This awesome production was trending the other day on Reddit. I'd be so happy to create something like this within our own district! Let me now if you're interested. :)
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One of the most beautiful features about Adobe Spark, besides how crazy-easy it is to create professional-looking products and the fact that it is free, is the ability to share. It is important that students have opportunities to use a variety of technology, but using technology itself isn't where it should stop and isn't what makes teaching with technology transformational. The ability to share with others, especially outside of one's classroom and school, is something we can now do with incredible ease. I saw this quote during a presentation at South Carolina's 2017 EdTech by Greta Flinn, an instructional coach in Greenwood 50 Schools, and I think it is spot-on! Adobe Spark is a wonderful tool for students to use to share what they have learned! Read below for a quick description of each product type and project ideas for each.
For more examples of presentations, lesson plans, and school reports visit Adobe Spark's Education Gallery for featured items. ADobe Spark's ResourcesAdobe Spark has a wonderful bank of resources to help those who are just getting started learn, not just HOW to use the product itself, but also ways to use it in their classrooms. You can click on each picture to view some of the resources available from Adobe. You can also take online courses to learn more about Adobe Products and how you can specifically use them in your classroom with your students by visiting the Adobe Education Exchange site. Read more from Adobe: "16 Ways to Motivate Students in the Classroom Using Adobe Spark" "A+ Designs: How Students Stand Out with Adobe Spark" "Go Back to School with Adobe: 9 Assignments to Kick off the School Year" "Every Piece of Content Your Club Needs to Be Successful" Want More Info? Check Out:
Anderson Two...Want Help Getting Started???Shoot me an email! I'm happy to help you plan, come work with you and your students, and answer any questions you have!
It's the start of another year, which means we're almost half-way through our current school year. It's hard to believe that this much time has already passed! Routines are well established (though they may need a bit of reviewing after break), so it's a great time to try something new! Using technology to allow students to create and show what they've learned, especially if what they create is shared to a wider audience, can be very motivating for students. There are lots of tools that you can use to do just this! You can also use technology to enhance your classroom instruction, create more small-group and one-on-one time with your students, and make your workflow a bit more efficient.
For the next few weeks, I will be delving into some great tech tools that you can use to engage your students. The first tool we will discuss is Adobe Spark. Be on the lookout for an in-depth post soon! Google Expeditions makes it awesomely easy!I am SO thrilled to finally have a Google Expeditions kit in our district! My first group of teachers were trained yesterday at Wright Elementary School, and two of their awesome teachers signed up to use them right away! I absolutely loved watching students use this tool for the first time. Their excitement was contagious! Students in Ms. Rice's classroom were beyond excited to visit a real-life volcano. I was impressed with how much they knew already knew about volcanoes, and how they were able to name different parts that their teacher pointed out. There are currently 740 different expeditions one can go on - and they keep adding more and more. You can search through a list of possible expeditions here. You may wish to download the Expeditions app (iOS and Android) so that you can check them out on your personal device! For newbies, you can start by flying with NASA's Juno Mission past Jupiter, go inside a cell, or visit the best university on earth, Clemson! When can you use it with your students?Since we only have one Expeditions kit, each school will take turns housing and using it for the remainder of this school year. The schedule is as follows:
October - WES November - HPMS January - BMS February - BES March - HPES April-MPS In May and June, teachers and schools will be able to sign up to use it. In the meantime, you can learn more about Google Expeditions and using it with your students by visiting the following:
It's crazy that it's time to start back to school! I have a lot of projects and goals in the works. Below are just a few. LevelUPThis is a voluntary program where teachers will be encouraged to implement technology into their classroom practices. As they do, they will be awarded badges. As teacher earn badges, they will accrue points and will eventually earn a digital badge worth 20 recertification points. There are three digital badges, so teachers can earn up to 60 recertification points just for doing what they're already doing! The primary purpose of this program is to allow teachers to learn and integrate technology at their own pace and order. For more information, click here.
I am incredibly excited to start another school year with Anderson School District Two!
I keep telling myself to do better with my blog, however, I find that time passes so quickly! My goal this year is to blog at least once a week, and here we are in October before my first real blog! My focus for this post is on creating centers for small group lessons. I hope to provide a few ideas on how we in Anderson Two can utilize the technology we have during small group lessons in our classrooms.
Amazing Teachers
Every summer our amazing teachers choose to give up a few hours on one of their last days of summer to learn about all things tech! We have outstanding teacher leaders in this district who willingly present on topics they are knowledgeable and passionate about. This year's sessions are below:
I'm excited to visit classrooms and work with teachers as they implement different types of technology this school year.
I'm thrilled to share with you my position and how technology looks in today's classroom! At the end of today we will have a chance to play with some different types of technology. You may wish to download the following free apps:
Front Row is a FREE application I got to see in action while visiting Spartanburg School District 7. Students were super engaged on their iPads, all working at their own level and pace, and it was amazing! Usually when a group of strangers walks into a classroom, students get distracted and stare. Not this time! Kids were so engaged they barely recognized we were there. This resource can be used on iPads via an app or on any device with a web browser. Best of all? IT'S FREE!
Front Row provides personalized math and reading comprehension practice for students in grades K-8. Each teacher we observed at Spart 7 raved about how awesome it is, though they did admit that the math seemed a little more aligned to the correct grade than reading. From my elementary math teacher perspective, I love how it gives students room to work problems out and encourages them to work in a variety of ways (not just using the traditional algorithm). Students also have other tools they can use to work out problems such as shapes (great for fractions!) and a pen tool. Students can listen to the problem being read (great for ELL or struggling readers), and if they are having a hard time figuring out the answer, they can watch a short tutorial video. Problems are aligned with Common Core State Standards and are very rigorous. Why are students so engaged? They earn coins for each problem they get correct. The more problems they do, the more coins they can get. They can then use these coins at the "piggy store" to decorate/dress a little pig. Students only have a minute and a half at the store, so they have to be quick. One great feature of this app/site is that it is completely web-based, so students who have access to the internet at home can keep earning those coins (and practicing skills, of course)! Ways to use Front Row:
To learn more, watch this short introduction video:
You've got to try it! It's an amazing way to teach math, and it's free! Here's the link to signup: https://classroom.frontrowed.com/#signup
If you want to see how your students would use the program, try out the student tutorial: https://student.frontrowed.com/#tutorial/login Overview: |
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June 2019
AuthorMy name is Beth Dabney. I
have been working in Anderson School District 2 for nine years. I was a fourth
grade math and science teacher at Belton Elementary School for the first seven
years of my career. I am looking forward to working with the amazing employees
of Anderson Two to implement different technologies to help enhance learning for
our students! |