Extended School Closure Tips and How I Can Help:
SCREENCASTIFY and EPIC! BOOKS FREE UPGRADES: See here for important free upgrades to these tools. Please consider getting your students, especially grades 5 and 6, access to Epic! books! This is a great resource to keep kids reading.
Below are a few tools that I do like to use. I recommend Vibby if you want students to watch some clips of TEDTalks, etc., and I recommend one of the screen recording apps so you can model work and explain processes. Overall, though, I think keeping it simple is best -- I know this is the not a time to throw new tools at teachers and students. There is so much that we can do with just the Google suite if we get a little creative, and that is where I might be of the most help. I can help you prepare a Google Slideshow if you are overwhelmed with other work - just let me know what you need. I can give you tools to help what you already have planned -- I can give you a Google Slides template that looks like the front page of a newspaper, for example, or can record videos that show students how to do things online. If tech is not your favorite friend, I can help you create any documents, slideshows, etc., that you need. As always, the library can also help find you any online resources -- databases, websites, and e-books. Please reach out to me and let me know how I can help you.
Please see below for some of my favorite tools.
-- Katy Williams
SCREENCASTIFY and EPIC! BOOKS FREE UPGRADES: See here for important free upgrades to these tools. Please consider getting your students, especially grades 5 and 6, access to Epic! books! This is a great resource to keep kids reading.
Below are a few tools that I do like to use. I recommend Vibby if you want students to watch some clips of TEDTalks, etc., and I recommend one of the screen recording apps so you can model work and explain processes. Overall, though, I think keeping it simple is best -- I know this is the not a time to throw new tools at teachers and students. There is so much that we can do with just the Google suite if we get a little creative, and that is where I might be of the most help. I can help you prepare a Google Slideshow if you are overwhelmed with other work - just let me know what you need. I can give you tools to help what you already have planned -- I can give you a Google Slides template that looks like the front page of a newspaper, for example, or can record videos that show students how to do things online. If tech is not your favorite friend, I can help you create any documents, slideshows, etc., that you need. As always, the library can also help find you any online resources -- databases, websites, and e-books. Please reach out to me and let me know how I can help you.
Please see below for some of my favorite tools.
-- Katy Williams
Get amazing books into your students’ hands! Epic! Includes e-books, read-alongs, and audio of a great collection of fiction and nonfiction. Epic! Is designed for 8-12 year olds, but they have increased their collection to include 7th grade and up. You will find the I Survived! Series, graphic novels like El Deafo, all of the Melissa Gish animal books, and much more.
Screencastify has given us a coupon code for access to their unlimited plan for the remainder of the school year! With Screencastify, you can record your screen, your webcam, or a combination. You can also edit if you need to crop out any bloopers. Screencastify is a Chrome extension, and so when your video is done, you can pop it into Classroom with the click of a button. If you are using a document camera, it is super easy to record through Screencastify.
Vibby: I love vibby! It lets you make a highlight reel of snippets of videos that you find on YouTube and other websites. You just pop in the link to the YouTube page. This is great if you want to make a compilation of clips for students to watch. For example, we've created vibs like this one so that students can watch and discuss ELA concepts like point of view or story arc. This is also great if you want to share a clip of something like a TED Talk but don't want students to watch the entire video, either because of length or appropriateness. For each highlight, you can add notes or questions for students in a comment area. It supports Google logon and vibs can be shared via link. Students can become the creators and make their own.
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Screencast-O-Matic is an easy-to-use way to record and edit videos. This is a great way to show students how to do things online. It cuts down on student confusion- a picture is worth a thousand words.... I use this tool to show students around websites and research databases and to teach them how to perform tasks such as uploading and downloading. I use it to differentiate learning -- I can walk a student through how to complete a worksheet, for example. Note: I pay $18/yr for Screencast-O-Matic.
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Use Google Slides along with remove.bg and have students place themselves right into the action! The entire sixth grade is familiar with remove.bg, thanks to the Social Studies teachers. The students also already have a few pictures of themselves out on Google Drive. Here's how it works: Using Remove.bg
Google Sheets Lesson: This Pixel Art Spreadsheet Template (created by Alice Keeler) is a nice intro to spreadsheets for young students. Enter a number in a cell (just not the very first cell at 1:1!) and press enter -- the cell will change color. Students can use their spreadsheet to create a pixel art image. If students want to see how the color rules work, they can go to the menu option FORMAT--> CONDITIONAL FORMATTING. Challenge them to make their own color formatting rules.
Flippity: This Google Sheets Add-On lets you use Sheets to create a sort-of online scavenger hunt. Follow the template to create a Google Sheet with your questions, and Flippity will create a lock for each of your questions. (Remember spelling and capitalization matter in answers, unless you specify differently.) You only need to share the link with your students. (Flippity has tons of others uses, too!)
Pear Deck has lots of potential, but I'm not quite recommending it yet.... It's a Google Add On that gives you a way to make interactive Google slides. You embed questions right into your slideshow and students can answer the questions. It's not super user-friendly though, and I'm not sure I'd recommend starting to use it if you aren't already as the learning curve might be too great for students. On the teacher side, there's some hunting around to be done to figure out how to send asynchronous slides (it's really made for real-time use while projecting the slides) but it can be done. If anyone is interested in working with Pear Deck, though -- I am happy to help. I would suggest using Slides without Pear Deck, but still making them interactive -- have students make their own copies and submit them back to you.
