Lynell's Cool Tools Blog

This has been an amazing experience to explore technology this way.  I usually do not enjoy professional development that is self directed, but this was highly recommenced by a colleague. I've learned about so many new programs that I can incorporate into my math intervention groups.  The 6th graders that i work with have already began a google slide presentation where they need to chose a standard that has been covered this year and create a lesson using the slides. My final project was created using Adobe Spark: https://spark.adobe.com/video/hGTvniGbjgjeq https://spark.adobe.com/video/hGTvniGbjgjeq

Wow! Where to begin? There are so many ideas for students to make an e book.  The idea of combining writing illustrations, drawing and video as a final or culminating project is a unique way for students to demonstrate their understanding. A great introduction to e books was a podcast by Jennifer Gonzales- Student Made E-Books: A Beautiful way to demonstrate Learning April 10, 2016.  There were ideas how to take PowerPoint or Google slides into e books and customize them. I learned about an app called Book Creator.  This was easy to download for Chrome. Monica Burns had a video that described the ways to use E books with your students and the benefits that students would have using this type of presentation tool.  Using book creator as a formative assessment tool and checking for understanding using digital tools really sparked my interest.  I downloaded book creator and was able to access a joining code for students.  The features are unbelievable. ...

The presentation tools such as screen castomatic, adobe spark for education, and Screencastify were all easy to use and involved a simple download. While I was researching these great presentation tools, my 13 year old son Ashton asked me what I was working on and he began sharing a few more resources that he was familiar with using.  He suggested Smore.com where you could write a newsletter and insert a photo gallery.  The other great presentation tool he suggested was Thing link. This seems like it is a little more involved, but looks like a creative way to show information and use 3D images. i-Movie offers a unique way to incorporate video, text and music or sound effects to make short clips or advertisements. Google slides is the presentation tool that I am most familiar with . I created a project for my 6th grade math intervention students. The criteria was to choose a 6th grade math topic and standard and design a lesson that they would teach to their whole class.  ...

There were an abundance of resources provided on getting students to start blogging.  The first few resources such as " Why students Should Blog", "How to Start Blogging with Students", and "Where Students should Blog" were extremely informative and gave the benefits of blogging for students and teachers.  The reflection piece and the ability to have peers comment in a respectful way are the best benefits that students can gain from blogging.  For the past 19 years my focus every year is to create 2-3 projects for students that allow them to show case their strengths and skill set.  I love to give students the opportunity to have a choice in their assignments. Students do not have enough opportunity to practice public speaking or present their work.  This is why the idea of blogging with students is appealing.  As the math intervention teacher for K-6 the benefits would be having students discuss their strategies  through blogging.  This would all...

I'm already thinking how to incorporate this with my math intervention students and think with grades 4-6 grade I will have them create a blog and reflect on the strategies that they have learned this year that has helped them to solve multi step word problems. As the math intervention K-6 teacher I try to incorporate new technology with my students. I think students would love setting up a blog and sharing their reflection with their peers!