literacy shed

Writing With Literacy Shed

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I know I’ve written about this site in the past. I thought it deserves to be talked about again, especially with the beginning of the school year upon some of us. So…. If you STILL haven’t checked out The Literacy Shed, do it. Like right now!

Literacy Shed

What is it?

Simply put, it is an amazing – FREE – writing resource. It will work with any writing program you have going on in your classroom or district. The creator and curator, Rob Smith, explains:

“The aim is to provide high-quality resources that can be used in stand-alone literacy lessons, can form the basis for a whole Literacy unit or can support literacy units that you already have in place.”

Rob has most certainly provided those high-quality resources.

AND, many of the video resources are non-verbal making them perfect for the ELL students.

Why use it?

First of all, it has beautiful quality videos. In addition to the videos, the site has several lesson ideas for each video. This isn’t put together by some corporation or publisher. This was created by a teacher who freely shares his knowledge and ideas.

About the Sheds

There are ‘Sheds’ that are essentially themes. There are so many sheds, and more being added, there is no shortage of resources. I love looking around the site and getting ideas. Word of warning; once you jump into this rabbit hole, it may be a while before you emerge. But it will be well worth it! Currently, I’m looking at the Rio Olympics Shed and getting REALLY excited about the possibilities for my classroom.

One Last Thought

I wish I were in the UK so that I might attend a training. Maybe someday there will be a training here….

 

Voiceover Videos with Snagit

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After sharing the awesomeness that is Literacy Shed, the most often question I get is, “How did you do the voiceover?” (See Presentation)

There are a multitude of programs that you can use: Screencastify (Chrome Extension), Screencast-O-Matic (download), Quicktime Apple or Windows (download), or my personal favorite, Snagit (Chrome Extension). If you are using Chromebooks you will need to go with a Chrome Extension – Screencastify or Snagit.

Here’s how my students use Snagit:

After adding Snagit to your (or your students’) Chrome browser, it will appear in the toolbar next to the URL as shown below. Click on it.

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Once you (or your students) choose Snagit, they will see a black sidebar appear on the right side of the screen. Please note that the first time you open the Extension, it will ask you to allow Snagit to access your mic. You must allow. You have the option of saving an image or a video. For voiceovers, you will want to select ‘Screen’ under ‘Video’. Also, note that the mic icon is on.

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This will bring out a pop-out menu in which you will select ‘Entire Screen’. This way, you (or the students) can switch to full-screen mode. With a little editing, they can chop off the first portion.

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Once ‘Entire Screen’ has been selected, you will see a notification at the bottom of the screen, notifying you that the screen is being shared (aka you are now screencasting).

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In YouTube, the last choice on the bottom right is full screen. Have the students chose this. As a side note, I use 2 Extensions with YouTube: DF YouTube and Adblock for YouTube.

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Now voiceover away! Once you are done, select the ‘Stop Sharing’ option at the bottom of the screen.

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This will then open a new tab in your browser. Hang tight. Depending on the length of your video, it may take a while to upload to your Google Drive. Once it is completely synced, the blue ‘Syncing Capture’ will change to green and you can THEN name your video. NOTE: The video will be saved in a folder named TechSmith in the Drive. TechSmith is the maker.

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Depending on your district, you can keep them in the Drive – remember to change the shared setting to ‘anyone can view’ – or upload them to YouTube. My district has the student Drives locked so that anyone outside our district CANNOT see them. If this is the case for you, you have a few options.

  1. Have the students transfer ownership to you. Most district will allow teachers to share items in their Drive.
  2. Have students share the video with you. You then download the video and upload to YouTube. This was the route I took.
  3. Create a shared class YouTube account (from your district) and have students upload it to this (or you upload to this).

The advantage to a class YouTube account is that the students can then go into the editor and chop off the first portion of the video, that is no doubt messy.