Building a Global Audience

Posted on August 10, 2013 by lmoore4

To truly engage students, there needs to be a real audience for their work. The same can be said for teachers who want to showcase student products and share ideas with their peers. Whether your site is a classroom blog or a portal to individual student blogs, the goal is the same. How can you attract readers from all over the globe to comment and interact with your classroom?

Here are a few tips to get you started:

Make sure you have activated the social media plugin on your site. This will allow your readers to share your posts with others.
Promote your blog through your Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, or any other social channels you belong to. Share each and every time you create a new post. If you are sharing through Twitter, include an educational hash tag. Ask your peers and family members to take a few minutes out their day to comment and encourage your students. They can even share on their own social media accounts to help your posts go viral.
Add a Google Translate Widget to your sidebar to go beyond an English speaking audience. Educators from all over the world spend hours searching for great ideas to improve their craft. A great lesson can happen in any language.
Ask other bloggers to add your site to their blogroll. This will increase the traffic flow and hopefully attract regular readers.
Content should be relevant and engaging. Make sure you include embedded media, images of students in action, and anything else that will make your blog visually attractive.
Provide examples of unique learning experiences. Sharing lessons that educators have seen a million times will not motivate readers to return to your site.
Be concise. When readers are “blog hopping”, they won’t take the time to read lengthy posts.
Invite readers to share their thoughts. Ask readers to comment by finishing your post with some simple open-ended questions on information you would like to know.
Add your blog to Comments4Kids– Comments4Kids is a way for students and teachers to find blogs to comment on and to get their own posts commented on.
Connect with other classes.- This resource was brought to my attention by Sue Waters, editor of The Edublogger. Click here for more information on The Student Blogging Challenges.

After implementing these tips, make sure to include a Clustr Map so that you and your students can see the results of your hard work. There’s nothing more motivating than seeing those little red dots all over your map. Students will work twice as hard if they know they are on a global stage.

For more tips on using Edublogs with students, visit Blogging in NEISD.

Edmodo Training is now on Atomic Learning

Posted on October 1, 2012 by lmoore4

What is Edmodo?

Edmodo is a social networking site for teachers and students – and it’s so much more! This free resource allows teachers and students a safe environment to communicate, collaborate, and have fun. This online training series will show users how to sign up for Edmodo and how to set up their account, and will also demonstrate how to use the many features, such as posting assignments and quizzes, populating a library of content, and even awarding recognition to students.

The following tutorials are all located in Atomic Learning. You must have a membership to view all titles. NEISD employees can login with your full NEISD email as your username and your 6 digit employee number as your password.

A. Setting Up Your Account

Tutorial Number	Tutorial Title	Key #	Length
1.	Signing up for Edmodo	91452	0:16
2.	Creating groups	91453	0:36
3.	Creating your profile	91454	1:01
4.	Adding content to the library	91455	0:43

B. Your Library

Tutorial Number	Availability Status	Tutorial Title	Key #	Length
1.		More library features	91456	1:36
2.		Inviting group members	91457	0:25

C. Posting

Tutorial Number	Tutorial Title	Key #	Length
1.	Posting notes	91458	1:30
2.	Posting alerts	91459	0:36
3.	Posting assignments	91460	0:35
4.	Posting quizzes	91461	1:10
5.	Posting polls	91462	0:19

D. Other Features

Tutorial Number	Tutorial Title	Key #	Length
1.	Using the gradebook	91463	0:43
2.	Notifications	91464	0:32
3.	Awarding badges	91465	0:54

Tutorial series by Heather Slee

Edmodo is a product of Edmodo, Inc.

Storybird for Collaborative Writing and Technology Workstations

Posted on January 5, 2012 by lmoore4

Storybird is my new favorite Web 2.0 tool (except for Google Earth, of course) and have found alternative uses for it. This is the website’s great explanation of their concept:

What is Storybird?

Storybird is a service that uses collaborative storytelling to connect kids and families. Two (or more) people create a Storybird in a round robin fashion by writing their own text and inserting pictures. They then have the option of sharing their Storybird privately or publicly on the network. The final product can be printed, watched on screen, played with like a toy, or shared through a worldwide library.

Storybird is also a simple publishing platform for writers and artists that allows them to experiment, publish their stories, and connect with their fans.

How does Storybird work?

It’s simple. Someone starts a Storybird by writing a few words or grabbing a few images. Then the other person takes a turn, adding more words and pictures. In as little as one or two turns they can finish and share a Storybird. It’s that easy. And they can do it sitting side-by-side or across the country from each other.

http://storybird.com/faq/general/#what-is-storybird

I’m always trying to find new and innovative ways to use technology during centers or workstation times. Teachers can create their own digital instructions for activities in all subject areas in a matter of minutes. Giving students the freedom to choose the activity along with the option of how to present their products will enhance the learning experience.

Click here to see an example of a Storybird workstation activity:

Choose one of the following activities to complete in your workstation. You can record your answers in a Neo, Word Document or PowerPoint. on Storybird

Creating a free teacher account is easy. Just follow the steps below:

http://storybird.com/teachers/

StoryBird Instructions created by Sarah Ogden

Storybird Login Cards

What in the Worldle can you do with Wordle?

Posted on September 15, 2011 by lmoore4

I’d like to give a shout out to Mrs. Martin’s 5th Grade class at Windcrest Elementary! Today we co-taught a lesson on Matter using Wordle.net. The students brought their Science journals to the lab and used their notes on the different types of matter to create a word cloud. I like using Wordle because it’s free and students don’t need to create accounts to use it. I am attaching a “How to use Wordle” document in case you have never seen this tool before. One tip I have discovered is that it doesn’t always work in Internet Explorer. If you come across this problem, download Firefox and update your computer to the latest version of Java. Your ITS can help you with this if you aren’t sure how. Here is an example:

Here are some other ways you can integrate Wordle into your curriculum:

Language Arts-Create a main idea and summary word cloud about a particular story-copy and paste the main idea in 2 or 3 times to make it larger than the details, practice spelling words or word wall words, character traits for the main character in a story
Math-Type in different ways to make a certain dollar amount, factors of numbers or math facts
Science-vocabulary words and definitions for any concept (Landforms-mountains, rivers, ocean, lakes, plains, basin…)
PE-bones and muscles in the body
Music-different genres or artists
Social Studies-Indian tribes of Texas, Major battles of the Civil War, Facts about Presidents or inventors

Wordle -How To