Oak Hills Elementary teachers are discovering the wonder that is Padlet! Padlet (both the web app, Chromebook extension & iOS app) gives teachers and students an easy way to share their ideas in real time for free! Teachers can quickly create a padlet and then share the URL with their class. (I also taught our teachers how to use the google URL shortener - goo.gl. This made it even easier for students to access the class padlet!)
Once I introduced Padlet to teachers, they were able to use it right away! 5th Grade teachers chose to use Padlet to brainstorm their classroom rules for the year!
Third and fourth grade teachers used Padlet as a summer share so each student could write about their summer!
Mr. Hemann even had his students include a selfie with their summer highlight!
Padlet has unlimited uses! Students can summarize articles they read in Newsela or Newsela Elementary for their class! Students can read each other's summaries!
Padlets can be used as an opening share as students arrive in the morning. Teachers can ask students to answer silly or serious questions to kick off their learning for the day. Students can even video tape their response to share with the class!
As I already mentioned in my earlier blog post, Digitally Diving In With Four Back To School Ideas, teachers can use Padlet to share photos and information with parents by sharing the URL. Below is an example from Cindy Johnson's "Our First Two Days Together" Padlet that she shared with parents!
Even teachers can use Padlet! Third grade teacher, Melissa Lorenson created a padlet asking our staff to share our Labor Day weekend plans! It was a great opportunity to connect with each other!
Padlet is a great learning tool for students of all ages! Just share the your padlet and see where it takes you and your students!
In my new role as Digital Literacy Specialist, I was invited by 5th grade teacher, Susie Wilson, to team teach a choice unit with our new makerspace kits - LittleBits! Check out this short video I created after today's lesson!
In August, as teachers were in their final weeks of summer, I wanted to share some ideas to get their creative juices flowing about ways to digitize their "Back to School" classroom activities this year. Teachers use these activities to create a "responsive classroom" designed to help the class come together, validate each student, set expectations and prepare a positive learning environment. These traditional activities provide a vital springboard for student success, but there is no reason that they have to be delivered in a traditional way! So....I sent teachers just a few ideas for them to mull over!
Digitizing back to school activities can also provide students with an opportunity to revisit principles of digital citizenship, establish device expectations, practice logging in with new passwords and help student get acquainted and share their voice.
1. A Video Introduction with Adobe Spark iPad App(or any video app) - Students will share their name, selfie, a favorite thing or a favorite book, and one thing they are looking forward to this school year! They can turn it into Schoology or save it to their Google Drive! It would be fun to revisit these at the end of the year!
Here was my example:
2. Let's Get To Know Each Other! Discussion with Schoology - Students will take a selfie and share a favorite summer memory. Using the discussion option when setting up the Schoology lesson gives students the opportunity to comment on each other's posts so students feel like they are on social media! It is a great opportunity to teach appropriate commenting skills!
Example:
3. Share one thing about yourself that your classmates don't know! with Padlet - This is one of the easiest options as Padlet doesn't require individual student logins and gives students the ability to collaborate in real time! The Padlet page is essentially a bulletin board webpage that allows students to post simultaneously. Teachers can use any prompt that they want, including brainstorming classroom rules! Padlet can be used to get students writing while also sharing with one another! Sutdents can add their selfie to their post if they wish. This activity is also easy to share the URL with parents after students have finished!
Example:
4. Video Time Capsule with device camera - Have students create self-interviews using reality TV "confessional" style. Ask them to turn on their device video camera and create a video message to their future end-of-year selves. Ask them to talk about their goals, their hopes and dreams for the school year, or share a concern. Then "archive" these videos in Google Drive and take them out at the the end of the year to help students see how they've grown! (Thanks to Education Week Teacher, Back to School article by Jennie Magiera for this idea!!)
YIPPEEEE!! Results!!
I really didn't know how teachers would feel about me sharing these ideas with them while they were still on their summer vacation. There was always the possibility that they would greet them as most of us do the abundant back-to-school advertisements that start right after the 4th of July! Collective SIGH!! Happily, because I teach with the best teachers ever, I received immediate feedback from staff expressing their enthusiasm for these ideas. The real proof that my suggestions had actually served to prime to pump was born out in the first two weeks of school. Teachers took the ideas that I shared and edited them to make them even better! Many of our 3rd-5th grade teachers used Padlet and Schoology to have students share something about themselves or collaborate on classroom rules! Fabulous first grade teacher, Cindy Johnson, combined Padlet and the Video Time Capsule idea to have students video tape their "Hopes and Dreams" for the school year using Padlet! She also used Padlet to communicate and share photos with parents about the first day of school! How fun that will be for students to see these at the end of the year!
I am so excited to share a free eBook website from the folks at Unite for Literacy! This collection of eBooks can be read aloud in many different languages!
With a variety of text complexity and subjects that will interest elementary students!
Because it is web based, it will work on most any device! Thank you Unite for Literacy and the corporations that are helping to provide this wonderful resource!!
Apologies to all of you kind readers and supporters of the Technology Is Loose In The Library Blog. I haven't posted since March! My last post from March was right around the time that our school district (Lakeville Area Public Schools) finalized a decision to retool my position as media specialist and create a new position of Digital Literacy Specialist. This wasn't a surprise, as our small group of eight elementary media specialists were included in this redesign of our position. We were and are so grateful to be allowed to dream a little, and design the best possible program to help our staff and students become their digital best...creative, innovative learners!
Taking the Show on the Road!
So now I am writing you a few weeks into my new position as Digital Literacy Specialist. I am just beginning to get the hang of the new job description. I would describe it as...taking the digital show on the road! For years, I would teach students as their class would come to the library for 50 minutes while the classroom teacher would leave for their teacher preparation time. We had some really great digital lessons, but it was largely considered to be something students would do when they came to library class. Technology wasn't embedded into most of our classrooms or curriculum, and as a result we were leaving our teaching staff behind as we explored our digital possibilities. Now, with the addition of new digital devices WOOHOO!, and the reallocation of my time, I am able to collaborate and support teachers as they integrate technology into their classrooms! I am still responsible for overseeing our fabulous library collection as well as tech support throughout our building, but now students, staff and I are able to explore and learn together!
I am most excited about the enthusiasm of the Oak Hills staff! They have really embraced the shift in my position! I shared my Google calendar with them, enabling them to schedule with me whenever they need me! My schedule has been PACKED from day one! I've been in almost every classroom in the school multiple times! Partnering with teachers has helped to give our students more voice and choice! Students have been recording video, making with LittleBits, collaborating with Padlet, blogging with Blogger, searching with Destiny, keyboarding with Typing.com, gaming with Kahoot, and sharing & responding with Schoology! I will be sharing these details in future blog posts, but needless to say, WHEW! September was a whirlwind and so so so much fun!
