next post I will explore:

Who will view all of this student-posted content?  

How will this audience become aware that content has been posted?

Book Creator for iPad

Book Creator for iPad is a great tool for your students to express their learning in a new way.  A student can create his/her own book easily, using images found online, photos taken using the camera, or illustrations drawn by the student.   

Text can be typed, or written with a finger or stylus.  

Students have the option to record themselves reading the text.  This becomes part of the book.

Books can be accessed by others through iBooks, as a PDF to print, or as a video (which includes the audio of the student reading).  

Check out this book, created by a MLE Kindergarten student.  

It was her first time using Book Creator, and together this took us about 10 minutes to create.  She took the pictures, arranged them in the book (by the third page she was doing this part independently), and read the text out loud.  As we began, I instructed her in how to use Book Creator.  She quickly caught on and eventually did many steps for herself.  I typed the text as she told me what she would like it to say.  Older students could do all steps independently after being taught and given some practice.  

Books can be shared for other students to read on the teacher's class iPad, or shared as a video so that parents can view it online.  

This is a paid app which I hope to have added to our iPads.  Would you and your students use it?

(K-12) Use Just One Computer or iPad for Students to Practice Math

Challenge students who "get done early" by allowing them to advance their own learning on Khan Academy.  

Khan Academy is free.  Each student can be assigned his/her own username.  Khan Academy leads the student through math questions, keeping track of what the student has mastered or needs to learn.  

On each question, the student has the option to access tips or video tutorials to help learn the concept.  He/she will only receive "mastery" once able to answer the questions without these, but they are there so that the student can decide whether he/she needs to be taught.

I can: 

*help you set up your class (or selected students) with usernames

*teach your students how to use it and facilitate beginning use (in small groups or whole-class)

*coach you in managing their accounts

Students can:

*access Khan Academy from computer, iPad, or smart phone anywhere

*accelerate to the levels they are ready for

*receive remedial instruction on basic skills

Teachers can:

*recommend content for individual students within levels K - Calculus

*view what students have worked on, mastered, and how much time was spent

*ask Beth for help anytime, for any reason while using this tool

Please click here if you would like me to reach out to you and discuss how this could be helpful in your classroom.