Notebooking, Teaching, and Technology

I just created my first Choose Your Own Adventure style story using Google Forms. As a tech coach that deals primarily with elementary school students I would definitely put this in a Gifted and Talented category...at the end of the year...as enrichment (it was kind of hard!). I found the video above the best as far as instructions go on YouTube. I didn't have to watch the whole thing...I got the general gist by the 8 minute mark. I liked her flow chart and used the Smart Art Hierarchy Tool to make mine (the teacher in this video used Google Drawings). I thought the Smart Art tool would be easier (since it provides a template) but I'm not sure it is (I would need to try it). Student might find that step too much and might be better off sketching their story out on paper or using numbered index cards. The teacher in the video had 16 levels to her story...I had 17 (if you count the ending...it is 18). That was a lot! My flow chart was sketch of story a...

I am helping several teachers put together videos to show at end-of-year award ceremonies. I thought I would share some of my favorite music to use. - Meghan Trainor "Better When I'm Dancing" - Ice Age 4 "We are Family" - Brother Bear "On my Way" - Israel "IZ" Kamakawiwo'ole "Somethere Over the Rainbow" - Jack Johnson "Upside Down" - Kids Bob "Make Some Noise" - Hans Zimmer "You're So Cool" (instrumental and my "go to" for LOTS of video projects) What we do is upload the final video to YouTube (as an unlisted video...so you have to have the link in order to find it) and then we create a customized URL using TinyURL . The link is then shared with parents via newsletter, email, or text. This is a lot easier then burning CD's for the entire class and then parents can download the video on their own, if they wish, to keep it or share the link with extended family. I...

I was working with a second grade class the other day using the Google Pages app (we used/modified the visual report template within Pages to create an animal report) . I was telling the teacher about the "magic move" feature in the Keynote app (free) and how it could be used to create a cute adaptations video. I created the above sample project to show her and also to test if I thought her second graders could handle it (there is no sound). Her second graders could definitely do it. I think the problems would come up with research and writing. Students would have to find 5-10 adaptations to highlight (I think I only came up with seven or eight for the penguin in this video). Second graders researching and reading skills are a bit all over the board, which is why I thought this step might need to be differentiated (high readers can pick their own animals, middle readers can choose from a list of animals and you can give them links to find the adaptations,emerging reade...