Above the Line in Elementary

Teacher: Kerry Phillips, SF Bay Area ( @phillips4kids ) Grade: Fourth Content Area: Reading / Social Studies Traditional Lesson Idea: Provide worksheets with comprehension questions to correspond to a class novel. Web 2.0 tools used in redesigned lesson:   Summarized big events in Patty Reed's Doll📘= #sketchnotes 🎨(teacher created or student drawn) we'll interact w/ on @ThingLink @MtDiabloUSD pic.twitter.com/NK4Yay3xoK — Kerry Phillips (@phillips4kids) March 27, 2017 Kerry is an amazing artist and uses the whiteboard in her classroom to create large scale sketchnotes as her students are reading a class novel. If you are not familiar with the concept of Sketchnotes, visit Kathy Schrock's Guide to Everything . She has a whole page dedicated to sketchnotes in education. Sylvia Duckworth is another noted sketchnoter that is a "must-follow" on twitter This is a picture of the class whiteboard after they finished reading Pa...

Are you tired of reading 30+ essays designed to assess your students' understanding of history when the essays are either written by parents or collections of facts copied out of old textbooks? I was!  Do you think worksheets help your students remember what they learned? I don't! I wanted my students to be more engaged in history, and take their understanding of the content deeper, so now I have them work together to create videos. After previewing the "California! Here We Come!" chapter in our textbook, which focuses on the migration of Americans to California during the 1840s, students select a topic they are interested in learning more about. To create my student groups, I had my student reply on a simple Google Form indicating what topic they are most interested. Once I have all the student requests, I create the groups. I like using this private form because students have to reply based on their interest, not based on what their fri...

I love trying out new tools with my students. I am constantly looking for ways to improve my teaching and engage students with the use of technology.  When using a new tech tool, it is important to consider if the tool is enhancing the learning experience for the students or transforming it. While there are times when only enhancing the learning experience with the implementation of technology is great, I am always on the lookout for ways to transform the learning experience and do things that were not possible before. If you are not already familiar with the  SAMR model  for implementing technology, you can learn more  HERE . A very brief explanation is that SAMR stands for Substitution, Augmentation, Modification, and Redefinition, and it has to do with how technology is integrated into the classroom and the purpose it serves in learning.  Image the creation of Dr. Ruben Puentedura, Ph.D. http://www.hippasus.com/rrpweblog/ This week t...

The web browser, Google Chrome has a library of add-ons and extensions. If you have not explored these options, you can visit the Chrome Web Store  HERE In this post, I'm going to share some of my favorites!    With Bitmoji, you can create custom avatars in a variety of settings,  and with a variety of sayings or themes.   These images can be sent in text messages or emails,  or saved as a .jpg file to be inserted into other documents or files. Grammarly is a tool that provides spelling and grammar check to anything you are typing on the internet (emails, docs, blog posts, forms, etc...).  I have found it very helpful with catching mistakes and improving my writing. Nimbus Screen Shot is an add-on that is used to take screenshots.  This can be very helpful when creating tutorials for your students.   You can also annotate and draw on the screenshot that you captured.  Images c...

My students seem to be obsessed with emojis and avatars these days, so I decided to indulge them and allow them to create a custom bitmoji to use as their Google student account profile picture.  Bitmoji  is a free app and Google Chrome extension that is fun and easy to use. The students were able to quickly customize a Bitmoji and save the image as a .png file. We uploaded the .png file and changed their Google profile picture.  Now their customized Bitmojis are attached to their presence in our Google Classroom and Seesaw learning journals. I did not want to use the students' actual photos for safety/privacy reasons, but I wanted their icon personalized. How cute are these student feeds now?!?!