book talk – iLearn Technology

Flipgrid for every classroom

April 23, 2018April 21, 2018Kelly Tenkely3 Comments157700 views

What it is: Flipgrid is a video discussion platform for your classroom that lets you engage and capture learning in new and awesome ways. It’s simple (and free) to get started, just create a grid and add a topic to spark some discussion. Students can respond with short video responses using any browser, Chromebook, iPad, tablet, or mobile device. All the students can view the videos and engage. You can moderate videos, provide custom feedback, and set the privacy rules. The free version of Flipgrid lets you create one grid (this is your classroom or community), unlimited student videos (up to 90seconds), simple individual student feedback, and private video sharing with families.

You are the Flipgrid Topic Designer (your students could be as well!). Embed YouTube or Vimeo videos, upload images for your students to discuss, feature a file or a weblink.

How to integrate Flipgrid into your classroom: Flipgrid is a great way to get your students reflecting on learning, collaborating, and providing peer feedback. Students can create and share a book talk or chapter reflection, discuss current events, delve into a topic, engage in an online Socratic seminar around a given topic, collaborate, verbalize their learning process, etc. Flipgrid works in any classroom, with any age student, and within any subject. The sky (and your collective imaginations) are really the limit!

Flipgrid is a fantastic add to the language arts classroom where students can: share a word of the week, complete a video chapter summary, create a character monologue, explore themes and ideas in a text, complete a book review/book talk, ask questions of the author, come up with alternative endings, make text predictions, dramatic readings, practice reading fluency/voice/tone/inflection, reflect or wonder during reading, make connections to other learning, explore metaphor, practice and reflect on presentation skills, collaborative Flipgridding with another classroom, explore perspective, or conduct interviews.

In the math classroom students can: talk through their process or problem solving approach, share examples of found math in context, number talks, weekly math challenges, find the mistake responses, student created math tutorials of new concepts they are learning, stump the class challenges, demonstrations with manipulatives, solving or creating their own “what doesn’t belong” challenges, or solutions to math challenges with multiple outcomes.

In the science classroom, students can: share each step of an experiment through the scientific method with each step being a new video, document dissection, reflect on failures, show the process of building or designing, make predictions, document process, demonstrate, post wonderings, or class challenges.

In the history/social studies classroom students can: do living history exercises where they take on the persona of a historical character, reflect on an era or connective topic like: “what are contributing factors to revolutions,” conduct interviews, explore perspectives, reflect on and discuss current events, create a video timeline of events, connect past events to current events, explore historical trends, connect with other classrooms from around the world, explore place and environment, teach classmates about a historical theme that they geek out on, explore social justice issues, or give a voice to those who historically haven’t had one.

Flipgrid makes for an excellent addition to the portfolio. I love the way it encourages collective intelligence and highlights the social nature of learning. Flipgrid is also a great way to build a growth mindset and self-assessment. As students complete any project or assignment, they could add their reflection on the learning as well as where they think they are currently in their learning journey (we use the progression of Novice, Apprentice, Practitioner, Scholar, Change Maker).

At the end of every year at Anastasis, we host an event we call “Storyline.” Flipgrid would be an excellent addition to that end of year celebration and review of the year. Students could use Flipgrid to document learning progress throughout the year and use it as a way to review their growth.

Tips: Flipgrid integrates seamlessly with other education products you are already using including WordPress, Canvas, Teams, Google Classroom, One Note, Edmodo, Schoolology, Blackboard, Sway, Brightspace, and Power school. The paid versions include tons of added features and are worth exploring more if you find yourself using Flipgrid regularly.

How do you use Flipgrid in your classroom?

Buncee: Digital Creation tool

January 16, 2014February 10, 2014Kelly Tenkely1 Comment5229 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.

Corkboard: Classroom Collaboration

December 30, 2010Kelly Tenkely19 Comments5988 views

What it is: Corkboard is a neat little collaboration tool that I learned about on Twitter yesterday thanks to @Grade1. Corkboard reminds me a lot of Wallwisher (which has been a little unreliable lately). Best of all, it is literally a one step set up process. Just type in the web address: http://corboard.me and it automatically creates a unique url for your corkboard. Click to add a sticky note on the corkboard. Give students or other teachers the unique url so that they can add a sticky note. Easy! Sticky notes can be as big or small as you like. Click and hold down on a sticky note to move it around the corkboard.

How to integrate Corkboard into the classroom: Corkboard provides an easy to use platform for students to brainstorm, collaborate, and share ideas. Students can use Corkboard to brainstorm ideas for writing, research, and collaborating on group projects. Ask students to add their thoughts to any conversation on history, literature, science, phonics, or vocabulary corkboard. Students could practice spelling by typing out their spelling words along with a sentence or synonyms on sticky notes. Students can share a board to discuss a book they are reading together, predictions for a class science experiment, and to share what they are learning in any subject or lecture. You could create a new corkboard each week where you post homework, resources, to-do items, etc. for your students. Students can add sticky notes to the board about what they are learning throughout the week. These Corkboards can be added to a Weblist.me so that there is a record of the whole year.

Tips: Looking for other alternatives to Wallwisher? Check out: Edistorm or Stixy. Each has a little different features!

Please leave a comment and share how you are using Corkboard in your classroom.