Tech Scout Points

This is what I have for my Tech Scout PD Strand:


Created blog: 5 points




Collaborate to Innovate:
5 points fall (mystery Skype)
5 points spring (IMovie for Mother's Day)


Grow Your Toolbox:
Padlet: 2 points
IMovie: 4 points
Tagxedo: 1 point




Strut Your Stuff:
Lea and I pimpled a lesson together: 1 point




Hanging out in the Universe:
Connected with another class using Twitter: Global Read Aloud: 1 point
Mystery Skype (blogged about this): 2 points




Out and About:
Attended GaETC: 3 points




Take a Walk:
Lego Kits in Idea lab: 3 points






App Smashing:
Global Read Aloud (blogged about this): 1 (or 2?) points
100th Day of School (aging app with chatterpix app): 1 point

Lego Kits

During our unit on Simple Machines I brought the class to the Idea Lab to use the Lego Kits.  They first drew a simple machine on the wall and labeled it.  Then they worked in groups to create a simple machine using the Lego Kits.  They did a great job working in teams and creating their simple machines!!

Tagxedo

I taught my class how to use the Tagxedo website to create a Tagxedo about Spring.  They are working on this on their menu this week and are enjoying changing the shape, color, font, and inserting words about Spring.  Can't wait to hang up their finished products!

Mother's Day Video

Thank you Stacy Brown for helping me take my Mother's Day video to the next level! I recorded interviews with the kids using the Green Scree App which I have used before. I then added fun background pictures for each kid.  Then I imported the videos into IMovie.  I have used IMovie before, but have never inserted text to show up on the screen.  With Stacy's help, I was able to insert the Mom's answer to the questions as their child was saying what they thought the answer was.  It was a huge hit and funny too!  The mom's loved the video! I then uploaded it to YouTube and share the link with my class!

Pimp My Lesson

Mrs. Artzi and I met together to Pimp a Lesson for each other!  My class was studying habitats and I knew I wanted to integrate more technology into an otherwise basic lesson of reading information about the habitat and then taking notes on a graphic organizer.  Mrs. Artzi suggested a great idea that I ended up first modeling to the class and then letting them try on their own for centers.  Using the worldwildlife.org website, my students worked in small groups to research one of the habitats.  They were able to look at pictures, learn facts, and see different plans and animals.  Then, they used the Tellagami App to create a Gami to share their facts.  Mrs. Artzi definitely helped me pimp my lesson to the next level and make otherwise basic facts come more to life with the use of technology.  Thanks again, Mrs. Artzi!

January 5th PD strand meeting

I enjoyed meeting with the other tech scouts to try out some cool technology ideas from Stacy! Michelle and I used an electronics kit called Littlebits where you can put them together to help create inventions and super cool things that are still slightly over my head.  I don't even know how this happened, but Michelle and I was able to use the Little Bits to connect them so that we could turn on lights and move things around with our separate controller. Our vision was to make the University of Alabama "A" and have it light up inside of a stadium (a cardboard box) but we didn't make it that far.  Super excited though that it worked and would love to work with it more during some of our top secret ideas we have moving forward. PS Seeing some of the things the kids at the school do with this technology and the inventions they come up with is amazing!

GaETC Conference

On Wednesday, November 4 I went to the GaETC conference.  I LOVED the keynote speaker Angela Maiers and her #youmatter message.  It really got me thinking about how to make all the children in my class feel important and worth it and I love following her feed on twitter now to get more ideas.  At the conference I attended a session about Genius Hour.  I am still trying to figure out if there is a way I could implement this into my classroom at a second grade level, but I love the concept and idea of letting the kids come up with their own idea or thing they want to learn about and conducting the research and resources independently.  I also attended an App Smashing session.  I can't wait till the 100th day of school so I can use the aging app with the chatter pix app so they can take their picture of themselves "aging" and then record a message and have it look like they are talking!  I also attended a session on where schools will be in 25 years and how schools need to prepare to get there.  It is both scary and exciting to think about how much education, teaching and learning will change over that course of time.  Overall, I enjoyed the conference and came away with some new technology ideas to try.