Book Creator- One of the Best Tools Around!
I got an update from Book Creator this past week, and yet again- they are making their product better, more accessible and easier for students and teachers to use. Now they have added voice search, image attribution and the ability for teachers to block image results, if needed. You can read all about these wonderful updates here. They have linked up with Pixabay for CC images and now there is even a button for image attribution.
Voice search is very cool, especially for ELL students and our younger grades. It works in maps too! Oh, and did I mention you can search in over 120 languages? Check out the short little video below. Need to learn more about this great tool? They have free webinars coming right up! Genially
Matt Miller shared a blog post co-authored by Manny Curiel and Karly Moura called 15 Ways to Use Genially in the Classroom. Now, I have to admit, I don' t use this tool, but I was intrigued and checked it out. It is a presentation tool that you can use instead of/in addition to PowerPoint or Google Slides. It offers cool templates and if you take some time to go down through the 15 ideas presented, has lots of potential. So... if you are looking for another tool to use, want to add this one to your list of tools to check out this summer... here you go. There is a free version and then, of course, a premium version. Read more aboutthese ideas here, and check out the video below.
CodeBlocks
Note- I also found his excellent course on Circuit Playground on MakeCode, which is really cool as I am taking an all day course on the circuit playground this coming Saturday...
Scratch Jr Connect
This is a new online resource for teachers and students to both find projects in Scratch Jr and to contribute to the growing resource. There are projects from around the world!
Canva and TeacherMade
Richard Byrne recently posted an excellent idea- combining the worksheets from Canva with TeacherMade. What a great combination! You can read more about it here, and check out his video below.
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Converting Worksheets
Putting aside the question of why use worksheets for the moment... many of the questions I have been getting are around converting paper worksheets of one sort or another over to digital worksheets that remote students can complete. I was hedging away from using Wizer.me, mostly because I just hate worksheets, although many claim that it is a game changer for them. But lately I have seen many teachers online claiming that Teacher Made is the cat's pajamas... so- I tried it. It is easy to use for what I was doing- just the basics. I did not try assigning it, collecting or grading it- although it says it does all that. Why don't you check out the 2 main contenders and then some other workarounds using Google Slides?
An example below from WIzer. I found Wizer a little harder to figure out what I needed to do, but that is just my take. It also seemed like they were trying to get me to upgrade to premium, whereas Teacher Made is just plain free.
Annotating PDFs
Some folks like to use various chrome extensions to annotate on top of pdfs. You can use Kami, you can use Doc Hub online , but...
If you are at HPS- you have the tools you need already!
Everyone has Read and Write for Google Chrome... the pdf reader allows kids to annotate.
Here are a couple of quick how to videos... essentially save the pdf as an image or screenshot it, upload to background ( not insert image) or master slide. Then use tables or text boxes for kids to fill in.
Never used Master Slides or have slides that you want to convert?
What about Math?
Put your worksheet on Jamboard as the background and you can do the same thing. Or use equatio on slides, etc...
Math Manipulatives
Kris posted this intriguing view of Mathigon polypad on Twitter. I went to check it out- and it's a whole textbook, plus a whole bunch of courses- many still under construction and some really cool games. Even if you're not a math teacher, these are really fun!
Check out his tweet, but beware, you may also fall down the rabbit hole.
Another math site I found interesting this week is Math Curious. Here you will find worksheets, puzzles, math storybooks and task cards. There are lots of great sites if you need to find manipulatives for games that you are making, or for student use at home. My favorites- Toy Theater for manipulatives and Math Playground for games. (Just to note- Colleen King Whalen is really strict about ads and the kinds of games she puts on Math Playground, making it a great educational, safe site.)
Free Math Manipulative Sites
https://toytheater.com/category/teacher-tools/virtual-manipulatives/ https://www.didax.com/math/virtual-manipulatives.html https://www.mathlearningcenter.org/apps https://www.mathplayground.com/
Before I got lost in the math manipulative world, I actually wanted to share a quick video with a tip on duplicating objects in Google slides or even Jamboard.
Online WhiteBoards
I saw a new whiteboard recently and here's Richard Byrne to walk you through it.
Of course you know there are several options now for online whiteboards. You can go back to AWWapp the online whiteboard, orGoogle's Jamboard, or the whiteboard.fi. You can even add draw features in a Pear Deck Slide. Check them out and see what works best for you.
Stuff to Share
This came from Wes Fryer- on Media Literacy. I hadn't seen it before. Spot the Troll.
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AuthorMaureen Tumenas Archives
June 2021
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