Wakelet for Education

Wakelet is an awesome organizational tool for educators, but it also can be used with students. It is kind of a mix of Pinterest and Padlet. I have become obsessed with organizing my resources, links, and videos into collections. I can now find everything I need quickly. Do you find yourself having a million tabs open on your laptop? Well Wakelet is the solution. Have you ever felt that you just can't find a useful site that you were using recently,? Wakelet is the answer. Visit my Wakelet Page HERE.

Check out this quick overview of Wakelet.

Check out the resources below on how you can use Wakelet with your students.

Valentine's Day STEAM Activities

Here are some ideas for integrating STEAM with Valentine's Day!

1. Valentine's Day Scrabble Activity - Check out this printable from AndNextComesL. This activity works best with Scrabble Tiles, but as an alternative you could project the tiles for students so that they know how much each letter is worth.

2. Build the Tallest Tower - This can be done with conversation hearts, toothpicks and heart marshmallows, or red blocks. Get creative, have students measure their tower, record their result on their iPads. (Take pictures!)

3. Create Valentine's Day Boxes - Students can get creative with storage for their cards that they will receive on Valentine's Day. Give the structure parameters or certain lengths for their materials to mix in some math. Maybe add some engineering too by stating that there has to be a door on their box/envelope.

4. Create a Green Screen Message for Parents - See video below.

5. Valentine's Day Cupcake Graphing - This is a cute idea created by Life over C's. It includes a printable dice and graphing sheet. You have to put in your email address to get the materials for free or you can easily adjust this activity for graphing something else that is Valentine's Day related.

6. Code Your Name - Use binary code to either code your name as a heart or a bracelet. Idea by Little Bins for Little Hands.

Guided Reading iPad Choice Menu

I have been planning on creating a literacy iPad choice menu for teachers to use with their students during guided reading literacy flex for some time now. We all know how that goes... items get moved down the to do list just like this one did. Thank you Mrs. Richardson for reminding me of the need. I found a menu on-line that had a good base and then I adjusted it for the needs of our students and what we have as choices in Self Service for our school district. When you go to the doc, feel free to adjust it to your classroom needs by making a copy of the document to your Drive. My copy is not editable. You will notice that there are a few apps that are on the menu more than once. That is because those apps are apps that can serve many purposes. For example, Book Creator can be used by students to create, but there are also a variety of already created interactive digital workbooks for the students to download and use on their iPads like Sight Words, Vocabulary Journals, Hunks and Chunks, plus many more. To access these books, click here. Another versatile app is Seesaw. There are activities already created for students to practice word work or other skills along with recording students reading.

When you visit the iPad choice menu, scroll down to the second page for a Key to help you identify the apps from the first page of the menu. Also use this menu as a source of ideas of what I can model for you and your students or what can be a point of discussion when we meet during a PLC or another time throughout the school day.

I also created a log in flyer for Lalilo. Thank you Mrs. Harnik for the idea. I marked over the actual school codes in the screen shot with red so that if you are reading this and not from MSAD6 you can get an idea of what the log-in flyer looks like. If you are an MSAD6 employee you can click this link to access the flyer and print some for your class.

I suggest that after students scan the QR code they should click the share button, up arrow inside a square, to create a fast link to the Lalio site. It will look just like an app on the iPad once added.

Tips to Make Your Life Easier on a Mac and an iPad

Below you will find a bunch of tips and tutorials that will make teaching and LIFE with technology so much easier. Please let me know if you want to set up a time for me to help you get organized.


1. How to find your saved passwords in Chrome...

2. Take a screenshot or a screen recording on your laptop with... command + shift + 5

3. How to Airplay from a Mac or an iPad...

Mac

 iPad

4. Taking Advantage of Shared Photo Albums on your iPad (to make room for updates and new pics)... 

5. Finding Google Drive docs, sheets, etc...

Create folders and add docs to them. Put the docs that you will need to find most often in the starred folder.

6. Have a pointer on your iPad to show what you are talking about when you are projecting your iPad during instruction...

iMovie as a Green Screen Creation Tool

Tony Vincent created this awesome graphic covering how to use green screen in iMovie on an iPad. I was tickled pink when I saw that the option is there and then kicking myself for never discovering it. Even though we have access to the Green Screen app by Doink, iMovie is another fabulous option. iMovie is especially awesome if you want students to add other things to jazz their video up with things like a title, credits, voice recordings, and music. Below you will find a video tutorial on how to use the green screen effect on an iPad.

Overwhelmed by iPad App Choices?

I recently had one of my teachers mention that it is sometimes overwhelming to see all of the Apps available to teachers and to know which ones to use. My response is to pick two Apps and get really good at using them and have students master them. It will make teaching easier to know that you have a tool available to students that is independent for them. If you are going to pick two Apps you will want ones that can be used with all subjects, engage students, and allow students to create and use their imagination to go beyond regurgitation. With that being said, I would recommend Seesaw and Book Creator. You can use these Apps whole group for teaching moments along with having them available for independent student work. Educators can create activities, in Seesaw and digital workbooks, in Book Creator that are based on the specifics that you need students to engage in. Even better, Seesaw has tons and tons of activities already created for you to assign students plus Coaches at MSAD6 have created several Book Creator digital workbooks customized to standards that we teach. I am always happy to make a Seesaw activity or a Book Creator digital workbook if you let me know what you need.

Here is a Quick Video to get you Started with Seesaw Activities

Holiday Games for PreK-5: Plugged and Unplugged

I created a poster for teachers to print and share with students. It includes QR Codes for students to scan with their iPads. The games are pulled from the Santa Tracker website hosted by Google and are great activities for when you want to let students have a little fun while building on STEAM skills. Some of the games involve design thinking and coding as an added bonus. Click Here for the  printable poster.






Looking for some UNPLUGGED fun? Click Here to find a printable decorating a Christmas Tree coding activities, an unplugged stacking cups project Click Here, or a drawing a Nutcracker unplugged coding project. Click Here

You can find more of these wonderful activities at https://jdaniel4smom.com/ She has a great coloring page for The Polar Express.

 





Visit my website for some more great online Holiday activities and games that includes Hanukah and Kwanza. Click Here Students can also Google Search Mrs Gleason and the link to my website is usually the top link suggested. Find the Holiday Fun page under the student tab.


 

Fun Digital Holiday Projects

***Scroll down for a variety of projects students can do to create digital Holiday Greetings for their parents. Have students use Seesaw or Class Dojo to easily share their project with their parents. As an alternative you can have students airdrop their project to you and then email the projects to the parents. All video Tutorials below are student friendly. Merry Creating!!!    

 

Create an Ugly Sweater, Decorate a Christmas Tree, 

and Reindeer Yourself Using PicEDU

Student Examples:

Tutorial Video: (Use the same process for the other two projects.)

Make a Greeting Card with Green Screen

Student Examples:

Tutorial Video: (Take a green screen photo with the iPad camera and save images from safari before using the green screen app.)

Or Make a Green Screen Video: (This example is for Valentine's Day. Just switch it up for Christmas.)

 

Create and Print 3D Ornaments

Student Examples:

Teacher Example:

Tutorial Video: (This project is one that you will probably want to have me help you with, but if you want to do part of it on your own... have students create their ornaments in Google Slides using shapes or in Book Creator using the Magic Pen, I can help with the rest. Of course I'm willing to help with the whole process as well.)

Tell a Story Using ChatterPix and Student Art

Student Example:

Tutorial Video:

 

Decorate a Snowman in Google Slides and Make it Talk Using ChatterPix Kids

Student Examples:

Link to the Project: Click Here (Have students make a copy in Google Drive and then they can decorate their own snowman.)


Tutorial Video: (On an iPad students will hold down on an image with a finger, click copy, and then go to the snowman slide and hold down their finger. Click paste.)

Create a Holiday Poem with Adobe Spark Video

Student Examples:

Tutorial Video:

Hour of Code Resources 2019

The Hour of Code event that takes place during Computer Science Education Week (December 9-15 this year) is worth setting aside some classroom time for students to explore coding via apps or websites. Learning to code will help students in a variety of skills including, reading, writing, math, and design thinking. This article will host a variety of resources for you to enjoy a successful Hour of Code in your classroom. For a printable flyer for your classroom click the pic below. The QR Code will direct students to my Hour of Code page on my website that hosts a variety of Hour of Code activities. You can have students download any of the suggested apps from the flyer or use any of the code.org coding games linked on my website.

 

It is not necessary to participate in the Hour of Code all in one day. Feel free to break the hour up throughout the week. Also, because students love learning to code you can use the apps and website coding games as incentives throughout the rest of the school year. I have yet to walk into a classroom of students learning to code who are not completely engaged. My schools have participated in this event since the very first year of Hour of Code. 

Debugging is one of the most important lessons of coding and students who can debug can solve a variety of problems they come across in any subject. Below are some resources for teaching debugging.