Channelview ISD Tech Tips
September 2016: Step Into A Digital World!
We're off to a GREAT start!
Padlet: Virtual Blackboard
It works like a piece of paper. You can tailor an empty page - a padlet - and you can put whatever you like on it. Drag in a video, pose a question, see multiple responses from multiple people, write your own text posts or upload some documents, and voilà! A padlet is born. Make it even more beautiful by choosing custom wallpapers and themes.
Padlet is different from other blogging tools and inspiration boards because it’s flexible. Create a Tables, a Venn diagram, a discussion board, a group contribution tool, or a portfolio, all in one app. Used by teachers, students, professionals, and individuals of all ages, all around the world, padlets can be selectively shared and edited among multiple contributors.
Start using Padlet today! http://www.padlet.com
QR Codes in the Classroom
Quick response (QR) codes are easy to create and have many uses in the classroom. With the posting of a QR code, you can lead students to information by just using their computer's or mobile device's camera.
- Library Book Add-On: Put QR codes on classroom library books, linking out to information about the author and or book. “You can also have students create ‘book trailers’ and turn them into QR codes using iMovie!”
- Scavenger Hunts: “Create scavenger hunts and/or webquests for your students that get them moving around the room. Scanning a QR code makes is easier for the younger students so they don’t have to type the long urls.”
- Inform Parents: “Place QR codes around the school informing parents … about different places around the school.”
- Access Help: Add QR codes to homework sheets that link out to sources of help. “For example, if the student forgets how to solve a math problem or gets stuck, they can scan the QR code for help. The QR codes can be linked to a ‘how to video’ such as a Khan Academy video or a ShowMe video you created yourself. "
- QR Stations for self-directed learning: “… have the students become self-directed learners by creating QR stations. The students scan the QR code to reveal the task and the students must work together to get the task complete. This builds on the 21st century skills of communication, collaboration and critical thinking.”
- Cite Sources: Have students use QR to link out to sources they use for research for paper writing, etc.
QR Codes for quick and easy access
QR Code Game
QR Code Activity Menus
Symbaloo: All of your favorite websites in one place
Symbaloo is easy to use app and it’s free. With Symbaloo you have all of your favorite websites at your fingertips, anywhere and always. Choose your favorite websites and within a few clicks you can create your very own homepage. With an account your favorites are available on any iPhone, PC, Mac, iPad and tablet. Wherever you go, you always have access to your favorite websites. Simple, easy and with one click you can go anywhere on the web!
• Never have to type in an address manually
• With one click you go anywhere on the web
• Add a new website with one click to your Symbaloo
• Never lose your favorite websites again
• Free and without advertising
Hundreds of thousands are already using Symbaloo as their homepage, Join them!
Epic: Individualized Online Reading Platform for Kids
EPIC! FOR EDUCATORS
Epic! is absolutely free to elementary school teachers and school librarians in the US and Canada. A favorite with teachers and students around the country, Epic! brings access to unlimited children's literature into every classroom. Epic! encourages young readers with badges and rewards, while letting teachers assign books and track individual reading progress.
THE EPIC! LIBRARY
Epic!’s award-winning service includes a wide variety of fiction and non-fiction books from leading publishers such as Scholastic, National Geographic, HarperCollins, Macmillan and many more. With over 10,000 books available now and many more titles added each week, Epic! has been called the “Netflix of kids' books” – it's an unlimited library your kids can take anywhere!
Well-known books and series include Fancy Nancy, Flat Stanley, Warriors, Rainbow Magic Fairies, The Chronicles of Narnia, Disney’s Frozen, Ramona, Batman, Goosebumps, Clifford, A Series of Unfortunate Events, National Geographic Kids, Goodnight Moon, The Berenstain Bears, Big Nate, and many more.
The Epic! library contains everything from picture books to chapter books, early readers, audiobooks, “read to me” audio books, comic books, graphic novels, non-fiction titles, educational books, and junior novels.
Get Students plugged in today! https://www.getepic.com/educators
Math Learning Center
Seeing, touching, and sketching ideas create pictures in the mind’s eye, helping learners construct, understand, and apply mathematical ideas. Bridges In Mathematics incorporates increasingly complex visual models, including the Number Line and the Array models, in a coherent framework across the curriculum. These virtual manipulatives are available in as a web app for all modern browsers as well as a downloadable app.
See them all here! http://catalog.mathlearningcenter.org/apps
Crash Course Kids: YouTube Videos for Science
See the whole collection at https://www.youtube.com/user/crashcoursekids/videos.
Check out the math and science Crash Course videos for older students!
NEWSElA: Expository Current Event Articles
Newsela builds reading comprehension by delivering relevant, daily articles from trusted news sources at the reading level that’s just right for students. It is effective, engaging, and easy to use.
Articles span such topics as arts, astronomy, economics, geopolitics, music, sports and zoology. With every article published at five different reading levels, even the most hesitant readers can become news junkies.
Come See Me Present at TCCA!
Monique D. Boone
Channelview ISD
Email: monique.boone@cvisd.org
Website: http://www.cvisd.org/Page/7756
Location: 8280 Sheldon Road, Channelview, TX, United States
Phone: 281-860-1388
Twitter: @M_D_Boone