Notebooking, Teaching, and Technology

 Need a fun digital writing prompt for St. Patrick's day? Try this "If I had a pot of Gold" activity. The fun, and techie part, requires students to take a picture of themselves, use the site remove.bg to remove the background and edit around the face, and then layer it within the hat and beard clipart.  To encourage more writing and detail I made the "pot of gold" cursed so that in order to get what you want you have to do something nice with the some of the gold and tell me what and why. Here are some student samples from a fifth grade class: I didn't do this with the group I worked with but you can have them add in their Leprechaun name using this name generator I found online.   In the "If I had a pot of gold" template ( CLICK HERE TO OPEN ) I have an instructional video on the first slide and some "good" and "bad" writing samples ( CLICK HERE TO OPEN LINK TO VIDEO ONLY ). IMPORTANT NOTE:  You will need to make a copy of bo...

  I saw this activity on Julie Smith's  The Techie Teacher blog  and I thought it was a super cute digital St. Patrick's Day writing activity.  I created a video for students to watch  walking them through how to complete the activity independently to add to Julie Smith's shamrock template . If you are a GAFE district you will need to make a copy of the video in your Drive before assigning to students. Students in our district are restricted from opening/viewing resources shared outside our domain and I am assuming others are the same.  Since our district uses Google Classroom I created a model assignment showing teacher's how I might set it up for users.  If you have your students complete one I would love to hear how it went. You can comment below or tag me on Twitter @atechcoachlife .

If you plan on watching the inauguration speech with students on Wednesday here is an activity that will engage them. Have students try and think like the President. What might he say to try to motivate Americans from all levels and backgrounds? Develop a presidential "word search" list with the class (5 to 10 keywords, topics, or themes that they think the president elect will speak about during his address). Have students check off the list any time they hear any of the words or topics being used. As a writing extension you can have older students write a speech that they would want to give to America right now. Have them read and record their speech on Flipgrid. Have a separate area for them on their list to note any words, themes, or topics that seem to come up that were not listed. After the speech compare your results and discuss why they thought some words were mentioned and others were not. Did the words used help convey the overall message? Could they summarize the...

  If you are looking to blur a photo look no further than PowerPoint. There are a few ways to do it ranging from basic (putting a sticker on a picture) to more complex (blurring a picture). I put together a 4 minute video walking you through your PowerPoint options. Here is the DIRECT LINK to the video.  If you have an easier or different way to blur photos, please share in the comments or tag me on Twitter at @techcoachlife.  

  I put together a full day of Thanksgiving themed activities  (click to link...you will be forced to make a copy) into a single editable Google slideshow for students. It was designed for self-contained 4th and 5th grade classes. Third grade teachers would need to review and possibly modify. There are 12 activities. I made sure that each activity had an accountability piece. I used a variety of free programs, as well as ones we have available to us in our district.  1. Create a Six Word Story based on a Thanksgiving image. I linked a video from Discovery Education explaining what a six word story is (we have a DE subscription). There are some six word story videos on YouTube that could replace the Discovery Education resource or a teacher could simply explain and model the process. 2. Read a short Thanksgiving fiction piece in ReadWorks (free to educators) and respond to the question set. 3. Mystery Picture Math - Thanksgiving Word Problems (I created it in Google Sheets...

  Cosmobuzz.net is a great FREE tool for hosting online review games with students via Zoom or Google Meet. It is basic but does the job of recording who buzzed in first and displaying student answers.  Our district had it blocked for students (it was classified as "gaming") but after reviewing the site I put in a recommendation for it with my full justification and review and it was unblocked. Give it a try with students using simple trivia to learn how the site works and then start building your own academic review games.

  I ran across this clever idea on Twitter for using Google Forms to have students complete a paint-by-number picture by answering questions.  Brad Dale posted the directions and a video on his blog which was very easy to follow.  Since we are so close to Halloween I tried it using a couple of Halloween paint-by-number pictures. I used third grade multiplication word problems, at the request of one of the teachers, who saw my re-tweet on Twitter.  I've included links to both Google Forms I made. You will be forced to make a copy but from there you can edit the questions if you would like.  - Pumpkin Picture (click to link) - Witch Picture (click to link)  Here were a couple of my thoughts as I completing this activity: - The paint-by-number website only offers a max of nine colors. Which means only nine questions on the form. I would have liked the option for more questions. I made a note to look for more detailed options on other sites.  - The pai...