#TCEA17 Favorite Finds

This is a guest post by Teri Weber, science teacher at Carroll Middle.

This is my second go-round at TCEA, and it was as amazing as the first time!  Some of the session ideas that I am excited about are:

Augmented Reality

• Jeff Peterson shared many apps for various levels (his presentation is available on his website). The apps he mentioned included subjects such as the heart, books where the characters "come to life," art, animal cells, the brain, and Popar World Map. Get the links for these apps (and more) by visiting Jeff's Symbaloo. 
• Additional sources can be found here. 
• For young learners, AR Flash Cards have free printable alphabet flash cards. When you use the app, an object comes "alive." When you touch the screen, it speaks the word and -- if the object is an animal, it makes its sound (ex: "D" is for dog...then the dog barks).

Nearpod
This is one that has been around a while, but their "gold edition" version has many virtual reality field trips. They also have 3D pictures that can be added to presentations. Nearpod has added lessons for ELL and can now be integrated into Canvas.


Technology and Differentiation 
This session, which can be found by clicking here, gave ideas on how to differentiate student projects, give end choices, etc. with technology.


That Quiz

• Great for math
• Can be customized – can select problems, level, use a timer, and provide feedback. 
• Has science elements such as cells and anatomy

Hope you can check out some of these resources!

#TCEA17 Favorite Finds

This is a guest post by Leah Schwedler, STEM teacher at Carroll Senior High.

I loved visiting TCEA for the first time this year. I was blown away by all of the creative and engaging ways to incorporate technology into the classroom at all learning levels.

My biggest takeaway from TCEA was the concept of StoryMaking and all of the tools that support students as they create and tell their story. Here are some tools and tips that I picked up regarding StoryMaking:

A student group from Rendon Prep in WA presented using Sway, which is an interactive presentation tool. I plan to utilize this application the next time my students need to create a presentation. These students demonstrated the use of social media in their communication and told the audience, “Each of you have a story to tell.” (Don’t be afraid to use social media to tell your story!)

If you’re interested in the concept of StoryMaking, a great educator to follow on twitter is Dean Shareski.

Another interesting topic was the use of Snapchat in education.  Although Snapchat is often thought of as something that should not be used/encouraged in school, there are actually many useful ways to incorporate Snapchat in the classroom. Using Geofilters and hashtags (for example, #schoolisasnap) are easy ways to organize and communicate photos from your classroom or school. The presenter’s position was that we need to communicate the way “our people” are communicating if we want to tell our story effectively. This may mean using Facebook, Twitter, or Snapchat to let the community know what is happening in our classroom.

My favorite find at TCEA was Virtual Reality! I was amazed at the ways educators are incorporating the use of VR into the classroom in so many innovative ways. I was also surprised at the cost-effective ways to use VR, including both VR goggles and 360 cameras. I am looking at Google Cardboard and the Ricoh Theta SC Camera to use in my robotics classroom so that students can communicate their experiences in an innovative way. VR is certainly a technology that our students will be using, so adding it to our classroom experience will be another way for students to be encouraged to tell their story!

#TCEA17 Favorite Finds

This is a guest post by Stacey Gillis, 2nd grade teacher at Carroll Elementary. 

This was my first year at TCEA, and I'm hooked. I can't wait to go back next year. I found so many new ways to integrate technology and new apps to use with my students.

My favorite find at TCEA was definitely the Fab and Free website created by Shannon Long. When I saw the word "FREE" I knew I was in the right place. What more could any teacher ask for? This website has links to free educational sites and apps. You can find anything from Language Arts materials and resources to music websites that teach students about rhythm. Each category of resources is divided into primary and secondary resources. My favorite section of this website is the "Just For Fun" section. There, you will find virtual bubble wrap, virtual Jenga, attack of the cute (adorable), and much more.

Other websites by Shannon that you may like include:

• Technology For Tots
• Google Hacks Tips
• Technology Rocks. Seriously.

#TCEA17 Favorite Finds

This is a guest post by Ann Astrin, 2nd grade teacher at Old Union Elementary.

My School Avatar
I am excited to begin using this app so my students can have a new way to express themselves and share their learning!  With this app, students can design and personalize their own avatar to create their own animated, talking, video presentation.  I plan on using My School Avatar with my students so they can retell stories, explain new concepts in math, science, and social studies, as well as to share their writing orally.

My class will be using this app to share their latest economics project by taking a picture of it, uploading the picture for the background of video, creating an avatar, and using it to explain the process to others.  We will upload the video to Seesaw at the end to save and share -- app smashing!


Shadow Puppet Edu
I LOVE this app!  With this app, students can easily create videos in the classroom! They can make videos to explain ideas, tell and retell stories, record learning, and more!

My students have recently used this app during our character study unit to profile the inside traits of a main character in our read-aloud series. After creating the video, they uploaded it to Seesaw to save and share -- again, app smashing! This app allows students to take and upload pictures, record their voice, explore and type text, and even sequence the pictures they have chosen.  It also has a tutorial for you to view before attempting to use.

Click here to view work one of my students created using Shadow Puppet Edu.


Fab and Free
Wish you had access to tons of great educational sites and apps without having to pay a single penny? Well, this site has them! I know you will find lots that you will be able to use in your classroom - for FREE!

#TCEA17 Favorite Finds

As always, TCEA's annual conference was amazing and did not disappoint. Here are a few of my favorite finds:

G Suite Training Extension - This free Chrome extension provides interactive training lessons on the various G Suite (formerly Google Apps) products. Once the extension is installed, the simple, interactive trainings can be accessed by clicking the question mark in the top right corner of the browser window. When activated, the training lessons appear within the application....meaning you don't have to leave the application to learn about it. The extensive training topics vary from beginner to advanced and are arranged in short videos that are chunked by category. If you are a Google user, this extension is a must!

FlipQuiz - Ideal for interactive whiteboards, FlipQuiz is a quick way to create gameshow-style boards (think Jeopardy) to use as a fun review game with your students. Using this tool, teachers can create new, customized game boards, or search the community for shared resources. FlipQuiz is free, but also offers additional features and options in the Pro (paid) version.

CuePrompter - CuePrompter is a free online teleprompter tool. Simply type your script in the box, adjust fonts, prompter window size, and font colors and you're all set for a professional video!


To access over 500 TCEA handouts, please click here. You can also follow along on Twitter by searching for #TCEA17 to read everyone's tweets, or by searching #TCEADragons to read just what CISD employees tweeted about this conference.

#TCEA17 Favorite Finds

This is a guest post by Bailey Buck, 1st grade teacher at Johnson Elementary.

That Quiz

• Not an app; it is a website but you can add to your iPad screen from Safari 
• For math quizzes
• You can make your own quizzes (if you have an account) or use quizzes that are already made
• Great differentiation (number of questions, level, time)
• Topics include (but are not limited to): time, money, arithmetic, shapes, number lines, place value
• Free

I have already used this with my students, and it is awesome! The kids love it and ask to do it all the time. It has great feedback and gives me an idea of areas that we need to work on and skills that we have mastered either individually or as a class!


Quizizz

• Free app
• Like Kahoot BUT…
• Students work at their own pace (able to change the time length)
• You can turn music on/off
• The questions and answer choices are on the student individual iPad (not on your board like Kahoot)
• Questions go in different orders
• You can have the questions and answer choice read aloud to the students (so awesome!) 
• Takes the “race” aspect out of the game (in contrast to Kahoot)

THIS IS AWESOME! It's favorite app that I learned about at TCEA! My students loved Kahoot, but I had some students who would just press a random answer to be the “first person who answered.”

With Quizizz, it is not a race, and the students are working on their individual iPad to answer and read the questions (rather than looking on the board for the question). The students love it just as much as Kahoot!


Virtual Manipulative Apps (all free)

• Number Pieces
• Money Pieces
• Number Rack
• Pattern Shapes
• Pieces Basic
• Click here for more great apps to use for math

I downloaded all of these apps, and the students have been using them, taking a screenshot, uploading in Popplet, saving it, uploading to Seesaw, and sharing…triple app-smashing!!

Here is an example of students have done:

1. Used the app “Pieces Basic” and made a number using tens and ones blocks. 
2. Took a screenshot, went to Popplet, uploaded the screenshot, and added more text to describe their blocks.
3. Saved the Popplet and uploaded to Seesaw…

And my students are first graders!!!! 


Chatterpix Kid

• Free app
• Make your photos, friends, or drawings talk (students take a photo, draw a line over the mouth and record their voice...then save and share on Seesaw…app-smashing!!)

The students have so much fun with this app! One way that I have used this app is during our unit over Famous Americans. We studied each Famous American and learned why they are important.

The students then drew a portrait of the Famous American. Students took an iPad, took a picture of their drawing, drew a line over the mouth, and recorded their voice acting like they were that Famous American, saved it, then uploaded to Seesaw! Click here for an example.


Newslea

• Free app
• Safe news site for kids to use
• Can change the Lexile reading level (there is a writing prompt and quiz to go along with the article)
• Can change grade levels
• News Article writing template free on Teacher Pay Teachers

I have not yet used this tool, but it looks fun!


Draw and Tell

• Free App
• Cn be used for telling stories: draw, color, and record voice
• Create a story: talk about your drawing or tell a story, move the stickers as you talk, save drawings with recordings, and then upload to Seesaw…app-smashing! 

I have not yet used this app, but it's on my "to do" list.

#TCEA17 Favorite Finds

This is a guest post by Cindy Featherston, Quest teacher at Rockenbaugh Elementary.

What did I learn at TCEA? What did I not learn! The annual state technology conference always makes me excited to share and ready to try new things. One thing that I picked up from several sessions was the idea of integrating games into the curriculum. Here are some resources to some exciting new ways to integrate games and get your kids excited about learning. 

Breakout EDU

Breakout EDU is an immersive game platform for learners of all ages. In Breakout EDU games, players work collaboratively to solve a series of critical thinking puzzles in order to open a locked box. Each Breakout EDU starter kit can be used to play hundreds of games. I purchased my first box last summer to try this new idea, and my students love it. I was glad to see the co-founder of the program presenting at TCEA. Learn more by clicking here.

Bloxels 

Bloxels is a first-of-its-kind technology that enables you to build, capture, design, play and share your very own video games. Designed with blocks, a universal element of childhood play, Bloxels cultivates imagination while encouraging discovery and experimentation.

With Bloxels, you can realize your own video game ideas, build and animate original characters, develop villains, add in power-ups, and more. This would be a great new way for student to write and develop a story. Learn more by clicking here.

#TCEA17 Favorite Finds

Now that the Instructional Technology and Dragons Go Digital teams are back from TCEA and have had some time to process what we've learned, it's time to share our favorite finds! If you attended the conference and want to contribute a guest post, please contact your campus ITS; we'd love for you to share what you learned.

Here are my favorite finds from #TCEA17:

1. Create Cartoons/Avatars in Google Drawings or Microsoft PowerPoint -- Kristy Edgar is a middle school teacher who creates cartoon videos to spice up her American History lessons (here's an example called "American Revolution, ep. 2: Allies are Friends"). She creates characters using basic, 2D geometric shapes and then uploads her final products to her YouTube channel. Not only could this be a fun addition to your instruction, but it could also be nice for students to make their own characters to review geometric shapes and show their learning in a creative, "techy" way. Click here for her full presentation.

2. Symbaloo Lesson Plans -- This hidden feature of Symbaloo allows teachers to find structured, media-rich lesson plans in the marketplace or create their own. The resulting plan looks similar to a board game with text instructions, web pages, search bars, web articles, videos, math formulas, and/or embedded content sprinkled inside. Teachers can even customize the board so it forces learners to go on a specific path based on their answers. (Click here to see an example lesson plan about the solar system.)

Teachers need a free Symbaloo account (or upgrade to the Edu version -- also free) in order to create or assign lessons, but students don't have to log in at all, which makes this tool perfect for everyone -- including young learners without an e-mail address. When students start a Symbaloo assignment, it prompts them to enter their name and the assignment number. Then the teacher can easily track data -- including results, when assignments were started, how long they took to complete and/or how far each student was able to progress in the assignment, questions answers correctly vs. incorrectly, and more.

Click here for the Symbaloo Lesson Plan Manual, or click here for a quick YouTube video overview.

3. Photos for Class -- Part of practicing good digital citizenship is making sure we use only images we have permission to use online and in presentations. Teachers and students can always conduct advanced Google Image searches to filter pictures based on rights...or we can use websites that make the process a little easier. For instance, Tony Vincent tweeted about PhotosForClass.com, which allows users to search for copyright-friendly photos that are already watermarked with a citation when downloaded:

🔍 Need photos for a project? Trying searching https://t.co/1yZP46IQQ6!#ArcadiaSUSD #tcea17 pic.twitter.com/JL9Jh1GPFp

— Tony Vincent (@tonyvincent) February 8, 2017

To access over 500 TCEA session handouts, please click here. You can also follow along on Twitter by searching for #TCEA17 to read everyone's tweets, or by searching #TCEADragons to read just what CISD employees tweeted about this conference.