RAZ

INTRO: 

At minimum, this product provides high quality early literacy books for emergent readers. However, it's also a product that allows students to see their own growth, allows teachers to capture comprehension data beyond RRR, and is an effective option for virtual learning due to its greater accountability than other reading websites, including the ability to record a reader's reading. CHOICE is the number one motivator in reading, and while this product does allow for that, it uses proprietary texts instead of trade books so is not as compelling. Also, RAZ has the ability for incentives that might encourage reluctant readers.  

CREDIT: 

This workshop is for one professional credit hour.

You will receive credit when you send me a screenshot of your student roster showing the students are leveled (not in placement mode). If you don't have a class, roster yourself for the reading level you typically interact with. You must then return to Frontline to mark the course complete. Credit accepted through Sunday Oct 17. 

COURSE:

Please watch this 11 minute video for an overview of RAZ vs Myon vs Epic. 

After the introduction to the RAZ product, you may choose whatever videos apply to you. 

The goal of this workshop is that you will understand:

how to set up a student in your roster, 

access student comprehension data, 

use an advanced search for printable materials 

(TO PRINT: choose double sided book: print double sided, short edge), 

and have some idea of the scope of what literacy elements RAZ offers reading teachers. 

ACTIVITY:

After reviewing the videos above, your task is to explore the teacher/student interfaces as needed. I hope you find something that will apply to your program. Please email me with any questions, especially if you are primary teacher who cannot access your teacher interface in classlink, as there were many rostering issues this Sept. 

Bitmoji Classroom

This class will share the benefits and possibilities of a Bitmoji Classroom. I recommend reading the entire article first as an overview, then go back and watch the links you need. 

[links on this article are different colored text]

To get credit for this class you must share a google slideshow with me that contains at least 3 elements by end of day Monday Sept 14.

1. a Bitmoji avatar of yourself, 
2. a full screen setting of some sort (classroom, landscape photo, etc), 
3. and a hyperlinked image. 

Bitmoji are cartoon avatars you can personalize to represent your appearance. That profile can then be mapped into a variety of cute poses with simple emotional changes and other icons. To create your Bitmoji, you must access a smartphone and download their app. Login with your SCHOOL gmail account and create your avatar. You can then logout and/or uninstall the app. Add the bitmoji extension to google chrome. If you have "synch" turned off, you will have to do this on every device you wish to work on. You can use your avatar across all Google Apps, including as stickers in Gmail, and even give feedback with them (article) in Docs and Slides. 

A Bitmoji classroom is like a digital diorama, only the objects in the setting with your cartoon self are clickable, sending students to either another Bitmoji room (another slide) or a website. They are essentially a fancy version of a choice board. Choice Boards are a classic digital tool allowing students non-linear but curated options... 

• ClassLink is a Choice Board. 
• Symbaloo is a Choice Board. 
• An interactive bibliography on Docs is a Choice Board. 

If you have not seen many Bitmoji classrooms, I recommend you Google up some versions of your specific assignment. This is a significant movement since the Spring and someone somewhere will have an example to use as a model. Thank you for not stealing other peoples' work. I have found an excellent set of free rooms I've included below. 

Finally, we will be working in Google Slides. Login with your school account. 

Optional Screencast  (4 min) demonstrating these pre-requisites: Bitmoji examples, creating a hyperlinked image. 

Update (optional 2 min): How to use the Bitmoji chrome extension.

Obligatory Librarian Copyright Statement: 

If you are searching for images on Google, go to the "tools" subheading below the search box and choose "usage rights." That's how you find legal images. Also, it is illegal to read aloud any random book on YouTube, unless the author or publisher have specifically listed permissions. If VCSD faculty read a book aloud, they should begin by stating all copyright information including title, series, author, illustrator, publisher and copyright date, and they should have the video permissions set to "only with this link." Even then, make sure the Bitmoji Classroom itself isn't posted publicly like on a webpage or blog, only on a Google Classroom. This is slightly less illegal. Okay, it's still illegal, but it's really in the spirit of the law... WE are not to make an author's work publicly available in a way that circumvents reimbursement, we are just trying to use a mentor text for instruction. Basically, don't go get people's garbage behavior on YT. Just because someone else did it doesn't make it less problematic for you to include it on your work. If we are creating our own work for our own students posted on our own network for momentary instructional purposes, I'm not going to come for you. 

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To begin, please watch these instructional videos in order. 

1. First put in a background and furniture. Remember to search for TRANSPARENT images if you want them to blend nicely. 

2. After you finish decorating but BEFORE you put in the objects you want clickable, remember the KEY step of saving the basic classroom as a background! File: Download: Save as .jpg.  

3. Open a NEW slideshow, upload that jpg to fill the whole slide, and 

4. add only the clickable objects to make them linked.

Clarifying video (4 min) on LOCKING your classroom elements as a background week to week with any changes to your decorations or furniture. 

This video (11 min) is our next stop. Introducing Sub-Rooms!

•     First, it shows you how she has alternated several kinds of Bitmoji Classrooms with her homeroom to host sub-rooms. 
•     Then it jumps because I've edited out the redundant bits with EdPuzzle. 
•     Next, she shows how to use Remove.bg to modify images. *This* is how you turn cute pics of your pets into little cut-out accessories for your classroom. 
• While Slides has a built in "YouTube" search that embeds videos, it still takes children to YT if they choose the video. DO NOT send students to YT. Use Safeyoutube.net 
•     Next she demos how to duplicate a slide and reorder the slideshow, with links within the slideshow, letting you connect multiple Bitmoji Classrooms together. 
•     Then she adds in a voice recording of directions (but there are many ways to do this...I like this webpage as it is super easy and free), 
•     and closes with the important tip on how to order stacked objects. 

Here's my screencast about the "stuff" of the Classroom (16 min). Here's the Doc I used. 

People wanted my finished product so here you go. 

This is a more in-depth look (12 min) at posting Bitmoji in Google Classroom. She discusses 4 ways to publish: the Classroom Header, Material, Quiz, and Assignment. Go to 4:55 to see how she uses a Specials Launch page! Remember, if you go into "Present" mode, you can do a narration across the entire classroom, but students would need to know to do that. I strongly recommend File: Publish to the web, instead.

Congratulations, that's the class, a collection of videos totaling 27 minutes. All the materials below are optional references. 

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To do your work, you might enjoy these resources:

Great transparent images. 

More Great transparent images.

PreMade rooms for non-fussy people. 

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To Extend your work, here are advanced options: 

Bitmoji Educator Support Group on Facebook. 

Another idea with alternative rooms is to create one room for each unit all done up in that theme. So all the science resources for an ocean unit would be in a museum-like aquarium. 

A 5E Lesson Set Example (48 min, but the first 5 is the overview): Interactive elements chosen for pedagogical reasons. If you want examples of interactive elements beyond "go to another webpage" give it a look. She includes PowToon, Forms, FlipGrid, Jamboard, and Quizizz. 

An interactive field trip using Bitmoji. She uses Vocaroo as her narration software. This is a very supportive feature that could be used for support on most Bitmoji Classrooms. 

If you want to get fancy and animate your Bitmoji moving around the classroom, watch this (14 min). She also shows an add on to slides/docs called Extensis for more fonts, as well as the fabulous Magic Rainbow Unicorns add on for ombre, neon, rainbow-filled font. POW!

Bitmoji and Seesaw.  (4 min)

Other ways to use Bitmoji avatars (article) in teaching. For as long as we remain in a physical hybrid model, feel free to use Bitmoji throughout your classroom with stickers, signage, and on whole class displays like at morning meeting. Get a giant cutout of the "Peek and wave" and use it on your front door or window! Extra Cute Tip: WEAR YOUR OUTFIT! Create your avatar in a recognizable actual outfit you own, and wear it some time... watch to see who notices.