Buncee: Digital Creation tool

January 16, 2014February 10, 2014Kelly Tenkely1 Comment4913 views

Okay, it is 2014…time to kick it into gear and get back to blogging. The awesomeness of what exists in educational technology is stacking up and NEEDS to be shared. I’m on it!

What it is: Buncee is a super cool creation and presentation tool. Buncee is useful for students and teachers alike as a digital canvas. Students can use Buncee to create neat interactive presentations and stories. Teachers can use it to help teach new concepts, in a flipped classroom, or to share information with families. There are three account types to choose from within Buncee. The free account lets students and teachers share finished presentations with social media, upload your own photos, create Buncees with two slides, offers 500mb of storage, and lets you save the Buncee as a jpeg. The education version cost $9.99/month or $59.99 for the year and includes: sharing to social media, uploading of files (audio, media, image), record audio, create Buncees with unlimited slides, storage of 2G, ability to save as a clickable pdf or jpeg, 1 teacher account to create and manage 30 student accounts, create and post assignments, and view/grade student submissions.

How to use Buncee into your classroom: Buncee is a great creation webapp. As a teacher, use Buncee to assist guided reading by recording a read aloud. Use the recording as part of a classroom reading center where struggling or emerging readers can get a customized lesson. Stop during the reading just like you would if you were doing a read along sitting with the child. Include slides with questions that students can answer, ways that they can reflect on the story, etc. While you are working with a small group of students on close reading, other students can still get some great reading support. This is also great for those kids who don’t have a parent at home that can read with them- you can “go home” with your students every day! Buncee can also be used for guided learning. Create your own digital “textbooks” complete with multimedia, images, audio, and text. I’ve often been let down by what a boxed curriculum provides for students, create your own resources for students to access. This is especially helpful for young students who won’t be able to independently research using the Internet on their own.
Buncee could be a great help for the flipped classroom model. Send students with learning to complete at home in preparation for a project or activity that will be done at school with your support.

Students can use Buncee for multimedia presentations to demonstrate learning. Students can create interactive presentations when learning a foreign language connecting vocabulary words with meaning. Because it is so easy to combine multimedia types, students can create their own digital “textbooks” where they collect learning in history, government, geography, science, social studies, etc. and present it in new and meaningful ways. These digital “textbooks” can be shared and commented on by other students.

Buncee could be a great way for students to reflect on a book that they have finished. They can complete character sketches, retell, or combine media types to create a book review.

If you have a digital camera (built in or separate), students can take pictures of a science experiment and create a digital review of the experiment including any hypothesis and conclusions.

Tips: With the education version, students can submit their work and it can be graded and commented on directly in Buncee. This could be a really great way for students to keep a digital portfolio that you, and parents, can comment on throughout the year.

Acting on hindsight #edchat

January 13, 2014Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment2481 views

I hate that we have to do trainings like this. I really do. It breaks my heart that within 15 minutes of Anastasis 3 major school shootings have taken place. I hate that I know what it is like to wait on the outside. That I know intimately how it breaks families when their child is the one. That I also know what it is like to worry about kids I’ve known since they were 5. It doesn’t get easier.

I also hate that we have to do fire drills. The reality of why we have to do those drills makes me sad. That a fire drill exists because there were some who died in a fire is equally sad. Yet we do them regularly. I can’t remember a time when I actually heard of a child dying in a school fire, but I’m sure it has happened. So we run drills. 6 times every year. We practice getting out of the building safe so that, heaven forbid, if a fire ever happened, evacuating would feel second nature. We would all know what to do.

No matter how many times we train, when tragedy strikes it feels different. Time slows down and, at the same time, goes impossibly fast. Decisions matter. This is when we fall back on all of the training and hope that our muscles remember what their job is. We work hard to be calm for kids. We know implicitly that we will do anything to keep our kids safe.

I was in a neighboring high school during the Columbine school shooting. This was the first time that I remember ever being in “Lock down.” My algebra 2 teacher quickly locked the classroom door. We turned out the lights. We stayed out of site from the door and were asked to be totally silent. Later we would turn on the TV (cable in the classroom was new), and watch as friends poured out of the high school down the street. We would keep lists of those we saw so that we could tell each other who we knew was accounted for. Afterward I would hear stories from those inside about how it went. Some hid in closets. Some under tables. All waited. In some cases that waiting led to friends dying under the neighboring table. Hindsight is always 20/20. Now we know how quickly it was all over inside the school. Now we look at the number of law enforcement on the outside of the school with all of their armor and weapons and wonder why they sat and waited SO long on the outside. Now we wonder why those who could evacuate stayed where they were and waited…even knowing that there was a gunman in the building. Hindsight is hard. There is so much to do differently.

But we don’t really. 15 years later and little has changed about how we respond to danger. A shooter in the building and we tell teachers and students to stay put and wait.

Now I have my own school. Anastasis Academy. It is incumbent on me to use that hindsight to prepare differently. I know how this goes. I still hate that it is necessary. It still gives me that sick feeling in the pit of my stomach that somehow by preparing, we would be inviting trouble. I guess this is the same reason people don’t like writing wills. That superstition that if they don’t do it- nothing can happen because they won’t be ready. The real world doesn’t wait for us to be ready.

Social Media has done a lot of great things for me professionally. It pushed me to start a school. Most recently, a connection I first made online, led to a friendship. @laurascheer isn’t an educator. We started talking on Twitter because she has kids of her own. She is interested in education as a parent. Then we realized we live within 5 minutes of each other and met. Laura introduced me to a client of hers, @taconeconsulting. I had no idea a company like Tac One existed.

Being in charge of a school is hard. It is hard to balance what you know about kids, with what you know about the world, and what you know about liability. But I’ve seen school shootings up close. I know how they go. I had a hard time doing lock down the way that every other school does lock down. I guess I was waiting for permission to trust my instincts. After the Arapahoe shooting, Laura messaged me and asked if we would be interested in having Tac One Consulting come out and train us.
I immediately accepted (despite the irrational “jinx” alarm in my mind). On Saturday all Anastasis staff went through Tac One’s Beyond Lockdown Training. I’m so glad that we did! Joe helped us see that this is no different from preparing for a fire. The hope is always that all the training will go without a test. But, in the instance that you need it, you have it.

The team teaches what I’ve always suspected should be the case: if your students are able to get out of the building (where all the law enforcement is…or will soon be…hanging out) do it. Evacuation is the best case scenario, NOT sitting and waiting the way many of us have been told to do for 15 years. Tac One even taught us how to evacuate so that we do so in a safe, smart way.

If for some reason we can’t get out of the building, we were taught how to secure our classrooms. Joe walked us through each room and helped us think through what could be used to do this. Visualizing what is available puts your mind at ease. You have a plan, you aren’t left sitting in the dark. We also learned about various guns. What they look like, how they work, what the bullets and magazines look like. If you come upon a hallway with discarded magazines, you now have a better idea of what you are dealing with. Knowledge is power. We were taught how to disarm a shooter in a “safe” manner (not sure this is ever safe). We took turns practicing this on Tac One’s bad guy, John. We learned how to more safely navigate halls, how to fight back if it all goes poorly, etc.

I’ll say it again, I pray that I will NEVER need any of this knowledge. But I also hope I will never need fire drill knowledge. I also hope I will never have to put our tornado drill to the test. I will continue to run our staff through ALL of these drills and trainings because I haven’t figured out how to predict the future or how to prevent bad things from happening.

I am beyond thankful for Tac One’s training not only from a tactical standpoint, but also for the reminder of the truly incredible people I’ve surrounded myself with. This was a great reminder of the trust that I have in my staff. If I ever need someone to have my back, I’m glad that they are around!

School administrators- I encourage you to take a good look at your lock down procedures. Are you doing the same things that have been done for the past 15 years? Even with all we know about how this goes?

Teachers- You are the first line of defense. Protecting kids falls on your shoulders. If your school has a tired lock down policy, encourage them to look at a training like Tac One offers.

Parents- Know what your child’s school does to keep your kids safe. If there is room to grow, push. This is important. Pray that it never happens, but don’t make assumptions that it won’t ever happen to your child’s school.

It is up to us to protect that which is most precious. I want to know that I’ve taken every possible measure to do that. Before Laura pointed me to Joe at Tac One, I didn’t know such a training was available to schools. It is. Check it out.

Thank you Joe at @taconeconsulting and @laurascheer very much appreciated!

Beyond Lockdown: Invitation for #Colorado educators to join for FREE

January 2, 2014January 7, 2014Kelly Tenkely1 Comment1977 views

I’ve been radio silent in the blogging world since the shooting at Arapahoe high school. It hurts. I hate that this has happened again. I hate that the waiting to hear from former students felt so familiar. I ache that all kids live in a world where school isn’t always a safe place. The week before the shooting at Arapahoe, the kids at Anastasis were creating bracelets, paper airplanes, and a video for the Sandy Hook community and I wrote this post on our school blog.

It’s hard to write about new technology finds and educational tools when you ache for your community, when lives have been forever altered and two families have to learn how to exist differently. Despite the pain and sadness, there is also a time of healing. I’ve been incredibly proud of the Arapahoe community who IS warrior strong. The Colorado community has once again rallied and has come with an outpouring of love, support for one another, and healing together.

One of my friends on Twitter, @LauraScheer, contacted me following the shooting at Arapahoe, and extended an amazing gift through a friend of hers. A private “Beyond Lockdown” training for the Anastasis staff and 15 of our Colorado friends. TAC ONE consulting is providing their “Beyond Lockdown” training course for free. This training has been designed to help prepare school faculty with an aggressive response to an active gunman. During this course, we will learn to: understand the “active shooter” and identify active shooter incidents/trends, identify current mainstream practices and shortfalls, acquire basic understanding of firearms, understand new aggressive action plans, and receive training and recommendations.

The class is being held on Saturday Jan. 11, 2014 from 12:30-4:30 in Centennial. We want to invite 15 of our Colorado teaching friends to join us for FREE. If you are interested, please contact me in the comments below OR on Twitter @ktenkely and I will get you complete details. This training is typically costly, this is an amazing gift from TAC Consulting trainer Joe Deedon!

It makes me sad that we live in a world where this type of training is becoming a necessity. I’m thankful for people like Laura and Joe who make it available in a time of need and prepare us accordingly. I hope that you won’t assume that this could never happen at your school. I hope our Colorado friends will take us up on this offer. I pray that none of us will ever need to put this training to use.

Hour of Code: 30 ways to get your students (k-12) coding! #hourofcode

December 9, 2013Kelly Tenkely2 Comments7325 views

What it is: This week is Hour of Code week! From December 9- December 15, Code.org is hosting an event to introduce students everywhere to computer sciences. The event is super flexible, you can plan your hour anywhere it fits in your schedule this week. Code.org has MORE than enough resources, videos, activities to get you going, but these days there are all kinds of great resources to help you bring programming and the Hour of Code into your classroom. The best part is, there is no previous coding experience required, really!

I can’t tell you how rewarding and exciting it is to learn something alongside your students. It is such a neat thing for your students to see you as a learner (without all of the answers) and discover learning together. This is rewarding in ways you may not have experienced before.

How lead your student (school) in the Hour of Code Week: First: sign up for the Hour of Code week at Code.org. This leads you to fantastic tutorials for the learner.

Check out the tutorials and pick one for your class. Tutorials are available in a variety of languages!
I like to go through the tutorial once on my own so that I have some background information before diving right in with students.
Test tutorials on the devices students will use during the Hour of Code (there is nothing worse than planning everything only to learn you don’t have the correct plugin!)

Next decide if your students will be going through the tutorial on their own, in partners, or as a class. This probably depends on what devices you have available for your students. Don’t let a lack of devices keep you from participating! Students can work together on classroom computers (maybe as a center where groups visit the computer together for an hour. A new group can visit the center each day of the week.) If you don’t have reliable classroom computers, or the ability for students to work independently in a one to one setting, think about working as a whole class using an interactive whiteboard or projector-connected computer. If you suffer from low bandwidth (the worst!) you can even opt to download the tutorials so that you are watching them locally.

Have fun learning together! It is okay to say, “I don’t know.” As I said above, it is truly such a cool experience to learn with your students.

Although Code.org is hosting the Hour of Code, you aren’t limited to the resources you find there. Below I’ve listed some of our favorite places to learn about coding at Anastasis Academy:

Codecademy (this was where Team Anastasis started our first year during Crave classes. I learned right along with them! I can’t tell you the number of times I said, “I don’t know, let’s see if anyone on Twitter can help.” GREAT experience! The kids loved the game nature of learning to code and the immediate gratification of moving to the next level.)
Codecademy: Hour of Code this is available as an app on the iPhone (can also be downloaded for iPad at the phone resolution)
Squad is a free collaborative code editor. With Squad, students can access the code they are writing anywhere there is an Internet connection. This means that students can chat and edit files together no matter where they are.
Tynker– This is one that I wrote about just the other day…cannot wait to use it!
Romo– This is a robot that helps teaches the basics of programming. I adore this little robot. It is adorable and fairly affordable if you already have an iPhone/iPod that you are willing to let kids use.
Bootstrap– This is an awesome resource for middle and high school students. It teaches students algebraic and geometric concepts through computer programming. Different from other resources, this one begins with the math in mind and shows students practical application of what they are learning in algebra/geometry as you go. Very cool!
Scratch– from MIT, this is a great place to start…a long time winner for sure!
Stencyl- is game creation software with a visual interface that lets students publish their creations for any platform.
Game Salad– similar to Stencyl, this free download lets students create games visually and publish their creation on multiple platforms.
Hackety Hack!– with this download kids can learn the basics of Ruby on Rails programming language.
Code Monster- great beginner interface for kids to learn the basics of programming through a step-by-step online guide.
Hopscotch– Coding for kids in a visual programming language. Hopscotch is an app for the iPad and FREE!
Move the Turtle- Another app for the iPad that teaches programming visually. This one is $2.99
Treehouse- Free app for the iPad that teaches programming and design from 1000 videos, practice modules, etc.
Cato’s Hike Lite– This is a programming and logic odyessy for kids. This is a great place for kids to learn the basics. The lite version linked here is free, the full version is $4.99
CProgramming- an iPad guide to programming in C. This app features a conversational style with visual explanations and is probably best for older student. The hosts sing badly, tell cheesy jokes, and include ridiculous pop culture references. All of this adds up to a fun way to learn. $5.99
Codea– an iPad app that fills in the gaps of your lack of programming knowledge with visual interface. $9.99
KineScript Lite– visual programming for kids to learn to code and share it with others. A great starting point! Free! Full version is $1.99
Dynamic Art Lite– Another iPad based graphical programming option for kids. This one lets students create amazing animation and artwork with a drag/drop set of blocks. Free! Full version is $2.99
Kodable is a free iPad game that offers a kid-friendly introduction to programming concepts and problem solving. (The pro version is on SUPER SALE for the Hour of Code week- 90% off!)
Java Tutorial: Learn Java quickly with this iPad app from Udemy for older students. Free
Light-bot Hour of Code- A free iPad app that introduces kids that have absolutely NO experience programming but can immediately use programming logic in this fun game.
Daisy Dinosaur- a fantastic and free basics of programming app that features an adorable dinosaur named Daisy. The visual interface is great and teaches students the basics of objects, sequencing, loops, and events by solving the app’s challenges. (This is a favorite!)
Bot Bat– a free iPad app that lets students design their own robot tank to do battle, they use visual programming to tell the bot what to do.
Codi Animation- an iPad app where students can create animation for their own iOS app. $.99
Chip Bots- a free iPad app that lets students design and program their own robot using chip-based programming environments.
Circuit Coder– an iPad game and simulator for building digital circuits $1.99
Lego Mindstorms Fix the Factory– I don’t know about you, but our youngest students are LEGO crazy. They would be all over this free iPad app that teaches the basics of programming language.
TouchLogo is an ipad game that introduces programming to young children (even preschoolers could use this one!) $2.
Last but certainly not least, Code.org. A fantastic site for all things code and lots of goodies just for educators!

Tips: There are lots of videos and printouts for the Hour of Code that you can use to inspire some excitement about this fun day! You will even find links for letters to send home, to your administration, even the government!

What are you doing for your Hour of Code? What fun things do you have planned?

And the winner is….

December 8, 2013Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment1234 views

Josh Allen, Congratulations Josh!

Thank you to all who helped spread the word and entered the Koostik giveaway contest!

It isn’t too late to place an order for Christmas, I have it on good authority that the Koostik elves are busy in the workshop.

Last day to enter for a Koostik! #technologymadenatural

December 6, 2013December 6, 2013Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment2610 views

Today is your last chance to enter the Koostik giveaway! Winner will be announced tomorrow 🙂 The winner should receive their Koostik just in time for the holidays. Happy things.
Details for this giveaway below:

I’m particularly fond of small business shopping because my family has always owned small businesses. My dad is the ultimate craftsman. He is always dreaming up new inventions and he uses one of my favorite mediums to carry out those inventions: beautiful cuts of wood. There is something about having wood in your home, it evokes feelings of warmth and a connection to nature. When my dad started Koostik, I was especially excited because it connects technology (which you know I love) with the natural beauty of wood. These are not just functional, they are truly pieces of art. Each Koostik is handmade and unique. Because no cut of wood is exactly the same, each one has a slightly different feel. Every time I visit the shop I want to take more product home. I constantly get the, “but Kelly, you already have a Pivot.” My response, “I know but it isn’t THIS Pivot in the Ambrosia Maple!”

Koostik is a true small business. My dad works on the woodwork with a few other guys in his shop, and my mom does the finishing and packaging. My brother works sales and does all the photography and website design. There is a passion and attention to detail that you find in small businesses that just doesn’t exist anywhere else. I support small business because I appreciate that attention to detail. I appreciate the craftsmanship and passion that go into every product. I like knowing that I am supporting a neighbor, a family.

I’m offering a giveaway for the Koostik product of your choice. Sorry international friends, this one is for US citizens only! To enter you will need to do one (or all) of the following:

Tweet about Koostik with the hash tag #technologymadenatural and a link to this post OR http://koostik.com
Pin your favorite Koostik product on Pinterest. Make sure to use the hash tag #technologymadenatural with your pin.
“Like” Koostik on Facebook and leave a comment with #technologymadenatural
Put a picture of your favorite Koostik in your Instagram feed with the hash tag #technologymadenatural

A winner will be chosen on December 7, 2013. Hurry and get as many entries in as you can! The winner will be announced on iLearn Technology and contacted through the social media that you used to enter.

How to create an online Advent calendar

December 1, 2013Kelly Tenkely3 Comments16174 views

I love this time of year, it comes with such wonderful anticipation of things to come. A time to be mindful.

You can build some of that anticipation into your classroom with a digital advent calendar that reveals something each day in preparation for the holiday season. Advent comes from the Latin word adventus, “coming.” In Christian traditions, this refers to God’s coming into our midst. Anastasis is a faith-based school, so the advent calendar I created for our students and families is to be in celebration of this coming. Your classroom advent calendar doesn’t have to be faith-based.

Your advent calendar could be in anticipation of the coming new year, the coming break from school, or just a fun way to surprise your students with something they get to reveal each day. It would even be fun to reveal some sort of “Mission Impossible” task each day for your students. Be creative! This could be related to something they are learning/working on in your classroom, a kindness challenge, a video of the day, a writing prompt for the day, brain teaser, a book/poem/website for the day, a peek into your classroom for families, inquiry question of the day, song/podcast, 25 days of science experiments, etc. Even as adults we enjoy moments of anticipation, why not capitalize on that in your classroom?

I used Weebly to create our digital advent calendar. You can follow our calendar here. Weebly is an easy to use, WYSIWYG (what you see is what you get) website builder. It makes it simple to quickly put together a site that you can easily edit in preparation for the next day of revealed surprise. Weebly also lets you include a nice variety of content so that it is flexible enough to meet your needs. I started December first with some text and an image. My plan is to take a video each day of our students sharing a verse, quote, thought, blessing, song, etc. and embed the video using the YouTube option. The only thing for me to do each day will be to take the video and upload it to our Anastasis YouTube channel and then copy the url into the Weebly image for the day. SO easy to keep up with each day!

How to build your own Weebly Advent Calendar:

Sign up for a free Weebly account
Choose a template to start with for your calendar. Any of the templates will work, choose the look you like best!
Start by dragging some text onto your page. This is a great place for a few sentences about your calendar and what students/families can expect to find each day.
Under the “Structure” section, select and drag over the “Columns” onto your page. I chose 5 columns. Repeat so that you have multiple rows of 5 columns. I have a total of 5 for 5 rows and 5 columns.
Into each row and column, drag over the “Image” option so that you have 25 image place holders.
I used Apple’s Pages software to create my daily images with the dates listed on them. I used some digital paper, layered a solid box of color, and two text boxes. I took a screenshot of each date (I just created one image and then changed the text for each screenshot).
Back in Weebly, click on the image placeholder to upload the images created (alternately, you can just use the search option to find images to use). Repeat for each image.
Create a new page (under the Pages tab a the top of the Weebly screen). Be sure to check the box so that the page is hidden from navigation. This is going to be your “come back on the appropriate day” page. Click “Save and Edit.”
On your new page, add some text and an image. Type a greeting message from those who are trying to sneak a peek early.
Navigate back to your home page. Click on each image, an edit box for the image will come up. Select “Link” and choose “Standard Page” and then the page you just created. Save.
Create other pages for your site if you would like to, I created an “About” page for those who are curious about Anastasis. It might be fun to include a “contact” page where students can submit ideas for the calendar (maybe original writing or other work?)
Publish your site.
Each day go back and click on the image for the appropriate day. From the edit box, go back to “Link” and change where the image links to. It can link to another page that you create on the Weebly site, a website or video, a file, or an email address (what if your students got a new email address each day to email an encouraging note to?). Alternatively, you can delete the image for that day all together and embed a video, html, flash, etc.
Don’t forget to re-publish after you’ve added/edited the site!

There is something truly wonderful about revealing a surprise each day. Don’t leave the families of your students out, it would be great to give families a glimpse of your classroom so that they can see what there kids are up to each day. This can be photos, original student writing, video, or fun activities to be completed as a family in lieu of homework.

Students can also be in charge of creating their own advent calendar. The possibilities for this are endless!

What great ideas do you have for using an advent calendar in your classroom? Share them below!

Support Small Business Saturday: Koostik #technologymadenatural

November 30, 2013November 30, 2013Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment2675 views

Two give aways in two days. That is pretty awesome!

Today is support small business Saturday in the United States. I’m particularly fond of this cause for shopping because my family has always owned small businesses. My dad is the ultimate craftsman. He is always dreaming up new inventions and he uses one of my favorite mediums to carry out those inventions: beautiful cuts of wood. There is something about having wood in your home, it evokes feelings of warmth and a connection to nature. When my dad started Koostik, I was especially excited because it connects technology (which you know I love) with the natural beauty of wood. These are not just functional, they are truly pieces of art. Each Koostik is handmade and unique. Because no cut of wood is exactly the same, each one has a slightly different feel. Every time I visit the shop I want to take more product home. I constantly get the, “but Kelly, you already have a Pivot.” My response, “I know but it isn’t THIS Pivot in the Ambrosia Maple!”

In honor of Support Small Business Saturday, I’m offering a giveaway for the Koostik product of your choice. Sorry international friends, this one is for US citizens only! To enter you will need to do one (or all) of the following:

Tweet about Koostik with the hash tag #technologymadenatural and a link to this post OR http://koostik.com
Pin your favorite Koostik product on Pinterest. Make sure to use the hash tag #technologymadenatural with your pin.
“Like” Koostik on Facebook and leave a comment with #technologymadenatural
Put a picture of your favorite Koostik in your Instagram feed with the hash tag #technologymadenatural

A winner will be chosen on December 6, 2013. Hurry and get as many entries in as you can! The winner will be announced on iLearn Technology and contacted through the social media that you used to enter.

Don’t want to wait to see if you’ve won? Koostik is currently running a sale for 30% off all products and 50% the Mini Koo! The sale runs through Cyber Monday (December 2). You could be the star of the holidays with your awesome Koostik gift giving skills!

Black Friday Give-Away: Monitive website monitor

November 29, 2013November 30, 2013Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment1071 views

Monitive is offering a give away worth $499 to one lucky iLearn Technology reader! If you have a blog, classroom website, school website, etc. this is a great give away to enter. Monotive will alert you any time your site is down or not working optimally.

High-resolution checking up to every minute

Focus on important things, as we check your services every minute and we’ll let you know as soon as we confirm that your websites are down. Because we check up to 1440 times a day, each service!

Multiple check locations around the world

We check uptime from: Netherlands, Deustchland, United Kingdom, USA, Russia, Turkey, Romania, Spain and more. This way you will be sure that your audience is world-wide and your site accessible internationally.

Malware, domain expiration and SSL monitoring

A happy site is a healthy site! This is why we automatically check for malware reports, domain expiration or if you are monitoring HTTPS (SSL) websites, we’ll check the expiration date every day and let you know as soon as the certificate expiration date is near.

Truly reliable monitoring and alerting

Our main concern is that monitoring is being done without interruption or problem on our side, and we always triple-check before notifying you. This way, your inbox won’t be filled with spammy alerts.

Giveawayly

Tynker: Computer programming for kids

November 22, 2013November 16, 2013Kelly Tenkely9 Comments7978 views

What it is: Tynker is about the coolest way for kids to learn how to computer program- absolutely NO prior programming experience is needed! Tynker leads kids through design thinking through interactive courses where kids can learn how to program at their own pace.

Anyone can teach kids how to program (no really!) because with Tynker, you don’t need any prior knowledge or understanding. Tynker provides teachers with tools, curriculum and project ideas that will have your kids programming in no time! The Tynker curriculum pack starts with 6 lessons. Each one is appropriate for a 45 minute work period. Through the teacher dashboard, you can assign lessons to your students. A built-in tutor provides step-by-step instructions that guides students toward creating a working project. The teacher dashboard also helps you track student progress as they learn and master concepts. No data entry is required, students login and the teacher dashboard auto-magically populates.

When students have completed projects, they can publish them to the class showcase and be shared with family and friends through email, Google+, Twitter or Facebook.

Happily, Tynker works entirely in your web browser. There is nothing to install or setup. It is good to go right away! Equally happily, Tynker is FREE for your school! Woot!

How to integrate Tynker into your classroom: Not only will students learn the basics of programming with Tynker, they can use it to demonstrate their learning through their creations. Students can compose stories and comics that retell a story, historical event, recent field trip, fiction or non-fiction. Using the physics features, students can learn some basics about physics and cause the games they create to be more realistic. They can also demonstrate understanding of physics principles through their creations.

Students can use Tynker to create their own apps to show off their understanding of new math/science/social studies vocabulary, math or science concepts, retell stories, character sketches, games, animations and more. In addition to being able to create stories, games, and slideshow- students can also program original music and create computer art.

Don’t think you have time in your curriculum? Take a look around Tynker and think about natural ways you could use it to enhance your curriculum. Instead of asking your students to create a book report, have them program a retell using Tynker. This will take some additional background knowledge (they will need to go through a Tynker tutorial or two) BUT the outcome is well worth it. You will have asked your students to learn something new semi-independently, beefed up logical/mathematical thinking skills through programming, and invited students to think critically about what they read to tell the story to others through a program. Worth the additional 45 min! Students could demonstrate a math concept, show the steps in a science experiment, retell an event in history, and even compose their own music through program. When you start thinking like a maker as you play with Tynker, you will realize there are infinite opportunities for including Tynker in your curriculum. If you are still convinced that you can’t find the time in your heavily scheduled (sometimes scripted-sad) day, why not start a before or after school program, summer camp, lunch club, etc.?

At Anastasis, we have Crave classes every Wednesday. These classes are offered by our teachers every 5 weeks. Teachers choose an area of learning that they crave and create a class based on that (we have everything from programming, to cooking, to forensic science, hockey history, junk orchestra, iPad rock band, to chess and da Vinci art). Students get a list of classes at the beginning of a new block, and get to choose a class that they crave. The result is a wonderful mixed age (k-8) class of passions colliding. The kids LOVE Wednesdays for this awesome hour of our day. I’m excited to offer a Tynker class for our next block of classes (along with playing with our new Romo robot!), I think this is going to be a popular class!

Tips: If your school uses Google apps for education like we do, your students can log in with their Google information.

What do you think of Tynker? How do you plan to use it in your classroom?