Weekly Tech-y News

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#PicCollageChat

I was so excited to host the first ever #PicCollageChat, and chat with other teachers who love the app PicCollage as much as I do, or who wanted to learn about using it in their classrooms. So many awesome ideas were shared! Check them out here!

Twitter Chat about Parent Teacher Conferences with Seesaw!

First Ever BPS Edchat Tonight!

So ... this just happened!  Thanks to the amazing Ann Brucker, the first ever BPS Edchat had over 100 participants and was a huge success.  So many connections were made and resources shared.  I used the chat feature of one of my favorite websites, Participate Learning.  It automatically collected the resources teachers were sharing, and I combined them into this collection.  Thanks everyone who shared.  Enjoy!

Technology Rocks. Seriously.

If you haven't checked out this awesome blog, you definitely should!  This amazing woman always puts together the coolest seasonal posts, with collections of digital tools and activities for your students to use.  Her latest post is about reindeer, and features Santa's official Live Reindeer Cam, as well as tons of Christmas-themed learning games for your students.  If you haven't checked it out before, definitely take some time to do so!  I would often utilize her collections of computer activities when my kindergartners had "computer time", either from a lab or during centers.  They loved these activities!  Click the image below to view her Reindeer Fun post.

Last year, Mrs. Bishop and I had each of our kindergarten classes study reindeer, and then view the reindeer on the reindeer cam.  We used our class Twitter accounts to share information and questions about reindeer back and forth between our classes.  It was such a fun activity!  Here is a little snippet ... 

Getting your kids started using social media like Twitter in the classroom can be really fun and rewarding.  Students can share their learning, and discover how to use social media as a tool.  It also helps us create a positive message about what is happening in our awesome #BPSclassrooms!  If you're interested in starting, but don't know how ... let me know!  I'd love to come help.  @TraciPiltz @MrsPiltzK

Skype in the Classroom!

I had an awesome time in Mrs. Risser's 1st grade this morning, helping them use Skype Classroom for the very first time.  They are participating in the Global Read Aloud, and they connected with a kindergarten class in Indiana to Skype with.  Their goal was to learn more about each other's state and school.  They also discussed this week's GRA book, Duck!  Rabbit! by Amy Krouse Rosenthal.

It was really fun.  The first graders asked great questions and used awesome manners!  I was impressed.

If you are interested in Skyping, a great place to start searching for connections is Twitter!  I have connected with educators all over the country by using Twitter.  Global Read Aloud is also great, because it provides a network of teachers who are participating in GRA and looking to Skype.

To connect, you can use either Skype or Google Hangout.  Either way, make sure the person you are connecting with is in your contacts.  It's usually great to try a quick "test call" without kids to be sure your connection works okay.  It's also important to plan out what you're going to do, how you're going to ask questions (i.e. Take turns between classes?  Have students come up to the screen and ask questions?, etc) and what the purpose of the call is.  Decide who is going to make the call, and be careful planning (time differences can make coordinating a call pretty tricky).

Sometimes it's fun to discuss a book you've both read or a topic you're studying.  Some teachers like to "Mystery Skype" where you ask questions to figure out the location of the class you're connecting with.  If you do this, I think it's fun to keep a map where you can mark off which states you have connected with.  Check out this article for more info about Mystery Skype.  I liked playing Mystery Number using Skype or Twitter.  The kindergartners loved it, and it really helped their "math talk" skills.  They had to learn to ask "big" questions ... not just "Is your number 6?" but "Does it have two digits?"  "Is it even?"  "Does it have a 6 in the tens place?" There is a great article on Mystery Number Skypes here.

If this is something you'd like to try, but don't know where to begin, let me know.  I would love to help!

ClassDojo Groups

Click the image to read more about the new groups feature on ClassDojo.  This feature has great potential in quickly awarding points to collaborative groups of students (centers, table groups, etc).  I love this idea - one click points awarding, rather than having to search and award each individual student in the group.  If you have other questions about how to use ClassDojo, they have a wonderful blog as well as Teacher Help Desk with tutorials.  You can also follow them on Twitter @ClassDojo for lots of great tips on how other teachers are using this tool in their classrooms.  Something I love about ClassDojo is that it's a tool that everyone can customize and use depending on how it best fits his/her classroom.

#TeacherFriends

This is a great way to connect with other teachers on Twitter and begin building your own Professional Learning Network.  Click the image below for tips and info on #TeacherFriends, Tuesday nights at 9pm EST.