Tech Tool of the Week: Glogster

Despite its funny name, Glogster is actually an outstanding, free website for with tons of possibilities for your classroom!  A "glog" is an online interactive poster.  (Imagine the posters you made for school while growing up, but redesigned for the 21st century!)  On Glogster, students can combine text, pictures, graphics, video and audio to create their poster.  They can choose to either use graphics provided by Glogster or upload their own photos or videos.  The final glog can be shared online!

Glogster is a great way for students to display knowledge on a topic.  It can be used across the curriculum and enable students to demonstrate their creativity.  

To begin, visit the Glogster EDU website.  Click on register at the top of the page.  When you register, you will be able to create accounts for your students.  Once they start creating glogs, you will be able to view all of your students' glogs! 

Here are a few helpful links to get you started:

• How to register, create a glog, and use Glogster EDU in the classroom
• Two tutorial videos on setting up and using Glogster EDU
• Sample student and teacher glogs

See below for an example of a student glog!

A Sample Glog

Skype Connections

Thanks to the efforts of Kevin Chang and our Lower School Chinese faculty, our LS Chinese classes have been connecting with students in Chinese immersion programs across the country!  On Nov. 11 the 2 Red class had a Skype chat with a 2nd grade class at the Global Village Academy in Aurora, CO.  Students had prepared questions in advance to ask.  With Su Laoshi's guidance, students stood  up one by one, greeted the other students, introduced themselves, and asked get-to-know-you questions to the children at Global Village Academy.  It was a terrific opportunity for our students to experience other kids just like them learning Chinese!

Since then, our 2 Green and 3 Gold classes have also Skyped with children in other Chinese immersion programs. The 2 Green class Skyped with kids from Global Village Academy while the 3rd graders Skyped with children at Unitah Elementary in Ogden, UT.  In January our 1st, 4th, and 5th graders will also connect with other classes via Skype!

Think your students might benefit from Skyping with another class?  Teachers in schools all around the world are trying to connect with other schools through Skype!  To explore the possibilities, go to Skype in the Classroom (Skype's education website) and set up an account with Skype or sign in if you already have one.  You can create a teacher profile for yourself where you describe your interests and what you're looking for.  Then you may search for other classes to connect with.  You can search by student age, subject, language, country, and more.  In addition, Skype in the Classroom has a wealth of resources including videos, links, tips, and articles to help teachers use Skype.  Check it out!

For a taste of one our classes' Skype sessions, here is a video clip from the 2 Red Skype chat with Global Village Academy:

Digital Books in Chinese

For our Chinese faculty: two Chinese reading resources.  Child Road is a website that offers over 1,000 books read in Mandarin by professional actors and television hosts in China, with characters and Pinyin for reading along.  There are multiple series and books that can be read/listened to online, as well as downloaded to an MP3 player for listening in the car.

To access CAIS's account on Child Road, use the following information:

• Login email: w_wright@cais.org
• Password: wpcais

Another online Chinese reading resource is 5Q Channel.  This site offers classic Chinese stories in a cartoon animated format.  Watch stories with either traditional or simplified characters. While CAIS does not currently have a subscription to this site, there are some free stories available. In addition, Warren purchased a CD-ROM of "The Legend of the Chinese Festivals" for the library.

Tech Tool of the Week: Sonic Pics

The first official Technology Tool of the Week is Sonic Pics, a terrific iPad app used for digital storytelling. Sonic Pics allows students to turn images into a custom slideshow movie. To make a movie, students add one or more images and record their voice as they narrate. Examples of types of images students could use include digital photos, drawings made on the iPad, and screenshots from Safari.

Here are some ideas for ways you could use Sonic Pics in your class:

1. Create multimedia books. Students create illustrations in a drawing app like Drawing Pad, save the illustrations to Photos, and then pull them up in SonicPics to record the words.

2. Document a classroom experience. Load photos of a field trip, science experiment, special visitor, etc. onto the iPad and have students narrate the photos.

3. Assess a learning experience. Load photos of an individual or group working in the classroom, and then have students narrate those photos to explain their process and reflect on their learning.

4. Retell a story. Have students draw pictures to represent the beginning, middle, and end of a story, and then record themselves retelling the story.

5. Generate questions to support inquiry. Load content-related photos on the iPad. Have students select 3-5 images and record their questions. This could also be used to assess the level of thinking and questioning students are engaged in.

6. Create a podcast. Use photos or student-created illustrations or diagrams as your images. Students could create a podcast about something they are learning in class, news about school, book reviews, etc.
7. Create a weather report. Take photos out the window and narrate them with data from any weather app or website. Share it on your class Veracross website.

Currently we are working with the 1st Grade Red and Gold classes on a Sonic Pics project. Students first drew a self-portrait on the iPad (using an art application called Drawing Pad) and wrote their name in Pinyin on the picture. Next, students used Sonic Pics to record their voices as they talked about themselves in Chinese. Students stated their name, age, birthday, and personal characteristics. Below is a sample of a video made by one of our 1st graders. Special thanks to Teresa Shyu for coming up with the great idea for this project!