The Digital Scoop

Book Trailer Ideas

Lights, camera, action!  Your students will love reading and reviewing books by starring in their own book trailers.  Here are a few resources to inspire you:

Beyond Book Reports...Book Trailers- A Scholastic teacher blog post on using storyboards and iMovie to create book trailers.

Book Trailers for Readers- A site full of teacher and student made book trailers.  A great place to inspire students to read and to help inspire their own book trailer creations.

Making Book Trailers with Photostory 3- A Tech & Learning post for Window's users on creating book trailers.

Reading-Activie-and-Engaging- An informative Wiki space detailing the benefits and process of creating book trailers.

Do you have any great book trailer resources or examples?  Please leave a comment and share!  I would love to hear about them!

Awesome Classroom Management Site!

Classdojo is an amazing web site for classroom management!

The site allows teacher to:

• Improve student behavior and engagement by awarding and recording real-time feedback.
• Print or e-mail beautiful behavior reports to engage parents and staff.
• Save time by recording behaviors and accomplishments right in class with just one click!

How does ClassDojo work?  Teachers begin by creating an account and setting up a class.  Students are idenfied by an avatar and their name.  There are currently only two sets of avatars to choose from.  Monster avatars are the default.

Teachers can then add and change behaviors listed for each class.  I had a brain storming session with several of my classes on what behaviors to include.  The kids were far more detailed in selecting behaviors to keep track of. 

I love showing the students the graphs of points for the class and how I can show them only their points.

It has been wonderful to see what a positive effect ClassDojo is having on several of my classes!  I would love to hear comments if you try ClassDojo.

 

Embedding PDF and PowerPoint Documents with Google Docs Viewer

Use Google Docs Viewer to quickly view documents online without leaving your browser.

The PDF or PowerPoint document must already be uploaded to the web.  I used DropBox to upload my PowerPoint file.  I then copied the web address DropBox provides.

Head over to the Google Docs Viewer and paste in the address for the file you want people to view.  Then, click Generate link.

Copy the embedded viewer html.  Then head to your blog or web site and access the html on a post.

Paste your embed code.  You should see something like this when you publish your post:

 

This is an awesome way for teachers to share files with parents and students.  I could see a kindergarten student flipping through the above PowerPoint file to practice words that start with different letters of the alphabet.

Use KeepVid to Save YouTube Videos

If YouTube is blocked or you want to avoid accessing YouTube in front of students, use KeepVid to download and save videos.

Begin by locating the video you want to keep and copying its URL:

Then, head over to KeepVid and paste the address and click Download:

You may need to allow an applet from keepvid.com:

Then, you will see a list of options for downloading your video:

I usually download the MP4 version and play them in QuickTime. 

Express Yourself!

Smyface.com is a fun and quick way for students to share about their feelings.

Begin by selecting the orange or valentine face.

Drag the slider to choose a facial expression.

Type why you feel that way in 80 characters or less.

Smyface would make a great writing prompt or quick writing activity.

 

Brain Quest

I was at Barnes and Noble the other day and the Brain Quest display caught my eye.  I noticed they have a web site to go with their games and workbooks. The site contains games, a question of the day, and a few downloadable worksheets.

Students can play a 2-minute Brain Quest game.  The site has a game for 6-9 year olds and 9-13 year olds.  They also have  Hispanic America and Presidents games.

Teachers can view the question of the day or sign up to receive it via e-mail.  They also have a widget to place the question on your site or blog.

Put Those PDF's Together!

Need to quickly merge a few PDF files together?  Head over to Merge PDF.

Simply upload the files from your computer and then click Merge. 

You will then be able to download your new combined PDF file.

Interactive Online Place Value Cards

 Online Place Value Cards is an easy math resource for use with a projector and/or an interactive whiteboard.

Students will can see the separate number values and then click on the red button to see the number they create.

If you don't have an interactive whiteboard, try having students use a pointer to select numbers while you or another student click on them.  This would also be a good site for home practice with parents.

Clay Yourself!

Clay Yourself is a fun website your students will adore.  I had some of my fifth graders clay themselves on the last week of school.  They loved it!  We were just having fun...but I also think students could create characters and write about them.

 

I know you are wondering...so go clay yourself!

 

Where is that character?

Have you ever wanted to use a certain text character and can't remember which font or keyboard shortcut to use?  Check out CopyPasteCharacter.  Just click on the character you want and it's copied to your clipboard and waiting for you to paste it into a document!