Today, this set of “techy” ice breakers was shared on Twitter by my PLN member, Phillip Cummings. Ice Breakers are a great way to start a professional learning session or a class, and they shouldn’t just be reserved for the first hour of anything! I loved this selection of ideas and definitely plan to use some of them in the near future. Check them out at Educators Technology! Click on the image for the full article.
Check out See Me Talk, an awesome assistive app for students with communication issues. It’s normally $59.99, but it’s FREE for World Autism Day, April 7.
It’s an iPad only app, and if you have one, please take advantage of this great offer. You may not have a student or child right now who needs this, but who knows what the future holds? Please share with your SPED and Ed friends who have iPads! Remember, it’s a “today only” offer!
Here is the description from the developer:
See Me Talk is a beautiful easy to use augmentative and alternative communication (ACC) app for those who have difficulty communicating effectively. It is based on a picture exchange system developed for people with speech delays to communicate their needs independently and effectively.
See Me Talk was developed by a Special Education Teacher with over 12 years experience, in consultation with Speech Pathologists and parents of children with speech delays, who saw a need for an app that was visually pleasing and easy to navigate. Additionally, the app was professionally designed by Robots & Pencils, an award winning company specializing in creating iOS apps and who’s owner has a child with a speech delay. Through this collaborative team we have come up with a gorgeous app that is easy to use!
Making See Me Talk gorgeous was one goal, but more importantly See Me Talk had to be easy to use. I think we succeeded! No more searching folders within folders to find that one infrequently used symbol. Now, all the categories conveniently scroll across the top of the screen and the user can see 9 categories at once! No longer will the user have to back up to the previous category to add another symbol to their sentence strip.
Also, to make it even easier, we added a Favourites category. This keeps track of the most regularly used symbols and automatically adds them to the Favourites category. Each time See Me Talk is launched it automatically displays the contents of the Favourites category.
Then, we even added a search function to find symbols fast! Our search ability will allow you to quickly type and find any symbol. No more swiping and tapping different categories to find those infrequently used symbols. It’s all there when you need it!
See Me Talk comes with a basic vocabulary of symbols but can be easily customized by importing pictures taken with the iPad camera, photos from your iPad photo library, or images downloaded from the internet.
See Me Talk uses leading edge voice technology that provides human like sounding voices that make for a more natural communicative experience. The user can choose a male or female voice or no voice at all if you want the user to practice developing their own speech.
Other key features of See Me Talk include:
- No distractions! The settings menu is hidden under the main screen to keep the user focused on communicating rather than playing;
- Easily to customize! Simple to add, delete or edit cards. You can even pinch to adjust the size or adjust the composition of a picture;
- Convenient! Print the sentence strip for schedual strips or social scripts used on the fridge, bathroom mirror at home or the locker or note book at school;
- Easy support! Contact us for support or when you have feedback for us;
- Easy to use! Drag and drop or tap to add a symbol to the sentence strip;
- Easy to delete! Swipe up to remove an individual symbol or tap the trash can to remove all the cards from the sentence strip;
- Easy to read! The main screen fades to gray after the Talk button is touched, to prominately display the sentence strip;
- Frustration NOT INCLUDED!
With all of the time and budget constraints facing schools today, virtual field trips are a great way to go! Check out these awesome options for high quality virtual trips. They are some of my favorites!
Discovery Education’s Virtual Field Trips – all in one place!
Virtual Field Trip to Ellis Island by Scholastic
Plimoth Plantation by Scholastic
Decoding History tour of Smithsonian with David Baldacci
Museum of Natural History in New York City
Comprehensive list from Internet4Classrooms
Using QR codes in the classroom is a great way to start bringing in technology in a fun and engaging way. It can be a first project to tackle that doesn’t require much equipment and has a lasting outcome. This video, “Black and White and Scanned All Over,” shows an array of ways to use QR codes across the curriculum. Let’s look at a few of the questions you might have…
What do I need?
There are tons of free apps out there for any operating system. You’ll need some kind of code reader. I use two old smartphones that have wifi and can still use the non-phone related functions. If you don’t have a smartphone, there are even a few options for you! Other than that, you’ll just need a printer and some creativity!
How do I create my own codes?
The easiest generator to use, in my opinion, is probably http://qrcode.kaywa.com/, but it does limit character input to 160. If you are looking for more room to write, try http://www.the-qrcode-generator.com/.
What can I try?
The video is obviously full of awesome ideas, so steal, steal, steal!
Provide read-aloud accommodations by using http://vocaroo.com/. Grab your worksheet, test, or other assignment, and record yourself reading each question from your computer. Vocaroo will generate an online link for your recording, and you can paste that link into the QR Code generator. Print out the QR code and tape it onto the corner of your worksheet before you photocopy it. Students can scan, plug in their headphones, and they are ready to go! This also works great for world language and speech therapy teachers.
Check out Classtools for a QR Code Treasure Hunt generator. Here’s one they made for St. Patrick’s Day!
Have students write short book reviews and create codes for them. They can print the codes and paste them into the back of the book for other students to reference and decide if they want to read the book, based on the recommendations of their peers.
Keep all of your contact information in one place!
Have fun! And share what you do!
Thanks to Sra. Selena Jiminez for sharing some of these ideas and resources at yesterday’s DISCOVER-y THIS! event!
Are you playing 4 Pics, 1 Word yet? It’s a free app available for iOS and Android, and the whole idea is to generate one word that would apply to all four of the pictures. I will admit it. I’m obsessed. As I was up playing last night, way past my bedtime, I kept thinking about ways that I could use this with my students. The game asks you to make connections, interpret pictures, find nuances, and have a grand command of vocabulary. How is this not awesome for kids?
So, how could I use this with kids?
I will make the quick disclaimer that I haven’t seen any inappropriate pictures, but I will not say that there aren’t any at all!
I’ve done posts before about using Facebook templates for your students to create engaging and thought-provoking projects. Considering the focus in the Common Core State Standards on characterization, understanding point of view, and writing across genres, this really lends itself well to addressing these concepts. I just wanted to share this NEW Wonderful Free Facebook Template that I discovered this week!
Here are just a few ways that you could use Facebook templates in your teaching and learning…
- historical figures
- scientists
- biographies
- elements of the periodic table
- fictional characters
- states
- countries
- monuments
- national parks
- geometric figures
Last night, we held student led conferences at our school. It was a huge success, and my students had a great time preparing and organizing their work to share with their guests. One of the things that my students shared with their families was our class blog. They also had to talk with their parents about what they had learned about online safety. My students have used many of the resources that I shared in an earlier post, but I also wanted to share this video. It’s one of my favorites, as I think it really locks into a point in a meaningful way!
Last night I posted a video of My Rotten Redheaded Older Brother, as read on StoryOnline by Melissa Gilbert. A friend had shared the particular story with me, but I was excited to find all of the other offerings shared by StoryOnline on YouTube. I love a read aloud. I don’t care how old you are or how old your students are, they will love being read to. The only thing that changes from that story time moment as a young child is that they aren’t so ready to admit that they like it! Students can learn about reading, writing, listening and speaking with a well delivered read-aloud, and who better than professionals to share these?!
So, why a video read aloud? What does this offer? Here are a few reasons that I love this as an option…
1. If a student is absent, it’s a built in make up lesson that they can do on their own time (at home or at school).
2. I am freed up to walk around the room with my students, or I can just sit and model good listening skills. I can also pause the video and model meta-cognitive skills that good readers do.
3. It shows people they respect and admire as role models of being good readers. It proves that reading is important and that you can love reading, even if you are not a kid.
4. There are lots of men reading these books. In a situation where the elementary teaching profession is primarily women, I love that my students can hear a strong, passionate man share a great book and talk about how he, too, loves to read!
5. For reluctant readers, using videos of books is a great way to teach reading skills, like story elements and mood, without the student having to struggle through words. They can master a concept and not have to be struggling with that and the reading, itself.
Here is another favorite. Check out Bad Case of Stripes!
But wait…
I know I’ve talked about it before, but if you are a subscriber to Discovery Education services, don’t miss out on the offerings by Weston Woods. The folks at Weston Woods Publishing have put together videos of some of their most beloved children’s books that are true to the integrity of the books. The best way to find these books is to just type “Weston Woods” in the search bar after you log in to your Discovery Education account. Good luck! And happy reading!
I love Patricia Polacco and I love this book! I was thrilled to find it tonight on YouTube as a read-aloud by Melissa Gilbert. She does an amazing job, and I love that this is just one in a collection of stories shared by Story Online. I can’t wait to dive in here further!
There are lots of great “Guess the Wordle” projects out there, and it is definitely one of my go-to activities. Jen Wagner is definitely an expert on GTW projects, and if you haven’t checked out her site, stop reading now and go there (just please come back).
Wordle, and other similar word cloud generators, are an awesome way to reinforce inferencing skills with your students of all ages. This set of activities was designed for a presentation I did for a science workshop, so these are “Guess the Scientist” Wordle’s. I’ll start with some examples…
Can you guess the scientist from the clues given in the word cloud? What are some of the key points that might give it away? GTW’s are something pretty quick and easy to do in a series and you can do them at home. I keep a file of them that I can pull out at any time with themes like Classic Fairy Tales, Guess the Day in History, Famous Inventors, etc. On a rainy day, or when I have just a few minutes, I can post one and students can try to guess. They also make excellent interactive bulletin boards.
So, how do you get started? Go to http://www.wordle.net and click CREATE. Use the URL of a site you like or copy/paste text. That’s it! I do recommend that you go through your copy/paste and delete any key words that might give your Wordle away a little too easily. I found this site for short biographies of scientists that worked perfectly!
