Google Maps Tour Builder

Because of @rmbyrne 's FreeTech4Teachers post on Google Maps Tour Builder, I was able to create a tour of our school district's schools.  Our district encompasses a large geographical area consisting of five elemendary schools, one middle school, and one high school, a Google Map Tour was a perfect medium to show case our schools.

In 2009, my students created Google Earth Flying Tours.  While it was easy in the end, there was a learning curve that caused some students to struggle.

Google Maps Tour Builder required little to no learning curve.  Since we are a Google Apps For Education school, logging in and creating a tour will be a very simple process.

An additional bonus is the ease at which one can keep the tour private or share with a peer or staff member. Sharing documents through Google is second nature to our students so this process will be efficient.

View My Tour   View How To Make A Tour

Google Earth is available in BETA for Chromebooks
Google Earth integrated with Google Maps

The impact on the students...

• Collaboration--Students could work in partners or groups to create their tour
• Creativity--adding additional pictures that students take or find to each destination can provide additional insight.  The opportunity to include additional comments for each destination is important for deeper understanding.  Students need to determine the best path for their tour.
• Critical Thinking--similar to creativity
• Citizenship--students will understand that the map while by default is private, it may be shared with peers and teachers.  The map is on the web!

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Effective Researching

Effective researching skills makes anyone more efficient and productive.  While presenting the information below, the students completed the Effective Research Resources.  The research resource provides a follow along experience with resources, tips, and trick.  The best part of the Effective Research Resource is the two reflection questions found at the bottom.  I am also considering students acquiring peer initials and teacher initials after their reflection as an accountability piece.  A bonus would be a conversation sparked by staff or students based on the reflection answers.



Effective Researching
Effective Research Resource

Impact On Students:
Critical Thinking:  Students will be allotted time for personal reflection after the presentation.  Two questions will be asked: "As far as researching on the web, what did you learn today?" and "What impact does this have on me and my life?"
Citizenship:  Plagiarism is defined as "passing off another person's ideas or words as your own with credit".

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Pulaski High School Hub (Library) Introduction and Pic Collage

Last year, the civics teachers, Mr. Nickerson and Mrs. McCumber, had the students complete a black and white map labeling the areas of the library.  This year, with the help of Pic Collage on the iPad, creates an authentic picture of the areas in the library with pictures of the students.

Check it out actual video footage and reflection from Mrs. McCumber!

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U.S. History 1990 And Early 2000 iMovie Trailers

Mr. Krause recently invited me into his classroom to assist students in developing an iMovie trailer on the iPad.  The task was to create a movie trailer highlighting an assigned topic in U.S. History during the 1990's.

PURPOSE: Movie trailers are done to attract an audience to the film.  The movie trailer will be trying to do the same thing by attracting the audience to your topic by highlighting the important or interesting things about your topic.

See how students created their final U.S. History product.
View the actual documents of the project.  To create the documents to be viewed, I inserted the pictures into   a Google Drive folder, changed the viewing access to "anyone with a link".  I then copied the link to the statement above.

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Docsteach iPad App

Docteach from The National Archives Experience 

The App

DOCSTEACH - Bring History To Life For History Students

DOCSTEACH - iPad App Explanation

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Teacher Tells Their Story - Episode 4

Mrs. McCumber took time out to tell us how she is using Todaysmeet.com to facilitate learning.

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SMARTboard For Quiz Bowl AP Psychology Review Activity

Mrs. Krause asked if I knew of a technology tool for helping with a review activity for AP Psychology.  After some thinking, I realized the interactive part of the SMARTboard would be a perfect fit for a "first person to touch an object would get to answer the question" activity.

While the classroom teacher developed the questions, I created a file that would allow different animal sounds to be made when a student touched the SMARTboard.  If the sounds did not work, a "flipper" slide was created.

VIEW THE FILE

DOWNLOAD THE FILE

Even high school students were "into it" by trying to be the first to touch the board and answer the questions!  As Mrs. Krause stated, "It was a fun way to start class!"

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Effective Google Presentations Tips For Students

Our high school geography students are completing "The Millennium Development Goals (MDG) Project" based on the eight goals set forth by the United Nations.  While the students know about Google Presentations, they may not be aware of several tips and tricks to make an effective presentation.

Effective Ideas In 7 Minutes:

• Five Words On A Slide
• Tools > Research > All Google Features On Side Of Presentation
• Insert YouTube Clip
• Snipping Tool To Get Images
• Text Box > Fonts
• Arrows > Shapes > Lines
• Single Most Important Piece of Advice - NO MORE BULLET POINTS

The specific details of the project are below...

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VINEs To Promote United States History Memorial Projects

After learning about VINE, Miss Wilcox decided to use it for promotion of today's memorial visits by her classes!

Fantastic!  Consider using VINE the next time you want to promote your classroom creations!

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United States History Movements

The Process:


How Do I Create a Thinglink? via Vimeo


How Do I Create a Thinglink? via YouTube



How Do I Create a MentorMob?


How do I create a SMORE.com?



Assessment
Before students view other students' work, they will create a list of 4-5 items in which they will be assessed on. We are focusing on class discussions for four items.  The fifth item will be purely based on what the authors of the product would like to be assessed upon.

Submitting the Final Product
Students will supply their final product through a Google Form.

Final Personal Product
After viewing numerous creations on the three movements, students will create a CREDO

about one of the movements that they learned about or a movement they are passionate about.  This will provide a personal connection through which students will acknowledge their understanding of movements and there results.  The CREDO will be submitted using a Google Form!

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VINE Explains StatSilk - Interactive Maps of Open Data

StatSilk was learned about through @rmbryne Free Tech For Teachers.  I immediately sent this to our high school social studies and stats teachers.
I also used VINE to create a six second video clip of the features of StatSilk.

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Google Voice For Political Cartoon Interpretation

Because of another teacher, a colleaugue set up her Google Voice.  It will be used for students to call in their interpretation of a political cartoon that she has emailed to them.  Her customized greeting pertains directly to directions for the assignment.  This will be the first thing the students hear from the teacher.

Outstanding!
Create a new Google Voice Greeting For Each Assignment


Checking to see how it works!

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Draw and Show Lite For Common Craft Props

As we started our Common Craft videos pertaining to Imperialism, students discovered the features of Draw and Show Lite.  An additional feature of this video provides the reason for creating video tutorials for students.  This allows for students to learn at their own pace.  It is located on the teacher's blog.

See our students in action.

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Aid To Third World Country Using iMovie

iMovie continues to be a quick and creative tool for our staff and students.  As part of a unit, students created compassionate videos pleading the teacher to grant them the fictitious money to help the people of a certain country.

As one student put it when asked how they like iMovie, "It's really easy to use."

Fantastic as it really isn't about the tech tool, it is about the content.

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Common Craft Type Videos Entirely On The iPad

Mr. Krause, Mrs. McCumber, and Ms. Wilcox informed me today that he would like to complete Common Craft type videos on the iPad because, as he states it, "I like the explanation aspect".

I immediately thought, "This could be a great opportunity to create the entire video on the iPad."

I chose a drawing app, specifically Draw-n-Share Lite because of its paper feel, and it was free!

I also chose Explain Everything because it is the tool that best provides a canvas.  I thought of Lee and his "four 750 watt  bulbs" that he uses for shooting video.  We don't have that!  Explain Everything removes the additional equipment that is needed while still providing a great production canvas. View the process!


I also liked Explain Everything, because I could write a script for each slide, thus stating clearly what was to be spoken on each slide.  I used Evernote, but any tool, including paper and pencil, could be utilized.
With ONLY one hour into the project, I was able to make the following Producing Muscles In Plain English.



In one week, I look forward to viewing what the students create.

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iMovie Trailer Student Reaction

As we are in final stages of using iMovie Trailer for absolute rulers, I asked a few students what they liked about the tech tool.

Can you guess which comment validated using the app?

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iMovie Trailer For Absolute Ruler Promotion

See Details Of Project

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Menu of Learning in Social Studies

Instead of the traditional format of lecturing the content by the teacher, Lindsey Wilcox & Heather McCumber created a menu of learning for their students.  Hear and see how iPads or computers plus a menu of options for learning allow the students to "take charge of their learning".

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CheckThis and Google Forms

Last week the social studies teachers began this project.  Today, students presented their digital posters.  The teacher used a Google form to acquire the group names, link to the CheckThis, and the collaboration Google document.

View the presentation and how the Google form was used.

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