Add Some Energy to Classroom Assignments

Our elementary librarian recently invited me to collaborate with her and our fifth grade classes to create readers theater productions. This was just the opportunity I needed. I have been looking for a chance to introduce the Toontastic app to our elementary students and thought that this might be an   fitting way to do it.

Photo Credit: launchpadtoys.com

Have you ever heard of this app? It was created by Launchpad Toys.  Last year, Google and Launchpad Toys joined forces and decided to release this app along with Telestory (an equally fantastic creation tool) free!  This tool has so many amazing features.  It is still hard for me to believe that it is a free resource. At first glance, it appears to be extremely primary.  It is in fact very engaging for even our youngest kiddos and easy to navigate as well (I am currently teaching it to our kindergartners too). The learning curve for using this tool is virtually nonexistent due to the  tutorials that are built right into the design process. But please don't be fooled.  Even teenagers and adults will find this tool useful and captivating. Try it yourself to see!

Toontastic is a digital storytelling and animation tool, but if you are willing to think outside the box, it can be used in SO. MANY. WAYS.

I asked our kindergarten students to help me think about some ways this tool might help us learn our classroom skills and concepts.  Here are a few of their ideas, along with several of mine:

• animate and solve a math story
• recreate a historical event
• summarize a chapter/concept/story
• work on character dialogue
• practice foreign languages
• create math symbols that explain their own purpose
• creatively recite your ABC's, multiplication facts or state capitals
• narrate poetry
• animate the steps of a science project or experiment
• this blogger shares how she uses the app to conduct test prep

If you are looking for engaging ways to have students learn required content and skills, you may want to give this tool a serious look.  It is available for ios at this time.  Students can use their personal devices or even share devices to create. Finished work can then be uploaded and shared with the teacher via Google Drive or Dropbox. 

 Do you feel that asking students to create encourages engagement? How do your students create in the classroom?

Please share your comments and thoughts below.

A Classroom Learning To Blog

Over the past two weeks, I worked with one of our third grade classrooms to set up a classroom blog. This was an exciting project and one that I hope will gain a lot of traction here in our elementary school. It has been a worthwhile venture, but there were definitely some bumps in the road to be worked out. I would like to share our process for getting started for anybody out there thinking about taking this on themselves.  The initial time investment was absolutely worth it.

Photo Credit:Langwitches

Mrs. Lucas was looking for authentic reading and writing experiences for her students as well as a way to share what they are learning in their classroom.

up and coming bloggers from room 202

Mrs. Lucas and I initially met to discuss her goals for this project and her desire to have the blog authored primarily by her students.We set up a free blogspot through Google's Blogger because we have a district GAFE  account. Another place to host a classroom friendly blog space might be Seesaw.  This is a free resource aimed at younger children that I have had my eye on  lately. They have recently added a blog feature.

With the students, we began by discussing what a blog is, what it can be used for and then we explored some blogs created by others. The kids especially liked looking at the blog authored by our own Mrs.Rosak.  Mrs.Rosak is an avid reader. She created her blog to share her love of reading with others. See her blog here.  We also explored classroom blogs that featured young student writers. Mrs.Yollis from California has been blogging with elementary students for years.  Her blog had great examples for adding multimedia to a post. This was an excellent post for us to learn from. Mrs. Yollis provides a wealth of blogging resources for teachers linked to her blog.

Next, we had some practical blog management discussions:

• how to add photos and images to our blog- applicable photos and images make a blog post more interesting and engaging
• adding links with additional, related information
• the importance of using our own photos and images whenever possible and giving proper credit for images that are not ours
• ending our post with specific questions to try to engage the reader to participate in a discussion with us
• how to write quality comments for a blog post

Creating our first two blog posts as a group was a lot of fun.  This time allowed us to not only continue learning the basics of blog creation, but we also were able to add in a few grammar mini-lessons as well. Thank you Mrs.Rosak for your input in that area!  The kids were so excited when we posted live and got several comments back.  Thank you to our supportive South Side staff who took the time to write something.  It meant so much to these budding authors!

The students in room 202 are now working hard to write their own posts.  They will have something new to share soon.  Please take a look at their blog and share a comment to help keep them  motivated and writing.  

As I worked on this project, I was able to collect some helpful lesson plans, checklists and rubrics from others who have gone before us. No need to reinvent the wheel. Let's share.  Please contact me if I can help.

Have you created a blog?  Would you like to?  Share some of your thoughts and questions in the comments below.  Thanks for reading! 

Internet Resources: What Is Legal Use?

As our building has progressed further into our 1:1 iPad initiative and technology is now being used extensively in our learning spaces, students have almost unlimited access to images, audio and video from the web.  I have become increasingly aware that even with the Fair Use Copyright Law (1976), students and educators do not have free rein to use these resources as they wish.  Educational leaders have a responsibility to use these resources correctly and to teach our students to do the same.

Creative Commons is an organization that attempts to maximize legal, digital sharing and innovation.  They have created six licenses designed for this purpose.  The video below gives a brief, easy to understand explanation of the process.



There are several ways that educational leaders can direct students toward internet resources that authors and artists want to be shared and reused.  Some tools and strategies that I am currently trying...

• At the elementary level, sharing a google folder with a variety of teacher-selected images for students to choose from can often be effective.
• Whenever possible, have students take and use their own photos and videos.
• Pixabay and  Pics4Learning provide free images for students that require no attribution.  Here are some other useful links:
• http://www.redjumper.net/blog/2015/12/the-top-5-sources-for-images-and-photos-on-your-ipad/
• http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2013/08/5-good-places-for-students-to-find.html#.Vo6F8cYrLIU
• http://eduscapes.com/tap/topic98.htm
• https://edublogs.org/2010/09/17/edublogs-weekly-review-top-5-sites-to-find-images-for-student-use/
• Creative Commons provides their own search engine. 
• Flickr:Creative Commons  and Wikipedia Commons provide usable media files for student use.

I still have so much to learn in this area.  Please share in the comments below if you have found useful strategies or tools to use with your students.