Nowa Techie

Makeshift Keyboards

April 27, 2016April 27, 2016AdminLeave a comment

Recently I received a new student in my 5th-grade class. Great kid from India. He has some English, enough to tell me he wants a Punjabi Keyboard. So, we created a Punjabi keyboard for him. First, we selected the correct keyboard on his Chromebook. Then, he pointed out that the physical keyboard was still in English. So then we looked up a Punjabi Keyboard online and I printed it out. Using Google Translate, we affixed them on the correct keys. We used tape. We were in business! Things were going great. Score 1 for me.

This victory didn’t last long. He then came to me telling me that the paper was bugging his fingers and I needed to tape the tops too. I explained that the keys would then all stick down to the board. So then, I had another brilliant idea: Saran Wrap, poor man’s keyboard cover. Yet another score for me.

Yes! This worked. He was happy. Until…. He wanted it all off. Yup, it wasn’t working for him. He wanted to continue with the English Keyboard…

(Sigh) You win some, you lose some.

Writing and the CAASPP

April 21, 2016April 21, 2016AdminLeave a comment

This week my students have been taking the CAASPP Test (SBAC). As you may, or may not, know, there is quite a bit of writing on it. This week we focused on the ELA portion. As a teacher, these tests kill me. I know what my students are capable of and know that they are making simple mistakes that they don’t normally make. That being said, I had several students transferring what they have learned about writing various sentences to this test, and more importantly, to everyday life.

Over the past several months we have been working on writing our own movie script using A Tale Unfolds, which comes out of the UK. I have written about it here and here. One of the strengths of the program is its writing aspect. The kids are constantly writing! Each week they are introduced to another type of sentence. One week it was appositives, another it was complex, and yet another had ‘if, if, if, then’ sentences. The program uses Alan Peat‘s modeling.

These are some of the things the students shared with me, with great pride:

Ms. N., I used an ‘if, if, if, then’ sentence.
Ms. N., I used a 3 -ed sentence.
I used an appositive. (She then showed me. It was beautiful! I got a little teary-eyed. Yeah, it was that awesome.)

I really don’t think my students would have produced the type of writing they did this week without the constant writing they have been doing for their script. The way the different sentences are introduced and the experience the students have with ‘playing’ with the new sentences has been a benefit to my students.

On a side note, I showed the first portion (without beginning credits/title/etc) of their movie to them. They are so excited! They are dying to see more. I even began showing other teachers small snippets. They were impressed. It’s been a fun experience!

Point of View

April 9, 2016April 9, 2016AdminLeave a comment

In Social Studies, my 5th graders have been learning about the causes of the American Revolution. Recently, they were researching ‘The Boston Massacre’. Being that we are in the US, the texts that we have, have a colonist/American point of view. This lead to; what was the British take on it? This lead us to a Google Search. However, we didn’t want to view anything that was written in the US, we wanted information from the UK. So how did we find out the UK point of view?

We navigated to a new tab, which brought up Google. While being logged in, we typed our query ‘Boston Massacre’. Now to filter our results for information from the UK. Located on the upper right side is a ‘gear’. Choosing it brings up a drop down menu. From this, click on ‘Advanced search’.

This sends us to a new page with several search filters. For our Boston Massacre example, we located ‘region’. This allowed us to narrow the region in which the information was published. We chose United Kingdom (this lead to a side conversation about ‘What is the United Kingdom?’). Then clicked the blue Advanced Search button on the lower right side.

This brought up the search results with the filter in place. All results were from the UK.

This, of course, led to an interesting discussion on why the accounts that we had been reading about and the accounts according to the UK were different.It was a great opportunity for my students to experience different points of view, why they exist, practice critical thinking skills, and begin to learn to question what really happened.

Save A Playlist in YouTube

April 6, 2016April 6, 2016Admin2 Comments

There have been times that I have come across a playlist or two that I wanted to save. Recently, there was a yoga playlist that I wanted to save so that I could quickly access it. This is how to do that:

Navigate to YouTube (this requires that you have a YouTube channel) and locate the desired Playlist. Click on it:

playlist 1

This will bring you to the first video in the playlist. In the top right corner, you will see a ‘+’ sign. This allows you to save the playlist on your channel. Once you select the + it will change to a checkmark (√).

Playlist 2 Playlist 3

Now when I navigate back to my playlists (on my channel), I see two categories. The first are playlists that I have created and the second are my Saved Playlists, including my newest one.

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Voiceover Videos with Snagit

April 2, 2016April 2, 2016AdminLeave a comment

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.

Have the students transfer ownership to you. Most district will allow teachers to share items in their Drive.
Have students share the video with you. You then download the video and upload to YouTube. This was the route I took.
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.

TLC Ninja Podcast

March 30, 2016March 30, 2016Admin2 Comments

I’m so excited to see this come to fruition! For quite some time, I’ve been wanting to start a Podcast. I LOVE the idea of sharing, communicating, and collaborating with others. So a while back, I contacted @CoffeeNancy (Nancy Minicozzi) about joining forces on this. And she agreed!

Yesterday, we taped our first podcast (using Blab – this is where you can see us too, total bonus!). We’re even in iTunes! Now do you see why I’m so stoked? We’re totally legit!

So the premise is that you, the audience, decide what is discussed. What do you want to know more about? Want to talk about something awesome YOU are doing? We also intend to keep it short and sweet. We all have busy schedules, so our podcasts will be no longer than 15 minutes.

How do you join in on the fun? Go to TLC.Ninja (yes, our domain is .ninja – that’s how awesome is this?). You can listen to us here, see when our next podcast is taping, and contact us with YOUR ideas. We will normally be on Blab (even if you just want to watch us live) every 1st and 3rd Monday of the month at 7 pm pst (unless otherwise stated). The podcast will be available on iTunes by the following Wednesday.

Join us next Monday (8:15 pm pst) when we talk to Tracy Walker, a CUE LeRoy Finkel Fellowship Finalist, about her ‘BIG’ idea.