How to Use TodaysMeet for a Reading #StoryChat

Yesterday my students participated in their third #StoryChat to discuss their latest story in Reading.

We recently read the story "Satchmo's Blues," which teaches about the life of famous musician, Louis Armstrong.  In the story, Satchmo resold onions that he had found in the garbage so that he could buy his horn. The fourth question (Q4) of our #storychat asked students the things they would do to make money when saving for an item.  You can read some of the answers below.

How I do this in my classroom:

• I randomly choose a student that would like the responsibility of moderating the discussion.  They are given a list of questions and an approximate timeline for questioning.
• The classroom is silent during the chat.  All communication is done only on the site.  One time I even had students do this while I was at a meeting.
• Setting up the class for the chat literally take 10 seconds.  I set up this one by typing in www.todaysmeet.com/satchmo and then I wrote it on the board.  

Using the website TodaysMeet has been a great way to promote participation and class discussion about what we read about in my class.  I highly recommend it!


* You can also read about how I use TodaysMeet for participation during class movies.

Use QR Codes to Make Your Word Wall Come to Life

A couple of years ago, I decided to get a little more creative with my "Vocabulary Word of the Day Wall" that I have in my classroom. As I began to learn more and more about QR codes, I decided it was time to make these "words" more useful than ever.

Students always seem to forget some of our words and are clueless as to the definition.  Now using mobile devices with cameras and a QR Reader, students can easily scan the code and see the definition of the word.  They definitely prefer this to the old-fashioned way of taking out their notebook and looking up the definition.

To begin with, I made all of the QR codes for each definition.  Once I downloaded all of the codes, I dragged them onto a document, spaced them out and printed. Afterwards, I cut them out individually, rescanned using a QR reader on my iPod, and lightly wrote the vocabulary word on the back of the code.

After I glued each code to the correct word, I had a completely revolutionized word wall for my Vocabulary Words of the Day.

Note:  I originally posted about this project on my previous blog, Tech Edventures.

Here are some other posts from Teachers Use Tech:

• • 
    

    Create a Vocabulary Spinner with the Decide Now! App
  • 

    Creating Rectangular Prisms with Minecraft
  • 

    Numbler, a Favorite After-Test Activity of my Math Students
  • 

    Students Play Mission U.S. to Learn About the Revolutionary War

How to Make Class Movies Truly Interactive using Today's Meet

My movies in Social Studies have gone from a strictly viewing experience to a "watch and listen, write, read and respond" experience.

I create a room using the website, Todays Meet, and students quickly sign in without passwords.  They are encouraged to take all of their notes within our class backchannel.  I'm thrilled at all of the interaction and reflection that takes place during this process.

As you can see above, students are even encouraged to add hashtags to further display some of their reactions to the movie.

How do you use backchannel sites like Today's Meet in your classroom?

Create a Vocabulary Spinner with the Decide Now! App

The app, Decide Now! has been a terrific addition to my vocabulary instruction.  Any time I introduce a new word to our academic vocabulary list, students immediately add it to their "vocabulary wheel" within this app.

Students use this resource in my room the following ways:

• Selecting words for sentences
• Charades
• Vocabulary games
• Quizzing themselves or each other

How would you use this with your students?

Note:  This app is usually $0.99.  However, today (1-25-14) it is free!

Strengthen Vocabulary with "Move & Match" App

Move & Match is an iPad app that I recently started using for vocabulary activities with my students, though you can use it for just about anything.

There are two sections to this app, "Make" and "Use."  In the "Make" section, they simply add pictures and type in words.  When they open the file they've created in the "Use" section, they can move and match their pictures and words.

With vocabulary, I have students continuously add words and different pictures.  They then mix and match them to write or say sentences using these words.  Students also use other classmates' iPads to mix and match their words and pictures, as well.

Making a QR Code is Easy!

QR Codes are so easy to make!  Yet, it seems like many teachers are still apprehensive to make them.  Here's how:

1.  Simply go to the website QRstuff.com.  Below is a screenshot of what you will see. 

2.  Copy the URL you'd like to use and pasted it into the "2 Content" section directly below.  

3.  Then, click on the second option (Use our qrs.ly URL shortener), and press the "Download QR Code" button on the right.  Your QR code will be downloaded and ready to be used!

Math Buddy Online, the Ultimate Bell Ringer for a 1:1 Class

This past week, a colleague of mine shared the ultimate bell ringer for my math class, Math Buddy Online.  This site asks students a question of the day for math. The questions are organized by grade level.

My students were instructed to save this link to their iPad so they could immediately go to the site every morning.  They start with the Grade 5 problem and work their way up to higher grade levels.  Students work on the problems in their notebook. Once they figure out the answer, they select it on the iPad and they are immediately told whether or not their answer was correct.

I have not tried either of these yet, but there are additional options for a paid app and student login. I haven't tried them because the current setup works perfectly for my classroom's purposes.