Notebooking, Teaching, and Technology

You can use Jamboard to create digital year books that can be individually printed out and gifted to students at the end of school year.  This project can be done in Google Slides as well, however Jamboard does offer a couple of advantages. Jamboard slides (or frames) are hidden so it is slightly more difficult to accidentally delete slides (this make collaborating easier). Jamboard offers a drawing and sticky note tool which Google Slides does not.  Unfortunately Jamboard has very limited text sizing, font, and color so I actually set up the names, school, and year in Google Slides and used those as the uneditable backgrounds in Jamboard.   Once the project is complete the teacher can edit and move things around if it needs to be "cleaned up" before printing.  For my "how to" instructions with screenshots click on THIS LINK .  If you use this idea I would love to hear your feedback! You can comment below or tag me on Twitter @atechcoachlife . 

We are almost finished the school year here in South Carolina and I have been sharing some of my favorite end of year class crafts with teachers. The Accordion Foldable is one of my favorite for academic content (see my blog post using it in science) but for the end of the year I like to have students make a Father's Day version. Usually dad's get short changed on classroom crafts since Father's Day falls in June (June 16th this year) so this is my way of making it up to them 😉. The supplies you will need: - Eight 3 x 5 index cards (blank on both sides*) - Two 4 x 6 index cards (blank on both sides*) - Scotch Tape - Glue (white glue or a hot glue gun) - Pencil - Think black sharpie - Colored pencils/markers - Optional: Envelopes (Staples carries photo envelopes that are 4 3/4 x 6 1/2) *If you can't find the index cards you can cut down card stock paper to the sizes needed. These are typical index card sizes you just don't want the ones with...

I ran across this tweet from Tony Vincent this morning about a podcast he has been listening to with his 5th graders called Six Minutes. The website overview : "Who is Holiday? Where did she come from and how did she end up floating in the icy waters off the coast of Alaska with no memory? Are her mom and dad really who they say they are? Why is she developing those incredible abilities? The mystery unfolds in six minute episodes." I love the fact that each episode is only 6 minutes (and they have 136 published six minute segments). It would be easy to integrate into the classroom (at six minutes). I would use it as a settling activity that exposes children to more words, ideas, and language (I work with a lot of Title 1 students who need that language exposure). It could also be used as a writing prompt (i.e listen to this episode and then write the next episode). Podcasting with students is high on my "to try" list and this Podcast has given me some i...

I liked the idea of having students create fake Instagram posts but really hadn't got past the "idea" phase. Last week in my Classy Graphics course with Tony Vincent he had us working with pictures and gave us free reign on the assignment. I used several of the techniques he taught us to FINALLY create a sample Instagram post that could be easily duplicated by students. I used Google Drawings, which is an under utilized tool in our district, to create the final product. This is a great activity to showcase several "how to's" in Google Drawings. I also used Pixlr to edit a photo of myself to remove the background I was standing in front of. I made a "how to" video as well as the simple screen shot "how to" . The video is a little more in-depth for any teacher wanting to try it out first. If you wanted students to make an Instagram post you might want to make a more specific video for your students to reference back to, particular...

My husband oddly enough brought this to my attention. Apparently there is a White House initiative to get all four graders and their families (including 4th grade teachers) to experience federal public lands. It began September 1, 2015 and runs until the end of August 2016. It looks like this is the first year so I am not sure if it is being offered this coming September 1st. There seems to be an educator package that I thought would be good to look at with four activity guides. In my neck of the woods the activity guides would be good for after state testing as a way of introducing the program for summer fun (even though it seems good for the entire year). So if you are a fourth grade teacher, or have a fourth grader at home, you might want to check it out! Here is what is on the website: "To help engage and create our next generation of park visitors, supporters and advocates, the White House, in partnership with the Federal Land Management agencies, launched the ...

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 saw this "flextangle" activity on Facebook and thought I could modify it for academic content. In the example I choose WW2 (primarily because I recently worked with a Social Studies teacher and her standards were fresh on my mind). It was pretty easy. The student would need to come up with 12 short facts about a topic and be able to illustrate it somehow (my illustrations range from good to poor but I was able to depict my thinking so really that is all that mattered). It could work with science as well as social studies. The end product is pretty small size wise which is why I recommend short facts. A teacher friend of mine posted that - they actually demonstrate the math concepts of frieze patterns, reflection, rotation, and translation (here I was thinking they were just "cool" :). The original post I took the idea from can be found HERE . This is also where you go to get the instructions for putting it together and the pattern.  If yo...

This is an end of year video I made for the fourth grade using Animoto .com. I bought a subscription for $30 for the year and have made several school (field trips, field day) and personal videos. I've created links on my website and you can easily embedd codes (like I did above). You can also download your videos and purchase a high resolution copy. This year I learned how to "stitch" together several songs, using movie maker and a converter (but apparently you can use audacity as well...a free download) so the program can take more pictures in it (I used just over 220 in the video above...it can't take more then 10 minutes of music and mine above clocked in at 9 min. 30 seconds). At one time educators could get a free account so if you are interested you might want to check that out. I decided not to go that route since I knew I was going to be making a fair share of personal videos and the cost was relatively inexpensive. These are great to show at open houses, a...

This week I have my students working on fortune tellers for each of our units that we have completed (weather, astronomy, light/magnets/electricity, organisms and their environment). I am not sure all the other teachers are happy now that all the fourth grade know how to make them :) I taped a quart size baggie in each of the notebooks to put them all in. This was an "end of year" project but could easily be done at the end of each unit. I used the largest paper I could get from the art room (stay away from construction paper weight...it becomes too bulky for the notebooks...the closer you can stay to regular weight paper the better). Students had to come up with eight questions and answers related to the unit (using their notebook to come up with questions). They had to illustrate and color. Aside from the initial instruction this was a largely independent project (I played some Kidz Bop CD's in class while they worked) done over five days (one day for each fortune tel...

The decoupage notebook covers were a hit with the students this past week. What I did was run this project concurrent with the ABC book project, which eliminated a bunch of students crowding me at once with their complete notebook covers. In order to complete the ABC book within the five days allotted they had to finish 5 ABC blocks a day. Once they had completed those blocks they could start working on their book covers. I quickly had to let go of my desire to check over every child's book cover layout and offer suggestions for improvement before they glued down. If they were happy....I was fine with it. Once they completed their layout and glued it down on the black cover paper they brought it to me and they started the decoupage. I laid out the books on the floor to dry and they completed their second coat the next day (to speed up time, in some cases, I did the first coat and the students did the second coat). I am not going to lie...this was a very messy project. I had scrap...

We have three Friday's until the end of the school year and I have decided to make each of those Friday's a "movie day". This will give me an opportunity to show some science movies/shows that I was unable to get to during the year (I TiVo'd several episodes of Raging Plant, Storm Stories, etc.). There are some great "World's Greatest" videos on Discovery Streamline if you have in your school district that are approximately 1 hour long (World's Best - Swarms, World's Best - Animal Babies, etc...). I told students that they can bring in a snack and drink (unless it gets out of hand). This will help give me some extra time to grade and start cleaning/packing my classroom (I am moving classrooms this year). I will watch the program with my behaviorally challenged class but the other two will be fine with me moving about packing. If you are looking for other year end activities....try a google search....I saw several that could be modified for ...

Don't forget to put out a donation box when students are cleaning out desks and cubbies at year end. I always get plenty of pencils, sissors, and colored pencils which get added to my growing collection for the next year.

I saw a variation of this at another school and wanted to try it this year. It is a decoupaged cover for student notebooks. Pictured above is my prototype (which I am glad I did because now I know where the problems are going to come up). I cut a black sheet of construction paper about the size of the front cover (you could also do this in white...or any other color.). Each student would get one. Over the school year I have had a lot of National Geographics and science magazines donated to the classroom, which I have been collecting. I went through the National Geographics and cut out any questionable photos - which ranged from naked tribesmen to graphic scenes of war violence. I had a parent volunteer help me. Each table will get a stack of magazines, enough for one per person, as well as a brown lunch bag (which they will put their name on). They will cut out pictures that interest them and can be tied to science. They will also cut out large letters for their names. They are ...

For Mother's Day all of our fourth grade students made this adorable accordion book out of one sheet of paper and cardboard from cereal boxes (which we covered in black construction paper). Students took the word MOTHER and wrote and illustrated an acrostic about their mom. When they were done we tied a nice white ribbon around it and students decorated a brown lunch bag as their "wrapping paper" (the accordion book was put in the bag and folded over and they took it home this way). We took pictures of all the students and printed them in black and white on the school printer. As I sit thinking about end of year activities that I can do with my students in the three and a half weeks left of school, I was thinking how this could be modified as an "end of year" activity. Students could write the word SCHOOL and write and illustrate an acrostic of things related to the current school year or subject. Most likely we would not do this since we just complete...

I wrote in an earlier post about ABC books being a great way to review for a test or end a unit, in my case a year, in the notebook. Pictured above you will find three ways where an ABC book can be used. The first is an example from one of my students notebook, the second is the same concept but adapted for a three ring science binder, the last one is also adapted to a three ring binder but is for social studies (all of these are fourth grade examples). In all three examples we are using the same grading rubric - each block (or letter) is worth five points - three points for your three facts , one point for your picture, and one for color. Another friend of mine is doing this project with her fifth graders but decided to make the project longer then ours is currently running. In each of the examples above we gave students the term that went with the letter of the alphabet. She had her children find terms that matched the letter - after she approved the final list the students got start...

I substituted at a school once where I needed to borrow colored pencils from another teacher to complete a project. She handed me a tub similar to the one pictured above full of colored pencils. She said that at the end of each school year she asks students to donate any unwanted color pencils to the box. She said you would be surprised how many you collect doing that. She keeps the tub out when doing projects and students can borrow from it. I did not do that last year (crazy year!) but will definitely do it this year to start my collection. While we require students to have colored pencils the reality is that they never have them when you need them. As stated in an early post, colored pencils are preferred in the notebooks over markers (they bleed through) or crayons (wax makes it hard to write over it if you are taking notes or need to label something). Occasionally I will need crayons and markers so I can see myself getting a few bins and having students donate those as well as pe...