QR Codes

WOW, I never DREAMED I'd be sitting here learning about QR codes and practicing making them! I think it was just a few months ago that asked my husband what they were while we were out shopping and I saw one. He tried explaining it to me, but it just kind of "went over my head" and I moved on. This week, our assignments include reading about them and learning how we could use them in education and specifically in the library. We also had to create one. So, here's one that I created on QR reader and it actually speaks to you. I did learn that you have to have a cell phone with a camera and you just download a QR reader (there are TONS of them). Having the reader will allow you to open your phone, line up a QR image and click (or it scans it immediately depending on which app you have). Then, you will be lead to an URL where you can see or hear or experience whatever the creator of the QR wanted you to. If you use my QR you will hear messages about our school library (oh and we are the Gibson Bulldogs). Pretty cool to learn something new! As far as how I could use this in the classroom or library. Well, for books, you can have students scan the QR and it take them to websites that book trailers or reviews. You could record your own QR's that have answers to problems or activities that you assigned students and they can use those to check their own answers. Here's the QR codes I created:

Wideo Animation

I used wideo to make a short animation clip.  It was pretty easy to use, but getting the speed and transitions was a bit challenging.  I'd like to slow it down a little more, but I liked the music and colors on the slides.  I could see using this again to showcase new books in the library or to advertise events such as the book fair or Book Club meetings.  There's just a lot of uses for fun, colorful animated videos! 

www.pixiclip.com/beta/

Oh boy am I excited about THIS little gem!  As a Math teacher, this is what I've been looking for!  This site allows me to record myself giving directions while also writing out Math problems and working them step by step for my students to have access to when they need the extra help!  I did a sample one about adding decimals and just CHEERED when it actually worked!  YAY!  Check it out!  I am so excited about this and I can't wait to share with my teacher friends!  You could use this to review ANYTHING!  Students could even access it at home when their parents need some assistance too.......it's like taking your teacher with you home!  I can't wait to do some more of these!

www.powtoon.com

Here's another little gadget that I have been beating my head against the wall to get to work! Thank GOD I have technical support (AKA as my hubby) that after 3 days of trying to get this to work, I conceded and turned to for some help. So, this is a little program that lets you make animated presentations. Here's a quick one I put together to announce Open House for my 5th-graders.

www.animoto.com

Just made a little 30 second video as part of my class this week.  I used the website animoto.com and used pictures I had of Bekah when we brought her home (and the first year we had her with us).  It was pretty easy to use this website and I could see my students using it to make presentations in class, or to share photos/information they find about different topics.  You can even choose music to go with it or upload your own music!

Bekah Through The Years

Library Websites

This week, one of our assignments is to take a look at websites created by other school librarians and to start planning what we want to include on our own website that we will create.  I have decided to use weebly.com to make my website, but I found it VERY interesting to see what others have created.  One of the websites I looked at was for an elementary school in Hawaii.  It was http://halekulalibrary.weebly.com/ and I loved looking at it because it was simple to use and the librarian had posted a lot of things that the students were doing in the library.  She also had things they could do and I particularly liked one activity where they could go to a blog and write suggestions for a new library that is going to be constructed at their school.  I thought it was very neat how she wanted student input!  The website design was very easy to use, not too cluttered, and really reflected what the students in the library are doing.
Another website I found was http://lowelibrary.weebly.com/ and I liked this one because it was also very organized, easy to maneuver around in, and had enough on it to make it appealing to the eye without being cluttered and confusing.  These are some of things I need to keep in mind when I create my website.  Some of the other websites I checked out were just too colorful and had too much on the page which made me feel a bit overwhelmed trying to get around on the website. 

Altering photos

I used www.tuxpi.com to take a picture I had of Bekah and add a mosaic frame around it and text.  I could see students doing this with photos they take or pictures they find of various topics they are studying.  You can also do other effects with photos like making them look old or hand-drawn.  Fun applications to use!

Trading Card

This is a trading card I created telling about our dog, Piper.  This was also created on www.bighugelabs.com which is a website I never knew about until now.  I could see using this type of application with students who could make cards about people they were studying in history or science classes.  They could also make cards about vocabulary words across the subject areas or even cards about different books they have read! The possibilities are endless!  And it's FUN and EASY to do!

www.bighugelabs.com

Here's a picture I took of Bekah and then used it to make a magazine cover by using www.bighugelabs.com It was really easy and fun.  I could see using this tool with my students and having them report on different Science or Math topics.  What a fun way for them to show what they know about a topic!

Infographic I Created About Author: Kate Dicamillo

A Podcast On Math Stretches By Laney Sammons

As a 5th-Grade Math teacher, I enjoyed listening to this podcast of Laney Sammons (author of Guided Math).  She described Math Stretches as being another version of a math warmup where you have all students beginning math class by completing an activity where each student will have input and then you discuss their input in "math huddle."  For example, you could have a question on the board that says, "draw a polygon" and then you could give each child a post-it note.  They each write their own response and add it to the board and then at the end you go through and talk about the responses and what makes a shape a polygon.  This was a great podcast for me to have found!

http://www.shelleducation.com/podcasts/Math_Stretches_Podcast_Final.mp3

Using Audio on Blogs

As you can see on the right-hand side of my blog posting, I have an audio recorded message.  I made this by using www.vocaroo.com and it was really really easy.  And for me.......that is the key.  If it easy to use, then I am all for it!  I love learning new little technology tricks but if things get to complicated, then I get easily frustrated and lose interest!  LOL
I can see how this feature would really stimulate interest in a classroom blog.  Students could go to the classroom blog to hear homework assignments or directions for upcoming projects.  The teacher could even record some quick review questions that students could go to, click on, and feel connected to their teacher outside of the classroom!  If you are using a blog that students can post to, then they could recite poetry or share book recommendations with the audio recordings.  The possibilities are unlimited because it is easy, fun, and really makes the blog come to life!

Everyone Enjoys A Good Book!

Photo credit: <a href="https://www.flickr.com/photos/aye_shamus/2929888687/">aye_shamus</a> / <a href="http://www.foter.com/">Foter</a> / <a href="http://creativecommons.org/licenses/by-nc-nd/2.0/">Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 2.0 Generic (CC BY-NC-ND 2.0)</a>

I loved this picture!  I know that sometimes when I am reading to Bekah, I'll look up and see our dog, Piper, or our cat Tabby, laying there listening to us read.  LOL!