#6 Study tools

The first one that I chose to do was Tagxedo.  I used it to put in words of things that I did this summer.  I was thinking this is something that could be used early in the school year with my students.  Either to just share about my summer or have them make one as well with their summer.  It would be a good way to just get ideas down on paper or to do a quick analyses of what they know.  This was my first time making one of these and I have to say there are so many options for color, font and such that I got quite distracted making it look just so.  Also, I put my name in there many more times and the others in once and it is not bigger than some of the other words.  Not sure if I'm missing something. 

Second, I chose to use Quizlet.  I think this could be a great tool to use in the classroom.  Especially since you can email the cards out to students, they can practice multiple times and even do a self-check quiz.  I am impressed with all of the different ways that you can choose to study the cards.  I chose to try to use geometric shapes.  Unfortunately you need to upgrade if you want to upload your own photos and the ones that they have to choose from aren't that great.  I probably wouldn't use this set with my students but kept going with it to get a feel for making a set of flashcards.  The video also said that kids could access it on their computers, does anyone know if they could use it on an ipad?  Would be interested to find out. 

Here is the link:
http://quizlet.com/_ertrb

Activity #5

Here is my youtube channel!


If it looks familiar, it is.  I just uploaded my screencastomatic video to it.  I had to go back and down load my video to my computer and then upload it to youtube but I do remember that there was a place to upload it directly to youtube when creating the screen cast.  The directions to create a channel were very easy to follow.  I know this would be very helpful in running a flipped classroom but also another place for put videos for extra help for students.  I've read some other ideas about having a video ready for the school year to introduce yourselves to your class and parents.  That sounds like a great idea and one that I will try to work on for the fall. 

Activity #4 Screencastomatic!!

I chose to try screencastomatic.  It was easy to use, just click and record.  It took a few tries to upload it though, not sure what the problem was but it finally went through.  I chose to show a few different sites for keyboarding.  Parents quite often ask for them in fourth or fifth grade when students need to type things out and parents realize how long it takes.  Instead of just typing up a list, this could be another way to show different sites available.  My video got a little long because I was showing how a few different games work.  Students could go in here as well from home as an easy way to access some sites.  This would be a very easy way to put tutorials on a blog or web page. 

As a side note:  I really notice how much I use "um"  when I was recording.  Shomion would not be pleased :)

# 3 Storybird

Storybird was really easy to use.  As others have commented, it was sometimes hard to find art that went with the story I was trying to write but I made it work.  I chose to write a social story on dealing with disappointment.  It is pretty general but I got an idea of how easy this would be to use for this and I could easily see including the student in writing one specific to their situation.  If I was doing that, I would really like to be able to include my own photos for that student.  The other thing that I missed, and maybe I just didn't find it, was spellcheck.  I am a terrible speller and would really like to be able to check something before I publish it for public viewing.  Overall, this was a good experience and one I could see myself using. 

Activity 2

Prezi was easy to use.  I could see using this with students creating their own or with a whole class to create a project as well as using it for presentations.  I liked the templates that they had to use.  I didn't try to add another bubble to my presentation but I would think it would be easy to do.  I was impressed with the number of pictures that were available.