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Editor's Notes

• #2: Welcome to my presentation on Technology Tools for use in the Kindergarten through 2nd grade classroom. As a current Kindergarten teacher, I feel like we are living on the edge every time we put a piece of expensive equipment in the little hands of our students. However, they are on the edge of making new learning discoveries even if my nerves are on the edge while they are using the equipment. I make sure to teach them the proper routines for having clean hands, using both hands to transport the device, and discussing computer etiquette before we even get to using the fun tools we are going to discuss today. Hopefully, by the end of the presentation, you will feel confident about trying out a few of these new tools with your younger elementary students. (1 minute)
• #3: This is my family. Matt and I have three daughters, Meighan, Makayla, and Claire. They are all avid readers and have enjoyed learning about new technology right along with me. As many of you probably have found, your own students or children can sometimes problem solve with technology better than we can as adults. This is a strength I also try and use in the classroom as a strategy to have technology helpers. I have taught in Norfolk and Virginia Beach City Public Schools since my oldest daughter was in Kindergarten. I have had the opportunity to teach grades Kindergarten, first, second, and third in my career. It is amazing to see the difference between a Kindergartener and a third grader, especially when it comes to technology. That’s why I think it is very important that teachers start early incorporating technology in the classroom as much as possible, collaborating with the library media specialist in their building if they need support. (1 minute)
• #4: Today I want to introduce you to several technology apps and websites that I have found to be useful with younger elementary students. There are so many great apps and websites that I have come across that just are a bit too difficult to work with the younger students, so I want you to leave here with some useful tools you can use tomorrow in your classroom or library. I’d like to start with the apps Chatterpix and Sock Puppets, then Vocaroo, an audio recording tool, then the website Big Huge Labs, and end with the website My Storybook.com. I use the free version of all of these tools in my classroom, but your school can choose to upgrade to include more time recording or include other features. I have not found this to be necessary. (1 minute)
• #5: Chatterpix is great because students love to see pictures of themselves and they love to hear themselves talk. The key is getting them to talk about the learning objective. For my example, the Kindergarten SOL is Reading K.9 which states, “The students will demonstrate comprehension of fictional text. G) discuss characters, setting, and events.” Here is an example of a student explaining the setting of a story she just read using Chatterpix. (Show example) She took a picture of herself with the book, A Teacher Ate the Teacher by Mike Thaler and illustrated by Jared Lee, and then added the line where the mouth moves. Then she recorded her answer to the question about the setting. She then saved it to the camera roll on the iPad when she was happy with the recording. That means that I can go back and view them later, meaning that I can do one on one assessments without it taking up class time. Therefore, this can be done on iPads during independent time. I only would move it to independent time after students have had it modeled numerous times as a whole class and done it several times in small group and individually either with the teacher or Teacher Assistant, if you are lucky enough to have one. If you have parent volunteers, letting them help with the technology center can be helpful as well. You can take pictures of just about anything and give it a mouth to talk. I saw a great example online of Chatterpix talking money, which would be great for Kindergarten or first grade. I also have seen fun projects done with pictures of animals talking about habitats and adaptations in first and second grade. The major downfall is that you only have 30 seconds to record. (3 ½ minutes)
• #6: The other app that I love to use in the classroom is Sock Puppets. The students love this one because they can change the setting, add props, and they can change the voices of the puppets. You definitely have to give them time to play with the app for a few minutes so that when you let them use it as a tool, that they actually use it for the teaching objective. For this example, I have used the 2nd grade SOL2.8 which states, “The student will read and demonstrate comprehension of fictional texts.” specifically, “j) Read and reread familiar stories, poems, and passages with fluency, accuracy, and meaningful expression.” This app can be used by one or two students at a time. There are several characters to choose from, as well as settings, and props. I ask that the students try and use things that make sense for their recordings, such as using the fort as the setting above. For this assignment, I asked the student to practice the poem until they felt comfortable recording, but they could record it and rerecord it until they were happy with the result. When the student likes the recording, then they are able to save it to the camera roll on the iPad. The poem they chose was Tree House by from Where the Sidewalk Ends by Shel Silverstein. (Show video). Again, this makes it a great way for students to use the technology during independent task time, and yet there is accountability. The teacher can access the videos later during planning time or you can have the students share with the class. The students love sharing them with the class, even students who are hesitant to share aloud normally. The downfall again is that you only have 30 seconds to record with the free app. However, it works well with short poems. I have used this app with Kindergarten and first grade as well to practice fluency. This app would work well for many of the oral language SOL’s in Kindergarten through 2nd grade and also could be used for them to make up their own creative stories. (3 ½ minutes)
• #7: Vocaroo is another free audio tool that is easy to use, but it lacks the fun video aspect of the ChatterpixKids and Sock Puppets apps. However, it doesn’t have a time limit. That being said, it is free and sometimes can have bugs that the website owners say you can report, but that they cannot always fix it for you. I have never had an issue that wasn’t operator error, but watch today’s example be the exception to the rule. If not, you are going to hear an example of a student recording a retelling of a story. This is using 1st grade SOL 1.9 which says, “The student will read and demonstrate comprehension of a variety of fictional texts.” specifically, “ G)Retell stories and events, using beginning, middle, and end.” (Play Audio recording) This again is a time consuming process to listen to 25 students retell stories, and sometimes it is difficult to really tell from a written example if a student in Kindergarten or first grade knows the story by their written retelling. If the students record themselves on Vocaroo, then you can listen to the retellings later, and even share them with parents at conferences. Vocaroo has many sharing options, including downloading it as an MP3 or WAV file, making a QR code, or they give you the information so that you can embed it in your blog. However, they do not guarantee how long the recording will be available, so they suggest downloading. You can also e-mail the Vocaroo recording. There are other choices for posting to social media, but I do not think these are necessary for Kindergarten through second grade, but some of you may be interested for other purposes. I also think Vocaroo could be used to record small group discussions or buddy reading sessions for accountability purposes. I also think it would be great for including as part of a science or social studies project. It would be neat to have a poster with a QR code that another person could scan and hear more information, such as an animal poster with a Vocaroo about the animal’s habitat. (3 minutes) Does anyone have any questions about the audio tools? I’d also love for you to share any experiences you have had with these tools, or ideas you’d like to try in the future. (4-5 minutes)
• #8: Next, I want to share with you a website that is continuing to expand its uses for educators. The website is called Big Huge Labs and includes ways to make motivational posters, trading cards, magazine covers, a bill board maker, a cube maker, and badge maker, and more. I thought it would be great to use this year to create incentive cards for some of my students to start to visit the library more than once every two weeks. I created this sample using a picture I altered on http://www.tuxpi.com to crop and add the star effect and then put it into the badge maker on Big Huge Labs. I would laminate it so they could take it with them to the library as their special pass, and the color would let the librarian know their current reading level. I think it would be a great way to make name badges for when substitutes are in the classroom or when you are going on field trips, or to make lunch pass cards for kindergarten or first grade students that are just learning the lunch system. I think it also could be used to make badges for independent task time if you use that type of organizational chart. One of the downfalls is that they do have other photography tools you can play with that cost money at the bottom of the screen, but you do not have to access these at all. (2 minute)
• #9: The cube maker on Big Huge Labs could be used to make any number of types of dice for learning games. I would have loved to have found this tool last year when I needed dice for a coin identification game I was using for practice with my Kindergarteners. For first grade, I thought it would be great to make a fraction dice for Math SOL K.1.3 which says, “The student will identify the parts of a set and/or region that represent fractions for halves, thirds and fourths, and write the fractions.” The teacher could quickly and easily make the dice, laminate, follow the simple folding and taping instructions, and the students would have many different examples to use. They could write the fractions they roll on graph paper to add graphing practice to the fraction practice. I think it would be fun to have the students take the pictures of the fractions for the dice using objects from the classroom or drawing them and taking a picture. The teacher then could upload them easily to the website to create the dice. The students would feel more of a sense of ownership this way. You could make dice for any subject that you could imagine. For language arts, it would be good to make a dice that had words or pictures representing character, setting, events, or other story element related questions that the student would have to answer during independent task time or while buddy reading. One of the downfalls of this free website is the advertising that is all over the place. However, in all my time playing with the website, all of the advertisements have been for school related items. (2 ½ minutes)
• #10: The last type of project I chose to demonstrate from Big Huge Labs is the trading card. As a culminating project for the American Indian Unit, the students could use the Big Huge Labs website to create trading cards for each of the tribes and the facts they are supposed to compare and contrast. If they worked in groups, each group could be the expert on one part and present their trading card to the class as a review for the unit. The two SOL’s I was focusing on here were Writing 2.14, which states, “ The student will use available technology for reading and writing”, and History and Social Science 2.2 that says, “ The student will compare the lives and contributions of three American Indian cultures of the past and present, with emphasis on the Powhatan of the Eastern Woodlands, the Lakota of the Plains, and the Pueblo of the Southwest.” It would be great if they all could be put into one document that could be sent to parents electronically so the students could share with their families at home. If you had a class blog, you could embed them in the class blog for all the parents to see. All of the other tools I mentioned like the magazine cover, motivational poster, bill board maker, and more are just as easy to use, and you can find many ideas on the website or on Pinterest. In fact, the website asks you if you want to post your finished products on Pinterest when you complete your project. (2 minutes) Did anyone have any questions about the Big Huge Labs website? Has anyone tried this website before and want to share their experience? Did anyone have any big ideas during the presentation they would like to share? (4-5 minutes)
• #11: Mystorybook.com is fairly easy to use and is free unless you want to print out the books. I have found that the website does not work well on Google Chrome, but works on Internet Explorer and Mozilla Firefox. I have only tried the website on a PC, so I’m not sure if it would work on Mac. You also cannot download a copy of your book. However, you can e-mail or post to several social media websites. I chose to e-mail myself, and hopefully the link will work here today. Even with all those negatives, I think this can be an awesome resource for composing personal narratives, writing short fiction stories, writing short nonfiction books, or creating retellings. My example is a personal narrative for two second grade SOL’s. The first is Writing 2.14, which says, “The student will use available technology for reading and writing” and the second one is Writing 2.12 which states that, “The student will write stories, letters, and simple explanations. a) Generate ideas before writing. b) Organize writing to include a beginning, middle, and end for narrative and expository writing. c) Expand writing to include descriptive detail. d) Revise writing for clarity.” Obviously, some of these parts would be done before they reached the computer. They would need to have their ideas ready and organized before they got to the computer. They may find it easier to add detail when they see the different choices of pictures or get inspired by the scenery. The student was told to write a short story that had a beginning, middle, and end. They were reminded that a good story has to have a problem and a solution as well. It’s a simple story, but I think it fits the assignment. (Read story by playing link and reading story aloud.) After playing with the tools myself, there is a learning curve. Before I use it with a class, I would do the tutorial together, then all explore the different tools with time to ask questions. It does not have an eraser like many of the other programs we use, but it does have a trashcan, so hopefully students will be able to figure that out. I would encourage you to have the students share their finished stories in front of the class on the Promethean or Smart board. It might be fun to e-mail these to parents, previous teachers, or administrators. I also thought it might be fun to create a class book, such as during poetry month, and each child complete a page. I know I’d be willing to pay $5.00 to add that book to my class library. If you are looking for more ideas, the website has a link to a blog at the bottom of the page, that had some excellent ideas and contest information. (4 minutes) Does anyone have any questions about mystorybook.com? Has anyone else tried it yet? Did anyone have any ideas for how they would like to use it in their library or classroom? (5 minutes)
• #12: Thank you for joining me today. I hope that you have learned something that you can take back to your library or classroom and put to use tomorrow or next week. I feel as educators of the newest students, the ones who are just learning how to read, that we are the edge. We are at the edge of teaching them technological literacy as well as traditional literacy. I am always open to new ideas and find myself learning from my students as well. I’m including my contact information on the above slide. If you have any questions or anything you would like to discuss in the future please feel free to contact me. I’ve included my contact information, both in words, or with a QR code, for those of you who prefer your information the new way. I used QR monkey at http://www.qrcode-monkey.com/ to create these QR codes. I must admit, it’s my favorite because you can include lots of information, and make them in pretty colors. If you have any more questions, comments or ideas, please share them now. Thank you again for joining me today in Technology for K through 2, We ARE the EDGE! (5 minutes)