Let the Fun Begin!

Book Creator - Summer Webinar Series Middle School Spotlight

Here is another of the summer Book Creator webinar series.  This one is focused on middle school.

Circle Round

Do you enjoy podcasts?  Check out Circle Round Folktales.  Circle Round is a children’s storytelling podcast that shares folktales tailored for a modern audience. With dozens of episodes, you can jump in right away and listen to them in any order. Each story also has a coloring page to accompany it.

Lesson Ideas for Podcasts with Circle Round

1.  Have students listen to the podcast, then participate in the "Now It's your turn" activity.  Have the students tell a story to someone about a particular experience, or draw a picture of a specific life moment and then share it with someone.

2. A teacher could chose an episode of Circle Round and find several versions of the story (in books or on the internet). students can read those versions first.  Then they can listen to the episode and compare/contrast. Or, they could do it the other way around.  Reading the stories first and then listen to the episode.

3. In the Circle Round podcaset, music teachers can use them to help students learn about and appreciate a whole range of instruments.  Composer/sound designer Eric Shimelonis uses a different musical instrument to underscore each story.  Music teachers could have students listen to the podcast.  Then they could do an entire lesson about that story's instrument.

Other ideas:

Transcripts of every Circle Round script can be found on the Circle Round website.  Teachers can cast students in different roles (characters and narrator) and have them act out each story.  Another student or group of students could provide sound effects using everyday items in the classroom.

Teachers can have students color the coloring pages provided with every story.  They can color while they listen to the episodes or afterwards.  Teachers can also have students create their own coloring pages, drawing whatever images resonate with them after the story is over!  

Smithsonian's History Explorer

At this Smithsonian site history teachers will find the following: 

• Lessons & Activities
• Interactives/Media
• Museum/Artifacts
• Themes
• Books
• Teacher Resources
• Web Links

Teaching Digital Citizenship with Adobe Spark Tools

I really enjoy Monic Burns blog ClassTechTips.com and I continually learn from her share outs.  I am including the Youtube video where she talks about how to teach digital citizenship with the Adobe Spark tools.  These are great tools and her ideas are so easy to use.  Click here to here what she has to say.

Augmented Reality T-Shirt - by Curiscope Virtuali-Tee

Take science to a new dimension and learn about the human body... on a human body. The Virtuali-Tee uses beautifully designed augmented reality and amazing 3D learning experiences to explore the circulatory, respiratory and digestive systems with fully immersive 360 videos. 
The Virtual-Tee’s brand new heart rate tracker is a completely new way to connect you to your body. The app measures your heart rate and allows you to visualize your heart rate beating live in AR! Check out this video on this virtual reality t-Shirt,click here.

This Virtuali-tee will sychronize with your heart beat. Check out what this looks like to see what happens to your heart rate during exercise. Click Here.

Interested in your own Vrtuali-teeclick here.

Dry Erase Tape

Check out this cool product for the classroom. Click here.
​How To Use Dry Erase Tape in Your Classroom

• Labels   Dry erase tape can be used to label just about anything. This is especially useful for labels in your classroom that change throughout the week or school year. For example, if you are sharing a cart of iPads with a few teachers in your school you may have temporary student labels for which iPad students are using during a particular activity.
• Book Bins  One thing I love about classroom libraries is how fluid they can be over the course of the school year. When you’re looking to reorganize your books or move from picture to text labels, this dry erase tape makes it easy to switch it up.
• Logins   If you’re in a Nearpod classroom or use Kahoot all of the time, place some dry erase tape in a space in your room to jot down the pin number for these tools. This will make it easier for students to login mid-lesson.
• Word Walls   Word walls should not look the same in September, January and June. Use dry erase tape to make it easy to change up the words on display.
• Do Now   If you have a new do now activity of prompt each day use dry erase tape to create a space where you can quickly refresh the daily activity.
• Supply Bins   Whether you’re labeling the bins with extra chargers or looking to organize paper and pencils, dry erase tape can come in handy.
• Objectives   Use dry erase tape to post the daily objective on the board and wipe it away at the end of the day.
• Schedule Changes   Did something pop up on your schedule today? Do you have to reschedule an after school help session? Is there an assembly during period three? Post schedule changes on the board that may change each day.
• Meeting Spaces   If your students are working in small groups or you are setting up stations for a rotating activity, dry erase tape can help you label each area.
• Name Tags  Create name tags for student desks with this wipe away tape. When you’ve mastered your groups names these labels can be reused for a quick note or special message.
• Storage   Packing up? Moving to a new classroom? Switching schools? Use dry erase tape to label your math mainpulatives, posters, and favorite read aloud books.