Tuesday 1 December 2015

QR Code Quest

Grade 1 students have begun their unit on weather in Science.  What better way to generate interest in this topic than looking at extreme weather!?!  Tornadoes, hurricanes, tsunamis, blizzards, and thunder/lightning always intrigues students. 

Students in Miss Kumar's class chose an extreme weather from six different options and followed a QR Code Quest to learn more information about their extreme weather.  In order to complete their quest for information they had to:

  • scan a QR code with a video about their extreme weather
  • write down 1-2 observations from the video
  • scan a QR code to access PebbleGo and login to find the eBook about their extreme weather
  • write down 1-2 facts from the book
  • scan a QR code with directions on what to do with their researched information
  • create a product on their ipad (using Pic Kids, Book Creator, Yakit, or Doodlecast Pro) sharing what they learned

Students were engaged throughout the process and all students learned at least one new piece of information about their extreme weather from their QR Code Quest!



Resources Used:
  • YouTube videos of extreme weather
  • PebbleGo
  • BrainPop
  • Handout created by teacher 


Thursday 8 October 2015

K-2 WL Teachers Explore the Seesaw App

The Seesaw app was shared with K-2 WL teachers as an excellent option for students to be able to share their learning with teachers. The mandarin and spanish teachers loved how easy it was to setup a class and then share a QR code with your students so they could start creating straight away.
 

Monday 5 October 2015

Storehouse App

A colleague recommended a new app called Storehouse to make photo stories.  I tested it out this weekend and appreciated the simple user-friendly way users can create and share a photo story. Here is a link to my Creation Stations Story, but you can embed the photo story as well.

  

The Storehouse app is free in the US iTunes store.



Saturday 3 October 2015

Creation Stations @TheLOFT

On Friday, Ms. Analu's first grade class tested out a new idea, Creation Stations
@The LOFT. Students chose one station to explore from five different station options prior to the session: Bee-Bots, Stop Motion, Lego, Art, Green Screen.  They had to choose a topic that interested them as the entire 40-45 minutes at The Loft would be spent at that one station, no switching stations.  Students arrived eager to get started right away.  After brief instructions on what to do if they got stuck (ipads with iBooks ready to go with directions on how to explore, discover, and create with the materials), where to store their ipads if they didn't need them, and a reminder that we must tidy up at the end, Ms. Analu's first graders literally jumped to task.


The students were so engaged, excited, and enthralled with their explorations, discoveries, and creations that the time flew by for everyone!  Not only did students love this time because it was fun, valuable skills were practiced and learned:  communicating with each other to problem solve how the Bee-Bot works, collaborating with other students in order to build a Lego City together, critical thinking to figure out how to make a typewriter out of paper, to name just a few.  So it seems that the first trial run of Creation Stations @TheLOFT was a success.  Ms. Analu confirmed that she would definitely bring her students back for another session.

Friday 2 October 2015

Perspectives Blog

The K-1 librarian and I were highlighted in the SAS Perspectives Blog for the Going Online Safely Digital Citizenship lesson we co-taught two weeks ago.  Check it out as well as the myriad of other stories on the blog that have been shared from various SAS perspectives.  Our post can be found here.


Monday 28 September 2015

G1 IAs are Moving from Learning Apps to Using Apps for Learning

Grade 1 IAs are now on their third year of attending tech training sessions on Wednesday afternoons. In the beginning, there was a lot of time spent on classroom ipad maintenance and care as well as a some app explorations.  Training then moved more toward building confidence and competence with the core G1 apps.  At the end of last year, G1 IAs were regularly using apps to share learning and create independent projects.

This year, we are following a Discovery Time cycle, where individuals pursue personal interests, passions, and curiosities.  IAs began by brainstorming a variety of topics that interest them, topics that pique their curiosity, and even more topics that they hold dear to their heart as a passion. After brainstorming, IAs have decided on one topic and what kind of product they want to create in order to share their interest, wonder, or passion with a larger audience.


Sunday 13 September 2015

Going Places Safely Online

The G1 Librarian and I teamed up to teach students about how to start using the internet safely.  We begin by making comparisons with real world travel and online travel.  Just as children have rules when traveling in the real world, they should have rules for going places online as well.  After that, students go on a virtual field trip and explore the San Diego Zoo Kids' website.   They practice asking permission to go to Safari or Chrome and have an opportunity to apply rule #3, if they end up somewhere that is not a 'just right' place, students close out the tab.

Sunday 6 September 2015

G1 PLCs - Inquiry Time, Make Time, and Digital Portfolios

First Grade teachers are interested in trying out iTime, Maker Time, and Digital Portfolios this year. The goal is to spend 3 PLCs in S1 planning, developing, and deciding on some basic structures as a beginning framework.  Then, in S2 implement these ideas and during 3 more PLCs adapt the framework based on reflections.

Teachers originally answered four guiding questions to make sure group members shared a similar vision for these concepts.  Two of the questions were, "How much time will this take?" and "Where will the time come from?".  The main concern from teachers was that there simply isn't enough time to integrate all of these ideas independently.  So, we are working on an overall Discovery Time framework that would encompass each of these components in one cycle.





Wednesday 26 August 2015

A New Twist on an Old Idea

Mrs. Coole, a Grade 1 teacher, always launches her Reader's Workshop by asking students to bring their favorite book to school.  Students have the opportunity to identify if it is fiction or nonfiction, give a brief retell of the story, and explain why it is their favorite book.

This year, Mrs. Coole wanted their work to be presented in a more engaging way, have more longevity than a pencil and paper version, and to share them with a wider audience (i.e. Parents at Back to School Night).  So, Mrs. Coole used this as a perfect chance to seamlessly integrate technology with the lesson.

First, students planned out their retell and reasoning why the book is their favorite.



Next, the tech teacher, me, delivered a discovery lesson on how to take clear photos and edit photos so they are cropped and rotated.

  



Then, I worked with students on exploring the functionality of the Doodlecast Pro app.  After, the app was used to record their planned 'book talk' with the clear, cropped, and rotated photo they took in the previous lesson.



Finally, Mrs. Coole's IA worked with me to create the QR codes for each student's book talk.




Saturday 15 August 2015

Embedding Digital Citizenship Lessons into G1 Q1 SS Unit



Grade 1 Social Studies committee members have been working with their tech coach to develop an updated Our Community unit in order to embed digital citizenship lessons.  Our Community is a unit that focuses on:
  • both 'real-world' and 'online' communities
  • student roles and responsibilities within these various communities (classroom, school, neighborhood, online)
  • the variety of ways people within communities communicate with each other


Four digital citizenship lessons will be explicitly taught either by the classroom teacher, tech coach, and/or librarian.  Optional follow up lessons are also provided for teachers to reinforce these key concepts and skills.


    

Thursday 7 May 2015

Stop Motion with Building Shapes

Grade 1 students are learning about Geometry in their current math unit.  One of the lessons focuses on using pattern blocks to build shapes.  The students absolutely adored the app Stop Motion to record an animation of their shape building.


Wednesday 6 May 2015

Socrative in the Chinese Classroom



Some of the K-2 WL teachers have been using Socrative with great success.  Students listen to a story as a whole group and then answer comprehension questions using Socrative.  The teacher runs the 'quiz' at the teacher's pace allowing for the class to see the correct answer after each question and giving time for discussion on why that answer was correct and the others were not correct.


Sunday 26 April 2015

Planning an Independent Project

Grade 1 students are learning about an appropriate way to plan an independent project by asking themselves some guiding questions.


  1. What do you want to share?
  2. How do you want to share it?
  3. What tool would be the best to use?
  4. How will you break it down into manageable steps to complete it?



Here are some student samples. 


Sunday 5 April 2015

QR Code Work Choice

Students in Grade 1 are becoming extremely independent learners with their ipads in our 1:1 program.  For this lesson, students are exposed to three different stations and they can choose one to complete.  The goal is for them to scan the QR code at the station, watch the directions, and then follow the directions from the video to create their project.

Station 1
Students apply their knowledge of cloud types learned in science class to make a clouds iMovie.

Station 2
Students apply their mathematical thinking skills to make a screencast of how they solve a math problem.

Station 3
Students create a drawing of their NF research animal in its natural habitat as a background.  They then make the animal 'talk' and share some of the new learning they discovered when researching the animal.


Below is a student sample from each station.

Sunday 8 March 2015

Visual Literacy in Grade 1

First graders are beginning to look at techniques to make posters that are easier to interpret.



During this lesson, we discuss the differences between images that the eye can make meaning of quicker and easier versus images that are confusing and make it difficult to gather meaning.  In order to create posters that encourage an awareness of visual literacy, students were taught about:

  • bold, obvious titles
  • choose only 1-2 fonts
  • solid color backgrounds that are not distracting
  • arrange images in a grid
  • various colors can evoke certain emotions
  • use complimentary colors

It was amazing to see how well even the youngest of learners quickly grasped the importance of making more visually appealing posters.  Their finished products were amazing.  Two examples are below.



Tuesday 24 February 2015

Searching Online Digital Citizenship



Easy Blog Photo

This week, first graders were involved in a foundational Digital Citizenship lesson pertaining to ‘Searching Online’ with Mrs. Buxton, the first grade tech coach, and Mrs. Cuthbert, the first grade librarian.  Students learned that they should follow certain rules when searching online.  

Rule #1 - Use a Keyword Search

Rule #2 - Only use images without a Watermark

Rule #3 - When in Doubt, Close it Out

Wednesday 28 January 2015

Mini Book Reviews

Students explored a fun way to share their favorite books in Reader's Workshop. Two apps were used in the process, Pic Collage and Yakit for kids. Here are a few samples.

Sunday 18 January 2015

Reflective Blogging

Grade 1 students have been doing a phenomenal job blogging so far this year.  For the most part, first graders post a photo of their work and then type a sentence about what they learned or give more information about the image.  Mrs. Hellgeth decided that her students were ready to extend the types of sentences they included in their blog post.  So, her class explored and practiced making reflective blog posts.  They were exposed to ways you could be a reflective thinker by asking themselves one of the three questions below:

1.  How has my thinking changed?
2.  What do I know, but what am I still unsure about?
3.  Why is this new learning important?


Here is the lesson


Student Samples

How has my thinking changed?


What do I know, but what am I still unsure about?


 Why is this new learning important?



Monday 12 January 2015

Festival of Stories

Grade 1 students are participating in the lower elementary school's Festival of Stories. In order to get ready to celebrate reading and authors like Todd Parr, students made READ posters.  The idea was for first graders to use the style of Todd Parr, bold solid colors with a black outline, when creating their posters. They also had the opportunity to consolidate several functions in both the Drawing Pad and Pic Collage apps.



Sunday 11 January 2015

Authentic Foreign Language Practice with Green Screen by DoInk

Students in Grade 1 used the app Green Screen by DoInk to recreate an authentic restaurant visit in order to practice their new unit vocabulary.  This 'app'tivity not only helped students apply their language skills, but it engaged them in a new way which made presenting their skits even better.

Check out one of the finished products below.