Recently (a few weeks ago when we still had 15 inches of snow on the ground!) Mrs. Lorenson asked her students to take a picture of themselves in the snow, and to write their story about a snowy day. She had several objectives. She wanted to push her students to get outside and play. She wanted to promote the home - school connection. She wanted them to write! And finally, she wanted to give students the opportunity to share their pictures and stories digitally. When students create digital work, it is so much easier to share with others far outside the classroom. So we taught students how to add their photos to a shared Google Slideshow. Once students added their photo, they wrote about their snowy day. When they had completed their Google slideshow, I exported it as a pdf and uploaded to Anyflip.com. In a matter of a few minutes, they had a class eBook that they could share with their families and other classes. Along the way, students learned a few digital skills as well. They learned how to import their own pictures and they learned how to add and manipulate text boxes, with all of the typical word processing tools.
