Tech Tool of the Week: GoAnimate

This week's featured technology tool is a terrific, easy-to-use tool for creating animated videos called GoAnimate. 

GoAnimate allows users to quickly and easily make videos consisting of animated characters. It features easy-to-use drag and drop tools and libraries filled with a variety of characters, props, backgrounds, and music. You can create your own characters and record yourself speaking, or use text-to-speech actors in over 20 languages. There is nothing to draw or download; everything is ready for you to use. Story lines can be as simple or complex as you wish, and with so many different options it is easy to differentiate for different students' needs.

Here at Chinese American International School, several of our Mandarin teachers are using GoAnimate with their students to create digital stories in Chinese. In our 5th grade Chinese classes, students recently completed a unit that focused on vocabulary related to the idea of "lost and found": losing an item and then trying to find it. Students created a dialogue in which one character loses an item and has to question other characters to try to find the missing item. After composing their scripts, students created a GoAnimate video to bring their skit to life. While GoAnimate does not support Pinyin input, students were able to copy the Chinese text from the typed version of their script and paste it into speech bubbles in their GoAnimate videos. The final step was to record their own voices reading the script. Using GoAnimate adds new dimensions to a project that was once strictly paper-and-pencil based. It allows children to creatively express their ideas, practice speaking Chinese, and create a final product that can be easily shared with a wider audience. Check out some samples of the finished products below!

What could you use GoAnimate for in your classroom? GoAnimate videos would be great for flipped classrooms, teacher lessons, student presentations, creating video tutorials, creative writing, and more. Here is a list of some other ways that schools around the globe are using GoAnimate with their students.

GoAnimate includes both a free and a paid version. It also offers special school subscriptions that allow teachers to set up classes and student accounts, keep student work private (if desired), monitor and review student work, allow downloading and sharing only with teacher approval, give kids access to characters/backgrounds/props that are school safe, and more. Our school subscribed for a site license. For more information on GoAnimate for Schools, click here.

To learn more about how to create a GoAnimate video, check out GoAnimate's YouTube playlist of "How-To's and Tutorials". Below is a short tutorial that includes a brief introduction to GoAnimate:

Tech Tool of the Week: Chinese Writer

Chinese Writer app by trainchinese

Here at Chinese American International School in San Francisco, where half of our students' daily instruction is conducted in Mandarin, one of our top priorities in educational technology is to identify tech tools for Chinese language instruction and practice. One of the tools that has been widely used by our Chinese faculty this year is an iPhone/iPad app called Chinese Writer. Chinese Writer is a game in which students can practice writing characters, study stroke order, and listen to pronunciation of characters. Its options for customizing characters for student practice are extremely valuable for our teachers.

In Chinese Writer, students tap on characters that fall from the top of the screen. Once they tap the character, they must quickly draw the character using the correct stroke order. While students are writing the character, they are also listening to an audio recording which allows them to listen to and practice the pronunciation of the character. After each game, students can review what they practiced and view stroke order diagrams if they need extra help remembering how to write a certain character.

Screenshots of the Chinese Writer app

Chinese Writer comes with its own, ready-made sets of characters that are divided into packs by difficulty level. In the free version, you can access several hundred of these characters. Additional character packs require an in-app purchase. Here at CAIS, we chose not to use the pre-set character packs but rather to create our own sets that are customized for our students' Chinese curriculum. In order to accomplish this, we set up a subscription on Chinese Writer's parent company website, trainchinese.com. Next we gathered vocabulary lists from our Lower School Chinese faculty. Based on these lists, we then created our own, customized "character packs", one for each grade level. We then downloaded the character sets from trainchinese directly into Chinese Writer. Students enjoy racing against the clock to write the characters in time before they fall to the bottom! This app has proven to be a valuable tool for practicing characters in our Chinese classrooms this year.

To see Chinese Writer in action, check out the brief demo video below:

Tech Tool of the Week: Wallwisher

Happy New Year and welcome back to school! This week's feature is an incredibly fun, versatile, FREE tool called Wallwisher. Wallwisher is an online multimedia bulletin board. It allows students to post their thoughts on a common topic using electronic sticky notes on a shared digital wall.

Think of Wallwisher like an electronic corkboard. You create a board, then share that address with your students, who can then go on to the board and simply click on it to add their comments. Students can not only add comments but also links to images, videos, or websites. And they can do all this without ever having to sign in! Best of all, it works on both laptops and iPads!

What can you do with Wallwisher? There are many potential applications of this tool in the classroom. For instance, you could use Wallwisher to pose a question, get students' answers, and give them feedback - all on the same page. Check out Wallwisher.com for great examples of different kinds of walls. Here is an example of a wall where a teacher posted a Word of the Day and asked each student to write a sentence using that word.  Other possible uses include: collecting feedback from students; making lists; sharing videos; and brainstorming ideas. You could use Wallwisher for collaboration to share ideas, resources, and thoughts on a topic. You could use it to create a KWL chart and ask students to share what they know and what they want to know about a topic. Lots of different possibilities!


To learn more about using Wallwisher, check out the video tutorial below. 

Tech Tool of the Week: Google Custom Search

This week's tech tip is yet another cool tool from Google. Did you know that you can create your own customized search engine? Google Custom Search allows you to build a search engine customized with content for your grade level or for a particular unit of study. 

To get a sense of what a Google Custom Search looks like, check out this kid-friendly search engine created by a teacher. Try typing a term into the search box and look at the results. You'll notice that the results look like any other Google Search results, but now take a closer look at the sources. All of the results are from pages that the search creator chose.

One great feature of Google Custom Search is the ability to invite collaborators to contribute to your search engine. You could collaborate with other teachers to create a customized Google search, or even have your students help you build the custom search engine. 

To create your own customized search engine, go to the Google Search Engine home page and click on the blue button that says “Create a custom search engine”. Now fill out the form. You’ll need a title and a short description for your search engine, plus a list of the sites you would like to add to your search. Once you’ve finished the form, click the next button and you are finished! You can now test your new search engine. If you think of additional sites you would like to add later on, you can always come back and tweak what you’ve done.

To learn more about creating a Google Custom Search, click here for instructions. You can also watch the quick introductory video below. If you're interested in learning about more advanced techniques, check out Google's detailed instructions here.

Tech Tool of the Week: Google Lit Trips

Would you like to bring the literature you teach to life? Then try this week's featured technology tool, Google Lit Trips! A Google Lit Trip is a free, downloadable Google Earth file that maps the journeys of characters in a book. Using a Google Lit Trip, students can actually travel along with the characters in a story to all of the places where the characters go. You can use Google Lit Trips to accompany the literature your students read in class and enable your students to have a much richer experience of the story!

In a Google Lit Trip, a book character's journey is plotted out on Google Earth, and a marker is placed on each location where the character goes. At each place mark you can find a wealth of supplementary information including relevant photos and videos, questions for discussion, and links to information about "real world" references made in that section of the story. Students can see where the characters are and that the characters are in real places...sometimes even interacting with real history! In this way kids can travel with the characters in a fully immersive, interactive, three-dimensional environment.

To get started, go to the Google Lit Trips website to see which books are available.  There is a section for K-5 literature as well as a separate one for middle grades and one for high school. When you find a book that you would like to use, look on the upper right corner of the page for a link in the format "Download titleofyourbook.kmz". Click on this link and the Google Lit Trip file will automatically download. You must have Google Earth installed on your computer in order to view this file. If you don't already have Google Earth installed on your computer, you may download it for free by clicking here.


Once you download the file, open it by double-clicking. Google Earth opens and immediately puts your Google Lit Trip on the surface of the globe! You can start exploring the character's journey by clicking on the place marks as the globe spins and starts you on your journey.

To learn more about using Google Lit Trips, click here for instructions, or watch the tutorial video below:

Tech Tool of the Week: YouTube Teachers

Do you use video in your classroom? Would you like to try, but need a source of high quality educational videos? If so, this week's featured technology tool is just for you! YouTube Teachers is a section of YouTube designed for K-12 teachers to find and use the latest and greatest educational videos on YouTube. 

Who is behind YouTube Teachers? A team of teachers around the country reviews YouTube videos and creates playlists specific to subject and grade level.  There are over 300 playlists currently available on YouTube Teachers. These playlists are broken down by curriculum topics and age level. Even better, the videos are aligned with Common Core standards!

The teachers behind YouTube Teachers try to collect three types of videos for their playlists: hook videos (can be used to build questions at the start of the day), content videos, and further knowledge videos (which get kids to ask deeper questions and bridge to the real world).

To start finding great videos to use in your class, visit YouTube Teachers and click on the "Classroom Videos" tab. On the left you will see a list of subject areas (Language Arts, Math, Science, Social Studies, Teaching). Click on a subject area, then search by age level (elementary, middle, or high school). You will find a list of topics, each of which is linked to a playlist of videos.

The best part about YouTube Teachers is that the team behind the site is focused on keeping the playlists small (about 10-15 videos) and choosing short videos. What this means for you is that you can "spend less time searching and more time teaching!" 

Check out YouTube's great answer to the question: why use YouTube in the classroom? Go to YouTube Teachers and click on the "Why YouTube" tab. Or check out the brief video below!

Tech Tool of the Week: Reflection

This week's highlighted technology tool is an app called Reflection.  Reflection allows you to wirelessly mirror your iPad or iPhone to your Mac or PC.  This could be a great tool to use in class!  Imagine that you'd like to show your students something on your iPad or iPhone.  Once your computer is connected to your touchscreen monitor or projector, and the projector is turned on, open the Reflection app on your computer.  Then connect your iPad/iPhone to the computer using AirPlay.  Now everything you do on your iPad or iPhone will be displayed on the projector!

One nice feature of Reflection is that it allows a teacher to freely walk around the room with iPad in hand.  No more standing next to the wall hooked up to a projector cable!  Reflection creates a wireless AirPlay connection from the iPad to the projector.

Another possible use of Reflection is to have students share their iPad screens, demonstrations, presentations, artwork, music, etc.  Students can connect their iPad to your computer via AirPlay right from their seats!  (Please note that this only works with iPad 2 and 3, so the Lower School iPads are not compatible with Reflection.  For Lower School teachers who are interested in using Reflection with student iPads, please email IT Requests to reserve the Middle School iPads.)

If you are interested in trying Reflection, you can download a trial version that will allow you to try the app for ten minutes.  If you decide you would like a copy of this software for your computer, just contact IT and we will purchase a license for you. 

Below is a short video that contains a demo of the Reflection app:

Tech Tool of the Week: Google Drive for iPad/iPhone

In light of our recent tech training on Google Drive, this is the perfect time to build upon your skills by trying out Google Drive on your phone or tablet!  Google Drive is available not only through the web or on your desktop, but also as an app for your iPad, iPhone, or Android.  Recently Google released an updated version of Google Drive for mobile devices that has some handy new features.  Here are some of the things you can do on Google Drive for your iPhone or iPad:

• Access all the files that you add to Google Drive on your computer
• Share a file (such as a document, photo, etc.) with others
• Read the most up-to-date version of your documents
• Create and edit new documents 
• Format text in your documents (change color, font, size, etc.)
• Create new Google Drive folders and move files into folders



Google Drive on iPhone

• Upload files (like photos and videos) from your iPhone/iPad directly into Google Drive

Best of all, any changes you make while working in Google Drive on your phone or tablet will be automatically synchronized, so you will see all of those changes the next time you access Google Drive on your computer!

Google Drive for iPhone/iPad/Android is great for working on the go.  You can even make files available offline so you can view them when you're in a place with no Internet access (like on a plane).  It's perfect for jotting down notes in meetings, too.  Give it a try!  Stop by the IT office for help installing and setting up Google Drive on your tablet or smartphone, and come to Tech Tuesdays for help getting started using Google Drive on your phone or tablet.

Google Drive on iPad 

Tech Tool of the Week: Popplet

This week's featured technology tool is an iPad app called Popplet, a great tool for organizing ideas and thoughts. In Popplet, users can create large text boxes called "popples". Once a popple is added, it is easy to insert text, drawings, or photos. Resize, add, and move popples with simple, touch-friendly gestures. Once you are finished, export your diagram to a JPG or PDF file. A great app for unleashing creativity!

Popplet can fit into almost any aspect of a lesson. Here are some of the ways you could use Popplet in your classroom:

• Brainstorming
• Map concepts
• Create timelines
• Presentations
• Plan projects using diagrams
• Record thoughts: journals, notes, lists
• Assist with remembering new facts and figures

Michael Hsu and Cheryl Teng recently demonstrated a creative application of Popplet in their classrooms: 5th grade students created Popplets in which they drew a face and then surrounded the face with descriptive sentences. The objective of the lesson was to practice writing Chinese poetry while incorporating moral education (concern for others). Check out the photos below!

5th Grader Soong Ming H. works on his Popplet

Hsu Laoshi helps his students with their Popplet project

Sample of a student's work

Tech Tool of the Week: Motion Math Apps

Looking for a fun way to give your students extra practice with newly learned math skills? How about trying an iPad math game? This week's highlighted tech tool is a group of math games for iPad by a company called Motion Math.  So far Motion Math has released five different math games appropriate for a wide range of ages, ranging from PreK through middle school. Several of these apps were CAIS student favorites in computer class last year! 

Consider borrowing the iPad cart and having your students spend some time practicing their math skills using one of the Motion Math apps. Stop by a Tech Tuesday to get some hands-on time with  the iPads and try out these games yourself!

Here is a description of the Motion Math games:

1. Hungry Fish (PK - 8th): Practice mental addition and subtraction. Includes a game for adding/subtracting negative numbers (appropriate for middle schoolers and up). A highly addictive, well-designed game that is a student favorite!

2. Hungry Guppy (PK - 1st): A great app for early number learning. Similar to Hungry Fish, but geared for younger kids (especially age 3 - 4). Students build basic number sense and addition skills.

3. Motion Math (3rd - 8th): Helps students perceive and estimate fractions in multiple forms (including decimals and percents).  Move fractions to their correct place on the number line.  A very fun app!

4. Zoom (1st - 8th): Master place value by placing numbers on a number line.  Starts at basic numbers and moves into negatives and decimals.

5. Wings (1st - 6th): Improve mental multiplication and estimation skills. Students must direct their flying bird to pass over the larger of two numbers, represented in various ways: rows of dots, clusters of dots, groups of dots, a grid, a labeled grid, and symbols (e.g. 2 x 3).

Not only have CAIS students played Motion Math apps in the past, but they have also contributed to the development of some of these apps!  The Motion Math team visited CAIS twice last year and once this fall to test their apps with our students. Last spring, 1st - 4th graders helped test "Motion Math: Wings" before it was publicly released. Motion Math returned to CAIS in early September to test their latest app with our 6th graders. This new game focuses on estimation skills and adds a competitive element: it is designed to be played in pairs or small groups. Stay tuned for news on its release!

Motion Math co-founder Jacob Klein works with CAIS student Arthur S. (then a member of the 1st Grade Green class) in May 2012.

CAIS 6th graders Henry P. and Harrison H. test the latest Motion Math app in technology class, September 2012.