Vine Videos

Many of you have probably heard of the iPhone app called "Vine." Here's a little description of Vine from their website: "Vine is the best way to see and share life in motion. Create short, beautiful, looping videos in a simple and fun way for your friends and family to see."

With Vine, you create 6 second videos that loop over and over until you make it stop:) I got the idea of using Vine with Vocabulary from Twitter (surprise, surprise.) A word of caution: Vine is frequently used as a social media site, for silly, fun videos and comments that could be inappropriate for children. When I suggested that my teachers try Vine with Vocabulary, I told them to only let the students use Vine with the teacher's iPad and monitor them closely (i.e. only let them create Vines, don't let them browse the gallery.) 

Once the students' vines are created under the teacher's account, the teacher can go to Vine's website and embed their vines into their own teacher websites or wikis for student viewing and sharing. 

Using Vines for  Vocabulary is a great way for students to demonstrate their mastery of a word through words and visual representation. Also, when students view other vocabulary vines, they get another person's examples, explanations... and on top of that they get the repetition of that 6 second video looping over and over again.

Amber Evans and Marley Goodwin had their 3rd grade students make Vocabulary Vines when they were learning about geometry. Check Amber's out here and find Marley's vines here. Way to go 3rd grade!

Angela Stallbaumer, Sarah Feeney and their 2nd graders created Vines to show their understanding of suffixes. Check them out here.  Way to go 2nd grade!

There are many, many ways that Vines could be used in education. One of the greatest things about it is the time limit on the videos. If you need a quick activity and you want your students to publish something, but you don't have time to spend days on a project, Vine is great option!! I sometimes create vines just to "show off" what students are doing. Here's an example:






Hope you enjoy using Vine!! If you have any questions about it, or would like some support using it in your classroom, please let me know:)

**Please note: The Vine app is NOT downloaded onto the school iPads because of the reasons mentioned above. We don't want our students visiting the gallery and viewing public videos and comments. You can, however, download Vine onto your teacher iPad or your phone - doing it this way allows you to monitor more closely:)

More Google Chrome Awesomeness - URL shortener

A couple of weeks ago, Laura wrote a post about Google Chrome's Incredible Start page. I tried to think of a topic that was NOT related to Chrome, but gave up and decided to share my new favorite time-saving tip. One of the coolest tricks I learned at TCEA (or after TCEA really, when I took a few moments to digest all I learned), is the Google URL shortener.

If you are using Chrome, look at your menu bar on the far left and click on the "Apps" button.

Search for "URL shortener." You are looking for an extension. Once you install it, an icon for it will appear just to the right of your URL window.

There it is! I have a URL shortener icon and when I click it, I get a shortened URL (http://goo.gl.....). My favorite thing about it is the QR code! I click on the QR code and I can copy it and paste it into a word document to print, into a Keynote presentation, etc. 

This is such a time saver! With one click, I get a shortened URL (that is super easy to cut and paste into an email, for example) AND a QR code for any webpage I visit. Love, love, love this!

If you give this Google Chrome awesomeness a try, or discover another Chrome extension that you love, please share it with us:)

Incredible StartPage

Wouldn't you like an "Incredible Start" every time you opened up a browser?

I attended a couple of sessions at my technology conference last week by a gal that is a professional presenter.  She raved about Google Chrome and all of the great plug ins that it has.  So...needless to say, I am now a believer.  You will need to create a google account if you don't already have one.  After that, you can go to the Chrome Web Store and find all kinds of goodies.  A quick and easy plug in with high impact to me is Incredible StartPage.  After installing the plug in, this is what my home page looks like:

I was given the option to import all of my bookmarks from Safari, customize my theme, and write on the sticky note!  A neat feature is that it keeps a list of my recently closed sites, so I can revisit something that I may have accidentally closed or forgot to bookmark!  And, if you are on a different computer, after you log into Google, your Incredible StartPage should follow you!

You will probably need to install Google Chrome on your laptop.  After you install it, visit the Chrome Webstore to search for and download the Incredible StartPage plugin.  The sleek format of this plug in makes me happy each time I launch Chrome!

Tip for iPads: Add to Home Screen

A lot of you may know about this, but it is such a handy tip, I wanted to send this out to everyone. If your students use a favorite website, or frequently use a website on your iPad(s), you really want to do this. For instance, our 1st and 2nd graders are deep into research about polar bears and penguins. So, adding arkive.org as a weblink on the iPads will come in super-handy.

I made a Snap Guide (another cool app!) explaining the few steps necessary to make a weblink on your iPad. If you make a weblink on your iPad with a favorite website, it looks just like any other app. By clicking on the link (or app button), it will take the student directly to the website where you want them, so there's no URL typing or anything!  Take a look at the snap guide below to learn how to do this.


Check out How to Add a Web Page to Home Screen by Melanie Burford on Snapguide.

Scanning App

Penney Bell let me know about a new App that she has been using. It is called Scanner Pro and lets you scan anything with your iPhone or iPad. Then you can email it to whoever needs it. I can scan a paper and immediately send it to a parent, or print it without having to leave my classroom! It is on sale now for $2.99.  I have an app called TurboScan that I love.  Both are definitely worth the $!

ReadWriteThink

I wanted to share a site that has been around for years, but I ran across it again the other day, and I noticed that they have added some new features.

http://www.readwritethink.org

I really like the Student Interactives!  This site doesn’t allow students to save their activity, so you must allow time to complete it and print.  Some are games that won’t require printing.  From the home page, hover over the Classroom Resources Tab, then choose Student Interactives. There are many ways to explore…by grade level, by learning objectives, search, etc.  There are plot diagrams, story maps, book cover creator, and timelines.  Check out all of the poetry options on the main page on the “Featured” tab.  Cool stuff!

 Please post a comment below if you integrate this site into your instruction.  Melanie or Laura will give you a star for it!  

Haiku Deck

Haiku Deck - "Presentation Software to Set Your Story Free!"

Here is a sample Haiku Deck that I made this summer to demonstrate how you can use the app with vocabulary:



Created with Haiku Deck, the free presentation app for iPad

It is a FREE app on the iPad. You can add lines of text on top of a picture. There are many templates to choose from and the gallery of pictures that you can use in your Haiku Deck is AMAZING!

There are many ways to use Haiku Deck - Vocabulary applications, research projects, slideshows and much more. You can easily create a Haiku Deck slideshow of your students at a field trip or working at school and send the Haiku Deck link to your parents.

Here is Angie Stallbaumer's page of Haiku Decks she recently created with her students. They demonstrated their mastery of Science vocabulary words.
Stallbaumer's Haiku Decks

One last thing - Haiku Decks are easy to get off of your iPad. Just make sure your students are logged into your Haiku Deck account while they create their presentations on the iPads. Once they are finished, log in to HaikuDeck.com and your students' projects will be there waiting for you:) You can take the web versions of their projects and email them to parents or embed them into your wiki or website.

Enjoy Haiku Deck! If you have any questions about it, or you have an idea for project and would like some support with it, please let me know! I'm always happy to help.