Hour of Code

All the stockings were hung by the chimney with care, and the thoughts of coding filled the air.

I had the privilege of working with 1st-5th graders last week for the hour of code.  I hope this will only be the beginning of many more coding activities to come for these students.  We visited code.org for the great coding activities and games.  They have courses and games for ages four and up.  The Angry Birds and Frozen games were a great hit with the students.  

We also enjoyed this coding game in the Google Santa Tracker.

It is not too late to begin coding with your class.  Try out these awesome activities!  Happy coding!

Getting Started with Google Docs and Drive

Are you ready to get started with Google Docs and Drive?  This presentation will help you as you begin your journey.

ClassFlow

Are you looking to get started with the ClassFlow?  This presentation will walk you through how to login as a student, how to create lessons, how to import lessons, how to present through ClassFlow, and how to add your students to your class.  ClassFlow is a free cloud based presentation platform that works with all devices.  There is a free student app in the iTunes store, Google Play store, and Windows store.  Students can also log in at www.classflow.com/learner. 

ImageTransfer App

Do you have student work that you need to transfer off the iPads?  If you can save the student work as a photo to the camera roll, then the Image Transfer app can help you.  With this free app it is easy to share student work from the camera roll with another iPad, an iPhone, or your desktop computer.  You can send up to five photos for free each time.

Aurasma iRead Bulletin Board

Have you tried Aurasma? I LOVE this app!  I've been reading about the Aurasma app for a while.  There are several great posts on the web with tutorials on how to setup an account and create an aura.  I found the Two Guys and Some iPads and Kleinspiration websites to be very helpful with step by step guides, video clips, and ideas to use this app in your classroom.  

One of my favorite ways I used this app in my classroom was with my reading bulletin board.  I took pictures of my students with their favorite books.  Then I recorded a short video of each student explaining what he or she loved about his or her book.  I used the Aurasma app to link each video clip with the photos.  The class enjoyed seeing our bulletin board come to life as we all talked about our favorite books.

I posted this sign with any of our class bulletin boards that could be brought to life with the Aurasma app. 

I created this direction page to explain how others in the school or parents could download the app and follow our channel to see our Auras.

App-tastic Ideas for Building the Classroom Community

With school beginning just around the corner, I've been thinking of some app-tastic ideas to begin the school year.  Each year as I had a fresh group of students, I always began the year with classroom community building activities to help everyone get to know one another.  I felt this was a valuable time for me as the teacher to learn more about my students and for  them to learn a little about each other.  As we built our classroom community, I was always hunting for the small connections, the ways to show the students "you matter" and "I care."  
I thought I would show some ways to take the normal get to know each other activities and add a technology twist to them.  

Students can create a Popplet to show some of their favorite things.  We drew our pictures in a drawing app and then imported them into our Popplets.  Students could also draw five favorite things on small squares of paper with crayons and then take photos of their drawings to use in their popplets.

With Skitch, students can take a selfie or a photo of each other and then add adjectives to describe themselves around their photo.

 With Tellagami, students can create a gami to share fun things they did this summer, some of their favorite things, or their goals for the upcoming year.

With Word Clouds, students could create a word cloud telling the class about their favorite things.

Students could use ChatterPix Kids to tell about the best part of their summer.  When I asked my niece to make a ChatterPix about the best part of her summer, she made this little singing wave. 

Here is a handout with a few more app-tastic ideas for getting to know one another with a technology twist.  Click the handout below to download a copy for yourself.

After your class has completed a few of the activities above, combine some of the student projects together in an app like iMovie or Book Creator to showcase everyone's work.  The students will love revisiting these projects in the upcoming weeks as they learn more about each other.

ClassFlow

Have you heard about ClassFlow?

ClassFlow is a free cloud based platform for creating and delivering lessons in your classroom.  It's interactive features allows teachers to engage all learners throughout the lesson.  Teachers can create student cards and assessments to push out to student devices during the lesson.  ClassFlow can be used on any device.  There is a free student app in the iTunes store, Google Play store, and Windows store.  
Here are some resources I have gathered from around the web to help get you started with ClassFlow.  Click the ThingLink to explore more.