Creating Videos on the Chromebook

An important part of Writing Workshop is for the students to see themselves as writers; therefore, it is important for the students to publish their writing in a meaningful way.  My first grade students wrote their first book, and we celebrated their writing by creating a video on the Chromebook.

The video captured the students as authors reading their published book.  The students used the video recorder on 123apps.  123apps is free and allows students to download their recorded video to Google Drive.  I assigned the link to the video recorder through Google Classroom. 

The students loved everything about this assignment.  They felt like real authors because they were creating a video about a book they wrote.  As you can see from the videos below, student personalities emerged when they were creating the videos.

When students start to record the video, the program asks for permission to allow access to the camera and microphone.  Students have to choose the green allow button for the video recorder to work properly.  Some of the students had trouble with hearing the sound when they watched the video. After troubleshooting the problem, I realized that they did not grant access for the microphone.  Make sure the students complete this step carefully, or the video recorder will not work properly. 

Before recording their published writing, allow the students to make a test video.  This allows the students to check the volume level and make sure that everything is working properly before they put all of their effort into recording the perfect video.  We learned that students can talk in a quiet voice while recording and turn the volume up with their headphones on when they watch the video.

When students are finished recording, ask them to watch their video to make sure it is just how they like it.  They can always record it again if needed.  Sometimes it takes the video recorder a long time to process while it is saving the video, especially if the video is long.  The students need to be patient because it will finish processing eventually.

Once the students are happy with their video, they can push the green save button and select Google Drive to download the video.  When the video is safely stored in their Google Drive, I ask the students to share their video with a partner.  

 

Please note that 123apps is a free website and contains ads.  One of the ads was for a dating site that used an image of a woman that was not appropriate for school.  The instructional technologist on our campus installed an ad blocker on the student computers so the students could not see the ads when using the video recorder.

Reading Response with Google Forms

This week we are reading books based on the characters Elephant and Piggie by Mo Willems. The students absolutely love these books, and they are great for teaching students various reading skills.

The students are working on improving their reading comprehension by retelling the story when they finish reading a book.  Our activity on the Chromebook was for the students to type a reading response after watching a YouTube video of the book Should I Share My Ice Cream? by Mo Willems. The reading response was created by using Google Forms and shared with the students through Google Classroom.

The YouTube video was added to the Google Form so that it was easily accessible to the students. The first question was for the student to type their first and last name so that I could identify who was filling out the form.  The second question asked the student to retell the story.  I choose paragraph for this question type so that students would have enough room to write their answers.

Once the student hit submit, their answers were sent to me.  Through Google Forms, you have the option to see each individual form that is submitted or display all of the answers easily with a Google Sheet.  The teacher can also give feedback to each individual answer and assign a score to the form. 

Overall, Google Forms was very easy for the students to use.  The one problem was the size of the video.  When the students played the video in Google Forms, it was very small, and it would not let the students enlarge the video.  The students had to click the YouTube button and watch the video on the YouTube website.  This gave the students access to other videos.  Most students closed the tab when the video was finished and completed their assignment in Google Forms.  However, a few mischievous students decided to watch other YouTube videos.  These students were quickly redirected back to the assignment, and if the off task behavior continued, they were give a piece of paper and pencil to complete the assignment.  

Download a copy of the form here.

UPDATE:  Thank you @RichesonEmily for your feedback.  You can enlarge the size of the video in Google Forms the same way you enlarge an image (pulling the blue boxes in the corner).  Emily also suggested using SafeShare.tv to prevent students from venturing from the designated video; however, you will have to use SafeShare as a link in Google Forms because it cannot be embedded as a video.  Great ideas!

Collaborative Problem Solving Using Digital Manipulatives on the Chromebook

In math, students are working on writing their own math problems.  Sometimes, the students struggle with coming up with ideas.  To help the students generate ideas, we used digital manipulatives with partners to practice the process of creating word problems.  Students were asked to create a math problem and model the problem on the screen.  Their partner was to say the answer and tell the number sentence that they used to solve the problem.  Partners shared one Chromebook to complete this activity.

The digital manipulatives that we used were from McGraw-Hill Education.  We began the lesson with students using the playground as their background and modeling their problems with bears.  Once students were comfortable using the program, they were allowed to pick their own background and manipulatives.  The baseball field was a popular choice for the boys.

There are two important buttons on the toolbar that the students need to use.  The most important button is for the students to clear objects.  For some reason, the students always try to cover the screen with as many bears as possible.  Instead of removing the bears one by one, the bears can be removed with one quick button.  The other important button is to remove the background.

Students enjoyed exploring the different options that the program had to offer.  One group even set the timer for each other when it was time to solve the problem.

Reflection
I should have modeled my expectations for creating word problems more for the students because there was a lot of off task behavior.  The students were playing with the digital manipulatives more than creating word problems.

About halfway through the project, I stopped the students and changed the directions.  I told the students that one student should have the Chromebook to themselves while they were designing the problem.  When they were finished setting the problem up, they should return to their partner and explain their problem to them.  This allowed the student to focus more on creating the problem and less time playing with their friend; however, the other student became bored while they were waiting for their partner to create the word problem.

Next time, I will allow both students to have their own Chromebook.  Each student can create a problem of their own with their own background and digital manipulatives.  When both students are finished creating, they can share their word problem with one another.

Halloween Writing with the Chromebook

Our project this week was to put everything we had learned so far about Google Drawings into one activity.  The student was to insert their picture from a shared folder, insert a relevant picture, and write about their picture.  As always, the students had the freedom to pick their own fonts and colors.  Happy Halloween!

I am Ray.  What are you going to be for Halloween night?  Ray is brave.  She helps people when they are hurt.

For directions on how to set up the project for students to insert their own individual pictures from a shared folder, please click here.  To learn more about teaching students how to insert a picture into Google Drawings, please click here.

I would love to see what your class is doing with the Chromebooks.  Please comment and share the projects that your class is creating with technology.

What is Inside Your Head? An Introduction to Inserting Pictures into Google Drawings

This week we talked about schema.  Schema is the background knowledge that we use to make connections.  We use our schema in both reading and writing; therefore, it is important for students to recognize their own schema.

Usually, I introduce the topic of schema by asking students to reflect on what is in their head.  This project includes a picture of a large head in which students draw pictures of things that they are "experts" on.  I thought this would be the perfect opportunity for students to learn how to insert pictures on the Chromebook.  Therefore, I assigned the students a picture of an empty head in which they could fill with pictures of things that were important to them.  This template was created in Google Drawings.

One of the best features of Google Drawings is the ability to search for images without leaving the program.  When you insert an image, choose the search tab, and you are able to search through a large amount of images.  Students love this feature because they are able to pick the picture that is best for their project.

Here are a few pointers when teaching students to insert pictures into Google Drawings:

1. Spelling is important when searching images.  Sometimes if the word is close to the correct spelling, it will work.  However, students usually have to spell the word correctly to find their image.

2. Students struggle with resizing the image.  When you insert an image into Google Drawings, the image is usually very large.  Resizing the image is a task that needs to be modeled constantly for the student.  However, by the end of the lesson, the students are successful with this task.

3.  The undo button is your friend.  Sometimes I would check in on a student and the head would be missing.  Usually, we were able to undo enough times to find the head again.  Sometimes I had to restore the project to the original version if using the undo feature was not successful.

You can download a copy of schema template here.

Becoming a Better Writer with Google Drawings

Google Drawings is my favorite program to use with the Chromebook because it offers endless possibilities for student projects.  Basically anything that a student creates with a blank sheet of paper can also be created in Google Drawings.

Right now, my students are focusing on writing two or more sentences.  This is not an easy task for a first grader but practice makes perfect (or better in the case of a first grader who is still mastering the art of spelling).  Last week, we were blessed by a visit from two baby goats.  The students loved meeting the goats, so I thought it would be the perfect foundation for a writing activity.  Sometimes the best lessons happen by accident and never make it in your lesson plans.

I love teaching writing with technology.  This is an excellent opportunity to highlight focus on the capital letter at the beginning of the sentence and the period at the end because editing is super easy on the computer.  The students also love to correct their own spelling when the red squiggly line appears, telling them that they have made a mistake.

One thing that I have noticed with writing on the Chromebook is that misspelled words stick out like a sore thumb.  In my head, it is okay for students to misspell words when it is in their own handwriting, but when the students misspell words while typing, the teacher inside of me wants to correct it.  I am trying to work past this need to control my students and remind myself to let it be because it is their creation.

When using Google Drawings, students are given the freedom to pick their own fonts, colors, and shapes.  One of my favorite features of Google is the ability to write in a shape without having to add a text box.  It makes it easy to create professional quality work (so easy that a first grader can do it).

Lady is pretty. Prince is handsome.  I did not know that goats can climb.

The How To: This project was created by assigning a blank Google Drawings document in Google Classroom.  Each student had an individual picture taken with one of the goats.  All of these pictures were put in a folder in Google Drive and shared with the student's e-mail address so that the folder would appear in the student's Google Drive.  The instructional technologist on my campus created a group e-mail for my class so that I was able to quickly share the folder with all of my students using one e-mail address.

Another positive quality of Google Drawings is the ability to insert an image without leaving the program.  When the student inserts an image, they pick the option to insert an image from Google Drive.  From there, the students can choose the "shared with me" tab or the "recent" tab.  Here they are able to pick their picture and insert it into their project.  I thought this project was going to be a lot of steps for the students, but they quickly learned the steps to insert their individual picture.  Remember, slow and steady wins the race.  Start small and add a new technology feature with each new project.

Exploring with Google Maps

This week we are learning about characteristics of maps.  As I was preparing my lesson plans, I tried to remember the last time that I used a paper map.  Truthfully, I think the last map I used was at the zoo.  When I am driving, I rely on Google Maps.  Therefore, I thought this was a great opportunity to introduce the students to how maps have evolved.  Of course, we will look at maps on paper, but today we focused on maps that can be used on the computer.

Last week, I sent home a sheet asking the parents for help with this project.  I asked them to write down their home address and a special place of interest.  I wanted the students to search for locations that were familiar to them.  I also added the school because it was a place that I knew they would be successful in finding.

The purpose of the note was to promote independence among students as they are searching for places with Google Maps.  However, some of the parents filled out the information for the students, and the students still had to ask me for help because they could not read their parent's handwriting.  Next time I send the note, I am going to ask the students to write the information themselves.  

The students loved exploring with Google Maps. I gave a quick mini lesson about how to search in Google Maps and how to turn on Street View.  I assigned a link to Google Maps in Google Classroom, and the students were off exploring.  It was amazing to see how quiet and engaged the students were because they were excited to find their special places on the map.

When using technology, I have learned that you have to let students go where their interests lead them.  Some stayed on track looking up their address while others just started exploring.  Even though this was not my intention, I had to let my control go.  All students were exploring with maps, and that was the purpose of the lesson.

It is amazing the things that the students teach you when they are free to explore technology.  One student started searching random places.  He started in California and then ended up in Las Vegas.  Another student had zoomed out so far from her house that she saw an aerial view of Earth.  Some students found their house, turned on street view, and started following the road to a familiar place such as a nearby restaurant.  Who knew that Google Maps offered so many learning opportunities for students.

One cool thing that a lot of the students did was change the map to terrain view.  This was a neat experience because students were able to see elevations of mountains and density of vegetation in the area.  I think when we learn about landforms, we will use Google Maps to look up some well known mountain ranges and different national parks.    

Since we live in a rural area, street view was not available for some of the student's houses.  These students were super disappointed but were easily redirected when I told them to look up our school.  They became happy again when they were successful finding the school.  Sonic was another popular location that was easy for the students to find, and some of the students figured out that you could do a virtual tour of the local burger place in our city.

Overall, I was happy with our experience with Google Maps.  I think the students will enjoy exploring landforms in the future.  I am also contemplating adding Google Maps as a free choice activity on the Chromebooks.  

Download the parent letter here.