StoryJumper--Digital Story Telling

One of my favorite tools for digital story telling is a site called StoryJumper. One of the challenges with my first graders is being able to put words onto paper. An easy way for them to start creating their own stories is by using StoryJumper to create stories with pictures.

As a teacher, I create a class and then add my students to my class roster. After I have created my class, I am given a unique log in page that shows all my students' usernames on one page. All the kids have to do is find their username and click it, enter their password and they are ready to begin creating their very own stories. When kids get completely done with their stories their parents have the option to purchase their book. We print them out and make them into our own books at school.

When creating their digital stories, they may choose from StoryJumper's library of props and scenes. Students can click on more props or scenes and access categorized props/scenes. If you would rather upload your own picture, StoryJumper provides that option as well.

At first it may be easiest to have kids make their stories with only pictures and no words. When they are ready to begin adding text to their stories, you simply click the text tab and choose the style of text box that you want.

The work area is very user friendly for primary age kids. It has a dual page display and a ribbon at the top with the pages available in the book. You can customize the book cover as well duplicate pages.

One of the nice features for primary kids is the undo option at the bottom of the work area. It never fails that their click happy fingers accidentally delete something. The undo button can be a tear saver.



Like I mentioned, StoryJumper is by far my favorite tool for creating digital stories. I know their are many other options out there, but I have found StoryJumper to be the best.


Tips
*The first time you introduce this to kids, don't expect to accomplish a lot. Let them play with the props. Then model how to add more props to their tool bar. Let them play with scenes. Model how to add more scenes to their tool bar. Let them play with the text box options.
*When you are ready for more structure, have them repeat after each step that you do. Add a prop, add a scene, resize a prop, move a prop, rotate a prop, remove a scene, add text, delete text.
*There are lots of other fancy options when making their books but don't try to put it all in at one time. KISS--keep it simple stupid. I have saved myself lots of headaches by focusing on simple tasks and expectations instead of reaching for the stars on day 1.

Creative Uses for the iPad

Looking around Free Technology for Teachers, I came across Richard's post by Mike Amante. The Slide Share is embedded below. With my school recently obtaining a class set of iPads, Mike's resources will be a good starting point for determining what apps might be essential across K-6.

Creative Uses for iPad in the Classroom from Mike Amante

Skitch with Evernote as an ePortfolio tool

I previously posted how I have been trying to integrate Evernote as a tool for cataloging student artifacts of their learning. To compliment Evernote, I have also been using Skitch. This tool allows me to annotate over my pictures that I take of the artifacts. Skitch is also available on the app store. I have it installed on my iPad and iPhone to make recording artifacts in my classroom a point and shoot task.



Below is an example of how I used Skitch to capture an image of a student's spelling test. Using Skitch, I made a note that the student knew it was a "D" but wrote the letter "B" in place. This is a very low student. This is great progress for this student to know the two sounds. By taking this picture and annotating, I will have a quick, easy reminder during conference as to why I wanted to share this artifact.

Evernote as a Portfolio

After recently attending the ITEC conference in Des Moines, Iowa, I revisited my Evernote account. With parent teacher conferences quickly approaching, I find myself wondering what I can do differently to provide a valuable experience for parents at conferences. Many times they are confused by the "teacher talk" during these short meetings. I wanted a tool to visually show parents their child's strengths and areas for improvement.

Evernote provides a free tool (limited monthly uploads) to categorize and catalog each student's work. In addition, apps are available for the iPhone/iPad in the app store. I have since created a premium membership and created a folder in Evernote for each of my students. My goal in the future is to allow students the opportunity to catalog their learning experience with Evernote but for the time being I will be using my iPad and iPhone to collect artifacts for the upcoming conferences.

To find out much more on how to use Evernote as an ePortfolio tool check out Rob Van Nood's blog about how he has used it in his classroom for multiple years.

ITEC 2012

I got the privilege of presenting at the ITEC conference in Des Moines, IA. I shared on Tech Tools for the K-2 classroom. When deciding on the tools to share at this conference, I wanted to ensure that I had examples that provided the opportunity to enrich the curriculum. I created a Pearltree to create a visual of all the tech tools for K-2. In addition, I created a Google Spreadsheet to list the items for those of you that may prefer lists versus visual graphic organizers. I had a great audience and I hope they were able to pick up a couple new ideas. Feel free to check out my Pearltree or my Google Spreadsheet.