Adobe Spark

Adobe Spark is a website that allows you and high school students (13yo min age on the siteNot true anymore!) to create posters, flyers, websites or videos. They can be printed, but they're digital so of use for webpages, emails, and online family communication tools. This product has the ability to narrate your videos so it becomes like screencasting--perfect for asking students to put their own content into slideshow projects (think prezi, powerpoint, or Google Slides). This webpage also allows people to create webpages as beautiful as Weebly but WAY easier. When you or your students are ready to move beyond Smore as a delivery for such "newsletter" looking content, you could use Spark to create an online presentation or project. Or yes, this could be your teacher webpage! But wait there's more! Remember when the only cool graphics were from really technical people who knew how to use Adobe Photoshop? Not anymore, because Spark also guides you into creating killer image-text pairings that are Instragram worthy!

Here's their page selling examples of their product's uses to educators. Please look over the examples found there, and sign yourself up via Google. Adobe Spark is free! If they try to pitch you the $100/yr subscription, you don't need it... might be something to think of for people who adopt this webpage and use it a lot--I'm thinking of teachers who run clubs or sports teams, or small business owners, or teachers who want their students to use it for projects. Spark is only 2 years old and is already widely used at colleges. It would be an appropriate product to encourage high schoolers to use for projects.

To get credit for this course, I'd like you to create a post, page, or video. Take some extra time to make something of use to you in Sept. Maybe it's a digital poster that will help remind families of parent night as you send it through your Remind, Seesaw, or Bloomz, or maybe it's a video show of your family and summer you want to share with your class. You could make Spark Posts as classroom signs to hang around the room! In my how-to videos you will see me make a family flyer for a special event, a book club page for use by both my students and their families, and a discussion video for that book club.

After you spend some time thinking over what to create, think of what media you will need. Sparks comes with a library of high quality images, but if you're going to make a video/slide show or want actual classroom photos on your signs, you are going to need to get that media first. Some of you might want to go take videos or pictures and download them in a way you can access them again (hint: never just download things you care about to your "download" folder on your computer). Using custom media isn't required... feel free to use their stock images.

So now you've looked over the Sparks examples on the educators page, thought about what to make, and collected any special photos you want. Here's my intro video on posts and pages. Here's the 2nd video on pages and videos. After watching both of my videos, if you need more help let me know because I kept it short and this is by far the most robust product I've focused on during the summer online classes! Be brave!

You may share your creation with me through the sharing aspect of Sparks or via email: linsem@victorschools.org.

Titlewave: Classroom Library Help is Here

I'm a librarian, so I've been living on Titlewave for more than 10 years now. I've tried their competitor products at Permabound, Children's Press, etc. but Titlewave is by far the best (also the biggest). Follett is to libraries what Amazon is to the public, and as I was making a book list for Claire and Julie about books I'd rec for classroom libraries, I thought... teachers should know about this too.
So... the webpage isn't all that complex. It's a place librarians shop for books, and yes publishers pay to have their books featured in the Titlewave "featured" area but that doesn't mean those books aren't good. Same way we all use Scholastic because it's the behemoth that caters to classrooms but it doesn't mean their books are bad. Titlewave will help you with the Scholastic blinders, and it will help you find books by series, academics, level, referral, AND show you the reviews that librarians rely on when ordering--by fellow librarians. This website lets you look for books and gather them into a "list" and share that list with other Titlewave users if needed. You can build a list and share it with your dept or co-teacher, but they'd need a titlewave account to get it, it's not a webpage in and of itself. That's it, really, nothing fancy, just a good non-Amazon, non-Scholastic place to shop for books...so watch this video!

Symbaloo

Symbaloo is a webpage that allows you to gather many website links into one grid, turning them not into blue text links like this but little picture icons. Symbaloo lets you have many pages of these gathered links in a tabbing system which makes it great for people who want kids to use links in sets based on units, seasons, or times of year. For instance, last year I used symbaloo for staff development, 2nd grade insect work, and the Olympics. The link above takes you to my Olympic symbaloo, and you can see it also allows you to group the links in color zones if you need to further separate them on a page (mine are blue, red, green, and grey: look behind the little pictures to the background color of the square). It's very easy to just drag the icons around and rearrange them, but once you've gathered them where you want, then you drag over them to group them into a color set.

Symbaloo is something that could be duplicated on a doc. For instance, you could open up a Google doc, add a picture, and set a hyperlink to that picture. You could do that over and over, resizing the pictures to a uniform look. Then you would share the doc with the students via a gmail group. It is also something that could be duplicated on a webpage like weebly or a google site. This capability isn't unique. It's just one answer to the age old question : how to get kids to tech options in a consistent way. It's a poor man's webpage that simply says "here are some tabs full of resources I offer as choices." I've also seen it offered in a more unique way with older students who are comfortable moving between chrome tabs: you can set the icons as numbers, allowing kids to move through multiple webpages in order, building on knowledge in a sequence you select.

One final way symbaloo is powerful is that it can be searched based on the Gallery. So if you want to know what other 2nd grade teachers teaching insects have used as webpages... searching Symbaloo gives you the curation that Google lacks.

Symbaloo calls each tab of gathered resources a webmix. In my experience, a teacher should create a webmix for those times you want kids to go to many options on repeated occasions. For instance, I might make a webmix for the big research unit on colonial history I have to teach every year, or I might make a webmix of math game pages since I want the class to have tech time focused on math every Wednesday. Making a webmix of 3 apple websites for one lesson in which the teacher will be showing the webpages isn't a good use of Symbaloo.

To start this workshop and make it somewhat useful, please reflect on something in your teaching that fits the examples I gave. When you offer students independent time (or homework) on the computers... when you have many options (at least 5) of places you want them to explore... when you want them to have this independence with many options over a long period where offering this product isn't a one-off... what is that to you? A page of spelling games? A page of fake news links? A page of biology departments at leading universities? Perhaps you already have these links posted to a webpage, doc, or playlist--that's fine. You can use a pre-selected set and see if you like the way they present in Symbaloo better.

How to Use Symbaloo

Classlink 101

Welcome to the district's new homepage. 

Setup Video 1 (first login, apps, edit mode, files)

Setup Video 2 (details, adding your own app, getting credit)
Get your password book and go to this address: classlink.victorschools.org 

Screencasting

Screencasting is an essential skill for any digitally-minded teacher. It supports:
instruction to families on classroom tech,
flipped classrooms,
independent tech centers,
absent students, and
remedial students who need repetition.

I am going to show you 3 screencasting tools in this class
Loom (simplest)
Soapbox (slickest)
Screencastify (most generous)


In order to receive credit, your coursework for this class is to choose one of the above and screencast a 30 sec or more video of a webpage and post it to the comments below. You should login to blogger to do this so I know who you are, or you can say "This is Michele Linse" in the text of the comment as you paste your link because otherwise you come up as "unknown". Choose a website you have used with students in the past year and already know i.e. IXL or class dojo. If you want to take extra time and care to create a screencast of something you actually want to share with families or students in September, please do!

Screencasting is about SHOWING people not just what is cool, but HOW it works with your voice narrating the mouse movements. All three of these screen recorders have the option to put your face on screen (or not). For beginning of the year videos to parents and flipped classrooms where you are delivering primary instruction outside of class I HIGHLY RECOMMEND you suck it up and put your face on screen. It adds that much more of a personal touch.

Here are some real-life examples of the power of screencasting. Screencasting is how you'll show your students' families how to use schooltool. It's how you'll show your students how to attach a doc to their Gclassroom assignments when they email you the 50th time asking how to do it. It's how you'll show your peers how you filled in your teacher award payroll voucher on wincapweb. It's how you'll show your Dad how to use Facebook when he lives in Florida and keeps posting messages to Aunt Mimi on his wall. I USE IT EVERY SINGLE WEEK OF MY LIFE and I can't imagine living without it. I send out toss off screencasts for the most basic of lessons because the time it would take me to type out directions is more than it takes me to click an icon, record myself doing it, and then share the link. You will never go back to writing directions on how to access something again.

Please take the time to watch other people's screencasts because you will see other ideas of how to teach with them as well as learn all these cool webpages people are using. Third Grade teacher Kristin Amato used Loom for her Remind workshop and you can see she kept a traditional approach with a slide show to help guide her thoughts. Math Coach Holly Knox used Soapbox for her FlipGrid workshop and you can see she used the software's flexibility to give a basic intro speech a little more pizzazz. I will use Screencastify for this workshop (and all my other workshops this summer) and you can see I do it because I want the videos in my own drive and not have to go to another website for them.

Let's Get to It! Watch this first and choose your poison. You will click on the icon you install, sign in, and record yourself using a website while talking about it (face optional). You can be super casual about this as your audience is the class, but it is in the public domain. Then post the link to the (at least 30 sec long) video in the comments below WITH your name or after you've logged into blogger.

KidLit Book Club SECOND AUGUST SESSION

Happy Summer!
Welcome to KidLit Book Club SECOND AUGUST SESSION!
You are going to choose what to read. Please select texts of approx. 100 pages. For instance, you may read 4 picture books, 2 early chapter books, or a longer novel. They should be things that are new-to-you. You may read them in any format--audio, ebook, or print.

Here on the blog, please post what you've chosen to read so that others in the course can see and share. Please login to blogger so your comments are labeled or put "This is Michele" in the text of your book announcements and reviews bc otherwise you will be listed as "unknown". You are encouraged to read the blog comments and add your own to anyone else's... that's the "club" part of the course. However, peer comments, aside from your summary, are not required.

When you finish, post your review. It should include at least 3 sentences with these points:
a one sentence gist that mentions the main character and main plot thrust,
a one sentence opinion as a reader-perhaps a favorite part,
and a one sentence opinion as a teacher-perhaps with a comment about teach points or the type of reader you'd rec the book to.

If you read 4 picture books, yes you do this for every book.
If you read 2 short early-reader chapter books, you'll submit 2 reviews.

Ex Book Report: Little Red Riding Hood by Perrault. A little girl encounters a trickster wolf in a historical fairy tale. I really enjoyed the way the suspense builds, but was surprised by the abrupt ending with the odd way the wolf dies. I would not choose to read this out loud but would recommend it to kids who want edgier, spookier reads (that really aren't all that bad).

FlipGrid

This course is being run by Holly Knox: knoxh@victorschools.org.
Please watch these videos to explore FlipGrid!
Start Here!
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