Whiteboard Chat - Virtual Collaboration

 

If you need to do some online collaboration with your students you might want to try this website by clicking here.  Whiteboard Chat might be something you can use in a virtual math class where you want students to show you or the class their work or if you want to sketch or draw something for your class. 

Teacher Made - Make your documents digital and editable

 

When we first went into lockdown during the global pandemic I know many teachers were having a hard time converting their hard copies into something that could easily be used by their students to work with and submit.  With Teacher Made you can easily convert pdfs or jpegs into something that students can type over.  

From their website, "quickly remake and assign your favorite classroom papers as online, digital activities for your students. Load a PDF or picture, mark it up with places for students to type their answers."

This site works best if your students have a google account or you are in google classrooms.

Check out the following videos and then go to their site by clicking here.

Video Editing with Kapwing

Welcome back to school.  This will be my first post of the 2020-21 school year.  My teaching librarian position is going to be a little different this year with our library being repurposed, Our students at Kennedy will not be able to come into the library.  I figured that I could bring the library to them.   I wanted our students to message me through our digital learning platform, Edsby with book requests.  They will need to learn how to search our catalog virtually.  To do this I made a video and posted it on youtube and was going to post it on Edsby.  I noticed I forgot a couple of points in the video and needed to add a couple captions to the video.  I found an awesome free online editor called Kapwing.  No downloading software!  If you don't sign up they put a small watermark in the bottom right hand corner that says Kapwing.  No biggie.  If you sign in using facebook or google you will not have this watermark.  It is also free as long as your videos are less than 7 minutes long and you do not publish more that 3 hours of content a month.  You get all their editing tools too.

The editor looks like this.

To go to their website click here.

 

The 25 Best Podcasts for Kids

If you want some great podcasts for your students or even your own kids take a look at these 25 highly ranked  podcasts that were ranked by Common Sense Media   .  Click here to see them.

The Kid Should See This

The Kid Should See This is an unprecedented collection of 4,500+ kid-friendly videos, curated for teachers and parents who want to share smarter, more meaningful media in the classroom and at home. And thanks to our members, it’s free for everyone.Selections are grown-up-friendly, too. TKSST champions smart STEAM, history, and culture-focused content by museums, organizations, and creators who celebrate curiosity, collaboration, creativity, critical thinking, problem-solving, kindness, and other essential themes for all ages.Enjoy around 10 to 15 newly-added videos every week, browse the collections, and search topics in the archives.  To see the website click here.

Making Sense of Coronavirus Through Storytelling and Media Making

http://edutopia.org/ is a fantastic resource. On Edutopia there was a link http://studentreportinglabs.org/ and it is "Making Sense of Coronavirus Through Storytelling and Media Making" unit.

In it, you will find a resource packet that is divided into different pathways that allow students to tell their stories about the virus' impact on their lives, their families, and their communities. Options range from producing a video diary, a full-news package, and a creative one on making their own fact-based memes!

It could be a novel idea for media literacy or other courses.

Teachers and Copyright

Well I have not posted in a bit due to the changing world we live in. I hope you are all safe and adapting well. If you have questions about copyright or open access please look at this website.