Mrs. Jones Teaches

This week I am going to talk about app smashing, and share with you part 2 of my project that I blogged about last week . App Smashing App smashing is simply using two or more apps to create content. It's that simple, and you have probably done this before. To find some great examples of app smashing, simply search the hashtag #appsmash on Twitter and you will see tweets of how students are using this in the classroom.  You can also check out this  padlet  with examples. Last week, I used the Do Ink green screen app to make videos about igneous, metamorphic and sedimentary rock (as an example of a project I would have students do). This week, I am going to use the HP Reveal (formerly named Aurasma) app to play the videos. HP Reveal HP Reveal is an augmented reality application. Augmented reality means enhancing the physical environment with digital content. It superimposes digital content over something you are viewing in the real world.  Pokémon Go is a...

This week I had plans to do an app smash (when you use two different apps together for one project) for my tech project. However, I had problems with one of the apps, so today I am just going to share one. Hopefully I can share the other app next week as part 2.  I wanted to do a geology activity that joins real artifacts to help build students' schema, nonfiction books to help them investigate the artifacts, and technology. This is a set of three different types of rocks I have: sedimentary, igneous, and metamorphic. I also have these wonderful books. The Street Beneath My Feet  by Charlotte Guillain and Yuval Zommer folds out and shows a cross-section of the earth and what is found beneath our feet. Rocks; Hard, Soft, Smooth and Rough  by Natalie M. Rosinsky and Matthew John helps students identify some rocks by their characteristics.  I made three videos to explain each of the three different types of rocks. The students can then scan an image...

Nearpod is a tool for teachers to create presentations that can be shared with students in live class mode, or at student self-pace. I thought the learning curve on this was very easy, and I created a presentation pretty quickly. Nearpod Silver edition is free, and Nearpod Gold costs $12 per month. Among other differences, with Silver you can have a class of up to 30 and cannot do student self-paced mode. I created a presentation about perimeter and area of squares and rectangles. Here it is: To start a presentation, just click on Create your own lesson: Next, choose from Add Content, Add Web Content or Add Activity. There are many different options for content and activities to add. I started by adding a video. You simply insert the share address of the youtube video under Add Web Content. Next, I added an interactive simulation from content. It is an area builder game. This slide is a collaborate slide. In live mode, the students' answers are posted ...

This week I chose to learn more about Edpuzzle. I chose it because teachers use video so much these days, and I like the idea of being able to add to videos in case the video I want to use doesn't have all the information I need. Edpuzzle is a service that allows teachers to edit videos to use in the class. You can crop the video, add voice over (this removes the audio track for the entire video and replaces it with your audio), add audio note (the video stops and plays a recorded message from the teacher), or add a quiz. There are three options for a quiz: open-ended questions, multiple-choice questions and comments). In any of the questions, you can add an image or a web link. Students can also use Edpuzzle. There is an option for a teacher to create a project and assign it to students. Then the students can make a video to share their learning, and it would be great to use with project-based learning. This is the video I made: This week I also decided to do a screencast ...

Videos in the Classroom Videos have so many amazing applications in the classroom. And it's so easy to create one that even I can do it. As for students, I suspect that many kids will say  more about a subject than they would be willing to write  about it. Who among us hasn't had writer's block from looking at a piece of paper? There are also a lot of kids who hate the physical act of writing with a pencil, and taking that away chore frees them to share their thoughts. Of course they need to practice writing, but it's ok to separate writing from sharing thoughts once in a while. Teachers can use videos to share student work with the class as a group. And yes, you can still put student work on the wall when it is a video by using a QR code (I have just recently discovered QR codes, and I love them!) Videos are useful for students who are shy or selectively mute, because it removes a lot of the pressure of performing in front of a group. They can practice and re-rec...

Quizizz Last week, I created a formative assessment using Formative . The topic was plant cells for fifth grade. I made it somewhat like a Hyperdoc, by including a video for students to watch, and a link for them to go to. I then asked them to draw the cell on the whiteboard embedded in the quiz. This week, I created a new plant cell assessment using Quizizz . I wanted this assessment to be more like a quiz. After reading Elisabeth's blog post , I chose Quizizz because the interface seemed much more user-friendly and fun for students. Formative gives the students all of the questions at once, which did work well for making a Hyperdoc, but not so great for a quiz. I referred to this page for help in getting started, but it was very easy to create a new quiz. If you would like to try my quiz, go here and use the code 452006.  *Update: I thought I tested this when I did my original blog post, but Robin commented that it didn't work, and sure enough it didn't. Then be...