Final Reflection

I recorded my final reflection on Flipgrid (because I lover flipgrid and I'm obsessed).

Here's my flipgrid:  flipgrid

Flip Code: d1f58933

Here are some thoughts, in addition to my flipgrid.

I love blogging.  Thank you for this, I'm going to really blog, outside of cool tools (like everybody else in the world). 

I loved the pacing of Cool Tools, especially that it was over my February break, that made completing all the tasks easier.

I liked that I got to choose the tools that interested me.

I loved Google Draw, that is something I'm going to revisit.

While I thought blogging with my second graders would be fun, I think I'm going to need some older student help with this.

Thing 24: Google Drawing

Holy rabbit hole Batman!!!  Google Draw is way cool, and the Tony Vincent post just keeps going and going with great ideas!  I'm in love!!!!!  I could have spent hours clicking on all his links.  I bookmarked it for later.

I watched the quick video by Jocelynn Buckentin, and that was extremely helpful, I learned how to use the connecting line tool and how to insert an image that was a gif (also, adding png to the end of my search for something transparent).

Then I clicked on the Tony Vincent post and I learned a whole lot more.  I could spend hours clicking and reading all these links.  I learned how to make my fill colors transparent so when my Venn Diagram overlaps it makes a new color, that was cool. 

Tony had links to lots of already made drawings (don't work hard, work smart).  I get overwhelmed when I think about creating everything, so I found all the ready made drawings a life saver.  RCSD read the book "Shake Up Learning" By Kasey Bell, so it was neat to see that she had some Google Drawing ideas I could use.

I really didn't know anything about Google Drawing, like Tony (maybe someone else) said, the thought of creating something in Google Docs was overwhelming because it was so time consuming, Google Draw is very user-friendly.  One common thread I saw on all these posts was how "under used" Google Draw is, and they're right.  I never use Google Draw.  But I'm going to use it now!

I like the idea of creating a book and assigning each student a page in Google Draw.  I also liked the idea of creating a graphic organizer, making a copy and assigning it to all the students to work on, that was genius and I hadn't considered it.  All the ideas I read about were things I really hadn't considered, didn't even realize they were a possibility.

You can view my test Google Drawing Document here:
Practice Google Drawing

Thing 6 - Digital Storytelling

I'm fascinated by digital storytelling, I think it would be perfect for my ELL's.  I dove right in, I read the "6 Reasons You Should be doing Digital Storytelling with your Students"; I read "Digit Storytelling in the Primary Classroom" and everything I read suggested that this was a great way for my students to have a voice and a great way to promote writing (writing doesn't have to be pencil and paper, digital is also writing).

I checked out a few tools, and I was disappointed.  The one I picked, Storybird, turned out to be a pay service and I thought it was going to be free (the older version was free, the newer version to use with student accounts required payment).  Then everything I looked at didn't meet my needs.  I wanted to try Make Beliefs Comix, I've used that before to print comic templates, but I found it very unuser friendly when I was navigating it for digital use.

I currently use Book Creator with my students, and I'm navigating Seesaw right now, and I use flipgrid; I like all of those better than everything I saw here.

So I did try Adobe Spark, which I've tried before for a different class, but I looked at it with a digital storytelling lens, and I think I'll give it a try with my students, it's very different from Book Creator (I would have to upload pictures to each individual ipad, very tiresome), and Seesaw is tricky, but I really liked Spark.

So here's my Adobe Spark.  Every Friday we call it "Fri-yay" instead of "Friday", and I was hesitant to play around with language like that with my ELL's, but they totally get it and it's such fun every Fri-yay!

Below you'll find a link to my Book Creator example that I used with my students.  The task was to create a repeated addition book, they had to model the repeated addition sentence, and then do a voice recording of the math problem.  My example is really poor compared to what my students were able to do.  So I recommend Book Creator as a digital storytelling tool.

My Book Creator example

A student's Book Creator project

Thing 3: Photo Fun!

I take a lot of pictures of my students and I regularly share them on social media.  My school is big into twitter right now, and that's a little out of my comfort level, but I've been trying (I'm more of a FB person, and I have an Instagram account, but I only stalk people there, I don't post anything).  I take pictures, tweet them out, and tag our school; I'm trying to bring awareness of my school community (refugees and immigrants) and show the world the kinds of cool things my school is doing.

I downloaded the app Snapseed and I tried that out.  I watch the Youtube tutorial and I played around with 2 of my pictures (changing the contrast, the brightness and saturation); I thought that was cool.  While watching the tutorial my husband walked by and was like "I use snapseed for all my pictures, want me to help you?"  No, don't help me, I can figure it out myself.  The guy on the tutorial said all the pictures you take should be tweaked a little bit, to give them life.  I was amazed at how much more life like the woman seemed after he used those editing tools.

I thought #bookface was funny, but I'd never do that.  Reading through all the topics and suggestions, I really thought I might set up a public Instagram account for my classroom.  I don't like it when students try to friend me on Facebook, but Instagram would be alright, and then the students could show their parents what we're doing in class.  So I think that will be my next project.

My photo risk today was trying out Snapseed, and then I also went to Big Huge Labs and I made an Andy Warhol pop art masterpiece that I will try to upload here to this blog (I'm kind of clever, so I feel like that's doable for me #techchallenged).  I actually loved how the pop art turned out, I can see myself doing this for my class all the time.  I have a class set of ipads, so I think I'm going to request snapseed as an app on my ipads and let my students take and edit pictures.

Thing 02: Student Blogging & Writing

Student blogging seems cool.  Like, wow.

I currently teach 2nd grade, so I'm struggling with how this might fit into my day, but I love the idea.  My students have so much to say, and they are ELL's, so I feel like this would be such a "real" avenue for writing for them.  I'm actually excited.

I read all of the "read these first" articles, and I found them interesting/helpful.  They made sense to me.  One of my take aways was to use Weebly, so I immediately went to that site and set up accounts for my students and created a home page (talk about putting the cart before the horse!). 

Another take away I had was start by writing a topic on chart paper and have the students respond with sticky notes, I love that (cool right?).  I actually love that so much that we might do that for a while.  My struggle is, with my students being second graders and ELL's, I really have to work in very small groups to help with spelling.  But then I figured that most second grade teachers would have that problem.

Then I read another article (I've been working, reading and thinking for a few days).  Another article was a 5th grade teacher's step by step journey into blogging.  This teacher has her (his?) students create their blog in a google doc that gets worked on throughout the week, the teacher and student work together and edit it, then the teacher publishes it on Friday.  That was mind blowing to me.  In my head, I thought my students were on a device and just randomly blogging, but I liked the control this offered, and the editing potential.  All I can think about is how "language rich" this sounds.

Blogging is great because it's that missing piece I've been looking for, the voice and the publishing that the students need and crave; making for purposeful writing for an audience.  This 5th grade teacher also tweeted out her students blogs and shared them; people retweeted them and commented, then she would share with her students.  I found that very interesting (I know I like it when people comment and communicate with me). 

So now my journey begins...I'm excited...(we'll see how far I get).

Thing 1: Getting Started!

I'm Jennifer.  I teach 2nd grade at the Rochester International Academy.  My school is for immigrants and refugees; I love this job more than any other job I've ever had.  I used to teach in the catholic diocese and my students had everything and the parents were a little overbearing. 

Besides teaching, I'm a mom to 2 girls, my husband recently switched jobs/careers and now works at RIT.  I have a dog that drives me nuts. 

I wasn't sure about Cool Tools, but my librarian recommended it to our teachers.  This year I've been on a technological journey, so I decided I should give this a try.

I've never blogged before, but I've often thought about it, for my personal life and my professional life.  I'm excited about this blog and I'm excited to try out new some new "cool tools".

Somewhere the course description said something like, don't just use technology for the sake of technology, it needs to be meaningful.  But I wanted to say that I need to use it for the sake of technology so that I can then use it meaningfully.  That's just my process, I need to throw myself into it, become familiar with it, and then it can be meaningful.