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/

Padlet Review Week 5

This week I am reviewing Padlet.  I love using Padlet to share students' work and ideas with other students, parents and teachers.  

I really appreciate how customizable Padlet is.   Teachers can change the background to things like music, or books.  But they can also be more interactive like timelines and maps where students can post things on different parts of a map.  Anyone who has the Padlet link may post to the Padlet.  They can add text, videos or pictures and people can see when it is posted in real time.  

I have used this in the past in many ways.  For example, during poetry month, students wroke Haiku's on a Google slide and we shared that to a Padlet.  I have also used it as an exit ticket where students had to share one thing they learned from a lesson and post it.  I have also used it for creative projects and shared it with parents which was very simple as all their work was already in one place and I just shared the link.  I found that students really love seeing each other's work and it is a way to facilitate discussion among students.  

The only downside is that you can only have 3 Padlets per account at a time so is better if schools purchase a subscription.  

Overall, I highly recommend Padlet.  It does take time to teach students how to use it (especially younger ones) but once they get the hang of it, they can post independently.   

Biblionasium Week 4

Biblionasium is essentially GoodReads for kids. Biblionasium is a way for kids to track their reading and post reviews.  They can also read reviews from other kids to decide if they would like to read a certain book.   Teachers and parents can track students' reading within this platform as well.  

I like that this teaches students to talk about books and explain why (or why not) they would recommend a certain book.  

Biblionasium also gives awards and promotes kids who are constantly using the cite and reviewing books.  For example, there is a summer reading challenge where students can earn an $150 Amazon gift card.  While I personally do not love using monitary prizes as a motivator for my kids to read, I would imagine it would help encourage others to read books.   Teachers and parents can also create book challenges for their kids.  

Also, I believe students get excited when they see their original thoughts and opinions on a website.  In addition, this is a great way to lead to conversations about digital citizenship and being careful about what you post online.  I would ensure that all teachers and parents speak to their children about this prior to using biblionasim.  

I could see librarians using this for summer reading to ensure that students are keeping up with their reading throughout the summer.  Then when students return back in the fall, they can show their teachers what they read. 

I would highly recommend Biblionasium to promote reading in a school or a community of readers.  It is a great way to share book recommendations and promote discussions about books for young readers. 

Week 3 PebbleGo

 This week I checked out PebbleGo.  PebbleGo is a wonderful research for K-5th grade students.  Schools need to subscribe to PebbleGo for students to have access to the articles and eBooks.   It has a lot of nonfiction resources from various topics such as science, social studies and biographies.  There is a search bar for students to practice typing in what they are looking for or teachers can assign articles to the students and post it in Google Classroom or another platform of the teacher's choosing.  

One thing I love about PebbleGo is the readaloud feature.  This is great for emerging readers or learners who prefer to learn the material in an auditory manner.  In addition, PebbleGo offers some articles in Spanish for ELL learners.

There is a citation button to teach students to cite their sources and makes the process very seamless.  

A great way to keep them engaged is the games and activities associated with each unit.  There are also ways for students to draw and record their learning after reading the articles which is a great way for students to demonstrate their learning and teachers can also use this as an assessment tool.  

If PebbleGo is in your school's budget I highly recommend subscribing.  It is a fantastic way to introduce valubale research skills to young learners.  It teaches students to find information and respond to what they learned.  I was really impressed with all the new features on PebbleGo compared to when my kids used this tool years ago.  Looking forward to what new features they will continue to add to this great resource. 

Seesaw Review

 The website I chose to evaluate was Seesaw.  Seesaw is a unique tool as it can be used by the teacher, student and the parent to learn and share information.  

The website is very user friendly.   For teachers who are not very tech savvy, it is easy to use with activities by subject and grade.  You can assign an activity to students or to an entire class.  Sometimes I will do a read aloud followed by an activity that goes along with a book.  For example with a Pre-K class, we read a story about space and then they had to build a rocketship.  Once they have completed their work, they hit 'submit' and the parents can go into their account and see their student's work.  Not only is this a great way to see what the student is working on but it is a great way for parents to initiate discussions with their children about their day at school.  

Teachers can also search by learning standard which is sorted by state, subject area and grade.  Another tool I like is that teachers have the ability to create activities and then put it on a shared community library with other Seesaw users.   

Students can also take pictures, record their voice and draw on the app to enhance a students' work.  One way I have used this feature is by reading a book and students had to go into the app and create an alternate ending by drawing pictures and using the voice record feature to tell their story.   

As a parent, I enjoy using Seesaw as my son's teacher posts pictures of the students in school and different activities they are doing.  Again, this is a great way to speak to my son about his day.  Sometimes we look at the pictures together and he tells me more about what they were doing in school.  

There is a free version for teachers and a paid version for schools which allows for more features.  I am grateful that my school has a subscription to Seesaw as I enjoy using it as a learning tool, especially for the younger students.  I think this would also be a fantastic resource to use with ELL students as well as there are many pictures that go along with various activities.