YouTube:
I have been using YouTube for a long time, but mostly it was just to look up a video to use in class or to listen to a song that I wanted to hear. I knew there was a way to make a playlist, but I hadn't really messed with it much until now. Making a playlist is easy, and can be useful for planning lessons or professional development for staff. Recently at our school, we talked about helping students conduct meaningful research in an age of online "fake news" and untrustworthy sources. Here is a YouTube playlist I made on this topic. I plan to use the videos spread out over a long period so we can revisit reliable research often.
There are 6 videos in this playlist. You can add as many as you like to yours, and then they are easily retrievable from your YouTube main page.
Another great feature of YouTube is the ability to customize a video to start after the beginning. When watching a video, simply pause it where you want your audience to start viewing, and then copy the code. This will give you a shareable link for your viewers so that the video will be primed to start at the point you indicated.
If you want to do more with a video, try using EDpuzzle through Chrome. It has even more features, and students will be watching a video outside of YouTube itself so they will be less likely to become distracted. EdPuzzle gives the teacher the option to add questions and audio notes and allows you to embed the video or share a link. Here's more information on EDpuzzle:
Story Builder:
This is a fun tool to use in class. Story Builder is a story maker where you create characters that have a dialogue with each other. It's very simple and easy to use. I may try it in a writing center, and allow students to work in pairs to create a collaborative story, or do a whole-class story, where each student adds a few lines. Another idea would be to write a story to introduce or review classroom procedures or expectations or to teach social skills. I plan to write a series of stories about bullying from the perspective of the bully, the bystander, and the victim. I think these would be useful for upper elementary and above since the text moves pretty quickly. Here's a quick guide, and here's an example that I wrote.
Spell Up:
I think the concept of Spell Up is pretty awesome. I could use this in a center for my higher kids - a challenge for them. It would also be a good time filler for those that are early finishers. There are fun challenges: Guess the mystery word, rearrange, add missing letters, spell the word. There are power-ups, and other engaging “helps” that would entice the students’ gaming tendencies. It also gives you the option to skip levels if you do really well on a level, which helps find the best level for each person.
Spell Up is not perfect, however. I couldn’t get it to work very well at first because the computer had a hard time understanding what letter I was saying, even though I spoke loudly and clearly. On most letters, it worked just fine, but on some, it didn’t register that it understood what I was saying. If it worked more consistently, I would give it a rave review. It is also important that you spell very slowly, which could be frustrating for students that are strong, fast spellers. Although, if you go to the settings, you can turn on the keyboard. That way, you can spell using the keyboard, which I like better. I appreciate that it goes back to missed words, so you have another shot at them. You can also save and continue later, which is a nice feature. The kicker for this one: it's only available on Chrome.
Check it out:
Google Translate:
Google Translate can translate between 103 different languages. I use this tool often when I come across a post from one of my Facebook friends from another country. They sometimes post in their native language, and this way, I can keep up with them more easily. It’s really easy to use, and pretty accurate. Now that they have updated it to using Neural Machine Translation, it’s infinitely better. No more choppy English (or Spanish, Arabic, etc) translations. It translates entire sentences or paragraphs instead of going word by word. This makes for more natural-sounding translations.
I already use this tool in the classroom with a student who came to our school in August knowing minimal English. With total English immersion, ESOL support, and the added tool of Google Translate, she is now virtually fluent in English. This tool would not only be helpful for students in the ESOL program, but for students in our Spanish class. They can use Google Translate to help them with their projects and presentations in Spanish. With the option to have the translation spoken, students can use an iPad with Google Translate as assistive language technology!
World Wonders Project and Google Art Project:
The World Wonders Project and the Google Art Project are both a part of the Google Cultural Institute.
See the World Wonders project for yourself:
Both of these tools would be great for researching time periods, locations, culture and art of any topic a student might be studying. I could take the entire class on a virtual field trip and explore to bring the places we read about to life. I'm excited to use this tool in my class very soon!
I love that there are so many tools that I can use in the classroom. Variety helps keep school engaging for our students, so it's good to switch things up every once in a while. All of these tools will help me accomplish that for my kiddos. Thanks for playing!
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