0 Inspired to Write: PicLits

PicLits.com is a creative writing site which provides images (unfortunately, you cannot upload your own pictures) and word banks to generate sentences about the picture.  According to the site, “The object is to put the right words in the right place and the right order to capture the essence, story, and meaning of the picture.” 

Students have the option to choose words from the word bank - by dragging/dropping them into the photo - or composing/ “freestyling” their own words.

As the words are dragged/dropped onto the picture, the site allow for the option of capitalization as well as various tenses of the word. It even has end punctuation! How cool is that! 

It is amazing to me that this site has been around since 2008 and I just now stumbled upon it. I cannot wait to share this with my teachers!

Classroom Applications: 

• Practice the various types of sentences (Grammar)
• Writing/introducing poetry (i.e. Alliteration, Limericks, Lanterne, Diamante, Haiku)
• Creative/descriptive writing
• Free verse poems
• Parts of speech 
• Subject/verb agreement
• Compound/complex sentences
• Story starter
• Inferencing
• Vocabulary words (example1)
• Practice with foreign language
• Word formation
• Verb tenses
• New Year resolution
• Sensory and figurative language (i.e. Simlies/Metaphors, Synonyms/Antonyms)
• Character traits
• One line summary of a song or story
• Collaborative writing
• Prompts for journal writing
• The images and accompanying word banks provide visual and vocabulary support for ESL students and reluctant writers. http://www.web2teachingtools.com/piclits.html#
• Science classes can use the nature photos to write about curriculum topics. http://www.web2teachingtools.com/piclits.html#
• Images can be used to practice math problems or write math sentences. http://www.web2teachingtools.com/piclits.html#
• Have students find a memorable quote from a story or book they are reading and create a Piclit to showcase it. http://kbkonnected.tumblr.com/post/969226323/piclits
• Each student can choose a phrase they hear often (from mom, dad, grandma, teacher etc.) and design a Piclit around it.  http://kbkonnected.tumblr.com/post/969226323/piclits
• Choose a line from a favorite poem and create a Piclit.  http://kbkonnected.tumblr.com/post/969226323/piclits
• Choose a line from a favorite song or rap, http://kbkonnected.tumblr.com/post/969226323/piclits
• Choose five vocabulary words.  http://kbkonnected.tumblr.com/post/969226323/piclits
• Choose five adjectives to describe the picture they chose.  http://kbkonnected.tumblr.com/post/969226323/piclits
• Choose five rhyming words to describe the picture they chose.   http://kbkonnected.tumblr.com/post/969226323/piclits 

0 Composing Songs: Helping and Linking Verbs

3rd grade students, at one of my elementary schools, worked collaboratively to create a song to assist in memorizing various helping and linking verbs. The students created slides in Keynote, composed and recorded a song to the tune of a holiday carol. (This could also be created in PhotoStory or PowerPoint.)

What a clever idea from an innovated teacher, M. Duke!

0 What do you want to CREATE today?

This site was past on to me by a fellow colleague and I thought it was definitely worth sharing. What do you want to CREATE today? is a fabulous student/teacher resource which simplistically identifies the various types of projects/products student may create.

This website, “Mapping Media to the Curriculum” by Wesley Fryer was created to accompany and support his eBook, “Playing with Media: simple ideas for powerful sharing.”  This book was written primarily for educators who are interested in learning more about digital communication.

The site provides the below menu for students to choose from and within each product, you may find the workflow, various tools to create the product, links to tutorials as well as lesson ideas and samples of each product.   What a fabulous site for both educators and students to refer too. Check it out~

1 Love Infographics!

Infographics....I am so into these and have been dying to create one. I came across the site Piktochart on Pinterest and thought I would give it a whirl.

I signed up for the free account which is pretty limited. Only 3 basic themes to choose from and 5 slots for image upload. As I was checking out the prices, I came across the cost for educators - Only $39.99 a year compared to $29.00 a month for the Pro account. Needless to say, I jumped all over this and purchased the Pro Educator's account. (To me, this was worth the cost and I plan on using it a lot throughout the year.)

The interface is very easy with its drag and drop capabilities and with 80 themes to choose from...you cannot go wrong. Check out the below YouTube video on How to Create Infographics with Piktochart.

 I created this infographic for Bloom's Digital Taxonomy utilizing one of their themes:

Click to Enlarge Graphic

I am so excited to use this program that I recruited a few teachers to let me work with their kids on creating infographics for one of their units of study, I am currently working with a few 3rd grade students and will begin a project with 5th graders after the Thanksgiving holidays. Once they are complete -  I will post them. 

If you get a chance check out Piktochart.com.

0 Inferencing with Strip Design and FlipSnack

Third grade students at Ashley and Sem Elementary utilized the app, Strip Design to make inferences based on a picture. Students selected a picture and wrote a sentence on what they inferred happened before the picture was taken and what they inferred happened after the picture was taken. Products were then saved as a pdf and uploaded to FlipSnack, a Free (with limitations) interactive book. 

(Direct link to Inferencing flipbook for Ashley/ Direct link to Inferencing flipbook for Sem).)

Note: If you do not have access to an idevice, you could always use Pages, Publisher or Word to create the document/product.

 Animoto:

0 WOW! And Double WOW!

HOLY COW!   

Teacher Guides for Technology

This has to be one of the most useful resource sites ever! I pinned this on my Pinterest board but it definitely deserves more than just that!

This site, developed by Iowa ACSD, created 34 guides to assist educators in integrating technology into the curricula. 

I was/am flabbergasted with the wealth of information this site has to offer. The guides are simple, well developed step by step instructions, illustrated with pictures, diagrams, video tutorials, examples and conclude with a webliography (that's a new word for me!) of related, relevant web links to a variety of other sites.

Below you may see the extensive list of Teacher Guides they  offer:

• Teacher's Guide on The Use of Blogs in Teaching
• Teacher's Guide on The Use of Facebook in Education
• Teacher's Guide on The Use of Wikis in Education
• Teacher's Guide on The Use of Skype in Education
• Teacher's Guide on The Use of iPad in Education
• Teacher's Guide on The Use of Personal Learning Networks in Education
• Educators Guide on The Use of Pinterest in Education
• Teacher's Guide on The Use of Graphic Organizers in The Classroom
• Teacher's Guide on The Use of Evernote in Education
• Teacher's Guide on The Use of QR Codes in The Classroom
• Teacher's Comprehensive Guide on The Use of Social Networking in Education
• A Simple Guide to All That Teachers Need to Know about Digital Citizenship
• Teachers' Easy Guide to Social Learning
• Teacher's Guide to Creativity
• A Quick Guide to Teaching with iPad
• Teachers Guide to Create eBooks on iPad Using iBook Author
• Teacher's Guide on The Use of Google Docs in The iPad
• Teachers Easy Guide to Google Best Services
• Teacher's Guide to Flipped Classroom
• A Free Comprehensive Guide to iPad Apps Evaluation
• Teacher's Definitive Guide to Google Search Skills
• Teacher's Guide on The Use of Games in Education
• Teacher's Guide to The Most Important Web Tools in Education
• Teacher's Simple Guide on The Use of Google Forms in The Classroom
• Teacher's Guide to All Google Tips in Education
• Teacher's Guide to Blended Learning
• Teacher's Guide on how To Evaluate Web Content for Classroom Inclusion
• The Ultimate Guide to The 21st Century Critical Thinking Skills for Teachers and Students
• A Quick Guide on Bloom's Taxonomy iPad Apps
• Teacher's Guide to The Importance of Learning from Mistakes and Errors
• The Entire Guide to Google Search Features for Teachers
• The Entire Guide to Google Free Tools for Teachers and Students
• Great Guide to Summer Learning Activities
• Teacher's Guide to Chat Acronyms and Text Message Short hands

The guides are free for you to use and all they ask is that you pay credit to Educational Technology and Mobile Learning if you want to reuse them somewhere else. Well Educational
Technology and Mobile Learning, here is your shout out! You are one awesome site!

You may follow them via RSS, Facebook, Twitter, Goolge+ and Pinterest. Check them out!

 

 

Peace,