#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.