Recording Audio Apps

Opinion will allow you to record, edit and publish online for free! To record simply open the app and tap the big red button at the top of the screen.

When you're finished talking, tap the recording button again to stop the recording. You can chop your recording into smaller pieces by tapping on your recording then tapping the scissors icon to cut your recording. Opinion also shares to iMessage, Dropbox, Google Drive, and e-mail. You are also able to Import audio from your local iTunes music library, or Dropbox, iCloud, and Google Drive.

StoryCorps.me will ask you to create an account, but you can use it without. Creating an account will allow you to publish your recordings on the StoryCorps website. The app includes sets of questions that you can use in your interview. 

The question sets are varied depending upon the type of interview you want to conduct. You can swipe through the questions to help you keep the interview on track. Completed recordings can be saved on your device and or shared with the StoryCorps community.

The Opinion app would provide students a quick way to create simple recordings. Suggestions for multiple ways for use in the classroom could include: story reading (students reading a page at a time), interview students in a classroom, book reviews, recap a story....and the list goes on.

StoryCorps.me will take a little more time for students to set-up but great use of documenting interviews involving two or more people. Being able to see the questions while they record should help students keep their interviews concise and on track. You can find more information about StoryCorps.me on their website: https://storycorps.me/.

EDpuzzle Joins Forces with Google Classroom

Within EDpuzzle, you can now post your assigned videos straight to a Google Classroom Course.

There are two ways to join EDpuzzle and Google Classroom.

1. Link classes already created in EDpuzzle to Google Classroom courses.
2. Import Google Classroom courses to create new EDpuzzle classes.

Link EDpuzzle Classes already created to Google Classroom

Import From Google Classroom to EDpuzzle

Assigning an Assignment
To assign an assignment from EDpuzzle to Google Classroom, you will first need to assign a video to your Edpuzzle class. Once the video is assigned, click the Post button in the lower right corner. A new window will appear from Google Classroom allowing you to name the assignment, give it a description and assign a due date. Then click assign.

Note** You may have to allow pop-ups from EDpuzzle. 

Students will see the following when viewing an EDpuzzle assignment in Google Classroom.

Using Guided Access on iPads

One of the big needs for education is to keep students focused on the task at hand, and an iPad with various Apps on it is a distraction waiting to happen.  Guided Access gives control to the teacher to be able to keep a student within an App.  Guided Access can even work in the Safari or Chrome browsers to limit students moving off of websites to others they shouldn't be on.

To turn on Guided Access. Open the Settings App on your iPad. Choose the General Settings on the left hand side of the menu bar.  Then choose Accessibility from the right hand side menu.

Now you are in the Accessibility choice of menus.  Scroll down to the bottom and choose Guided Access.

Turn on Guided Access by sliding the button bar to the right.  You will also wish to turn on a Passcode using "Passcode Settings" to set your code for unlocking the Guided Access.   The Accessibility Shortcut will also need to be turned on.  This is how you will trigger the Guided Access when an App is open by clicking the Home button 3 times quickly.  It will also be used to turn off Guided Access by clicking the Home button 3 times quickly and then putting in your passcode.

One of the great features of Guided Access is you can limit access within an a application.  Simply by triple tapping to get the border of black to show, you can circle the areas you do not want to function in the App. 

This then deactivates that region of the app. The circles are retained to show that they are inactive.  Make sure to lock the screen rotation on the iPad before setting the Guided Access for the browser so that when turning the iPad to the other rotation the shading will disappear and the access doesn't block.  

Uses for the classroom:  Using Guided Access for online testing helps to control the App the students are working with and keep them from sharing answers.  Guided Access also offers the ability to set time limits so that you can limit the use by the students.

Quizizz

Quizizz is a multiplayer quiz where students move at their own pace.


Creating a Quiz
Once you click create quiz, you need to name your quiz and decide if you want your quiz to be public or private. You can create up to 50 questions per quiz, uploaded images for questions, and set a time limit from 5 seconds to 15 minutes. Questions are multiple choice with two to four answer choices. Once all questions are entered, click the green finish button. You final steps will be to assign a grade level and subject for the quiz, then click the blue Finish and Create Quiz Button.

 

To Start the Quiz

There are two options for running a quiz. Play Live or Homework. Play Live you would use if the whole class was playing together to review for an upcoming test. Homework would be used if you are using the quizizz as a station or for the student to complete for homework.  

Play the Game
Once students enter in the game code, they start to answer the questions at their own pace. There is a marker that runs across the top of the screen showing them how much time they have to answer each question. After each question is answered, the student gets immediate feedback and is shown where they are on the leader board.   Adorable memes appear after each question is answered to encourage students in their progress.

                             


Realtime Feedback and Viewing Data
You will see realtime updates of student-level progress and you will see a detailed report of the responses by each student. You can download a more detailed excel report like the one shown below.

How can I use Quizizz
Super-fun review sessions
Quick tests and pop-quizzes
Self-paced classwork
At-home remote quizzes

Open House Technology Ideas

The all important Open House is a chance to connect with parents and demonstrate what is happening within the classroom.  The use of technology can help to engage and connect with a child's family.

Quick Connection

When preparing for Open House, create a slide presentation using Google Slides and set the Share option to be view for anyone with the link. Make sure to add an FAQ page at the end of your presentation of frequently asked questions.  Now you are ready to share this resource with your parents.  Create a QR code using either Kaywa or Unitag that links to your presentation.  Make small cards with your name and the QR code on it to pass out to students the next day who may not have had parents attend the day before.

Kaywa offers a variety of types of QR codes that it can make from text, URLs, etc.

Unitag has quite a few customizing options.

Gather Information

Create a Google Form to gather information from parents.  To help the parents see the connection between you and them, include a positive statement.  Here is a link to a form that you could make a copy of to edit and make your own.

Here is the link to what the parent's would see.

Again it would be very easy to share the Google Form with a QR code that the parents could scan an input their information straight from their own devices.

Pearltrees- organize all your interests

Pearltrees - Visually Organize and Share Collections of Files and Links

Pearltrees is a visual bookmarking extension that bookmarks your favorite websites in a format of squares and folders.

Pearltrees now allows you to organize collections of links, videos, images, and files. The Pearltrees browser extension allows you to quickly add content from a web page to your collections (bookmarking in a visual format). To combine folders or create sub-folders simply drag and drop one folder on top of another just like you do when making folders of apps on an iPad.

The extension also works on your iPad the same way in your web browser by a free iPad app.

Itunes

The add button allows for your to add a collection, a website, note, pictures or files.

Once you have created a folder of great resources you are able to share in a variety of ways.

That's Baloney!!

THAT'S BALONEY!

That’s Baloney! is an educational quiz game for children from grades 2nd to 6th that features multiple content areas including language arts, math, science and social studies. This app uses a lot of fun facts to test knowledge. Through different quizzes and trivia questions. The app is based on the bestselling Edupress card game by the same name.  

Some statements are obvious and others can be tricky.  Is that answer true? Or is it baloney?  Choose correctly and you munch the bologna slice and earn food for your fridge. Choose incorrectly and you lose a pickle.  Loose 5 pickles and game is over.  I like that when you make a wrong choice a giant pickle appears with the correct answer and that you can review answers at the end of the game.

Gamers are posed with numerous thought-provoking quiz statements that spark conversations between students, classmates, and even parents. There are 5 grade levels to choose from: Grades 2nd through 6th, which can be changed with a simple option item in the menu.

A Few Favorites and Suggestions for Seamless Integration

Let’s revisit some of our favorite instructional technology tools from 2014 and share some good suggestions from teachers are effectively integrating these tools into classroom lessons.

Up First:

To ensure that students have access to standards-based quality instructional videos our teachers are creating their own screen-casted videos and enhancing them using EDpuzzle's interactive features.  

Ms. Perry and Ms. Lowde who have been integrating Edpuzzle into their Biology and World Geography lessons, respectively, found out it was best to develop a naming convention for videos.  It is difficult for students to find the videos even though you have set a deadline for them. They suggested using the following naming convention: six weeks, unit, day: name of lesson (ex: 4.3.2: Cell Meiosis).  When students access the videos they are now organized by the numbers and would be in order of assigned activity.

Ms. Perry also suggested that it is best to take a day in class to demonstrate how EDpuzzle works.  Log in and run a session live with the students.  Ms. Perry sets her videos for the students to be able to watch and retake the questions multiple times for a high grade, then averages the grades from the week.  As she said, "I would rather them watch the video multiple times and understand the content, then to only watch once and accept the grade."

Next up:

Many teachers that we have the privilege to support have jumped in and immediately implemented Plickers.  It is a great resource for formative assessment.  The teacher will need a computer for displaying the question and a smart device (smartphone or iPad) to be able to scan the students cards.

After implementing this tool in their classrooms, teachers have shared insightful organizational suggestions. The first great suggestion from Mr. Glass, is to make classroom sets of the Plicker cards for each of your classes and assign the cards to individual students.  Take about 5 minutes at the beginning of one class to have the students glue their Plicker card inside their journal or folder.  This helps to prevent loss of the card and the teacher doesn't have to worry about passing them out at the beginning of each class.

Glue into their spirals or folders to prevent loss of the card.

The next suggestion came from a middle school science teacher.  Mr. Glass also mentioned that because the computer needs to be open to the Plickers website while using the cards, have it running in the background behind your presentation window.  This gives you the space needed to display graphics, pictures, equations, etc. You can still access the questions on your phone as needed but the students are not distracted by other information in the screen and can see everything you need to share with them.

Here Mr. Glass is using his Notebook page to display the

question they are responding to during the  mastery check.

Last but definitely not least:

Ms. Pinney and Ms. Aldridge agree, "Kahoot! motivates my students to participate."  Many of our teachers have shared how much the students enjoy playing Kahoot!  They love that they are given an opportunity to compete and receive immediate feedback from the teacher.  Ms. Aldridge has found a way to incorporate higher level questions by giving the students the questions at the beginning of class and allowing the students to work through the problems completely.  She then runs the Kahoot!  The students then receive immediate feedback over their individual practice.

"I got it right!" Celebration

A great monitoring suggestion is to have the students with their devices in front of the teacher station, so that the teacher has a quick way to monitor that all are on the correct page and participating.   To offer student creation, ask students to submit questions that they would like to see on a review over a particular topic.  They can furnish pictures, graphics, and problems to be used.  The teacher then compiles one Kahoot! for the class.  The students who have submitted questions, get excited to see their work helping their classmates understand the material.

Plickers

Plickers

Quick and Easy on the Fly Assessment

A growing need for teachers is a way to gather information about student understanding quickly and easily.  Technology can be a great tool, but if you don't have a one to one set up for your students, it takes quite a bit of time to have students access information.  Plickers works with the teacher's smartphone.  It is the receiver for the student information. 

The students furnish their information through special QR code answer sheets that are set for individual students and can supply four different answer choices based on how the card is turned.

The teacher sets up the classes into Plickers using their computer, assigns each student a special code sheet and uploads their questions into Plicker.  With the Plickers App on their phone they are ready to go now.

The Library is where the teacher stores their questions and adds the questions to classes.  Reports is where you can view the results either simply with a bar graph of class data or more detailed with each students' response being visible. Classes is where the classes are set up and cards are assigned to students.  Live View is how the teacher will display the questions for the class.  

Type in your question and answers, mark which answer is correct and save.


Add to class plans.  This uses a drop down menu.

Class set up page is so easy!

Now the teacher is ready for the class and their smart phone works like a remote for their computer to control the questions and it will also be the scanner for the QR codes.

Choose your question from your phone.

Now the question will appear on the phone
and on the computer under Live View.

After pulling up the question they wish to ask, click on the camera in the App, asked the students to display their answers, scan and the results show on the phone.

          

Now the teacher can identify if reteach needs to occur or they are ready to move on.  Under reports you can look at individual student data by question.













Classroom Integration Ideas:

• Mastery checks and quick checks through out a lesson.
• Have students create questions for projects that they are going to present and put into Plickers so that the students can assess if their classmates understood their presentation.
• Survey classes