My Journey Through Cool Tools and Beyond

I am very new to this but I can see that this would be a fun tool to interact with the students. I am hoping to allow my third and fourth graders to develop their own. I have developed a bitmoji assignment for the end of January in our google classroom for grades 3 & 4. Later in the year I would like to add a comic assignment as a reflection piece for them.  I showed my students my avatar via their email and they think she looks too young ....so I guess I will need to keep working on it. As for using personal accounts such as Facebook and texts- they are not available at school....so my family were my audience as I explored far too many. I am not sure that they find my new account fun- but I do ! I told them we will need to see how accurate theirs look when they have a chance to develop their own. Until then: - looking young !!

This experience has been one of the most fulfilling pd experiences I have had in my 30 years of teaching. Little did I know that I would be facing some very serious health issues this year but the self paced experience enabled me to participate without stress. I also was able to dig deeper and go back and revisit former lessons to enhance what I was learning about. The "things" built nicely on each other. As the librarian and computer lab TA, I found that learning as I go gave me time to share as I went through these things. My computer lab grade 3 & 4 students would ask me, "Mrs. Ronan what are you learning about this week?" My experience was if I was modeling learning to my students they wanted to explore and learn more as well. I also shared throughout this entire experience with my administrator, tech team, one on one classrooms, and the elementary staff. These resources were well received because they were relevant to their every day classroom expe...

These actual two Things I started back in February but I ended up sick and was not able to complete them. Sometimes "things" happen as they are supposed to. When I was ready to submit these the first time, I had shared many databases with the entire staff but with a focus on our one on one classrooms and only had one teacher respond to using databases for research. With future communication, my administrator and myself were surprised to see how limited research- especially tech based research was being used in our building. What we discovered was twofold. The first was what mode of research was being used in the elementary. When teachers were using student research, they preferred to guide where and what students were researching. This lead to a basket of books from the library, maybe a few encyclopedias, and some teacher printed articles that the class could pick a few resources from. These resources were an introduction to research but often were not the most updat...

Audio tools are one of my favorite tools for my elementary students. They bridge our students who struggle with reading and writing and give them tools that allow them to be heard. For so many years these students have not been heard because they were unable to communicate in the tradition manner in an educational atmosphere. Since making flipgrid and voice typing regular tools in my classroom, all of my students have a voice. I see students who rarely had an answer or rarely spoke in class speaking and having very interesting opinions when allowed to express what they know with out being held back by what they don't know- perhaps spelling, handwriting, a faster learning process that writing requires.  I tried all of the links provided. Flipgrid and Google voice typing will probably remain my favorite tools for my classroom. I enjoyed many of the other tools for myself personally and professionally. I would like to use Spreaker in the future to allow my students to recor...

I really enjoyed the graphic above because it brought home for me how much time I still spend step by step curating and finding information. It is a process that is so routine in my every day life that I never even considered that there are tools that do that and they are of great value !!! I started this unit a month ago. I had been an avid Pintrest user for years. I have now realized that although I was using Pintrest regularly- I was not using it mindfully. I was not considering if the information I was taking in was up to date or accurate. I was simply getting my information fix. As I began this unit I was open to these tools being useful to me professionally but I was not sure how often I would use them. I explored Diigo, LibGuides, Edshelf, and paper.li. I enjoyed different features about each site and can see that with time I will find each one helpful. The one that became an immediate addition to my daily routine was paper.li. I even was able to read articles about...

                                                      photo from openclipart I have used the traditional PowerPoint often over the years. I also use Google slides on a regular basis. Although both of these forums are easy to use and very powerful tools I really enjoyed exploring new forums..  Buncee brought new life to an old presentation that I use with my students annually. Buncee was fun. Also, having the backgrounds and items (clip art)  built in made the experience timely and entertaining. I also really enjoyed Tellegami and HaikuDeck. Each of these sites are sites that I could see my students enjoying both as the participant and the creator.  Below is a presentation I use for students who are struggling remembering what they have read. It is an introduction to a problem solving challenge that my students particip...

photo credit from Pixabay I have a few books that a class of mine 30 years ago wrote. I have saved them over the years. Little did I know that 30 years later they could be preserved as digital stories. It is with great pleasure I present to you Harmony the Snowflake written by my second grade after school class from Santa Ana, California. The fun part of this story is that none of my students had ever experienced snow but with a little research and a lot of imagination, they were able to create this beautiful story. Harmony The Snowflake I played with many different tools- some I was familiar with, some were new.  I used Little Bird Tales to produce this digital story. I did not fuss with perfection. I wanted to see how easily it could be done from a students viewpoint. This was a very easy format for students to use. I have students who enjoy writing stories and books. I would be very excited to feature these masterpieces on a regular basis. I was familiar wit...