How to Get ELL Students to Talk-6 Story Telling Apps

I know when I was an English Language Learner (ELL) instructor, getting students to speak in front of others, was my greatest challenge.  Mind/Shift not only addresses this challenge for educators, but recommends some fantastic storytelling apps for all three grade levels (elementary, middle, secondary) to ease their anxiety.

“With digital storytelling tools, students can spend time formulating their stories, self-reflect and self-assess, collaborate with peers of differing skill levels, and in the end, feel confident in their abilities.”

Kid in Story Book Maker (elementary)

Tell About This (elementary/middle)

ShadowPuppet Edu (elementary/middle)

Toontastic (elementary/middle)

VoiceThread (elementary/middle/secondary)

Explain Everything (middle/secondary)

“Apps and tech tools allow students to practice in the comfort of their own home by themselves or with a caregiver.”

Direct Link:  http://ww2.kqed.org/mindshift/2015/08/31/6-storytelling-apps-that-get-english-language-learners-talking/

   

138 Practical Ed Tech Tip Videos

Free Technology for Teachers organized a cumulative list of 138 fabulous, easy to follow videos aimed “at tools for flipping your classroom, videos on managing workflow, social media tips, search strategies, and media production.”  But one does not have to be a teacher to find some of these quite useful.

Many of the tools or videos are aimed at assisting anyone using Google docs or apps.  3 Helpful Google Drive Settings is just one of those videos.

This is a definite resource for everyone to bookmark!

10 Resources for Teaching and Learning About Weather

Free Technology For Teachers presents ten great resources for teaching and learning about weather.  You don’t have to be a science teacher to see these top ten resources are truly inspirational!

How does this get better you ask…videos!  Why Are There Clouds? is a relatively new Minute Earth video that explains how clouds are formed and how they rise or fall in the sky. The nice thing about Minute Earth videos is that a list of references is included in each video’s description on YouTube.

Richard Byrne, creator of Free Technology for Teachers, provides links to all ten resources as well as several Youtube videos for educators to peruse.

Teacher Recommended: 50 Favorite Classroom Apps

Librarian Michelle Luhtala, from New Canaan High School, hosts an Emerging Tech webinar on edWeb; with a large professional learning network of educators, Michelle compiles this great list.

This list of apps is among ones educators favored and shared some commonalities with from last year’s favorites on edWeb.  Teachers tend to drop apps if they become too expensive or sometimes if the updates are so overwhelming that they no longer know how to use the product. Luhtala explained it’s a delicate balance: “If it doesn’t feel different than it did a year ago, that’s alarming. It should feel the same, but better.”

The repeat apps that have made it to this favorite list added functionality without doing so too quickly. They also tend to target younger students — high school students mostly use their phones for personal computing and their laptops for school. The emphasis in the higher grades is still on reading and typing — teachers give students fewer opportunities to express their learning in creative ways, so the tools of choice tend to be basic. High school kids use Google Apps because they can easily collaborate.

Teachers Pay Teachers-Buy and Sell Original Educational Resources

Teachers Pay Teachers is an open marketplace for educators to buy, sell, and share their original resources.  I don’t know what I would have done the year I was asked to teach four different grade levels of high school English, mid-year, had I not been told about this great resource!  Many of the teachers offer free lessons and worksheets, while most are very reasonably priced.

Their search feature allows you to search by topic, subject, grade level, or even how much money you want to spend.  I particularly liked searching under “free.”

Membership is free and although I haven’t sold any of my original resources, plenty of other teachers are and making money!

Realtime Board-Free Tool for Teachers to Host Online, Collaborative Sessions

Realtime Board provides a blank canvas on which you can type, draw, and post pictures.  Realtime Board is built with HTML5, meaning it works equally well on laptops and on iPads or Android tablets.  The boards that are created on a Realtime Board can be shared publicly or privately. To help communicate with collaborators, Realtime Board has a chat function built into every board.

Realtime Board grants teachers and students access to all premium features for free.

Camp Google – Learn About Oceans, Animals, Space, and Music

Google Camp is an online educational camp for kids.  This is a four week program designed for seven to ten year old children. Each week has its own theme. This week is Ocean Week.  Camp Google features videos, live and recorded, with experts in each week’s thematic topic. The videos are designed to inform as well as prompt further inquiry by students. Students can conduct virtual investigations through Camp Google. Students, with the help of an adult, can also participate in hands-on learning activities related to the theme of each week of Camp Google.

Materials list for the hands-on activities are available to download on the Camp Google website, or checking here:

https://camp.withgoogle.com/supplies

Three Classroom Uses for the Vocaroo Audio Recorder: Formative & Peer Feedback and Read Aloud

Vocaroo is a simple, free voice recorder that allows users to create an audio recording with just a few clicks. Once recorded, the audio file can remain on the Vocaroo servers and be easily transmitted via a link, or it can be downloaded into several different file types including MP3, Ogg, FLAC, or WAV. Additionally, it can be embedded onto a blog or website or shared via several social media buttons.

Since Vocaroo is web-based, it’s great companion for the Chromebook classroom or any web-based environment. Students and teachers can easily record and share their thoughts with each other. The audio recordings become opportunities for formative assessment and feedback as well as a neat way to have students double-check their writing for errors.

Educators will find detailed instructions for the three applications and additional resources to learn more about working with Google Apps, Web Tools, and Chromebooks, by visiting EdTechTeacher.

SeeSaw – Easily Create Digital Portfolios on iPads, Chromebooks, and Android Tablets

With so many school districts having access to iPads (through grants, etc.), many teachers are looking to the latest, greatest apps to introduce or synthesize common core.  As I’ve said before in previous posts, if you haven’t subscribed to Free Technology for Teachers written by Richard Byrne, do so today!  Here is another post from his blog I checked out; it is a home run for those instructors that have access to iPads and want to utilize portfolios in their classrooms.

SeeSaw, a powerful and popular iPad app for creating digital portfolios, is now available as a Chrome web app and as an Android app. The new apps allow students to create and add content to digital portfolios.

“Through SeeSaw students can add artifacts to their portfolios by taking pictures of their work (in the case of a worksheet or other physical item), by writing about what they’ve learned, or by uploading a short video about things they have learned. The SeeSaw apps students can add voice comments to their pictures to clarify what their pictures document. Students can create folders withing their accounts to organize content from multiple subject areas.”

Resources are free to students, teachers, and parents; the site does offer an upgraded account for parents at a VERY minimal yearly cost, when you consider the added benefits.

Direct Web Link:  http://web.seesaw.me/

easy TestMaker-Free Assessment-The easy way to make and grade your tests!

This website is definitely one of my top five, free resources for teachers.  I’ve used other “test generators,” but easy TestMaker allows educators to create, print and publish your tests online, like its name…easily! This site makes it easy for you to perfectly format multiple question types, print alternate versions, and publish to the web for online tests!

Key features with the free plan:

• An easy to use test interface (export to Word or PDF)
• All question types available  (multiple choice, fill-in-the-blank, matching, short answer and true or false questions)
• Answer sheets
• Multiple sections
• Automatic question renumbering when questions are moved
• 25 test limit