Flipgrid: Using Videos to Spark Conversation

Looking for an easy way to use videos for student discussion and engagement?  Check out Flipgrid, an awesome app that came out in the summer of 2017.

It works on iOS, Chromebooks, and all major browsers.  The free version of the product allows you to have one grid (your classroom or group) with unlimited topics and unlimited student responses videos (90-seconds each).  


Once you create a Flipgrid account, you will name your grid and give it a purpose, pick your grid background, and then add as many topics as you'd like.

As the teacher, you can add topics to spark discussion and students can build a dialogue as they share their short video responses with you and their classmates.  Teachers can moderate videos, provide custom feedback, view analytics, and set the privacy rules.

To access your grid, students will either use a direct link you share with them or enter your unique Grid code on the Flipgrid homepage:

Students can easily post their videos on your grid using the following simple steps located on the Student Guide from Flipgrid:

Students can respond to each other's videos using emojis and see how many people have viewed their videos. How motivating!

If you're looking for a quick tutorial, check out this short video:

Furthermore, Flipgrid also has a great Teacher Guide. Here's a glimpse of the handout.

Can't wait to hear how you use Flipgrid with your students!

Seesaw for Digital Portfolios

If you're looking for an easy, FREE digital portfolio tool to use with your students, I can't recommend Seesaw enough.  It can be used for any grade level and allows students to take ownership in their learning as they reflect on their work.  Teachers can provide feedback to the students and the ability to share the journal with classmates, the teacher, and/or parents creates an authentic audience.

Seesaw works on many different platforms: iOS devices, Android devices, Kindle Fires, Chromebooks, and any computer with Chrome or Firefox.

Here is the basics flow of Seesaw (accessed on their webpage)

Seesaw has several built-in creation tools including taking photos, videos, adding links, entering a note (text or audio), sketching a drawing, or adding labels.  You can also upload a file or a picture from the camera roll.

Here are the tools available on a mobile device:

And here are the tools available on a computer:

Another great feature of Seesaw is the many, many apps that are compatible with it.  For instance, if any other app allows you to create a product and save it to the camera roll, then you can upload it to Seesaw.  Here's a list of compatible apps.

Adding something to a Seesaw journal is very simple.  Check out this video demonstrating how to do so in less than a minute:

As the teacher, all posts from your students come to you for approval before anyone else can see them. 

Before long, you'll want to invite families to view their child's portfolio.  Doing so is quick and easy.  Check out this video below on how to do so.  You can also send announcements and private messages to families.

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Interested in diving in?  Here's a quick tutorial on how to set up your class.

Seesaw has some free Teacher Courses that can be completed in about 30 minutes and will introduce you to Seesaw, explain why to use it, and give you time to explore its creation tools through the lens of a student.  The four Teacher Courses include PreK-2nd Grade, 3rd-5th Grade, 6th-8th grade, and High School and Beyond.

There are also Getting Started Guides for each grade level (K through High School).  These guides will provide step-by-step, grade-specific lessons to introduce Seesaw to your students, task cards, and badges and certificates.

Want a free month of their premium features in Seesaw Plus?  Scan the following QR code to sign up

WeVideo: A Free Online Video Editor

If you're looking for a great resource for students to use to create videos, check out WeVideo. It's an online video editor that you can access from any device with Internet.  The free version of WeVideo allows you to have five minutes of published video each month, 1 GB of cloud storage, 480p video resolution and the ability to download the edited video to your computer.

Creating an Account

1. To begin, go to www.wevideo.com and sign up with your email.  You might consider signing up through Google in order to have one less password to remember.
2. Then click the green button, "Sign up for WeVideo"
3. You'll then receive a confirmation email to verify your account. 

Starting a New Video Project

1. Once logged in, please click on the "+ Create New" button

2.  Select the type of project you would like to create: Video edit or Project

3. You'll then use the green cloud button to import video, images, and audio files to your video edit or project.

4. Once your media is imported, you can drag and drop the content into your project.

5. You can change the theme, add audio, or record voiceovers using these buttons:

6. Once you're done editing your video, you will need to publish it.  All videos are automatically saved to WeVideo but you can also publish to Google Drive or YouTube, among other tools.

Another great aspect of WeVideo is their WeVideo Academy which has videos of tutorials, lessons, and tips.

Happy video editing!

OneTab Extension to Manage All Your Open Tabs in Chrome or Firefox

If you're anything like me, you always have a handful of tabs open in Google Chrome at any given time.  OneTab is an extension for Google Chrome and Firefox that converts all of your tabs into a list.  When you need to access the tabs again, you can either restore them individually or all at once.  This is handy if you have to shut down your laptop but don't want to lose the tabs you have open.

With OneTab, you can also export or import your tabs as a list of URLs to share with other people, other computers, or your smartphone or table.

As teachers, you could create a shareable list of hyperlinks you want to provide to students or parents.  To create the shareable list, you would open up all the resources in separate tabs, click the One Tab extension icon in your browser to consolidate them all to one tab, and then share that URL with students or parents.

Here's an example of the list of tabs displayed in the first image above and now shared via a URL by clicking on the "Share as web page" button: https://www.one-tab.com/page/xu1AIGXOQSqcuNZXgmmn2A 

When you share the link with others, it will also provide a QR code to the list:

By having fewer tabs open at once, you will save memory and reduce clutter.

Check out OneTab in the Chrome Web Store.

Digital Citizenship Lessons

As an educator these days, it's imperative that we take some time to teach our students what it means to be a digital citizen.  Thanks to CommonSense, educators can access quality, easy-to-implement digital learning lesson plans and resources.

As @KevinHoneycutt once said, "Our kids are growing up on a digital playground and no one is on recess duty."

CommonSense Education has a FREE curriculum available to teachers that covers things like Internet Safety, Privacy & Security, Cyberbullying & Digital Drama, Creative Credit & Copyright.  Their curriculum is split up as K-2, 3-5, 6-8, and 9-12.

The lessons on CommonSense include clear objectives, a unit assessment and Common Core State Standards alignment.  The detailed lesson plans include an Essential Question, Introduction, Teaching Points and Activities, and a Wrap-up.  Any blackline masters or videos you would need to teach the lesson are also included.

Furthermore, each lesson includes a Family Tip Sheet and a Student Activity Sheet like these, both available in English or in Spanish:

Once you sign in and make a free account, you'll be able to access these high-quality resources (like this lesson on Cyberbullying for 3rd-5th Students) that will make teaching digital citizenship lessons a piece of cake.  

Check out CommonSense Media...your students (and their parents/guardians) will be indebted to you!

Use Flippity to Create Digital Flashcards

Flippity is an awesome, FREE tool that allows you to create flashcard material in Google spreadsheet.  The information is then made available to students through a URL.  Even better, the information from the spreadsheet can not only be turned into flashcards, but also activities such as matching games, a crossword, or BINGO board.

Here are the simple steps for creating a Flippity deck:

1. Open up a Google Sheet and click Add-ons > Get Add-ons...

2. Search for Flippity and add it by clicking on "+ Free".  You may need to give it access to your Google Drive by clicking "Allow" on a pop-up screen.

3. To run Flippity, click Add-ons > Flippity > Pick A Template

4. There are many templates to choose from, so pick the one that best suits your needs by clicking "Use".  In this example I am going to demonstrate Flashcards, but notice all of the other template options too.

Other options:

5. The template includes lots of sample data, so feel free to delete any of the content you will not need and replace it with your own.

6. Once you're finished entering in your own data and customizing the deck, you can get the URL to share it with you students by clicking Add-ons > Flippity > Flippity.net URL

7. A box will pop up with the URL.  In the bottom right corner is an option to have the URL shortened, and I'd encourage you to do that.

8. Students then navigate to that URL in order to through your deck of flash cards.

I encourage you to check out the tab options at the top of the screen to access some additional activities for your vocabulary, such as:

List

Practice (Where they type in the missing information on one side of the card)

Matching (Which is timed and the words/phrases disappear as they are matched)

More (e.g.  a BINGO board, crossword, hangman, or printable quiz)

I can't wait to hear about the ways you use Flippity in your classroom!

Bloomz: An App for Parent Communication

If you're looking for a way to communicate with parents in an easy to use and FREE app, check out Bloomz.  It's designed as a tool to communicate and connect with parents.

As a teacher, you would sign up on Bloomz' website, select your school, and personalize your classroom.  Parents then join your class and start getting updates in real-time.  You can invite parents to your Bloomz class by email or via a class code.

The teacher can share class updates, field trip photos, videos, or reminders for due dates or deadlines.  If desired, there is a behavior management tool that teachers can use to reinforce positive behavior.  All within the app, teachers can coordinate parent-teacher conferences, volunteer requests, and supply donations.  Parents can like or comment on what you share, or you can turn that feature off.

Teachers have the ability to send a message to all parents, or just have a one-on-one conversation between him/herself and a parent.

Moreover, Bloomz Content Translation gives families the option to translate posts, events, announcements, alerts, and comments into over 80 languages.  This features works on any device with an Internet browser.

Lastly, everything on Bloomz is protected by strict security measures, so rest assured everything is private and secured.

Check out this quick overview video to learn more about Bloomz.

If you're interested in joining Bloomz, I encourage you to use the resources on this page such as the  Getting Started - Step by Step Guide or a Parent Letter Template.

Get Moving with GoNoodle

Are you looking for a fun and quick way to get your students or staff moving after sitting for a while?  Check out GoNoodle.  It's a FREE website with hundreds of custom-created videos that get students running, dancing, jumping, stretching and/or practicing moments of mindfulness.

Each video is typically 2-4 minutes long and fall into the follow categories: guided dancing, free movement, stretching, sports and exercise, kinesthetic learning, coordination or calming.

These videos can be used as a brain break or during indoor recess.  Consider even using one of the calming ones as a way to redirect student behavior or stress.

Here are a few examples:

Google Forms Quiz Feature

Google Forms has added a new feature that enables you to easily turn a Google Form into a quiz.  This feature creates a quick and easy way to deliver auto-grading assessments.  Questions can be multiple choice, checkbox, and drop-down questions.  You can also do short answer or paragraph text, but you will need to go back in later and grade those questions yourself (See Grade Individual Responses here).

To create a quiz, you create a Google Form, as usual.  I'd encourage you to mark all of the quiz questions as required so students cannot submit the form without answering all questions.

Once your Google Form is completed, you click on the gear wheel (settings) to switch to Quizzes.

Then adjust any of the quiz settings, as needed.  Click SAVE.

Next you assign a point value to each question and identify the correct answer.

If you want to see a summary of responses, then open the Google Form and click on RESPONSES.

To see individual responses, click INDIVIDUAL.  To see a summary of all the responses, click SUMMARY.

If you are a Flubaroo user, you might be interested in checking out this article that compares the Google Forms quizzes feature with Flubaroo and then deciding for yourself which you prefer.

Google Form quizzes can be used in many ways in the classroom, including as a formative or summative assessment, for peer evaluations, or for surveys and polls.  Take advantage of the Quiz feature to automate grading and then make the most of the data it generates for you.