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Changing Platforms

I will no longer be posting to Techtastic Teaching. Instead, I will focus my posts onto my blog at my website First and Furious. 

I am trying to get all my resources and blogs into once location rather than trying to keep up with multiple platforms. This is a work in progress so please subscribe to stay in the loop as items change. 

Jumbled Sentences--FREE Reading Apps

Jumbled sentences is a total of six free apps that allow students to practice their word recognition, reading and comprehension skills. Each of the six apps has three levels. In each level, words are displayed all jumbled. The objective is to unscramble the words to make a meaningful sentence. If a student does not know the word, he/she can click on the word to receive an audio cue. After all the words have been unjumbled and placed into a sentence, the student can check the sentence. The sentence will be read aloud if correct or the incorrectly placed words will be returned to their jumbled location. 

Jumbled Sentences 1

Jumbled Sentences 2

Jumbled Sentences 3

Jumbled Sentences 4

Jumbled Sentences 5

Jumbled Sentences 6

Techtastic Teaching

While I am not always a huge fan of utilizing an iPad as a gaming device, this series of apps does a good job of helping to reinforce word recognition, reading and comprehension. Students must use their comprehension strategies to determine the correct order of words. 

Word Cloud Mania

Words clouds are a simple tool to use across all grade levels. There are many uses for word clouds in your classroom. If you are looking for some tools to create word clouds than check out these. 

Techtastic Teaching

Word clouds may be easy to understand but thinking of ways to integrate them into the classroom may be a bit challenging. One example in my classroom is highlighting frequent words in our reading groups. Our curriculum has web based versions (PDF) of each guided reading book we use. I can copy the text from a guided reading book and use a word cloud tool to create a quick visual cloud of the words in the text. This will highlight the most common words that will appear during reading. 

You could have students take their blog posts and turn them into a word cloud to see the most frequent words. They could put those highlighted words in alphabetical order. 

Students could take a text, blog, our personal writing piece and make a quick word cloud. This word cloud could serve as as story starter for creative writing. 

Students could make word families to display with a word cloud. 

Parts of speech could be made into word clouds. 

Feel free to comment on ways that you have used word clouds in your classroom. 

Merge PDF files for free!!!

What: I don't know about you but I get annoyed with file clutter on my computer, in the cloud and any other place that I keep files. Sometimes this is due to having multiple PDF files that all pertain to the same topic. Have you ever dreamed of magically making all those individual PDF files into one file? What about doing it for free? PDF Merge provides a web tool that can complete this process for you in a snap.


1) Select the files that you want to merge into one single file. If you do not have enough blanks click the red plus sign to add more files.

2) Once you have all the files you want to merge into one file, click the Merge! button and let PDF Merge do the rest. 

Techtastic Integration

As I had previously mentioned, file clutter can be obnoxious. If you are looking for a way to organize your PDF files, PDF Merge can help. What about students? If students are doing a collaborative project and need to combine their PDF resources, PDF Merge can serve as a tool to combine all their files. 

Lucas Oil Stadium via Google Maps

What: Google Maps has done it again!!! Whether you are a football fan or not, this is a truly amazing showcase of Google's persistent drive to make the most elaborate collection of maps. You can see what it is like to make your way down the tunnel. Maybe you would rather check out the locker room or even see the quarterback suite. Make sure to check out the whole collection of the Lucas Oil Stadium.

Techtastic Integration
So you may be asking how is this something that I can integrate into my classroom. Want to give students an inside perspective on a story or research paper? Most students won't have a chance to experience a professional football game. They can watch the games on T.V. or even see pictures in magazines but being able to manipulate their virtual experience in real time is priceless. If you are looking for a way to integrate this into math, you can take a screen shot of the stadium and use Skitch to point out geometrical shapes or even patterns. If you have a SMART Board, you can use the screen capture tool instead and use your markers to do the same as Skitch.

PDF Split

What: Ever get a giant PDF packet only to find out you just want to keep one page out of the packet? PDF Split is a free web tool that will solve this problem for you. It is super simple. Select the file you want to split, choose the pages you want to split out and choose split. 

Step 1---Choose your file

Step 2--Specify your pages

Step 3---Split your page or pages out into a new file

Techtastic integration

If students find a resource for a project and need to extract a single page, they can use PDF Split to obtain the resource that they need. In addition, if the student needs to print out information from a PDF and only need one page, he/she can use PDF Split to save on printing out numerous unwanted pages. Teachers can use this resource to help separate files out of PDF files received from meetings. 

I have been using PDF Split to get pages out for my reading curriculum. I can download an entire unit's practice book pages into a single PDF file. However, there are times that I only want a couple pages to put into the SMART Notebook software. PDF Splits lets me extract only the pages I want. 

Pictures to PDF? Bindle it!!

What: Bindle is a simple app ($1.99) that allows you to quickly create PDFs of your pictures.

1) From the main screen choose to make a book or an album.

2) Click the plus sign to add pictures. 

3) You can import images from your camera roll, take a photo as well as import from a few other sites like Facebook, Instagram, Flickr and Picasa.

4) Once you have your selected images read to import, click done and let Bindle ad them to your grid. 

5) Once Bindle is done working its magic, you have the option to share it. 

How to use.....

We have been using this app as a simple tool for create digital e-books coupled with FlipSnack. FlipSnack turns your PDFs into flippable, digital books. Simply upload your PDF and let Flipsnack do the rest. Students could use this app to curate their learning. Send students on a scavenger hunt and use Bindle to catalog their learning. Use the app to snap some photos during PD sessions and turn into PDFs for later reference.  

Shred the Slopes in Google Maps

What: Google Maps continues to add to its comprehensive collection of resources for making it the go to resource when navigating. They recently added 38 new run and lift maps to their collection.

Techtastic Integration
You may be thinking how is this relevant into my own teaching? How can I implement run and lift maps into my daily practices. You can have students use the map scale to determine the longest ski run, shortest ski run, and the median of the ski runs. Students could figure out the ratio of beginner runs to expert runs.

What are your ideas for using these new  run and lift maps in your classroom?

Visual Link Tools

What: Working with younger students, I am always drawn to visual tools that can be integrated into my daily, weekly and/or yearly routines. When sharing resources with my students, I try to present it in a visual manner for those students that can not read the text being displayed. Below are some of the tools that are available to create visual links for your students. 

Symbaloo provides options for teachers as well as districts. While these options have a cost associated with them, Symbaloo does offer a free version that allows you to share visual links with your students. You create a "webmix" which is a grid with open spots for tiles. See more in the video below. 

I have created a webmix for my 1st graders to easily access our most commonly used web tools. From our Kidblog site to drawing and clipart resources, Symbaloo has made it easy for my students to navigate the plethora of online resources in a visually user friendly format. For 

MyLinkCloud is very similar to Symbaloo but users are not tied to grid style tile layouts. My Link Cloud allows you to drag and drop your links in a visually appealing "cloud" format. You can move and resize your links across the page to make your "cloud" appear as you want. Check out the video below for more ideas for how to use it in your classroom 

Thinglink is a tool that allows you to make your images interactive. You create hotspots on your picture that allow users to click and learn more about the image. Find out more by watching the video below. 

Techtastic Integration

The possibilities seem endless for these resources. I have always been a visual learner and these visual linking tools serve as a vehicle for providing multitudes of information in a single location. Use them to create subject specific resource, lesson plan resources, research topics and much more. 

StoryBots

What: Storybots is a great interactive website that is really geared toward youngsters. I came across this site when I was looking for some fun videos that talked about the alphabet and the sounds represented by the letters. 

ABC Fun provides fun and engaging videos that explain each letter in the alphabet. They are short and to the point but presented with fun, energetic robots. 

Starring You!  Make your students movie stars. You can put yourself into a video with the Storybots. Upload an image from your webcam, computer or Facebook and let the Storybots do the rest. Kids will love it!

Activity Sheets provide fun practice that are Storybot themed. Connect the dots, color and word searches are just a few samples of what Storybots provides with their activity sheets. 

Create Books is a free iPad app that will let your students create their own Storybot books. There is a fee to create a book once the app is downloaded. However, what a fun way for students to put themselves into books. 

Beep & Boop! is a behavior game for your IOS device. Set goals for your kids as well as prizes for when those goals are reached. Good behavior/choices are rewarded with a beep while poor choices receive a boop which in turn takes away a beep point.

Techtastic Integration

While the Storybot family of resources are really geared towards primary aged kids, they really do an effective job at engaging kids in learning with the fun, energetic Storybot robots. Use the videos as attention getters for introducing letters in the alphabet. Activity sheets can reinforce newly learned letters. 

SNACK TIME

Snacktools.com is a website that provides some really innovative and useful web apps. I had a student teacher in the fall of 2012 that came across this site. He used Flipsnack to create a digital picture book of our 1st graders' work. To create this digital flip style book, you simply upload PDF documents and let Flipsnack to the rest. Flipsnack creates awesome, digital flipbooks. Click the picture below to see our example or here.

Another tool that we have utilized in our classroom is PhotoSnack. My kids have been using Skitch to type over pictures. We recently completed an activity for MLK Day. Working with our buddy class, we came up with a list of "big words." This was completed after watching a short film about Martin's Big Words. Each kid took their picture with the iPad and then typed their "big words" on their picture. In the end, we combined all of our "big word" pictures and used PhotoSnack to create a photo slideshow to post on our blog. Click on the picture below to see PhotoSnack in action or click here. 

Snacktools has been a simple tool to create some great digital artifacts to share with the world. 

Doodle for Google

"One talented student artist will see their artwork appear on the Google homepage, receive a $30,000 college scholarship, and a $50,000 technology grant for their school along with some other cool prizes!"

Now is the time to put those artistic skills to the test. Check out all the details here or check out the short video below. 

Lego Avatar Maker

What?
Working with the 21st Century Learner, we are responsible for creating responsible digital citizens. This is especially true for the under 13 crowd. One tool that we have used in my classroom is the Lego Avatar Creator. The website lets students create a Lego avatar of their liking. They may customize it to suite their needs.

Why?
When using Kidblog, Voicethread or one of the many other digital tools, my students utilize their initials. In another layer of security, we use their Lego avatars with each of their accounts. This has proven to not only be a safe method but a fun way for kids to create a unique profile picture.

How?

The first step in the process is to access the Lego Avatar website.

2) Once students are on the page, they can begin customizing all the features by using the body part icons in the lower left under the screen showing their current Lego person. 

3) Saving the image can be a bit tricky depending on your platform. Macs are much easier being able to take a screen shot of only the Lego person. PC is a little more in depth. 

PC

a) print screen

b) http://www.picresize.com

c) CTRL + V (this will paste your image to allow cropping)

d) Use your mouse to draw a box around the part of the image you want to crop then click on crop selection

e) In option 2--choose if you want to resize. In option 3, choose a special effect and in option 4, choose the file format to save your avatar. Click the yellow "I'm Done." button.

f) Your final step is to save to disk, a social site or you can continue editing. 

**There are other methods for cropping your Lego avatar. However, this website allows anyone with an internet connection to crop their image. Since we have PowerPoint on all our computers, students just paste their screen shot into PowerPoint, double click on the picture, crop, right click and save as a .jpg. 

More

Check out the wiki link below for a large list of tools for creating avatars. 

http://copyrightfriendly.wikispaces.com/Avatar+Makers

Meograph

Looking for a fun, new tool for creating digital stories? Meograph is one of the latest that I have been using with my first graders. We have been using Skype to connect with classes across the United States. You can see our progress at Skype R' US. One goal of this project is to create a digital portfolio of facts learned throughout the school year. This allows us to compare and contrast our school to others across the US.

To help explain Meograph, I have a short video embedded below.




Below is an example of a final product that we created.



For more information about tools for creating photo/digital stories check out Richard Byrne's post. Find out about another tool here.