Week 12 Explain Everything

This week I explored Explain Everything which is a site designed to make learning more engaging and impactful.    

In Explain Everything, teachers can upload worksheets that they already use in their classroom and manipulate them so that they can be interactive and used digitally.   This site lends itself to collaboration as it allows students to work together on a project, whiteboard or worksheet from virtually anywhere.  

Teachers can also create their own custom assignments for students.  Teachers can record and upload videos of themselves presenting material that they uploaded to enhance a lesson for remote learning. Teachers can also use Explain Everything as a virtual whiteboard as they can upload an image and draw on the image.  These graphics can be uploaded onto YouTube and shared with students and other teachers.  

I appreciate that there are many tutorials on the website to teach users how to best use Explain Everything.  They also offer newsletters sent to your inbox for additional tips and tricks.   

There is a free version which allows teachers to have up to 3 projects at a time, 1 slide per project, and each video must be 3 minutes or shorter.  However, for $34.99 a year, teachers have more flexibility in video length, and they can have unlimited projects.  This price is per teacher.    

Explain Everything is a phenomenal tool for virtual learning.  The way teachers can record a video and present an interactive lesson makes students feel like they are right there with the teacher.   I am certain this was very useful during the pandemic.  In addition, the collaboration aspect is wonderful as it allows students in different classes or even students learning from home to work on projects together.  However, for in person learning, having the teacher in front of a classroom explaining the material is more impactful than watching the teacher on a screen.   Face to face learning and collaboration is best.  There is definitely a need for Explain Everything and I would definitely use it if I needed to teach virtually.   

Class Hook Week 11

Today I reviewed a website called Class Hook.  Class Hook is a website with educational videos 1-5 minutes long aimed at prompt educational discussions among students.  The benefits of using Class Hook compared to YouTube is that they are already vetted to ensure that the video is safe to show to students and engaging. Class Hook arranges videos by grade, standard and topic which is another benefit compared to finding videos on YouTube.   

Class Hook is used as an anticipatory set to hook students when starting a lesson.  Students will become engaged and ready to learn something new.  After watching the short videos, students will have the opportunity to discuss the topic.  Teachers can also assign assignments after watching the videos.  

Depending on the plan, some videos may show advertising so teachers should be aware of this.   However, this is a great way to teach students about media literacy.  The ad free plan is $8 a month and unlimited videos.  The free version only allows for 10 videos a month.  It’s not very expensive, however, there may be other free or more affordable options.   

Class Hook can be a great resource for teachers who want the ease of searching for a video on a certain topic, standard or grade level.  However, I do not believe it should be the only resource for engaging videos to hook students.  It would be a great supplement to YouTube or other sites that offer quality educational videos.   

Pixton Week 10

This week I checked out Pixton. Pixton is a way to deliver lessons in a fun and engaging manner. I notice how students love reading graphic novels and how they have become so popular as of late. Thus, that is what drew me to learn about Pixton. Children love content in graphic novel form. Pixton is a way for teachers to deliver lessons in comic form. Comics are already produced, or teachers may make their own. Teachers can search for lessons by grade and subject area. All lesson ideas contain clearly outlined objectives and standards met. Teachers may make their own comics to deliver lessons and share it with students. Teachers can also use the ‘story starters’ feature which gives students prompts for them to share ideas. Students can create their own comics and their own avatar. This is a fun and creative way for students to express themselves. They can make comics on their own or based on a teacher's prompt and once complete, they are able to share their comics with their peers. With Pixton, students can learn about graphic novel features such as text/speech bubbles. They can also learn how to tell stories in graphic novel form and students will learn how to tell a story that has a beginning, middle and end. There are some free features, but to get all the benefits of Pixton, you do need to pay a subscription fee. The classroom yearly plan is $99 per year. Pixton can be used in many ways in the library. For research projects, students can choose to create a comic to demonstrate learning of a certain topic. They can also use Pixton when learning about story elements such as characters and settings. They can make a comic and draw the main character in a different setting, or they can create an alternate ending of a story. Pixton is a great way to collaborate and practice storytelling skills.

Epic Week 9

        I wanted to review Epic as it is a competitor of PebbleGo which was a database I reviewed previously.  Personally, my children’s school switched from PebbleGo to Epic, so I was curious to see what the difference was.  Epic offers a free version of their site as well as a paid version.  The paid version is called Epic Plus.  The biggest difference between the two is that Epic Plus is accessible at any point in the day while Epic is only offered between 7 and 3p so teachers would not be allowed to assign articles for homework.  Students also cannot read Epic at home without the paid version.  Some advantages of Epic are that there are eBooks and audiobooks available (unlike PebbleGo which is strictly articles).  In addition, books are offered in multiple languages such as Spanish, French and Chinese which supports ELL students.  Epic produces its own books for its site and Epic is constantly coming out with new titles for kids to enjoy.   

Epic allows educators to assign books and articles to students and they can search by reading level or grade level.  After reading, students can take quizzes for assessment.  Teachers can also assign a theme such as birds or scientists.   

There are so many different ways it can be used in the library.  It is a great tool for research projects as there are so many books available.  Students can use Epic to teach keyword searching or how to browse a database based on what they are interested in. This is also a great tool for those students that prefer audiobooks for independent reading time.  As mentioned, it is a huge disadvantage that students cannot access the audiobooks at home unless they have the paid version.  Students will also be motivated to read as they earn badges the more books they read.  Therefore, it is a great tool for class-wide or school-wide reading challenges.   

Overall, I think Epic is a great tool in the classroom.  I believe PebbleGo is better to teach research skills as it does have the citation generator and seems more engaging.  However, for books (both fiction and nonfiction), Epic is a wonderful choice, and students will be sure to find something of interest to read on Epic.     

Wonderopolis Week 8

                 This week I checked out Wonderopolis.  Previous to this, I thought Wonderopolis was a site where students can just read kid-friendly articles about current topics.  However, I now see it is so much more.  The focus of this site is the ‘wonder of the day’, where they feature a thought-provoking question along with an article and images to complement the text.   Students can also search by topic, or they can type in a topic or question in the search bar.   This feature is great to teach kids about keyword searches and how you phrase a question can result in different results.  By teaching students about keyword searches on this site, compared to Google, teachers can ensure that students will find safe, age-appropriate results on Wonderopolis.                  Some other great features of Wonderopolis are that each article is accompanied by a word wall with challenging words, a quiz to test students’ knowledge and follow up activities.  There are many ways students can interact with the text and deepen their understanding of various topics.  I particularly liked the discussion board.  This made me think of how University of Buffalo students use UB Learns, and we post questions and comments in the discussion board to have virtual discussions.  However, parents and teachers need to be mindful and teach students the proper and safe way to share information online.  Another thing I appreciate is that Wonderopolis always cites their sources for each article.  It is important for students to see that we all need to cite our sources and show where we get our information from.

                This site is completely free which makes it accessible for any educator to use it.    Some downsides to the site are that teachers cannot search articles by reading level and some articles may be too advanced for younger readers or readers reading below grade level.  In addition, I could not find anything that supports ELL students on the site.     

                   Overall, I recommend Wonderopolis. It is great to use for project-based learning and supports inquiry-based learning.  Wonderopolis focuses on asking questions and finding out answers to those questions.  This site is also a great place to start teaching some valuable digital citizenship skills such as posting information online in a discussion board, citing your sources and the importance of a good keyword search.   

Newsela Week 7

         This week I checked out Newsela.  Newsela is a database which is mostly subscription based where students can read and engage in nonfiction texts.  The articles range from giant pandas to the history of popsicles.  Students are sure to find something that interests them on this platform.  The content is updated daily so it is very relevant.  Teachers can assign students to read various articles based on their reading levels or the state standards they are teaching.  Therefore, it is very customizable.  Teachers can also track students' progress and assess their learning based on the quizzes and writing prompts at the end of each article.  The prompts are also customizable, but the quizzes are not. Newsela also offers many of its articles in Spanish which makes it a fantastic resource for ELL learners.  The downside to Newsela is that many of the articles are now behind a paid firewall and the subscription is quite expensive.     

        Newsela can be used in a group setting where students can read an article together and discuss their thoughts on an article or topic.  Newsela is a great resource for inquiry-based learning as they can start asking questions based on a topic that they read about.  Students can create questions and use that as a jumping off point in a research project.  It also can be used to teach students how to read nonfiction texts vs. fiction texts.  Another way to use Newsela is to practice note taking skills where students need to read an article and jot down key takeaways instead of copying entire sentences from an article.   

         The fact that Newsela is a subscription service might be a deterrent for many schools.  If schools are already paying for an expensive database, they might not want to pay for another platform.  However, the fact that you can monitor students' progress is a huge benefit compared to having students read articles from a database such as Gale.  I also see the value in customizing the texts based on their reading level or skill the teacher is assessing. There are databases that can get the same results or even some free resources. However, if it is in your budget, it can be a great addition to a classroom or library media center.  

Book Creator Week 6

This week I looked at Book Creater which is an online tool where students can create their own portfolio.  The different ways you can use Book Creator are endless but there are some that would be relevant to my school.  

The digital portfolio is a great way for students to look back on their learning and their work.  I work in a K-8 school and most students stay in the school all the way to 8th grade.  Therefore, students (and parents) would love to see all the students work as it progresses from Kindergarten through 8th grade.  For younger students, the teacher would have to upload their work into the portfolio but with time, students as young as 3rd grade can probably contribute to their portfolio.  

Another use for Book Creator is to create an 'All About Me' book.  Many classrooms have 'student of the week' or 'star student'.  However, a way to enhance this is to have the students create an 'all about me' book to share with their students.  Another option is to have the student share things about themselves and have the other students write one page in the book to share what they learned about the student of the week.  

One thing I love about Book Creator is the ability to accomodate different learners.  It has the option to add voice instead of typing out words so students can tell a story audibly.  This platform also allows students to add visual images found on the web as well as imagies they created themselves.  This would be a fantastic resource to use with virtually any research project to demonstrate their learning. 

Book Creator also allows for collaboration as students can create books together.  This is a valuable skill for students to learn to work together on a project.  It also supports an inquiry-based learning model as it gives student a lot of choice in the design of their book.  

Lastly, you can print out a copy of students' books and have it displayed in your library collection.  Students love to see their work in print, and I have found that they love to check each other's books out from the library.  

Book Creator is very easy to use and a library media specalist can probably teach other teachers how to use this platform in a simple video tutorial.  

Here is a link to check out Book Creator https://bookcreator.com/