Thing 12: Final Reflection

This is the third year I’ve participated in Cool Tools. I’ve enjoyed the Things as much this year as I have in the past.

There are some Things I plan to go back into when time permits. For instance, I would really like to create more Padlets.  I really liked the organizational and visual qualities a Padlet lends to student research.  To me it is similar to a bookmarking website, but has more visual appeal.  I also like the ability for students to comment.  Hopefully Padlet will create a school community around book discussions for students.  Maybe like a virtual book club!

I also would like to create more games using Baamboozle. The students liked the Dr. Seuss game I created and would be a great wrap up activity at the end of a unit in the library.  An added bonus is the games are easy to make.

The Things Search Tool Ninja and Teaching and Learning with Primary Sources I believe can go hand and hand. Through the searching Thing I got into the Way Back Machine which is a great resource for current primary source materials. When I think of primary source I’m generally thinking of materials prior to the 1970’s. However, to my students born in 2000’s the 1980’s and 1990’s are “the olden days” (gosh I feel old).

Through the Supporting ELL thing I have added a few additional titles to the library from the readings I’ve done. I’m also more conscious when teaching to be sure I monitor more closely the students reactions to the lessons to gauge there level of understanding and adjust if needed.

As for the infographics I will probably make another one, it just won’t be right away. It was a very frustrating process using visme.  Perhaps, I’ll try using another site.  I’m thinking I would like an infographic about books.  For example, if you like this book then try these books instead.

I’ve also shared resource with my colleagues which I’ve learned about from Cool Tools. I’ve really promoted Classtools.net and specifically Tarr’s Toolbox.  His use of visuals makes it realistic that you too can do activities to enhance student learning.  In the library I’ve used his Open Me display idea to spark interest in infrequently borrowed books.  It has worked with more with students who are willing to take a risk with what they choose to read.

I’ve also shared my bitmoji with students and staff. I was surprised to find out some of my colleagues already have them.  Recently at lunch the topic came up and we all shared ours.  Funny though that the youngest member of our lunch bunch in her early 20’s didn’t have one and was surprised we all did.  This kind of made me feel a little more techie and hip than I really am.

I will also share the some of the apps from the App-palooza Thing. I really liked the edtechteacher website which allowed you to find apps based on the device and the learning outcome desired.  This may help teachers to be more creative in using the chrome books in the classroom.  I plan to revisit some of the apps I liked using a chrome book at school. I’m thinking perhaps using my laptop prohibited me from seeing some of the apps I really wanted to look into for the students.

I definitely like participating in online professional development. I’m not sure if I would embrace it if I didn’t complete my LMS master’s degree online through SU.  However, since I did and I had no choice in the matter I embraced the concept of online learning and find it a wonderful opportunity.  What I liked then and now is that I am able to complete activities while at home with my family and completing household tasks in the midst of thinking through what I’m learning.  I will definitely participate in online learning activities in the future.

Thing 27: Teaching & Learning with Primary Sources

Primary sources are something I feel I should definitely be doing more with.  It’s just hard to do everything I want to do in the 20 visits I see the students each year.  For this Thing I explored a lot of the sites and came up with some ideas of how I could incorporate primary sources into the lessons.

Kid Citizen was an especially fun site to use with younger students.  I liked the simplistic basic nature of the activities.  I feel this would be a great way to introduce primary sources to the younger students.  This site made me realize how easy it would be to use a primary source photograph from a digital collection and create some interesting “scrapbooks” of history.  I’ve found students really enjoy looking at old photos when we come across them in the library.  The website Teaching Primary Students with Primary Sources had many pictures which could be used to help create the “scrapbooks” for the library.

For the older students I enjoyed “Who Am I? A History Mystery” from the Smithsonian.  I liked that it had primary sources, but I really liked how it made the students THINK!  In my experience I have so many students who don’t think before they give an answer.  This is something we work on in the library a LOT!  They need to develop more of the ability to reason both inductively and deductively.  I think this would help them to develop those skills.

I also liked the history is like a mystery idea from Teachinghistory.org.  One of the activities which I looked at was to compare two photos from the 60’s and 70’s to today.  The photos depicted a living room and wedding gifts.  I liked this activity because it was primary source and the students have the ability to talk with someone at home who has actual first person accounts.  This would be an interesting lesson to further talk about the relationship primary sources have in our lives (i.e. the history doesn’t have to be from 100 years ago).

Finally, the last activity I personally enjoyed going through was The Green Book from the NYPL.  It would be interesting to have the older students visit the website to discuss there thoughts and reactions.  I’m not sure how many students have thought about a simple trip during the time of segregation and all of the planning and complications to deal with.  It could be a very eye opening experience for them.  We talk so much at school about Rosa Parks, Martin Luther King Jr, Ruby Bridges and other popular people, but so little time on the every day experiences.  Thanks for sharing this with me!

Primary sources are definitely a topic I need to cover more in the library.  Perhaps, during testing when I push into the classroom we could do some of the activities whole group.  It would be a nice way to introduce the topic.

 

Thing 28: App-palooza!

What fun!  I looked through many of the apps recommended for teaching and learning.  I especially liked EdTechTeacher.  It was nice to be able to view apps based on the device available to the students.  Additionally, the ability to narrow the apps down by the desired outcome for the students and price was helpful as well.  I sorted through the apps looking for ones I could use with my districts Chrome Web Store.  I’m not sure, but I believe they must have limited what we have access to because many of the apps I wanted didn’t show up on the web store.  I then went to the Librarian Approved apps for creativity and creation.  Again, I couldn’t access any of these apps (this could have been because most cost money).

Looking through a few more links I settled on Edpuzzle.  I actually was a bit hesitant on the value of this app.  Then I realized how often I search for the starting point of a video while the class is waiting.  This will now allow me to start and end where I would like to without wasting class time.  Once I got playing with it I realized I often pause videos to talk with the students.  This app does what I already do with the ability of having my voice embedded into the video with questions!  This will really shock my students to hear me in the video.  They always are shocked when they hear my voice on a video I created.  Now I can really blow them away since it is super obvious I didn’t create the videos but my voice is on it!  Also, I like the thought of being able to take a video I didn’t create and omit the original audio and produce my own audio to suit the needs of the lesson and students I’m teaching.  I wonder if this is a violation of copyright?

For this Thing I used a video for the China resources the students will be using.  I added audio notes and a question into the Learning to Use Chopsticks video.  I had a difficult time uploading all of the audio notes.  I’m pretty sure it was an internet issues on my end.  After fifteen minutes the three audio notes still would not load.  I deleted them and made one quick audio note and it uploaded fine.  I’m thinking this is something I will need to do at school where the internet is much better than at home.  The question I added had no problem being added to the video.  I ran into another road block trying to link the video to my library page.  For some reason it would link. I then got another link for sharing which worked just fine.  For this to be truly beneficial I’ll need the videos to be easily accessible without requiring a logging in.  I think this is going to be helpful!

Thing 20: Create a Resource Guide

This was a timely great Thing!  A teacher at school came to me and asked for resources about China for her class.  I created a Padlet with the resources I found.  What I liked about Padlet was the simplicity of creating it and the visual appeal of using it.  I believe I created a Padlet which others can contribute to.  I did this on purpose because I’m hoping to create another one where students can review, recommend, or comment on books they have read.  I also think creating Padlets would allow the Destiny library page to look less cluttered, easier to read, and more visually appealing.  There are so many uses of a Padlet for resource sharing!  Glad I chose this as an option!!!!!

Thing 18: Infographics & Data Visualization

This was a frustrating thing.  I set out to originally just play and learn about this Thing by creating a simple infographic of where students can look for library books.  My goal was to then create a infographic with data visualizations on the relationship of library check outs and assessment data.  However, after spending 3 hours working on the first infograhic I’m not going to do another at this time.  The problem arose when I was attempting to place images from the website into the infographic.  I chose to use Visme.co as the platform for the infographic.  I liked the variety of font options and the large photo library on the site.  However, the site lacks a tutorial and FAQ sections.  It was truly a trial by error experience.  At one point I couldn’t see the images I input, however, on the preview of the final infographic all of the images appeared in many locations I didn’t want them in.  It took hours to figure out how to remove them from the final product and they were visible on the work in progress infographic.  The final product I created is what I imaged, but the road to get there was a little to long for my liking. After spending so much time using Visme I can say with confidence this isn’t the choice I would make for students to create their own infographics.  It was definitely not user friendly.  In the future I could easily imagine students making infographics regarding facts they are learning about on a topic, quotes they find meaningful, timeline of historic events, favorite books, and just about any other topic imaginable.

Now the new kicker I just discovered is with the ability to share the infographic.  Unfortunately, sharing it privately is part of the paid access.  Therefore, my option is to share it publically which is fine.  However, I don’t have a link to it to share.  Apparently, you must submit you would like to share it publically.  If it gets approved, then you will get a link mailed to you with the public access to it.  If I would have known this I would have chooosen a different website to create my infographic.

 

Thing 35: Supporting English Language Learners

Supporting English Language Learners Thing 35 is a topic I’m learning more about in recent years. Although I teach in a city and had students formerly known as ESL; there is a new resurgence in understanding and teaching the now ELL students in the district.

Upon reading through some articles I found I am already doing a lot to support the ELL students. I honestly didn’t specifically have them in mind when I created lessons.  My lessons were really created with the thinking my students lack background knowledge and vocabulary skills.

The slides by Diana Wendell discussed some surprising statistics. Apparently my district has 4,331 ELL students, there wasn’t a date on the slide for this statistic so I’m curious if this takes into account the recently placed students from Puerto Rico who have come to the district.  In addition, Diana Wendell discusses the importance of understanding the terminology ENL, ELL, SIFE, refugee and immigrant.  Honestly, I’ve never given the terms much thought until she pointed them out.  I just kind of thought the students were refugees/immigrants which didn’t really need a distinction between the two.  However, upon thinking about my mother’s neighbors who are immigrants from England and most definitely not refugees there is a difference between the terms.  Now, I realize my students who are refugees actually had a much more difficult time getting here than an immigrant had.  I have never heard of the term SIFE which seems to go hand and hand with a refugee’s experience.  Now I vaguely remember one of my students discussing how she didn’t go to school at a point in her life.  I just thought she was talking about summer break or the time spent moving.  Now I realize she was talking about the time she spent in a refugee camp.

The article 10 Ways to Support ELLs in the School Library by Jacqueline Jules was made me realize I’m not doing too badly at meeting the needs of ELL students during library lessons. Some of the things I have incorpated in my lessons are going over vocabulary prior to the lesson and having visuals to refer to during the lesson (which is why I love my Smart Board!)  Also, when teachers ask for read aloud suggestions I try to give them books which discuss bullying, topics related to their modules, and stories of students coming to America.  Among my favorite suggestions are Drita My Homegirl by Jenny Lombard, Save Me a Seat by Sarah Weeks, A Long Walk to Water by Linda Sue Park (I once worked at the same school as Salva’s American mother) and My name is Mari a Isabel by Alma Flor Ada.  Through going through the articles I also found additional titles I would like to read and perhaps purchase for the library… Making it home : real-life stories from children forced to flee by Beverley Naidoo and Outcasts united: the story of a refugee soccer team that changed a town by Warren St. John.

Something new I plan to do is prominently displaying books about the countries’ my students are from will give a welcoming feel and perhaps encourage others to read about the home country of a classmate. Another implementation will be to read about the holidays of the ELL students during library time.  I hadn’t really thought of this until Diana Wendell discussed sharing fairy tales as they are an international story and mentioned about holidays as well.  What a great, simple, and fun modification I can make to library lessons.  We could actually read one week about the holiday and the next celebrate the holiday and do a traditional activity related to the holiday.  I can’t wait to start, now I’m going to need to do research on when the next holiday is from one of the countries the ELL students in my school are from.  What fun well have!  I’m really glad I participated in this Thing!

Thing 33: Flash Cards, Quiz, Games and More

Thing 33 was interesting. I dappled with a bunch of the tools listed in the post.  I was intrigued by the crossword generator not for my use, but for two students in a class across the hall.  The students are bright, finish their work accurately and quickly and most days are working on extension projects (games, presentations, review activities) to share with the class.  I thought they might like to create a crossword for their classmates.  The crossword creator was something they might like.  While looking at the crossword generator I came across classtools.net.  I might have seen this site or something equally visually unappealing before.  It’s sad I judge a site by its appearance although I teach children not to judge a book by its cover.  However, I stuck it out and went through the site and actually bookmarked it in my favorites!  What I like about the site is Tarr’s Toolbox.  This is where the sites creator has a plethora of ideas for presenting information to students, student work, activities, and presentations.  There were so many creative ideas with pictures of him actually using the ideas in his classroom.  It was great to see so many unique ideas in one place.  This is a resource I’ll be sharing with the teachers in my building.

ClassTools.net also had a variety of games and activities for students to create and play.  I found the SMS Generator something the students might like.  I created a text exchange between Max from Where the Wild Things Are and a make believe friend.

This is something students could easily do and I’m sure they would enjoy it. I also really enjoyed the game Connect 4.  In this there are 16 blocks and there are groups of four which are related.  You have to click the four which are related.  I created a game with book titles and their authors  I also liked the movie text scroll which makes whatever you type appear like the opening of Star Wars.  I haven’t come up with an idea for this, but I’ll keep thinking about this because I think it’s a lot of fun.  I think the students would like Fakebook.  This could be used with any character real or fictional!  Essentially the students would create a fake Facebook page all about a character.  It looks really believable to me although, I’m not on Facebook so who knows.  The QR Challenge would be a lot of fun I am going to need a bit of time to ponder how I can make this work with the kindergarten through second grade classes which have a half dozen iPads in the classroom for the students.  An example on the site was used as a scavenger hunt outside of school.  I’m sure I’ll think of something I can do with the younger students.

A few of the resources on CoolTools.net weren’t to amazing or I didn’t figure out how they could be amazing.  For instance, I tried multiple attempts of Mission: Mapquest with no real success. I wonder if it wasn’t fully finished and the creator just left it.  Also, what I saw of it was a much higher level than my students are.  Therefore, if I would like to use it I would have to create my own mission for the students.  The Dustbin Game was very primitive which made me feel as though I was playing a video game from the 80’s.

Thing 11: DIY – You Pick

This was a fun thing which I used to fix a Thing I did last year. Last year I made a game for second graders to review the parts of the library using Kahoot.  Creating the game was simple and I was able to tailor the game to what they learned.  The problem arose once I tried playing the game with them.  The students don’t have personal devices, laptops or even access to the computers in the library.  Therefore, the game was a bust we couldn’t play it.  I mentioned this to my next class of sixth graders.  They wanted to play so the following class a few students who had phones brought them to class and we played the game.  They loved it.  However, given the lack of personal devices and computers in the library this wasn’t the best platform for the library.  So this year I scoured through the list of DIY technologies to investigate to find a game platform similar to Kahoot which didn’t require students to have a device to play.  I found Baamboozle and made a Dr. Seuss game for Read Across America Day!  This was just as easy to use as Kahoot.  What I like about the game is I don’t have to keep score or track of whose turn it is.  The game tallies the score based on if I click the answer was correct or not.  It also automatically goes to the next player.  I like this a lot more than using the old Jeopardy powerpoint option I had previously been using.  One feature I didn’t like about the Baamboozle website was the searching feature.  I searched many topics (Dr. Seuss, Dewey, library skills, parts of a book, nonfiction, fiction, authors, read across America) prior to making my game and had no luck finding any games.  Even after I made my game (and it is a public game) I searched for Dr. Seuss and it didn’t come up.  I feel as either this is a really new site and doesn’t have a lot of games or the site doesn’t really allow you to search it completely even when you are logged in.  I’ll see how this goes with my sixth graders and perhaps I’ll make even more games.  I am thinking I might want to make a game which involves students using a database to look up the question in the game.  We have access to computers this year and this might be a fun way for students to learn to use a database and play a game at the same time.

Thing 16: Bitmoji Fun

WOW! This was time consuming and frustrating. Of course, it shouldn’t have been either; I’m not sure what happened on my end! I easily downloaded the Bitmoji app in Chrome. However, I couldn’t create an account. There was no spot on the app to do so. I could only login using an email or snapchat. However, since I never created an account it wouldn’t accept an email! Yet, the icon appeared in my gmail account! I searched and searched and tried many approaches even reading through questions trying to find the answer. Finally, I searched Bitmoji create account and found a link in an article on Google. Now I was successful in creating the account. I was so excited I was able to create an account and felt so badly for the others who were trying and posting they couldn’t on the Chrome web store I went back and left replies for them. Hopefully they will check it and be successful.  Once I was able to create an account and login to Bitmoji the process of creating one was simple. I was shocked at how easy and accurate the bitmoji was to my likeness.

There are many uses for using Bitmoji’s in the library…

1. Personalized shelf talkers
2. Highlight information
3. Adding to signage
4. Library reminders
5. Students can create Bitmoji’s to personal projects
6. Adding a little fun to emails
7. Creating personalized bookmarks
8. Labeling favorite books (perhaps I can even encourage others to do this as well)

I’m glad I was able to figure this out since the fun it will add to the library is going to amazing!

Thing 9: Search Tools Ninja

Search Tools Ninja was a very time consuming Thing! I’ve spent all day going through the tools, articles, and resources.  I’ve learned so much.  I made a holiday custom search with Google and put it on the libraries homepage. I think this could benefit teachers and students looking for information on a holiday.  The only question I have is will I be able to add additional sites to the search?  This will require me looking deeper into it.

I’ve had a lot of aha moments. The biggest I learned which I’m not even sure is what I should have gotten out of this Thing is martinlutherking.org is run by a white supremacy group.  I find this very disturbing.  As for other moments I’ve enjoyed using Google quite a bit.  Searching using file:xxx or site:xxx was a real eye opener.  This was actually helpful for me to find a Dr. Seuss bingo board I saw a few years ago!  I also didn’t realize you could search Google using an image vs. words.  This was interesting.  I’m thinking this could be helpful when students forget to write down the site they found a picture on for their bibliography.  It also could be helpful to do a reverse image search to determine if an image is original to an article or if it is taken from another source.

Another aha moment came from the Wayback Machine. I’ve known about it, but didn’t think I had much use for it.  However, after reading the article about September 11 I realized how valuable this is.  As the article stated searching Google today will give them articles about what happened.  However, the Wayback Machine will give them the webpage of that day.  It was really fascinating and powerful to see the CNN page from the actual date.

I also found a Google trick I didn’t know existed. Using Control with shift and T will reopen a tab which was accidentally closed.  I have accidentally closed tabs many of times and now I have a simple solution to look forward to using.  There were also tricks I enjoyed for fun with Google which my 14 year old son already knew such as Google barrel roll, Google gravity, and Google pacman.  It was fun to watch Google do secret tricks.  All in all the hours spent bopping around was a lot of fun and informative.