Using Padlet to Showcase Student Work

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Our 6th graders will create a Piet Mondrian inspired artwork during the first trimester. Piet Mondrian’s work is easily recognized by his use of primary colors, the use of horizontal and vertical lines, and the primary values of white, gray and black. It was a form of art he called Neoplasticism. Students will use Google Drawings to create their art and then share it on the digital canvas shown below. I deliver their assignment through Google Classroom once all students have joined my classroom. It’s an awesome way to organize and collect student work.

Made with Padlet

Minion Now Downloadable at Thingiverse

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a 3d minion view

 

One of my first 3D projects I built at Tinkercad was a Minion. I had seen a speed video on YouTube. The problem with speed videos, however, is their lack of verbal instruction. I had to watch the video frame-by-frame to learn how to construct him. Some of that speed video contained repeated errors, which made the learning process harder than it needed to be. But, once I’d gathered the information needed to construct him, I recorded my own video tutorials with Screencastify.  Those videos were then uploaded to YouTube and the links cleaned up in http://safeyoutube.net, preventing any unwanted content from showing up. These cleaned YouTube links were then added to a symbaloo playlist and made available on my blog (http://blogs.egusd.net/creslab/3d-printing) for myself and students to access. It was a great way to flip instruction and make instructional content available 24 hours a day.

For those interested in printing this Minion, you can reach the downloadable files at https://www.thingiverse.com/thing:2774265.

Increasing Engagement with Thinglink

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This interactive graphic was created through Thinglink for Tri County Wildlife Care (TCWC). Thinglink allows users to annotate images and videos to increase engagement.  This Thinglink takes TCWC followers to more information about opossums. Viewers simply hover their cursor across the photo to reveal numerous hyperlinked icons. Some of these links connect to a quiz, video, or photos/illustrations about the opossum’s skeletal structure, anatomy, and diet. Additonal links lead to related stories and provide a direct link to Tri County Wildlife Care’s donation page and web page featuring Gold Country Critters.

Thinglink is also a great way for students to demonstrate learning, enabling them to add their own icons and links to additional, relevant resources. Students can share their projects with peers to further learning and collaboration. Sharing through social media links moves student work beyond classroom walls, giving students a real audience for their work.

A Teacher Pro account runs $35/year; a Teacher Premium account is $120/year and includes the 360 degree editor. Both accounts include classroom management.

#Thinglink #TCWC #SavingWildlifeSavesUs

Creating Games with Google Drawings & Slides

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This summer I started following Alice Keeler on Twitter. Her blog, Teacher Tech,  is always loaded with great ideas. I recently came across her tweet to her blog post: Play Connect 4 Asynchronously.  The basic game is made in Google Drawings because it offers the distribute tool, which is unavailable in Slides. The distribute tool is used to quickly organize and space the circles, which become openings in the “gameboard”. After the game is made, it’s downloaded as a png and uploaded to Google Slides as a background to prevent players from accidentally deleting it. With the background complete, I then created the game pieces in Slides. These are the only objects easily moved on the screen. I kept my page setup in Drawings the same for Google Slides; otherwise, the board and pieces looked distorted.

Connect 4 gameboard

Connect 4 made in Google Drawings, downloaded as a png file.

connect 4 game in slides

Connect 4 shown in Google Slides with player pieces

Paul Klee Inspires Third Graders

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Students in Mrs. Wathen’s 3rd grade classroom recently completed their Paul Klee inspired cats. Students used crayons and watercolors to create their masterpieces. Student art was uploaded to Animoto and produced into this video slide show. Take a look and see what you think!

Click here to view an example of Paul Klee’s art.

#Paul_Klee #watercolors

The World Needs More _____ Right Now?

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gratitude pictureJoin the social media campaign for Character Day, 2017. Here’s the challenge from Let it Ripple: On a piece of paper write the sentence: The world needs more ________ right now. Select one of the character strengths from the Periodic Table of Character Strengths (shown below) and share through social media. Use the hashtag #CharacterDay2017 and share using @GlobalCharacter.

periodic table of character strengths screen shot

Social Media Campaign for Character Day 2017

Canva for Quick, Digital Designing

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Well,  here’s another helpful ad from Facebook. Canva offers digital designing software. Over 200,000 free photos and images are offered. With no training, I was able to quickly create a blog graphic. CANVA’s Digital Design Challenge will walk you through the basic skills needed to create your own design. Additional design elements can be purchased at $1/piece.

Canva created graphic

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Canva can also be used to create certificates.

Solar Eclipse at CRES

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CRES kids wore their safety shades to watch the eclipse. All photos were edited with the Aviary application and uploaded to Animoto.  It took about 30 minutes to upload the photos, dragging and dropping them into the preferred order. The video was produced and then upgraded to HD (720p) for an additional $10.  The band, Leftover Cuties, supplied the song: A Sunnyside.

Rawshorts for Explainer Videos

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Most of us dislike the ads placed on our Facebook accounts, but every now and then an advertiser offers something of use to me as a teacher. I saw a recent ad for Rawshorts, a video creation tool. Rawshorts offers a 30-minute tutorial to get users up and running. Using some of their templates, I was able to create this video for my students.

The video shown below was made by fellow resource teacher, Matthew Gipson. He used his own creative style to help students learn how to behave properly in the computer lab. I’ll be showing both videos to my students during their first week back to school.

Mondrian Style Art With Google Drawings

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Piet Mondrian, a Dutch painter, is best know for a form of art he called neoplasticism. The art is prepared on a white background, with a grid of black lines and the primary colors: red, yellow, and blue. Young students can easily recreate their own Mondrian style art.

When students originally began this project, they used the Kerpoof website. It was loved by kids and fairly simple to use. Kerpoof, owned by the Walt Disney Company, closed April 2014. Instead, Disney moved toward creating mobile apps.

The art for this project is quickly created with Google Drawings. Just a few tools are needed: line tool, line weight, shape tool, and arrange. Ctrl + D is also used to quickly duplicate lines. Once completed, I have the students save their art as a png file and have them upload to a collaborative canvas at Padlet.

Mondrian style art image

#Mondrian #GoogleDrawings #ElementaryArtProjects

Creating Digital Badges for Students

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Image of a digital badgeI spent much of my summer vacation searching out new digital projects for my students. I really wanted to do more with Google Drawings. On YouTube, I came across this well-made tutorial from Flipped Classroom. The instructions were clear and simple. Shown at left is the badge I made to award students who create a Mondrian style art project. Years ago, students used the Kerpoof Website to make that artwork, but Kerpoof closed in 2014.  My 2nd graders can now use Google Drawings to mimic Piet Mondrian’s style and earn a digital badge.

 

The CRES Class Tweeter Board

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Are you interested in giving your students Twitter-like capabilities?  I recently came across this lesson concept from Tammy Worcester, outlining the steps necessary to create a class Tweeter Board, giving students an opportunity to compose 140 character responses. Click here to reach Tammy’s lesson plan.

My students will access the student form as an assignment in Google Classroom and will mark their work “DONE” when completed. Shown below is an example of how the sheet will appear to the teacher as tweets are collected. The teacher is given the option to moderate responses by simply typing a Y into the yellow box during lesson set up. I’ll repost examples of student responses toward the end of September.

example of the tweeter form

Shown below is the student view of the Tweeter Board as viewed in a Google Form.

Google Form view

If students write more than 140 characters, the message area will turn red as shown below, and the message can’t be submitted.

example of a 144 character tweet

Students who successfully post to the CRES Tweeter Message Board will earn the digital badge shown below.  I’ll reveal the claim code to students earning the badge. Students with the claim code will access the badge at Credly.  I can also send the badge directly to students via Google Classroom.

Tweeter digital badge

 

 

 

 

 

#TweeterBoard #Twitter #TammyWorcesterTang