Techtastic Teaching

Test Post

noreply@blogger.com (Unknown) — Thu, 01 Oct 2015 15:52:00 +0000

This is a test.

Changing Platforms

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew Fenstermaker) — Mon, 08 Apr 2013 03:16:00 +0000

I will no longer be posting to Techtastic Teaching. Instead, I will focus my posts onto my blog at my website First and Furious.

I am trying to get all my resources and blogs into once location rather than trying to keep up with multiple platforms. This is a work in progress so please subscribe to stay in the loop as items change.

Jumbled Sentences--FREE Reading Apps

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew Fenstermaker) — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 03:22:00 +0000

Jumbled sentences is a total of six free apps that allow students to practice their word recognition, reading and comprehension skills. Each of the six apps has three levels. In each level, words are displayed all jumbled. The objective is to unscramble the words to make a meaningful sentence. If a student does not know the word, he/she can click on the word to receive an audio cue. After all the words have been unjumbled and placed into a sentence, the student can check the sentence. The sentence will be read aloud if correct or the incorrectly placed words will be returned to their jumbled location.

Techtastic Teaching

While I am not always a huge fan of utilizing an iPad as a gaming device, this series of apps does a good job of helping to reinforce word recognition, reading and comprehension. Students must use their comprehension strategies to determine the correct order of words.

Word Cloud Mania

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew Fenstermaker) — Tue, 05 Mar 2013 03:09:00 +0000

Words clouds are a simple tool to use across all grade levels. There are many uses for word clouds in your classroom. If you are looking for some tools to create word clouds than check out these.

Techtastic Teaching

Word clouds may be easy to understand but thinking of ways to integrate them into the classroom may be a bit challenging. One example in my classroom is highlighting frequent words in our reading groups. Our curriculum has web based versions (PDF) of each guided reading book we use. I can copy the text from a guided reading book and use a word cloud tool to create a quick visual cloud of the words in the text. This will highlight the most common words that will appear during reading.

You could have students take their blog posts and turn them into a word cloud to see the most frequent words. They could put those highlighted words in alphabetical order.

Students could take a text, blog, our personal writing piece and make a quick word cloud. This word cloud could serve as as story starter for creative writing.

Students could make word families to display with a word cloud.

Parts of speech could be made into word clouds.

Feel free to comment on ways that you have used word clouds in your classroom.

Merge PDF files for free!!!

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew Fenstermaker) — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 04:19:00 +0000

What: I don't know about you but I get annoyed with file clutter on my computer, in the cloud and any other place that I keep files. Sometimes this is due to having multiple PDF files that all pertain to the same topic. Have you ever dreamed of magically making all those individual PDF files into one file? What about doing it for free? PDF Merge provides a web tool that can complete this process for you in a snap.

1) Select the files that you want to merge into one single file. If you do not have enough blanks click the red plus sign to add more files.

2) Once you have all the files you want to merge into one file, click the Merge! button and let PDF Merge do the rest.

Techtastic Integration

As I had previously mentioned, file clutter can be obnoxious. If you are looking for a way to organize your PDF files, PDF Merge can help. What about students? If students are doing a collaborative project and need to combine their PDF resources, PDF Merge can serve as a tool to combine all their files.

Lucas Oil Stadium via Google Maps

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew Fenstermaker) — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 04:05:00 +0000

What: Google Maps has done it again!!! Whether you are a football fan or not, this is a truly amazing showcase of Google's persistent drive to make the most elaborate collection of maps. You can see what it is like to make your way down the tunnel. Maybe you would rather check out the locker room or even see the quarterback suite. Make sure to check out the whole collection of the Lucas Oil Stadium.

Techtastic Integration
So you may be asking how is this something that I can integrate into my classroom. Want to give students an inside perspective on a story or research paper? Most students won't have a chance to experience a professional football game. They can watch the games on T.V. or even see pictures in magazines but being able to manipulate their virtual experience in real time is priceless. If you are looking for a way to integrate this into math, you can take a screen shot of the stadium and use Skitch to point out geometrical shapes or even patterns. If you have a SMART Board, you can use the screen capture tool instead and use your markers to do the same as Skitch.

PDF Split

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew Fenstermaker) — Thu, 21 Feb 2013 03:46:00 +0000

What: Ever get a giant PDF packet only to find out you just want to keep one page out of the packet? PDF Split is a free web tool that will solve this problem for you. It is super simple. Select the file you want to split, choose the pages you want to split out and choose split.

Step 1---Choose your file

Step 2--Specify your pages

Step 3---Split your page or pages out into a new file

Techtastic integration

If students find a resource for a project and need to extract a single page, they can use PDF Split to obtain the resource that they need. In addition, if the student needs to print out information from a PDF and only need one page, he/she can use PDF Split to save on printing out numerous unwanted pages. Teachers can use this resource to help separate files out of PDF files received from meetings.

I have been using PDF Split to get pages out for my reading curriculum. I can download an entire unit's practice book pages into a single PDF file. However, there are times that I only want a couple pages to put into the SMART Notebook software. PDF Splits lets me extract only the pages I want.

Pictures to PDF? Bindle it!!

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew Fenstermaker) — Thu, 14 Feb 2013 22:01:00 +0000

What: Bindle is a simple app ($1.99) that allows you to quickly create PDFs of your pictures.

1) From the main screen choose to make a book or an album.

2) Click the plus sign to add pictures.

3) You can import images from your camera roll, take a photo as well as import from a few other sites like Facebook, Instagram, Flickr and Picasa.

4) Once you have your selected images read to import, click done and let Bindle ad them to your grid.

5) Once Bindle is done working its magic, you have the option to share it.

How to use.....

We have been using this app as a simple tool for create digital e-books coupled with FlipSnack. FlipSnack turns your PDFs into flippable, digital books. Simply upload your PDF and let Flipsnack do the rest. Students could use this app to curate their learning. Send students on a scavenger hunt and use Bindle to catalog their learning. Use the app to snap some photos during PD sessions and turn into PDFs for later reference.

Shred the Slopes in Google Maps

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew Fenstermaker) — Thu, 07 Feb 2013 05:05:00 +0000

What: Google Maps continues to add to its comprehensive collection of resources for making it the go to resource when navigating. They recently added 38 new run and lift maps to their collection.

Techtastic Integration
You may be thinking how is this relevant into my own teaching? How can I implement run and lift maps into my daily practices. You can have students use the map scale to determine the longest ski run, shortest ski run, and the median of the ski runs. Students could figure out the ratio of beginner runs to expert runs.

What are your ideas for using these new run and lift maps in your classroom?

Visual Link Tools

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew Fenstermaker) — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 04:22:00 +0000

What: Working with younger students, I am always drawn to visual tools that can be integrated into my daily, weekly and/or yearly routines. When sharing resources with my students, I try to present it in a visual manner for those students that can not read the text being displayed. Below are some of the tools that are available to create visual links for your students.

Symbaloo provides options for teachers as well as districts. While these options have a cost associated with them, Symbaloo does offer a free version that allows you to share visual links with your students. You create a "webmix" which is a grid with open spots for tiles. See more in the video below.

I have created a webmix for my 1st graders to easily access our most commonly used web tools. From our Kidblog site to drawing and clipart resources, Symbaloo has made it easy for my students to navigate the plethora of online resources in a visually user friendly format. For

MyLinkCloud is very similar to Symbaloo but users are not tied to grid style tile layouts. My Link Cloud allows you to drag and drop your links in a visually appealing "cloud" format. You can move and resize your links across the page to make your "cloud" appear as you want. Check out the video below for more ideas for how to use it in your classroom

Thinglink is a tool that allows you to make your images interactive. You create hotspots on your picture that allow users to click and learn more about the image. Find out more by watching the video below.

Techtastic Integration

The possibilities seem endless for these resources. I have always been a visual learner and these visual linking tools serve as a vehicle for providing multitudes of information in a single location. Use them to create subject specific resource, lesson plan resources, research topics and much more.

StoryBots

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew Fenstermaker) — Sat, 02 Feb 2013 03:33:00 +0000

What: Storybots is a great interactive website that is really geared toward youngsters. I came across this site when I was looking for some fun videos that talked about the alphabet and the sounds represented by the letters.

ABC Fun provides fun and engaging videos that explain each letter in the alphabet. They are short and to the point but presented with fun, energetic robots.

Starring You! Make your students movie stars. You can put yourself into a video with the Storybots. Upload an image from your webcam, computer or Facebook and let the Storybots do the rest. Kids will love it!

Activity Sheets provide fun practice that are Storybot themed. Connect the dots, color and word searches are just a few samples of what Storybots provides with their activity sheets.

Create Books is a free iPad app that will let your students create their own Storybot books. There is a fee to create a book once the app is downloaded. However, what a fun way for students to put themselves into books.

Beep & Boop! is a behavior game for your IOS device. Set goals for your kids as well as prizes for when those goals are reached. Good behavior/choices are rewarded with a beep while poor choices receive a boop which in turn takes away a beep point.

Techtastic Integration

While the Storybot family of resources are really geared towards primary aged kids, they really do an effective job at engaging kids in learning with the fun, energetic Storybot robots. Use the videos as attention getters for introducing letters in the alphabet. Activity sheets can reinforce newly learned letters.

SNACK TIME

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew Fenstermaker) — Fri, 18 Jan 2013 03:51:00 +0000

Snacktools.com is a website that provides some really innovative and useful web apps. I had a student teacher in the fall of 2012 that came across this site. He used Flipsnack to create a digital picture book of our 1st graders' work. To create this digital flip style book, you simply upload PDF documents and let Flipsnack to the rest. Flipsnack creates awesome, digital flipbooks. Click the picture below to see our example or here.

Another tool that we have utilized in our classroom is PhotoSnack. My kids have been using Skitch to type over pictures. We recently completed an activity for MLK Day. Working with our buddy class, we came up with a list of "big words." This was completed after watching a short film about Martin's Big Words. Each kid took their picture with the iPad and then typed their "big words" on their picture. In the end, we combined all of our "big word" pictures and used PhotoSnack to create a photo slideshow to post on our blog. Click on the picture below to see PhotoSnack in action or click here.

Snacktools has been a simple tool to create some great digital artifacts to share with the world.

Doodle for Google

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew Fenstermaker) — Wed, 16 Jan 2013 04:55:00 +0000

"One talented student artist will see their artwork appear on the Google homepage, receive a $30,000 college scholarship, and a $50,000 technology grant for their school along with some other cool prizes!"

Now is the time to put those artistic skills to the test. Check out all the details here or check out the short video below.

Lego Avatar Maker

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew Fenstermaker) — Tue, 08 Jan 2013 04:06:00 +0000

What?
Working with the 21st Century Learner, we are responsible for creating responsible digital citizens. This is especially true for the under 13 crowd. One tool that we have used in my classroom is the Lego Avatar Creator. The website lets students create a Lego avatar of their liking. They may customize it to suite their needs.

Why?
When using Kidblog, Voicethread or one of the many other digital tools, my students utilize their initials. In another layer of security, we use their Lego avatars with each of their accounts. This has proven to not only be a safe method but a fun way for kids to create a unique profile picture.

How?

The first step in the process is to access the Lego Avatar website.

2) Once students are on the page, they can begin customizing all the features by using the body part icons in the lower left under the screen showing their current Lego person.

3) Saving the image can be a bit tricky depending on your platform. Macs are much easier being able to take a screen shot of only the Lego person. PC is a little more in depth.

a) print screen

b) http://www.picresize.com

c) CTRL + V (this will paste your image to allow cropping)

d) Use your mouse to draw a box around the part of the image you want to crop then click on crop selection

e) In option 2--choose if you want to resize. In option 3, choose a special effect and in option 4, choose the file format to save your avatar. Click the yellow "I'm Done." button.

f) Your final step is to save to disk, a social site or you can continue editing.

**There are other methods for cropping your Lego avatar. However, this website allows anyone with an internet connection to crop their image. Since we have PowerPoint on all our computers, students just paste their screen shot into PowerPoint, double click on the picture, crop, right click and save as a .jpg.

More

Check out the wiki link below for a large list of tools for creating avatars.

http://copyrightfriendly.wikispaces.com/Avatar+Makers

Meograph

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew Fenstermaker) — Wed, 02 Jan 2013 20:24:00 +0000

Looking for a fun, new tool for creating digital stories? Meograph is one of the latest that I have been using with my first graders. We have been using Skype to connect with classes across the United States. You can see our progress at Skype R' US. One goal of this project is to create a digital portfolio of facts learned throughout the school year. This allows us to compare and contrast our school to others across the US.

To help explain Meograph, I have a short video embedded below.

Below is an example of a final product that we created.

For more information about tools for creating photo/digital stories check out Richard Byrne's post. Find out about another tool here.

Alphabetimals

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew Fenstermaker) — Wed, 19 Dec 2012 03:27:00 +0000

If you are looking for a fun resource for helping students learn their alphabet then you should check out the Alphabetimals site. They also have an app. Check out the interactive book to hear an animal for each letter. In addition, there are some great resources such as flashcards, coloring pages and wall posters. You can even type your name/words with animals and then print them out, share them via social media or even order items with the name/word.

Google Street View Collection

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew Fenstermaker) — Wed, 19 Dec 2012 03:14:00 +0000

Google Street View

Walls in a classroom do not have to create barriers to learning for your students. One way to flatten the classroom wall is to use Google's ever growing street view collection. It allows you the opportunity to explore regions around the US that you never thought possible.

My first graders explored NASA. In our reading curriculum we read an informational text about astronauts and landing on the moon. The NASA collection allowed us to take a virtual field trip through NASA.

We also used the Ocean collection when we were reading about sea animals. This gave us a first hand perspective on the habitats that sea animals encounter on a daily basis. My first graders loved taking a dive under the water and staying dry at the same time.

If you are looking for a simple way to integrate technology into your K-2 classroom, Google Street View can be a great tool for breaking down your classroom walls.

StoryJumper--Digital Story Telling

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew Fenstermaker) — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 03:00:00 +0000

One of my favorite tools for digital story telling is a site called StoryJumper. One of the challenges with my first graders is being able to put words onto paper. An easy way for them to start creating their own stories is by using StoryJumper to create stories with pictures.

As a teacher, I create a class and then add my students to my class roster. After I have created my class, I am given a unique log in page that shows all my students' usernames on one page. All the kids have to do is find their username and click it, enter their password and they are ready to begin creating their very own stories. When kids get completely done with their stories their parents have the option to purchase their book. We print them out and make them into our own books at school.

When creating their digital stories, they may choose from StoryJumper's library of props and scenes. Students can click on more props or scenes and access categorized props/scenes. If you would rather upload your own picture, StoryJumper provides that option as well.

At first it may be easiest to have kids make their stories with only pictures and no words. When they are ready to begin adding text to their stories, you simply click the text tab and choose the style of text box that you want.

The work area is very user friendly for primary age kids. It has a dual page display and a ribbon at the top with the pages available in the book. You can customize the book cover as well duplicate pages.

One of the nice features for primary kids is the undo option at the bottom of the work area. It never fails that their click happy fingers accidentally delete something. The undo button can be a tear saver.

Like I mentioned, StoryJumper is by far my favorite tool for creating digital stories. I know their are many other options out there, but I have found StoryJumper to be the best.

Tips
*The first time you introduce this to kids, don't expect to accomplish a lot. Let them play with the props. Then model how to add more props to their tool bar. Let them play with scenes. Model how to add more scenes to their tool bar. Let them play with the text box options.
*When you are ready for more structure, have them repeat after each step that you do. Add a prop, add a scene, resize a prop, move a prop, rotate a prop, remove a scene, add text, delete text.
*There are lots of other fancy options when making their books but don't try to put it all in at one time. KISS--keep it simple stupid. I have saved myself lots of headaches by focusing on simple tasks and expectations instead of reaching for the stars on day 1.

Creative Uses for the iPad

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew Fenstermaker) — Wed, 24 Oct 2012 02:21:00 +0000

Looking around Free Technology for Teachers, I came across Richard's post by Mike Amante. The Slide Share is embedded below. With my school recently obtaining a class set of iPads, Mike's resources will be a good starting point for determining what apps might be essential across K-6.

Creative Uses for iPad in the Classroom from Mike Amante

Skitch with Evernote as an ePortfolio tool

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew Fenstermaker) — Sun, 21 Oct 2012 19:42:00 +0000

I previously posted how I have been trying to integrate Evernote as a tool for cataloging student artifacts of their learning. To compliment Evernote, I have also been using Skitch. This tool allows me to annotate over my pictures that I take of the artifacts. Skitch is also available on the app store. I have it installed on my iPad and iPhone to make recording artifacts in my classroom a point and shoot task.

Below is an example of how I used Skitch to capture an image of a student's spelling test. Using Skitch, I made a note that the student knew it was a "D" but wrote the letter "B" in place. This is a very low student. This is great progress for this student to know the two sounds. By taking this picture and annotating, I will have a quick, easy reminder during conference as to why I wanted to share this artifact.

Evernote as a Portfolio

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew Fenstermaker) — Sun, 21 Oct 2012 19:27:00 +0000

After recently attending the ITEC conference in Des Moines, Iowa, I revisited my Evernote account. With parent teacher conferences quickly approaching, I find myself wondering what I can do differently to provide a valuable experience for parents at conferences. Many times they are confused by the "teacher talk" during these short meetings. I wanted a tool to visually show parents their child's strengths and areas for improvement.

Evernote provides a free tool (limited monthly uploads) to categorize and catalog each student's work. In addition, apps are available for the iPhone/iPad in the app store. I have since created a premium membership and created a folder in Evernote for each of my students. My goal in the future is to allow students the opportunity to catalog their learning experience with Evernote but for the time being I will be using my iPad and iPhone to collect artifacts for the upcoming conferences.

To find out much more on how to use Evernote as an ePortfolio tool check out Rob Van Nood's blog about how he has used it in his classroom for multiple years.

ITEC 2012

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew Fenstermaker) — Mon, 15 Oct 2012 20:27:00 +0000

I got the privilege of presenting at the ITEC conference in Des Moines, IA. I shared on Tech Tools for the K-2 classroom. When deciding on the tools to share at this conference, I wanted to ensure that I had examples that provided the opportunity to enrich the curriculum. I created a Pearltree to create a visual of all the tech tools for K-2. In addition, I created a Google Spreadsheet to list the items for those of you that may prefer lists versus visual graphic organizers. I had a great audience and I hope they were able to pick up a couple new ideas. Feel free to check out my Pearltree or my Google Spreadsheet.

iFake Text

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew Fenstermaker) — Sat, 29 Sep 2012 01:10:00 +0000

For the last few years, I have always had atleast one first grader that has had a cell phone. While it is debatable about the parent's intentions for this cell phone, it never fails to at least ring one time during class. I can only imagine that it is a matter of time before more and more primary aged kids are bringing their own devices. While this may be a few years out, I came across a site that allows you to embrace cellular technology now. iFake Text allows you to input a conversation. After inputting the conversation, it creates a "fake" screen shot of your conversation on an iPhone.

How can this be used in my classroom? One way that I have been integrating this into my classroom is for our daily proofreading. I create a conversation on iFake Text. When creating the conversation, I make sure to leave some errors that need attention. My first graders then use the screen shot of the "fake" conversation to perform their daily proofreading. It is a simply tool that provides an authentic experience.

Spelling City

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew Fenstermaker) — Fri, 28 Sep 2012 19:45:00 +0000

Need a tool to get your kids engaged with spelling. SpellingCity.com has been around for a long time. Choose from one of their pre-made lists or enter your own lists. Students can take a test over the words, learn the words and even play games with the words. It is a fun, free interactive resource for getting your students excited about working with their spelling words.

Google Voice for Running Record

noreply@blogger.com (Andrew Fenstermaker) — Fri, 28 Sep 2012 19:32:00 +0000

Looking for a quick and easy way to share your students' reading with their parents. One of the tools that all classrooms have is a phone. Google voice does all the work for you. If you do not have a Google Voice account yet, make sure to watch the video and find out how to get set up.

Once you have your Google number, have your student use the phone to call your Google Number and record. After your student is done, simply hang up the phone and you will instantly recieve your student's voicemail in your Google Voice inbox. You can choose to embed this voicemail on a website/blog or what I prefer, send via email to parents. This is an easy way to monitor/share progress in fluency. In addition, kids can monitor their growth as a reader.