Today's post covers some things I learned at the 2018 Tennessee Educational Technology Conference.
Book Reviews and Green Screens!!
I have two voluntary after school book clubs. Each club meets once a month. I limited the club to the first 20 students who returned their signed permission slips because I found that allowing more than 20 makes for a very chaotic and unproductive hour. One book club is for 2nd and 3rd graders. The other book club is for 4th and 5th graders.
The first semester book club groups filled out book reviews on books sent by Abrams/Amulet Books, Sourcebooks/Jabberwocky, and Fabled Films. I collected the reviews and mailed the set to 2 of the 3 publishers. I am still holding onto one envelope because I have been unable to find out which address to use to send them. The kids were so excited when I told them after Christmas that one of the publishers, Fabled Films, sent me an email about the reviews they received! I am trying to work out with the publisher a time that my book club students might be able to Skype with the author of the series of books they sent to us-The Nocturnals. It will be very exciting if the students are able to communicate, even if by camera, with a real author!
This semester, I decided to try something different. I bought green fabric from Hobby Lobby. On sale, I spent about $11 for 4 yards. I already had my library iPad so I downloaded the inexpensive ($2.99) app DoInk. My students will be creating video book reviews! My plans are to have it formatted similar to Reading Rainbow or such and then with parent permission, publish them on our school YouTube Channel!
One of the sessions I attended at TETC was facilitated by a teacher from Avaco Elementary School in Bristol, TN. He walked us through how he set up his green screen recording, went over prices, gave advice on things to avoid, and helpful how-tos in getting our own program started. He posts (with parent permission) the videos that his students create on their YouTube Channel. Such a great way to reach out to the community, advertise for the school, show student work, etc.
I have a former director of the morning news show on one of our local TV stations who came to assist in our first attempt. She gave me tips and suggestions on simple things to change or try and pointed out items I can purchase if I can get some grant money to help cover the cost. Things such as portable lighting and tripods.
Reading Rainbow style book review lesson I came across this lesson plan while searching for templates for a video book review. I haven't tried it yet, but will add it to my toolbox!
Google Tips
One of the best tool I learned about at TETC is Toby. Toby is a holding spot, collection, or set of browser tabs that you can save into a collection that you name however you need to name. So, as I do research on sites for my students to use for researching (so I don't just get Wikipedia and Google as answers!), when I find a great site or source, I can add it to the collection in Toby. Then I can share the URL for that collection with my students in their Google Classroom! For example, I have 5th graders doing a 9 week long social studies research project. They each have their assigned topic and a choice of templates or end product options to work with to demonstrate knowledge, etc. I created a Toby collection for resources that I found to assist them. I can add to the collection throughout the 9 weeks as I find new or better resources. I can guide them to specific, high quality sources such as WorldBook through our Tennessee Electronic Library. Here is a sample of my Toby collection for the research project.
Hopefully, I will be able to blog soon about more tips and ideas I learned at 2018 TETC!
Happy reading!!
