Getting to know one another AND students from our partner school in Kansas

Students in Integrated Technology have been busy, busy, busy.  We are ready to begin our first digital partnership with Mr. Kessler's 5th graders at Morse Elementary in Overland Park, Kansas.  During this quarter, we will be using Edmodo to converse about ourselves, our digital lives, and what we are learning in the core curriculum.  In addition, IT students will have the opportunity to practice what they are learning about digital citizenship in our face-to-face class sessions by talking virtually with a remote group of students.

To get our collaboration started, and learn new things about one another, IT students used the iPads and the app Adobe Voice to create a video about themselves.  They were able to add images, text, and record their voices by using this app.  Students posted their videos to Edmodo to help students in New London and Overland Park get to know them a little better.  Check out some of our highlights.

5th Grade Edmodo Book Project

The fifth graders in Mr. Wegner's class have been busy sharing what they have been reading in class using the classroom social networking site Edmodo. After reading their independent selections, students have been using Edmodo to discuss and share with other members of the class. Students love Edmodo because it reminds them of another popular social networking site. Can you guess which one?

Students were responsible for completing posts sharing the following:

1.  an image that symbolizes something about the book.

2.  a new ending to the story.

3.  a fake tweet using the website Fake Tweet Builder summarizing the book.

Not only did the students enjoy connecting via a social networking platform with which many were very familiar, but these tasks challenged the students to think about their books in very different ways.  Once information was posted, students then had the chance to comment on one another's information and try to meaningful infer what was being shared about each book.

In addition, during some of the writing tasks, Mr. Wegner's students used the Google extension Read & Write, available through the Chrome Webstore, after adding text into a Google Doc.  Read & Write plays the written text out loud so that students may hear exactly how their writing sounds.  This helps students identify when grammatical and spelling mistakes have been made. 

Students were very engaged when they had this opportunity to connect with one another and explore their reading in unique and meaningful ways.