It has been a while!

It’s been a while, friends, since I have posted.  I hope you are all safe and healthy.  I wanted to share a little gem that I uncovered during my quality time at home.  While trying to find creative ways to engage our students as they are studying online,  I played around with some Bitmoji virtual classroom projects.  You thought I was excited about Bitstrips back in the day?  Well, hold on to your library books!  Click this link HERE to visit the magical land of Mrs. Baldino’s virtual classroom!  Please leave a comment and let me know what you think.

Voicethread

Check out this Voicethread presentation about using technology to promote UDL in the classroom.    No two people learn exactly the same way, so it just makes sense that as educators, we should provide more than one way for students to access information and demonstrate achievement of the learning goals set for them.   Technology provides many opportunities to implement these multiple means of representing information, engaging students, and expressing learning.

A Bit of Bitstrips

Another project completed with Bitstrips!  Oh what fun to create comics for classroom assessments.  In this example,  students use 21rst century skills to indicate learning by creating a digital story using this amazing comic creating web tool.  The assignment asks students to illustrate three facts they have learned about Abe Lincoln.

Objective:  Describe at least three facts about Abraham Lincoln.

This product aligns with the following AASL Standards:

1.1.6  Read, view and listen for information presented in any format

1.1.8  Mastery of Technology tools

2.1.4 Use technology and other information tools to analyze and organize information.

So fun, check it out!

A_Little_bit_on_Abraham_by_Pam

Also, you can check out the screencast I created to give a sort-of brief overview of the amazing things you can do with Bitstrips.

It is comical, really…

So, I’ve been playing with Bit Strips – what a fun tool for students to create comics for many purposes in the classroom.  Here is one application – a comic strip for story sequencing.  An example of a beginning, middle and end re-tell of The Snowy Day by Ezra Jack Keats is right here:  Snowy_Day_by_Pam  Check it out and let me know what you think in the comments section.  So much fun and so many possibilites!

The Objective:  Students will demonstrate comprehension of story by re-telling the sequence of events in order.

This product would align with the following AASL Standards:

• 1.1.7  Summarizing or retelling key points
• 3.1.3 Use writing and speaking skills to communicate new understandings effectively
• 4.1.3D Retelling stories using the correct sequence of events.

Educator Blogs

 

Backyard Learning is a wonderful blog that is written by a licensed middle school science teacher who shares teaching ideas through her own experiences.  I am a very visual person and am drawn to this page because of the beautiful photographs.  The author uses all of her own pictures rather that downloading stock photos from the internet.  She features Nature Photo Friday and shares some breathtaking shots to illustrate outdoor adventures they have encountered each week.

Along with the beautiful illustrations, she includes lesson plans to use these lessons with your class and even shares a few printable resources.  I love the fact that the focus is hands-on experience rather than a high-tech virtual experience.  I think this is a fantastic integration of educational technology and hands-on science.  It is nice to step back from the screen and the keyboard and get hands dirty sometimes.  I can’t wait to see where future adventures will lead.

Librarian Blogs

A Media Specialist’s Guide To The Internet is intended to do exactly what the title suggests:  provide a guide for teacher librarians to make the most of the internet for their classrooms and libraries.  The left sidebar provides an alphabetical index of links by topic.  Blogposts in the body include video tutorials on various educational apps, lesson plans and links to content-specific resources that can help guide a media teacher’s lesson planning.  The right sidebar provides links to additional helpful sites such as a free e-books site, book recommendations for reluctant readers, twitter comments feed, and a showcase of awards that the page has received.

This page provides a wealth of information without being visually overwhelming.  I definitely see myself using this blog a resource for my lesson planning.

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