2-D shapes = App Smashing Opportunity!

Working with 1st Graders is so much fun! They arent afraid to mess up and fail! I think us as adults can learn a thing or two from them!!. The past few weeks, 1st Grade has been covering shapes / 2-Demensional objects. One app that our 1st Grade teachers have really come to like is "GeoBoard." If you remember back in the day, we had a board with pegs on it. On these pegs, we would attach rubber bands to it to make shapes. Well, GeoBoard is a really fun app and is a lot less painful!! The goal for the students was to make various types of shapes. Once they made these shapes, they were to take a screen shot of it and smash it into Pic Collage. Once in Pic Collage, students would have to label and identify what the shape was. It sounds like an easy task, but students had to accomplish a lot of little steps in order to make the project meet the teacher's expectations!! Once they were done, they uploaded it into SeeSaw. Great job 1st Grade!!

Lines, Zig-Zags and Robots!

When reviewing the upcoming TEKs for 1st Grade Science I noticed that they had "Demonstrate and record the ways that objects can move such as in a straight line, zig zag, up and down, back and forth, round and round, and fast and slow" in their Scope and Sequence. Immediately I barged into both of my 1st Grade teacher's classroom and told them that this would be an incredible way to integrate robotics into our curriculum! They werent too sure what that meant just yet, but they said they were on board! I then went to the Admin Office to pick up a robot called "Ozobot." When using Ozobot, students draw lines / shapes and the robot will "drive" around the trace of the line. When I went into planning with my teacher, we talked about whether we should use whiteboards, manila paper or regular paper to draw the lines on. However, my teacher had this awesome idea in which she suggested using Explain Everything to draw the lines/zigzags. We tested it and sure enough it worked!

So today, we rolled Ozobot with our First Graders! We explained to them the concept of zig zag lines, straight lines, etc. The teacher then told them to create a total of 4 slides- each slide was supposed to represent a different type of line / design. When students were ready, they raised their hand and we would come and test the Ozobot with their design. If the robot "liked" their design, it would go in a continuous loop. If it didnt like the shape then the robot would go in random directions. When their design didnt work, it was fun to see them "debug" it by them re-designing the shape. All in all it was so much fun and the students absolutely enjoyed it!

Solving Word Problems in 1st Grade

A few blog posts ago I posted about a First Grade class solving addition and subtraction math problems using digital manipulatives. Well, just an update-- another 1st Grade teacher and her students used the same template and the results were just as great! Our concern was that students might have trouble using the "duplicate" tool to make the correct number of manipulatives, however students picked this up much quicker than we had thought! Students were able to log into See Saw, download a template, solve about 6 math problems (duplicating items when needed), recording themselves reading the number sentence and then exporting into See Saw all within a 35 minute time block! So proud of this teacher and her students! Here are a few work samples:

Hold Your Horses! 1st Grade Addition and Subtraction Word Problems!

Wow! I cannot stop bragging on one of my 1st Grade Teachers! I wish this teacher was on Twitter so that I could brag on her! On Monday, I got to meet with my Math Instructional Coach to see "what's coming up." She had told me that this week and next week 1st graders would be solving addition and subtraction word problems. Sure enough, later that day I went into the 1st Grade Teacher's Classroom to see her and her students using the markers to draw on their table. To help get the teacher more comfortable using technology we co-taught this lesson together. I made her a template in explain everything and she taught the content. Fair trade!! Students were so engaged! While the template looks pretty easy, it was anything but! For the addition problems, students were only given 1 item and had to used the "duplicate" feature in Explain Everything to make the proper copies they needed. For subtraction, items were given to them and they had to cross them out. It was fun to hear the responses of the kids when they "turned the page" to the next problem! What item would they see? A puppy? Oreo Cookies? Goldfish???

We had a few "fast finishers" which asked to record their work once finished! Eventually, everyone finished and were able to record!

Check out the example below:

Up Up and Away! 1st Grade T Creates Her Own Nearpod!

One of the teachers that I work with told me that she wants to get really good at creating Nearpods for her and her students! If you havent created one before it can be kind of intimidating! Usually you can create them in Power Point or GSlides, but if one wants to use an "activity slide" they will have to export them as .Jpg files. Needless to say, there are quite a few steps to making them. Earlier this week the teacher walked into my room and said "Hey Chavez! I created my own ELA Nearpod!" I was so excited that she did it all on her own!!  Immediately I went over to check out this awesomeness and couldn't believe what I saw!! I asked her if she needed help converting certain slides to .Jpgs so that she could add them as "activity slides." She was like, "Nah! I got this!"

When she told me that she was going to run it on Friday, I was really excited, yet nervous because tons of stuff could have gone wrong! I went in early and got them all on the Nearpod app for her and she did the rest! It went well for the most part, however the internet kept dropping cause the hotspot in her room was dead. Needless to say, she saved the template and will be using them in the future! So proud of her!!

The Start of Something Beautiful

The First Grade teachers that I work with are having students do word sorts on the iPad now. I am creating the first few sorts for the teachers, however in a few weeks, we are going to turn that role over to the students. A few "fast finishers" will make the sorts for the class- this includes taking a screen shot of the sort, importing it, tracing each word/picture, putting it under a column and then saving it to the Google Drive.

Today was their first day in which our teacher went above and beyond! Instead of just having them move words under the correct categories/columns, she had them record their voice saying it while moving it! There was something beautiful about hearing students trying to say the word(s)! Often times you can hear the uncertainty in their voice, however over time they will become stronger in pronouncing these words! I look forward to seeing how students progress with this in the future.

Below is an example:

Making the Most of a Short Week!

This week was a very short week. I was only on campus for 3 days this week, however that didnt stop teachers from wanting to do things in their classrooms!

1st Grade - I work with 2 first grade teachers and typically they will do the same activities but this was the first time that this teacher did both activities, so I wanted to blog about it.  This first grade teacher wanted to do a re-telling station in which students would read a book and retell it using explain everything. We teamed up and created a "model retell" in which students can refer to if they get confused. We co-taught the lesson so that the students would understand the content as well as the technology. Once they were done, students sent them to See Saw for review.

Here are a few examples. Keep in mind, this is their very first project, so that was quite the victory!!

Here is the "model retell" partially finished:

Here a student sample that two students tried on their own:

Pictures: 

This particular class also used Nearpod later on that day so that they could learn about time! Props to this class! They used a total of 3 apps throughout the course of the day!

 In second grade, the teacher wanted to have students create book reviews in which students chose a book that they read and would talk a little about it and why it was their favorite book. They would also have to rate their books as well either 1 star or 4 stars. They used Explain Everything and pushed it out to See Saw. Here is an example:

 

Students in 3rd Grade played their first Kahoot Game today! This teacher created the questions all on her own! She was really thrilled to see how much fun they had while learning!

 

Meeting Teachers at the Point of Their Need

These past few days have been incredible! Lots of teachers have been wanting to try new stuff out and even go above and beyond! I am not too sure where to start so I will go in 1st - 5th grade order.

1st Grade:
First graders are learning how to create words with a letter template in Explain Everything. We designed a template in which the letters A-Z are placed. We also divided the screen in half- the top half is where the spelling of the word will go. Students learned how to use the "duplicate tool" in Explain Everything to make copies of letters. Once the student spells out the word, they will take a picture of the note cart and place it under the spelled word. Going into this activity, I was a bit nervous in showing the kids how to "duplicate" a letter, but they got it! Once the students got how to do this process, they were able to go at their own pace.

 

 

2nd Grade: 

Lots of stuff going on in 2nd grade. The biggest has been the roll out of SeeSaw. SeeSaw is an online digital portfolio, but can be used for so much more! Students created a "5 finger Just Right Book" in which they explained the process of choosing a book that is "just right" for them. They took pictures of their drawing and then used Explain Everything to record the process of choosing a book. They also did this for an activity in which they had to "show a number 4 different ways." I havent figured out how to embed a See Saw Video but when I do, it will be posted here.  Update: SeeSaw JUST tweeted me back showing me how to embed it! Where the teacher has gained ground is with the parents! Students kept telling their parents, "Look for my work on your cell phone!" See Saw has a feature in which student work can go to parent's cell phone when they are done!

                                

3rd Grade: 

My ELA teacher is in the process of rolling out her class Google Accounts. She is combining this with building Personal Narrative stories. Each day students will log into their Google Account via Explain Everything and complete a task. At the end of the week, students will See-Saw their work back to the teacher as a final product!

 

5th Grade: 

My math teacher was really excited about an idea that she came up with. They are currently working on place value. She wanted students to take pictures of a place value chart and have them copy a number from an index card. Students would then have to match the number under the correct place value. Students would then have to record their voice saying what the number was, and then say which value each number represented! Check it out: 

                                      

Word Problems in Full Swing!

A few weeks back my First Grade teacher started on an endeavor to have students make word problems on their own, in stations. We first started out by having students color backgrounds / pictures on paper and from there drawing pictures going along with their theme. When we started doing this, we really enjoyed the final product, however, we noticed that the process was taking a little bit longer than expected. Wanting to make this activity a success, I found some really good deals on scrapbook paper and stickers at Hobby Lobby. Typically I never go into craft stores, but I wanted the students to go above and beyond on this!

Once I gave the materials back to the teacher, she taught her students how to duplicate, lasso, and group items in Explain Everything. Students then had to write out their own math sentence out and record themselves solving the problems.

Science Fair + Green Screening

My first grade teacher has literally sworn me to secrecy on what she is doing for Science Fair!! Well since they were due today, I guess I can finally share! About two weeks ago, her class got started with "green screening." The students fell in love with it! Since it was new to the class (in the fact that they were the ones that had to do the work!), the teacher assigned various roles. Some of these roles included, director, editor, and videographer. It didn't take as long as we had thought for students to understand what to do with their assigned role! Anyways, here is the final student product that the student did all on their own!

1st Grade Word Problem Creation

One of the main focuses that one of my 1st Grade Teachers has been working on is student self-generated tasks. Students in this class are really comfortable using technology and she wants to challenge them to where students do all of the work on their own with minimal support from the teacher. Yesterday we started on that journey in which students had to create math problems and number sentences.  Students learned how to use the "duplicate" and the "group" tool in Explain Everything to maximize efficiency. We worked in stations for about 30 solid minutes, two days straight. Here is one of the student samples. I'll be posting more in the days to come.

1st Try at Green Screening

A few weeks ago, one of my teachers told me that they had wanted to do something with green screening. After talking with them for a few minutes they said they were working with "first" "second" "third" "next" "last" etc. She had told me that they wanted to have a "kitchen set" where students would explain the procedures for making mud pie. I let her know right away that I had no idea how to green screen BUT I would reach out to someone who did know! Sure enough, another Digital Learning Coach from another campus came and helped us set up. Long story short, it wasnt as painful as imagined! We literally just shot the video, put it in an app and made a few tweaks. I know the students enjoyed it! Our hope is to share it with another campus and have them leave feedback by asking questions and suggestions! I am glad that both of us were able to try something new and take a risk! It sure paid off!!

Here is a link to the video:

Technology + Higher Level Questioning = One AMAZING lesson!

One of the big-pushes that one of our teachers has been striving for is the level of questioning in the activities that she does with her students. Her goal is for STUDENTS to ask higher level questions but first the teacher wants to start asking them so that students can get a feel for what they sound like and how to respond to them. We are both thinking of ways to get ideas so that students can start asking these questions but that is a work in progress. When we planned the activity her original plan was to start out with a Kahoot in which students would gather knowledge background knowledge, however she decided to do this at the end which turned out even better! (More on this in a minute.)

So the actual activity had to do with measurement using non-standard units of measure. She wanted to have her kids lie out on a piece of paper and have their partner trace them. Once they were finished with tracing, students would take random items such as markers, pencils, etc and measure the size of the drawing. Once they were done, they would gather information via pic-collage. The teacher did a great job of using a rubric to help the students along their journey.

Once the students were finished, they came back inside in which the teacher had her Kahoot ready to go. This was the first time the teacher had ever ran a Kahoot so we had to explain to the students how it was used and not just to press any response. They had to talk it over with their partner first and then respond. We both found that Kahoot was the gateway to asking open-ended / higher level questions! She was able to call on a few students so that they could defend and explain their answer! This one student was asked why he chose and answer and he was like, "Oh because my partner told me to!" The teacher probed until she was able to get a response from that student! I was very proud of this teacher for going the extra mile and really "reaching" to get answers out of these students!

3-D Shapes Scavenger Hunt

Today I was in one of my First Grade teacher's classrooms working on some iPads when I hear, "Hey Mr. Chavez, my kids are about to go on a scavenger hunt for 3-D shapes in our classroom, do you want to join us?" The teacher was telling me that she had set up random stations with various 3D shapes around the room. She wanted her students to take pictures of these objects and label them in Pic Collage. At the beginning of this year I used to use a stability ball to sit on, however I stopped using it because I found a sweet chair to sit on. Needless to say, the ball or "sphere" made an appearance in that classroom today! Anyways, students really enjoyed this activity and I know the was definitely stretched out of her comfort zone. She told me, "I am so used to having control of my classroom, this must be what it is like to let go of some of that control!" She was absolutely right! It was so fun watching kids work in groups working together on this task!

However, I think we both reached a turning point today. As a district, we have been talking about the level of questions that students ask each other and the types of questions we ask the students. While the activity was going on we pulled out a resource from a technology training that we had the day before. This resource had higher level / opened ended questions on it that we could ask the students. I think one of the questions that was asked was, "Explain to me how a cube is still a cube even though they are different sizes." The student then came to the front of the class and was able to explain to the class that the features of a cube stayed the same regardless of the the size of the cube! The teacher started asking more of these questions and it went on for almost 10 minutes! Both the teacher and I were very amazed to hear new conversations about cubes and other 3d shapes taking place that were all stemmed from one open ended question! Once the school day was over me and this teacher talked about what happened that day! Our goal from here on in is for us as well as the students to ask these higher level questions that really hook the students into diving deeper into their learning!