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| One of my two presentations |
This year I just wanted to share a few things that have stuck out to me after the many sessions I attended.
1) Merge Cube
Ok, so I saw this awesome device on facebook months ago. I saw what it could do and promptly went out to my Walmart to look for these awesome items. I found them in the clearance aisle and wanted to buy 15, as they were $1 each. I had my cart loaded up and then that little voice (my boyfriend) asked had I even tried it out myself? Well, I said no and he, being my conscious, reminded me that maybe I should do that first. So I only purchased one. It was the end of the year, I hadn't really tried out the cube. It was just sitting in a box in my classroom up until WITcon. Well, when I saw a session I dragged some colleagues to it because I told them, "This is sooooooo cool!" Well, it was and let me tell you I had no idea all the amazing apps they have to go with it!
The presenter showed us all the apps she played around with and some she hasn't played with yet. If you are a science teacher you will love this AR Experience for your class! It allows students to view planets in the palm of their hand, hold a human heart, excavate dinosaur bones and so much more. I also found out about an app called 57 North that works like a choose your own adventure story. I think this would be amazing to use as a class reward for behavior or end of the school day! Now I will say that many of the apps you have to pay for but the experience is worth it. It runs on ios and android and will be working with the newer Chromebooks soon. They have found a great market in educational technology so I'm hoping the more teachers use it the more they will be willing to make apps for our classrooms. They have done beta testing for 3d shapes and historical statues. I'm excited what they will do next. Definitely, a must try if you want to dive into AR and bring experiences to life in your classroom. Check out the facebook group for amazing ideas and new products and follow them on Twitter!
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| Take a Picture of the sides of the Merge Cube and share digitally if you don't want to buy a class set. |
2)Literature Circles are Not Dead
In all honesty, I never really thought they were dead, but with recent shifts in curriculum and technology, I haven't seen as many teachers utilizing them in the classroom. I went to a session in which a teacher discussed how to take the typical literature circle and update it using tech.
- Having students create posters using Google Drawings
- Make Youtube playlists for characters
- Using Flipgrid for initial reactions and reflections after lit group time
- Creating choice boards on slides or Google Drawings
- Creating Twitter Chat Centered on Big Ideas encompassing the stories and following that up with a vlog using Screencastify, WeVideo, or Flipgrid
- Having a big final project that is graded using student-created rubrics
So many great ideas that I can incorporate for my 5th Grade class to make Lit Circles more relevant and exciting. Shout Out to Traci Johnson!
3) Connecting Globally and within your own Community
I really want to find more ways to connect my students with other people and connect beyond our four walls. I went to a few sessions that gave me some great ideas on how to do that and engage the community we currently live in as well. When thinking Globally there are a few sites I was unaware of but I'm excited to try in my classroom next year. One is Belouga which allows your classroom to connect with other classrooms from all over the world. I love how this site allows students to ask each other questions to learn more about each other and recognize they have more in common than they thought. It also allows students to earn points that they can put towards helping schools in need of clean water, supplies, and food. They also are so willing to help you in any step of the process and have even created permission slips and notes to help you get started. Another neat site is Google Lit Trips which allows you to dive into a book in a different way and allow your students the chance to see where these characters lived and walked in the novels. For me, I'm excited to try this with the book The Watsons Go To Birmingham.
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| Belouga Website |
As for Community-based connections, I got to learn from another district some fabulous ideas to get your staff in good spirits and get the community excited about your school. I loved the ideas this school shared on staff support and events. You can really tell that they love and support one another with the different staff bonding they did such as:
- WOW- Work Out Wednesday
- Lip Sync Battles
- Staff Sports Games
- Photo Boards
- Pineapple Charts
I thought these to be soooooo important because we all know as the year goes on the stress can pile up too. We have to have fun and relax sometimes in order to be our best selves and make school a fun upbeat place for our students. I also loved the idea that they had to have a community open house where the doors were open for everyone with kids and without to attend and learn about what types of things are going on in the school. I also like that it gave students and staff alike a chance to showcase the cool things they are doing in their classrooms. If you are interested in following this school you can check them out on Twitter.
Another successful year at WITcon in the books and so much to think about how to utilize for next year! I especially loved this quote from the amazing Eric Sheninger, "We need to focus more on the "What ifs" than the "Yea Buts""
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| From Eric Sheninger's Keynote Presentation |
What are your "What Ifs" this summer?
What questions can you ask yourself to better switch up your lessons?
Let me know your thoughts! Tweet to me @teaching_power
Be sure to share your experiences and you try some of these tools using #teachingpower
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