Use these great multi-source tab slide presentations in your Schoology course so students can practice navigating between sources. Just embed them on a Schoology discussion, assignment or quiz and provide questions for students to respond to.
The second grade classrooms at Swanson Elementary buzz with movement and conversation as excited students proudly display their work to their parents and peers. At first look, it is obvious that this is not the typical classroom. Kids and parents alike don earphones and fixate on the many iPad screens on display throughout the classrooms, depicting videos and eBooks of student work. Conversations ring through the air as parents ask questions and students describe the process of creating their eBooks. This is a 21st Century Classroom.
2nd Grade Animal Adaptations at Swanson Elementary
Be sure to bypass iBoss to view the YouTube Video
The challenge of incorporating technology into what seems like an impossibly full curriculum often feels like a daunting task. But what Swanson's digital teacher librarian, Shannon Feely, understands is that technology doesn't have to be "just another thing." When done well, technology transforms the required curriculum into engaging learning experiences that are rigorous and cross-curricular.
In October, Shannon began the process of working with second grade teachers Christy Doody and Erin Praznik to determine how technology could be incorporated into the second grade C-CAP unit Cause and Effect: Survival, Organisms, and the Environment. Although some second grade teachers in the district have students create a fictional animal and describe how that animal's fictional adaptations would help it survive, Feely, Doody and Praznik were looking to take this project to a more rigorous level of learning and incorporate a variety of content areas. Their idea: collaborate with art teacher Aimee Pickar, and have students create a fictional animal and model it out of clay; use technology to research the animal's potential environment; draw and build a diorama of the animal's habitat; use the writing process to describe the animal's habitat and adaptations; combine all of the pieces into a ThingLink1; and allow students the opportunity to showcase their work to parents and peers in a grand opening of their "zoo."
To kick off their project-based learning, Doody and Praznik wanted to engage and excite their second graders. What better way to do so than to dress up as zoo keepers and tell their students that the school just purchased their very own zoo? Unfortunately, the zoo was missing one thing... animals! It would be up to the students to create their own animals to fill the zoo. The teachers even invited a real zoo keeper to come to Swanson and speak to the kids about animal adaptations!
Each week, students progressed through the various stages of the project. To the untrained eye, one may see a commotion of movement and noise. But if that person took the time to carefully observe, they would see the depth of what is truly happening: students hard at work, thoughtfully incorporating the 4 C's into each piece of their project.
Creativity: Students thinking outside of the box to create, draw, and model an original animal with unique adaptations.
Critical Thinking: Students determining how their animal's adaptations will allow them to survive in a specific habitat: arctic, ocean, rainforest, and desert.
Communication: Students communicating their learning about their animal, its adaptations and its habitat through writing and vocal recordings.
Collaboration: Students working with and relying on the wisdom and knowledge of their peers and teachers to have meaningful conversations and make thoughtful decisions throughout the project.
Nearly finished with the project, the team of teachers and students hit a roadblock; ThingLink was not working properly on district devices at the time. Not willing to give up on the hard work the students and teachers had accomplished, Feely needed a new plan to tie the learning all together. She decided students would take their photos, videos and written paragraphs, once intended for ThingLink, and combine them into an eBook using the app Book Writer One.
The eBook required students to compile artifacts they had created and organize them onto 5 pages:
A cover with picture of the student's animal and its habitat
A paragraph introducing the animal, including a photograph of their clay model in front of its habitat.
A description of the animals habitat, including an image of the habitat gathered from the internet.
A paragraph describing the animal's adaptions, including a photograph of the students' labeled drawing.
The student's zoo keeper video, in which the student verbally presented the written report they authored in their writing class.
In December, the project came to a close when the second grade zoologists clipped on their zoo ID badges, and parents and peers flooded the gates of their zoo's grand opening. Through the work of the students, Feely, Doody, Praznik and Pickar, the community was able to see the value technology holds as a tool to increase learning and engagement across the curriculum.
1ThingLink is a web 2.0 tool and tagging platform that allows the user to layer their images and videos with web links, photo, texts, videos, polls, Google products and other great content.
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Bored with outdated, text heavy web pages? Let the Steegle Slider Gadget rejuvenate your website with welcoming images and current announcements sliding across the page!
If you have used Google Slides, you will love the ease in which you can use the Steegle Slidemaker Gadget to create a visually appealing slider for your Google Website. Even if you haven’t, you will quickly learn how to use ready made templates (compliments of Romain Vialard) to accomplish the task!
You will find a couple of our favorite free template styles available at the bottom of this Steegle.com web page. This web page includes general instructions on how to use the slider gadget, however, a few tips may save you some confusion. This is where we come in! We have added some tips to our really clear instructions that may save you from feeling confused and leave you loving these slider gadgets! So let’s get started!
If you have recently created a Google form, you may have noticed a new purple bar in the header. As Google continues to update their products and meet the ever changing needs of their users, a new version of Forms is in the works. To check out this new format, click on the purple bar to enter the new Google Forms. This update features a cleaner, more user friendly and streamlined look. Simplified floating tool bars have been added to follow you through the creation process and text heavy menu bars have been removed. While most of the features remain the same, there are a few additions that were not available in the past and a few missing features that still need to be integrated.
Fun new features
Consistent with the old version, users still have the option to use design templates to make their forms more interesting. The new version contains updated options, fun animations and artistic elements, as well as the ability to use a logo or school image for instant customization.
Real time response
The new Google Forms provides an additional way to view your responses. The option for populating responses in a spreadsheet is still available, additionally, you can now view responses on demand without leaving your form. Consider using this option to perform a quick formative assessment in your classroom anonymously. As you can see in the image below, formative data can be easily collected and displayed to assess student learning.
Limitations
As of today, there are still a few common features of Google Forms that are not available. The data validation feature is currently limited and add-on’s are not enabled. These features are in the development process and will hopefully be integrated soon. If data validation and add on’s are critical to the functionality of your Google Form, don’t fret. You can easily toggle back to the old version of Google Forms by activating the running man icon in the bottom left hand corner of your screen.
Moving Forward
As with most things Google, there is no clear date set for when the new Google Forms will be fully functional and the old version obsolete. Take some time to explore the new version now while the old version is still available to fall back on. Have fun with the new Google Forms and as always let us know if you need assistance.
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