Links You’ll Love
NewsFeed Defenders is a media literacy game from FactCheck.org designed to help students spot fake news and misinformation. Speaking of media literacy, brothers Hank and John Green (yes – that John Green) have a new media literacy series on their YouTube channel Crash Course. You can check out the first in the series here.
Who doesn’t love folktales? CircleRound is a storytelling podcast that’s geared to kids 4 through 10. You can listen online or subscribe through Apple iTunes.
Links You’ll Love
If you’re interested in using Google Slides for formative assessment, check out this post about using the Pear Deck add-on.
If you’re a Google Classroom user, you might be interested in integrating materials into your Classroom. Check this post out for more info.
I tripped across ReadWorks while looking for student-friendly articles. This is a great resource; teachers can use it for free, and it offers articles, questions sets, vocabulary and more.
Links You’ll Love
StoryboardThat is an awesome website where you can create storyboards and comics. You can create two storyboards a week with the free edition. The site includes background images, graphics, thought bubbles are more.
Don’t know what to write about? Check out StoryStarter for Kids. Students get a random starter sentence to copy and paste into a Google Docs.
Webjets is a very cool digital curation platform. It’s basically a space for you to compile all your resources in one place. You can sign up using your Google credentials.
If you’re a fan of Kahoot! Or Quizlet, check out Gimkit. It’s easy to set up, fast-paced, and you can use Quizlets that you’ve already created.
I introduced Flipgrid last year. For those of you who’d like to explore using it for formative assessment, this blog post explains a nice way to integrate PearDeck.
Links You’ll Love
If you’re looking to integrate STEM into K-2, check out the PictureSTEM Project which offers units that use an engineering challenge and picture books as supports for learning science, mathematics, engineering, computational thinking, and reading.
If you’re looking for free sound effects, visit FreeSound. Everything is creative commons licensed, which means you and your students can use any sound in any project without getting permission from the creator.
If you need a common whitespace that everyone in a class can access, try Twiddla. Basically you create a space, invite others, and anything anyone puts on the screen can be seen by everyone.
If you’re a Google Slides user, you might want to check the Slides Toolbox add-on. It’s got some nice tools, gets great reviews, and is free to install.
BioInteractive is a very nice science site, with loads of resources including posters, videos and articles.
Links You’ll Love
If you’re looking for a way your students can create newspapers online, check out Printing Press. It is Flash-based, so I’m not sure it’ll work on an iPad, but it should be fine on a Chromebook.
ProjectPals is a task-management website that will support your students who are working on independent projects.
WriteReader is a very cool website where students can write books and include photos and narration. You can log in with your Google credentials and it will coordinate with classes that you’ve already set up in Google Classroom. It supports Hebrew text input. The website features images, or you can upload from the computer or search for them on the Internet. Books can be viewed online or downloaded and printed.
If you want to create games that your students can play, check out PurposeGames. It’s free to use, and you can create games like matching games, multiple choice quiz, and type-the-answer. You can also search from games that others have created.
Links You’ll Love
Can you show Netflix in class? Read this article and learn about this complex copyright issue.
If you’re looking for a fun winter activity, check out this winter-themed “magnetic” poetry activity using Google Draw.
We purchased Hapara this year for our 5th through 8th grade students. Primarily, Hapara is student management software that allows teachers to view (and control) what’s happening on student Chromebooks, but it offers much more than mere management tools. If you’re interested in how it can be used to support student learning, here is a resource.
Happy Hanukkah! Check out Six13’s adaptation of Queen’s Bohemian Rhapsody
For another Bohemian Rhapsody-inspired song, check out this one about social media
Need some zen activities? Here are some fun websites with no value except they’re well, pretty zen to work with:
Links You’ll Love
The members of a process group I recently facilitated were excited to use this name picker in their classrooms, so I thought I’d share it here. Visit Classtools.net and choose the random name picker. It’s an eye-catching wheel that you can customize. You can also save it and remove names as you go. That site has lots of fun tools!
Check out this article from JTA about science and tech in Jewish Day Schools. Nice to be noticed!
During a faculty planning week presentation, a colleague mentioned the Cult of Pedagogy podcast and how much she’s gotten out of listening to it. Here’s a link to the website where you can read more and subscribe.
Shadow Puppet Edu
This free iOS App makes it easy for even very young students to create videos in the classroom. They can use it to tell stories or explain ideas. It’s also a great way for them to demonstrate their understanding of a concept that they’ve learned.
First, invite them to begin a new project by tapping the plus sign and then giving the app permission to access the camera roll. Then, ask them to select and add the photos they want their presentation to include. They can choose photos from their own camera roll or choose others by searching among the vetted resources that are included within the app, such as Flickr, Wikimedia, the Library of Congress and NASA. (Don’t worry about the credits; Shadow Puppet Edu will create the image credit citations at the end.)
Once students have chosen and added their images, they can then add a voice over narration. They can also choose to zoom in and out of photos as a story telling technique, or add fun animations to their presentation, such as shooting stars and flying hearts.
Your students can share their finished projects via social media, through email, or just save it their own camera roll.
To use Shadow Puppet Edu, download the free iOS app from the App Store. You do not need to create an account to use the app.
In Your Classroom
- Ask students to demonstrate their Hebrew proficiency by showing a picture of an object along with a voice over recording themselves saying the Hebrew word for it.
- Ask students to create an end-of-the-year slideshow that highlights their favorite projects and experiences from the year.
This is a “Technology Tuesday” post via Behrman House, edited by Ann D. Koffsky . You can find more Behrman House Technology Tuesdays here.
Google Forms
A part of the Google suite, Google Forms is a free, basic survey creator that allows you to easily create and share a poll with multiple users and analyze the responses.
The interface is similar to other Google products. You can easily add a variety of types of questions to your poll, including short or long text answers, multiple choice, checkboxes and dropdown boxes. Your questions can also include images or videos.
You can create your surveys from scratch, or start with one of the pre-designed templates like a blank quiz, exit ticket, course evaluation or worksheet. Google Forms also allows you to add collaborators if you’d like others to have the option of editing the form as well.
Once you’ve completed your poll, you can choose to customize its appearance by selecting a background color, adding your own images, or selecting a design theme.
To share the form with users, just click on “send” and email a link or share the link via social media.
Once your audience has responded to your Google Form survey, you can choose to analyze the results in a variety of ways. You can:
- View or print individual responses
- View charts of the responses
- View the results within a spreadsheet
Advanced Features
Third-party “add-ons” can also be used with Google Forms, and can provide you with additional tools. To use them, go the add-on menu (it looks like a little puzzle piece and is on the right-hand side of the menu at the top of the screen). Note: The choice of add-ons is constantly changing; some are removed, and others are being added all the time. As of this writing, some of the available add-ons include:
- Choice Eliminator: Gives you the capability of eliminating a choice once someone has picked it (this would be useful for scheduling discrete conference times, for instance)
- Form Notifications: Notifies you (or anyone else) via email whenever a form is received
- Ultradox Trigger: Helps you create unique documents or send personalized emails based on form submissions.
In Your Classroom
- I can’t imagine a better way to survey your congregation, your staff and your parents. The spreadsheet gives you the ability to easily sort answers.
- Try making a form that includes a video and follow-up questions within it. Then send it to your students for their response. This is a great way to get student reflections!
This is a “Technology Tuesday” post via Behrman House, edited by Ann D. Koffsky . You can find more Behrman House Technology Tuesdays here.
About
Debbie Harris is the director of educational technology at the Sager Solomon Schechter Day School in Northbrook, IL. Involved in Jewish education for over thirty years, she has an education degree from Northwestern University with a concentration in instructional media and a master’s degree in professional Jewish studies from Spertus Institute for Jewish Learning and Leadership. She is skilled in using and teaching desktop publishing, video editing, presentation and animation software; and consults and presents regularly on integrating technology into Judaic studies. Her students podcast, blog, edit video and create claymations. She co-chaired the technology track for CAJE 33 in Vermont, is a SMART Certified Trainer for SMART Notebook, and a 2011 recipient of the Grinspoon-Steinhardt Award for Excellence in Jewish Education.
When not learning, teaching or writing about technology, Debbie likes to sketchnote and craft. She likes to knit, do calligraphy, sew, watercolor, paint fabric and just generally play with fun toys like scrapbooking supplies and anything with texture. Debbie travels to California every summer to paint tallitot with high school aged campers. Finally, she is incredibly proud of her two daughters; Lori, who teaches English at a community college; and Allie, who is the director of the URJ’s Camp Newman in California.
Look for her at:
Debbie Does Desktop
Flickr
Twitter
Diigo
YouTube
Ravelry
Email Debbie here
MuseForJews 