Deb Norton Tech

Recently I attended an Intel Summit for Teachers Engage.  Each participant was asked to create a short presentation to introduce themselves to the group.   The variety and creativity of presentations that were submitted were incredible.  I love the fact that each participant was able to use a tool of their choice to present their information. Because the presentations contain personal information, I will not include them here.  I do want to share with you all of the presentation tools that were used.  So many choices. #1 Prezi - This presentation tool has transformed over the years and offers a lot of choice which helps to make each Prezi special and unique.  I really like the fade-in animation option that was added.  #2 Glogster - This online poster maker allows for many forms of media including video, animation, audio, links, images, and text.  When I used Glogster with my students recently, they praised this tool and many ...

This past week my students worked on a cultures project.  In our reading series we have been reading about how different cultures have unique celebrations, traditions and foods. To extend what we read and to meet the CCSS, the students each chose a culture to research and gather information on.  We used the research tool in Google Docs to find our information and search for images.  Prior to this lesson, we did a lesson on finding reliable websites called Detecting Lies from this collection . Watch the video to see how the research tool works. Unable to display content. Adobe Flash is required. Click here for the Cultures Research Doc if you would like to use it in your classroom. After the research was completed, students took the information and created a Glogster to display the information.  Here are some examples: Our last step is that we need to link our research document to our Glogsters.  Then we plan to present ...

I have become a true believer in using blended learning in our 1 to 1 computer classroom.  Blended learning is an approach that combines face to face classroom methods with computer- centered activities to form an integrated instructional approach.   Blended learning gives my students the opportunity to access digital media content any time that they need it.  It also is strengthening their computer literacy skills through the multi-media rich content.  Our students are really loving learning through different modes of blended learning. Here are some of the ways that I have been creating blended learning lessons and units for my students: #1 - Schoology Schoology is a free LMS that I have been using quite a bit lately.  What I love is the fact that it helps to organize and host the content  in one place.  Students can access videos,  quizzes, discussions, files and links easily.  I also love that my students can turn in an as...

Last week my students made Glogsters (online posters).  We were reading about hibernation in our reading series and the students needed to convey what they had learned in their Glogster.   Here are some nice examples from my students: And here are some "not so nice" examples: I am going to take some of the blame for the "not so nice" Glogsters .  Even though I showed students examples before we started, I didn't take enough time to discuss the properties of a well organized and attractive Glogster.   I made a simple grading sheet to let the students know what I was going to grade the Glogsters on.  Here it is: I took these descriptors right off of our Standards Based Report Card which focuses on  Common Core Standards .  What I missed out on were descriptors for the organization and attractiveness of the poster.   I am thankful for having these "nice and not so nice" examples to share with students for future project...

Wow, supply lists sure have changed over the years.  I've noticed that we have been asking for fewer and fewer school supplies since receiving our 1:1 laptops.  All we ask for are a few folders, some looseleaf paper, some pencils and a few odds and ends.  Don't worry, we still glue, color, cut and create every day.  Today our goal is to fill our students' desks with digital tools that promote creativity, critical thinking, collaboration and problem solving skills. Here are the digital tools our students will need to start the school year: Google Apps for Education including:   Gmail, Google Drive (no more Dropbox for us), Google Sites, Google Presentations and Google Forms                         SMART Notebook 11  this is usually one of our students favorite places for creating projects. Kidblog  most of our students have never blogged before 5th grade.  They lov...

Time has gotten away from me.  Back in December,  in this post ,  I said I would share our Glogsters when we finished them, and I have just not had the time to create this post until now. So here are some of the Glogs my reading students created on the Native American tribe The Blackfoot. We incorporated sounds, images, text, hyperlinks, and video.  Quite a lot of multimedia!  My students did a great job with this challenging assignment.  Our biggest challenge being the videos.  But we did it! What will our next Glogsters be about?  Maybe a Valentine's Story Glogster, or a Glogster about electricity, or perhaps a Glogster using our spelling words?  Who knows.  The ideas are endless!

Have you heard of Glogster Edu ? "Glogster EDU is a Web 2.0 platform that allows you to easily upload photos, videos, text, audio and more to create interactive online posters." Unlike Glogster.com , which is for individuals, Glogster Edu is for creating a teacher account and allows a person to have student accounts.  Glogster.com is free, and Glogster Edu costs money. Click here for more information about subscriptions. At the beginning of the year I signed up for the trial version of Glogster Edu.  My students created 2 glogs during this free trial and they loved it! When the free trial ran out I decided to go ahead and purchase a 1 year subscription to Glogster Edu.  I'm going to attempt to use this tool as much as possible.  This week in reading my group will be creating Glogs in Glogster to show all that they learn while reading a non-fiction literacy piece. I will share some of our Glogs in a future post to show you how the students did. ...

One of the blogs I follow called In Tech Insights, by Karen Ogen, had a Glogster with Web 2.0 tools.  I love collecting Web 2.0 tools to use in the classroom.  I know most of these, but a few were new to me.  Check out the Glogster below or click here to see the entire Glogster.  Check out Karen's Blog here .