Snap on it!

My new technology pleasure has to be Snapguide. It is a site I wish I would have had when I was creating screenshot directions for my students because I was tired of repeating directions 100 times after I showed them on the projector and asked them to read and repeat what I was saying as I was showing it. So I started to take step by step screenshots and put them together for the students to watch if they had a question. One of the best teacher funnies that explains this is -

Snapguide is probably the easiest program I have found to help use pictures to give instructions. It allows you to take screenshots and put them together for a guide. Then you can embed the guide into your website and when the 14th kid comes up and asks you how to do something for the 5th time you can direct them to the Snapguide. I created this Snapguide about how to add a tile to a Symbaloo Webmix and how to share the Webmix on your website or blog as I love Symbaloo for saving websites to use later. Here is the guide - 

Check out How to Add a Tile to Symbaloo and Share Webmix by Melissa Kane on Snapguide.

I also find Snapguide to be great with my elementary RTI groups because I can snap pictures of what we are doing and put them together in a Snapguide for them to read and follow the directions with pictures. I started by just typing out the directions in a Google Doc, but felt is was lacking something as we read and followed the directions together. With the Snapguide we have the pictures and the project sort of comes to life as we create it. Here is a Snapguide I created about making Burger Cookies after we finished talking about how 2014 is the year of the family farm and it is important to know where your food comes from. It was a lot of fun - as you can tell by the last picture in the guide. 

Check out How to Make a Burger Cookie With Kids by Melissa Kane on Snapguide.

I think for next year I will put together a Snapguide of my classroom rules so we can go over them on the screen as we put them up on the wall to remember them. I will then be able to put the guide on my website and it will be there to refer to if we need to as well. 

Before you close the 'page' - Please share any tips you use with your students to make sure they remember the directions of the classroom or a project. 

Create a story bot and more!

I cannot say enough good things about a collection of apps from Storybots on the iPad. I stumbled across Starring You Books on Facebook one day and knew my girls would love it. This app allows you to create a character with your child's name in the story and a picture of their face placed on the body of the main character in the story. They essentially become the story. Even my two year old laughs and giggle when she is part of the story.

The apps are free in iTunes and you have access to one book about dancing feet to try out, which we did for a month. I wanted to see how much my girls would use it because the subscription is $4.99/ month which is about $60 a year so I didn't want to jump in without trying first. With the subscription you get access to all their great apps like Math Racer, Starring You Videos and Books, Coin Flip, Share Timer, Learning Videos, Kid Quoter, Tap & Sing, ABC Videos, Kids Radio, and Beep and Bop and a couple holiday specific Starring You Family Videos. If you think about it that is about 40 cents per app, which is not such a bad investment for a child's education.

I was ready to jump in after watching my girls have fun reading with the app, but I also just bought a Kindle for my daughters so wanted to know if the apps were available in Android version. I emailed Storybots and not only did they give me a quick response that they are working on Android apps, but they also let me know as an educator that I could get a free subscription - yes I said free! I just had to fill out this form - http://www.surveymonkey.com/s/educator-network-referral I filled it out and they sent me an acces code to get started. They also followed up with an email to see if everything worked and was going well. It was very great service. So big props to them!

Here are some ideas on how you could use the apps in your classroom, library, or at home with your kids.

Take pictures of your students and show them how to add to Starring You Books. Then they can read the books during free reading time or read aloud to other students during center time. Or you can read the books together as a bedtime story. My 2 year old even likes to watch her character dance across the screen even though she can't read the words.

Take pictures of your whole class and put them in the Starring You Videos and show the videos on your Smartboard (or even just your screen or whiteboard if that is what you have.) I guarantee there will be giggles! 

Start your circle time with a different ABC video to grab everyone's attention. Share the learning videos to compliment your curriculum. Turn on the kids radio during work time as an incentive to help keep the class quite and working. 

I have not had a chance to use some of the apps, but this is how I think you could use them. Use Mather Racer as a center during Math time. Use the Share Timer to keep track of rotation during centers if you rotate. Use the Coin Flip to decide who is your helper for a certain job or where students will go to centers. Use Beep and Bop to keep track of classroom behavior. Use Kid Quoter to keep track of fun things students say to share in a newsletter or at conferences. Create a book at the end of the year for the class or each student. 

Just have fun and play around with all the apps and see what you can do! The possibilities are endless.

This is my toddler enjoying the ABC song video on the Storybots website. (She was giggling before I made her stop watching to look at me for the picture.) 

Before you close the page - how could you use these apps in your classroom? Please share below. 

Share the Love on Donors Choose

I found out about this contest and thought I would share for anyone w/ an open Donors Choose Project right now. I donated to two great projects on the Caring Classroom page to help bring audio books to students who are wanting to listen and learn! 

If you don't know about Donor's Choose it is a wonderful site where teachers can post projects they feel would benefit their students and find donors to make the projects happen. I have had three projects funded in the past to help with purchasing audio books, comfortable reading furniture, and hands on K'nex sets to bring Science research about renewable energy to life. I currently have a project to help create a mini recording studio for my 1st and 2nd graders working on fluency. Be sure to click to check out my project! 

I would appreciate any donation you could give. I kicked it off w/ $10 and in the first week if you use the code INSPIRE then Donor's Choose will match the donation! Pretty inspiring to me! 

Check it out today and you might even find some more deserving projects to share the love with as well! 

Before you close the page - what are things you do to bring fun and exciting activities in your classroom? 

"Focus on the journey, not the destination. Joy is found not in finishing an activity but in doing it.” (Greg Anderson)

For as long as I can remember, I have always been curious. My dad used to get frustrated watching TV with me because I would ask questions he could not possibly answer as we were both watching the show unfold together.

Technology has hooked me since I struggled my way across The Plains on an Apple II E computer during a game of The Oregon Trail. I can still remember my sense of accomplishment when I made it to the end with all my appendages still in tact and only one family member swept away in the river current as we crossed in our covered wagon.

I have been an organizer of people and events since I was eight and married my brother (he was five) off to the neighbor girl. They were all dressed up, with a faux pastor and wagon ride to the reception down the street. There are still pictures (and even video I think) that surface every now and then long enough to make my brother blush.

I also have a real love of words. I have read more books then I could possibly count. Starting with my early childhood as part of a bedtime routine and even now a good book will help me settle in for the night. Finding information of all kinds excites me.

So you know I am excited as every day brings a change to the world of technology and I have fully embraced the use of Web 2.0 technology. I will try almost any new technology out there once and it sure beats the original HTML code I tried to decipher as I built a webpage in college.

But as I worked with a group of students this week I started to wonder what all this information at our fingertips is doing to our students? I watched the students rush to be done with very little effort or quality time spent with the information they were supposed to be finding.

Please don't think  I am planning to surrender my iPad and wireless Internet. Online is still my go to if I need a quick answer, (Even though I have been known to challenge a student to see where the information can be found faster - print vs online) but I get engrossed in the process and search of finding what I need. I spend time and will often have 10  tabs open on my browser before I am finally finished because I have come across so many other new things as well.

Before you close the page - what is your favorite Web 2.0 tool to use but how do we get students to slow down and find the joy in the journey in this fast paced society? 

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