Showing posts sorted by relevance for query book creator. Sort by date Show all posts
Showing posts sorted by relevance for query book creator. Sort by date Show all posts

Monday, March 25, 2019

2nd Grade Book Creators Publish Their Learning


Last week I was in second grade teacher Traci Preciado’s class as students were working on writing books on a research topic of their choice. Students eagerly showed me their work and read their books aloud. The topics they selected ranged from animals like cheetahs and sabertooth tigers to Native Americans to British Soldiers. Each student was engaged and excited about producing a book on their topic and motivated to write and find images to illustrate their work using the Book Creator app.


A few weeks prior to this, students had been learning about polar animals, polar lands, and people who live in polar regions. Students had written summaries of each areas and then chose one area to publish as a book. Traci then showed them how to use the Book Creator app and they spent a couple class periods putting in their information. This was practice for their own research project.


The following week students choose an animal, person, or place to research. The wrote questions, researched and read about their topic using Pebble Go, and then wrote about it. They used Book Creator in iPads to type up their writing and insert images. When they finished the class has a publishing fair, inviting in their parents to come in and hear the books being read by students. Traci also emailed each students’ parents a copy of their book electronically as a PDF.
This is a great example of students having voice and choice in their learning as well as creating and communicating their work with an authentic audience, all components of our Minnetonka Teaching & Learning Framework. Traci tied in numerous nonfiction reading and writing skills throughout this project as well. Students were very motivated to learn and use technology to showcase their work.


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Monday, November 2, 2015

Book Creator(s) in Minnetonka Schools

Source: iTunes
Starting last month, students in Minnetonka Public Schools began using the Book Creator app on their iPads in our 1:1 iPad program for 6,250 students in grades 5-12. This great tool makes ePublishing easy, and students use it to publish texts with images, drawings, comic strips, photos, music, and videos. Students can produce their own eBook or work collaboratively to combine their work into a group authored publication. After publishing, students can share their work with their classmates on Schoology, our learning management system and hub for our 1:1 program. eBooks can also be saved to Google Drive or published as an iBook. 

Last week, Deephaven Elementary teacher Mike Borgendale took his class to a nearby Carson Bay on Lake Minnetonka to collect invertebrate specimens as part of their science study. They are working with the educational branch of the DNR, MinnAqua. When they brought these samples back to their school, the students used a $2.50 macro lens which clipped on to their iPad over the camera to take close up photos and videos of what they found. They identified the organisms and began researching them, from snails to water scorpions. The students are writing and producing a non-fiction eBook using Book Creator to showcase their learning. The teacher is integrating the language arts lessons of non-fiction text features with science to make this activity interdisciplinary.

Photos: Andrea Hoffmann

Check out numerous examples online to see many more possibilities. Book Creator is just one of the many great tools teachers in Minnetonka Public Schools are using with students in our 1:1 iPad Program. Like Pear Deck highlighted last week, it is another example of how technology can be used to deepen learning experiences for students and make instruction more efficient and effective.
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Monday, April 24, 2017

Grade 11 Students Create Amazing Graphic Novels with iPads, Book Creator & Notability

View full graphic novel on The Russian Revolution
I’m often amazed at the talent of our students. Their artistic ability is no exception. Our students' creativity is evident in the artwork I see in the hallways, showcases and classrooms throughout our schools. Earlier this year, eleventh grade general English students at Minnetonka High School read Persepolis, a graphic novel autobiography by Marjane Satrapi about growing up during the Islamic revolution in the 1980s. After reading it, the students were given two choices to create their own graphic novel with a collaborative group. The results are awesome!
View full graphic novel on the Weimar Republic
For this project, students worked in collaborative groups and each group member was responsible for two pages individually or the group members chose to work on their pages together. You can see the full assignment description for this task here. Students used a storyboard for planning their projects and each individual completed a self-reflection afterwards. The project was designed by English teachers David Adams, Jordan Cushing, Mary Hedstrom and Judy Thomas as part of their PLC (Professional Learning Community). Students were given two options from which to choose for the topic of their graphic novel. Students could either:
Create a graphic novel based on a revolution that took place outside of the United States before 1970. Students had to pick a revolution, research it, and tell the story of an important event during the revolution in their graphic novel. (Three examples are pictured and linked in this post.)
Or
Create a graphic novel that explores the connections between the challenges faced by a girl living in the United States and a girl living in Iran after 2010. Students researched women’s issues in Iran and America after 2010 and had to tell the story of both girls, comparing and contrasting their experiences in their graphic novel.
View full graphic novel on the French Revolution
One of the teachers, David Adams, told me he was very impressed by the work students did. He explained that students really enjoyed being able to be creative with the project. They used a variety of apps for illustrations. Many used Notability to make the pictures and then drop them into Book Creator. David explained that students felt that Book Creator was very useful for setting up the frames, pages, captions, and speech bubbles, but it didn’t have very many drawing tools. So many of them set up all of the frames in Book Creator first and then went to Notability to illustrate their pictures. This app smash project is a great example of many dimensions on the Minnetonka Framework for Teaching and Learning: collaboration, communication, use of technology, authentic and real world learning, creativity and more. It's also a great example of using iPads and the apps on them to showcase learning in meaningful, deeper ways.
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      Monday, February 19, 2018

      14 Popular Tech Tools to Increase Student Learning & Engagement

      Last Wednesday in place of a regularly scheduled monthly staff meeting, all of our high school teachers spent that time in instructional technology staff development. The teachers each learned about additional technology tools they could use with their students. There were fourteen sessions offered for 45 minutes, each led by a different teacher, and all instructors were all colleagues of the attendees. They called these classes "Tech Mini-Sessions."

      Each of the fourteen mini-session descriptions are below. Teachers signed up ahead of time and received CEUs for their time spent learning. All staff were expected to participate as this was in place of a staff meeting. Our three high school instructional technology coaches 
      Ben, Darren and Jason each led sessions and organized this event.

      TopicDescription
      QuestioningResearch shows that teachers ask hundreds of questions per day. How can we get the most “bang for our buck” in regards to questioning and discussion? How can we use this strategy as a tool for student engagement? For when we use content to engage students, learning occurs. Join us as we discuss the characteristics of a high quality question and ways in which we can incorporate them into our daily lessons. Various discussion techniques and technology tools will be highlighted such as Answer Garden and Padlet. Please bring an upcoming lesson or unit that you are wanting to focus on.
      QuizizzLooking for another fun way to review? Quizziz is a multi-player game that students can join with a game code and play on their own. What's great about Quizziz is that students get questions on their individual devices instead of on the SmartBoard, and can move through the questions at their own pace. This feature eliminates students signing out due to boredom or because they're "not winning." Quizziz gives teachers valuable data that they can use to review common misconceptions with students right after the game is over. The ease of creating Quizziz games is only a few clicks away if you already have a completed quiz!
      Class KickClasskick allows students to complete assignments and get help instantly from their teacher and peers. Students self-pace on assignments with their iPads, while teachers can write notes for all students to see or give tailored feedback to individual students. This is great is great way to replace short paper pencil quizzes, as well as, a "first five" or "last five" activity. Bring a lesson or idea to create and share your own ClassKick.
      Book CreatorBook Creator is an app that allows the user to create fully interactive ebooks. Students can create comics, photo journals, learning logs, lab reports, etc. With Book Creator, students can incorporate video, audio, images, and text to create a polished, professional product suitable for sharing. Students can also collaborate with one another and create group, or classroom, eBooks. In this session, we will look at the features of Book Creator, as well as options for collaboration and publication. During this session you will be creating a book specific to your content area or interest.
      Schoology Quizzes & Question BanksAre you looking for a way to increase the academic integrity of multiple choice or free response tests, make grading easier, and get better information to inform instruction once the tests are completed? This session will cover: 1. The construction of question banks that can populate randomized Schoology quizzes. 2. Creating a test code to limit access to to assessments. and 3. Using the view by question option in results to inform instruction.
      FlipGridVideo-based responses made easy and fun! Meet your students where they're at. Selfie videos, what more can we say? Flipgrid is a tool that allows students to post responses to your questions, topics, or discussions in short video clips and share them on grids. Students can then watch one another’s clips and respond. You can use their responses in assessments or use them to build community and relationships. The concept may not new, but the elegance and ease of the tool is. Try it out if you want to introduce a new tech tool with a minimal learning curve for both you and your students. You will have the opportunity to create and be ready to run a Flipgrid for your own class.
      PearDeck (Google Addon)Breathe some new life into an older tool. Rethink how PearDeck can fit into your classroom teaching routines. This session will highlight how to use the Google Slides PearDeck addon that allows teachers to add interactive questions to any Google Slide presentation. Allowing you to ask questions during instruction and quickly get insights into how well your students understand the information. Even if you have used, or already been using Pear Deck, join us to learn new features and develop a PearDeck lesson to use with students.
      Digital Card SortsIf you use card sort activities in your classroom and are tired of envelopes full (or partially full) of cards in your desk, try turning them digital. In this session, you'll learn how to create and facilitate card sorts with students using Desmos. Never have an incomplete set again as the activities are stored and managed using your Google login. Bring a set of terms or images for students to sort in an upcoming lesson. We will create and share our card sorts!
      CoggleStudents can collaborate on mindmaps together using Coggle. Coggle is a step up from Popplet, as it allows students to work on the same concept map in real time using their Google accounts. Students can personalize their maps and share with their teachers, reflect it on the classroom computer to share with the class, or copy the link to share their Coggle with anyone! This session will introduce you to Coggle and show you how it can be used for an inquiry based project in the natural sciences or a group project in social sciences. Learn how you can make Coggle work for your classroom! Come with a lesson idea for which a mindmap would enhance your content.
      Video Discussion BoardsUtilizing student designed videos for discussion boards and formative assessments. In this session you will be introduced to examples and opportunities of how teachers are currently utilizing video to advance student learning to the upper levels of the framework. We will discuss how to enhance Schoology's capabilities with video. By the end of the session teachers will have developed a formative assessment utilizing video.
      EdPuzzle (Pro Version)EdPuzzle is a way to have your students reflect on a video while they are watching it. If you want them to watch a video on their own and ensure that they watch it, you can create an EdPuzzle. It's great for homework, when you have a reserve, or if the content is a topic that works better as individual reflection rather than whole class. You can add audio comments in case there's anything you want them to pay particular attention to. You can also create true/false, multiple choice, and short answer questions. Videos can be clipped and copied.
      DoInkGreen Screen provides a way to create green screen videos and images on your iPad. The app lets you combine photos and videos from the camera roll with live images from your iPad’s camera. This app emphasizes ease-of-use and simplicity allowing students to tell a story, explain an idea, and express themselves in truly creative and unique ways. Bring a lesson for which green screen might allow for student creativity in your content.
      Google Docs Assignment App in SchoologyIf you've ever wanted to check on a student's essay progress or aren't sure which students actually opened up the document you sent them, then you'll want to use the Google Assignment app in Schoology. The Google Assignments app further integrates Google Docs into Schoology. Once you set a Schoology assignment as a Google Assignment, it will make a copy of the assignment for each student, with you as the owner of the document. It allows you to view student progress on a document without asking them to share permissions. The workflow for students is simplified and turning in assignments is as simple as clicking on a "Submit Assignment" button in Schoology.
      QuizletMany students are already using Quizlet flashcards to study terms and concepts and many subject areas have lots of Quizlet decks already created and ready to go. This session will look at creating and searching for Quizlet decks and using some of the more interactive features like Quizlet Live and the new Quizlet diagrams. Have a lesson idea for which Quizlet could increase student engagement and critical thinking.

      This process of ongoing learning, sharing, dialog, reflection and colleague observation is one of the keys to our success and growth of our 1:1 program. You can learn more about our it, iPads, and use of technology for learning in the additional r      elated posts below:

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