Building Online Portfolios in LiveBinders

What a week it’s been!  I’m sorry I’ve been so absent, but this week has been fully devoted to finishing up my students’ online portfolios.  We began building our portfolios about 5 weeks ago, and have been working through these steps to build our portfolios using www.livebinders.com. 

 1.)  The students used a printed brainstorming sheet to decide on what would go into each tab of their LiveBinder.  My students decided on at least one thing they learned in each subject this year, their favorite activity in that subject, any projects or websites they could link to, and any pictures or videos they were interested in adding.  (Grab the brainstorming sheets from my TPT store, along with student and teacher technology tips in my Student Created Online Portfolios Made Easy packet.)

The students had to come up to with all this information for: math, reading, writing, science, social studies, Arabic, French, drama, music, art and PE. 

2.)  Then, I conferenced with each student and encouraged them to add certain details or projects to their portfolios.

3.)  Next, the students went onto www.livebinders.com and created a binder named Online Portfolio.  The students created a tab with their grade level and subtabs with each of their subjects.

4.)  Students then typed in the information that was written on their brainstorming sheet into each tab.  They also linked each tab to projects we have done during the school year, storybirds, glogs, prezis, blog posts, even stories they typed in google docs.  These links provide the “evidence” for learning in each subject. 

5.)  This week, I conferenced with each student again, to check for grammar, spelling, etc. and to help them with any linking issues.  I also helped them add photos and videos that were saved on my computer or our class iPad.

5.)  On Friday, the students presented their online portfolios to their parents in a student-led conference format.  The parents loved seeing all the work put together, and talking to their students about all of the different projects they had completed this year.

 

I can’t share a whole portfolio with you because they contain private pictures and videos, but here are some screen shots of different portfolios.

 

 

 

 

How do you do portfolios in your classroom?

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Can Kids Teach Themselves?

Recently, I posted about how my school is using Facebook and Pinterest as part of our professional development.  (See the whole post HERE.)  I’ve decided to pass on some of the best videos and articles I come across to you each Sunday evening.  Here is this week’s professional development post:

Here is one of my new favorite videos about the Hole in the Wall program created by Sugata Mitra.  Mr. Mitra created a program that put computers in public places and allowed students to teach themselves.  Here is his video from TED:

After watching the video, it makes me wonder, how much do we allow students to teach themselves?  With the internet today, there is so much information out there.  It is important to teach our students to teach themselves.  How can you utilize this with your students?

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Making Time for Poetry

My school year is broken into 6 week units for science, social studies, reading comprehension and writing.  During the last 6 weeks, I am teaching the forest in science, making judgments in reading and poetry in writing.  However, we are also working on end of the year assessments, like UK National Testing and Map Testing, and putting together online portfolios and a Spring Show, so needless to say, the last 6 weeks of school are kicking my but!  We’ve managed to do a lot with our forest unit, but I have felt as if our poetry unit was suffering, so I went back to an old standby this week – my Poetry Writing Journal (available at my TPT store for $10.)

We spent an hour reviewing each of the different types of poetry, using the reference sheet at the beginning of the poetry journal and writing our own examples of each type of poem focused around the topic of the forest on the board.  I then typed up our class examples and stapled it at the back of my students’ Poetry Writing Journals.  (Feel free to download this sheet for free from Google Docs if you’d like to use it with your class.) All week long, whenever there was a minute, between testing, play practice, and other activities, we pulled out our Poetry Writing Journals and worked on writing poetry.  Because the Writing Journals already have every step from brainstorming, to drafting, to editing and revising, it is an easy way for my students to work along at their own pace.

 

 

I really love teaching poetry at this time of the year, because poetry breaks all the rules and lets kids explode with creativity at a time of the year when they are totally done with school and rules!  During the last week of school, we will choose our favorite poems to publish and share with the class.

If you’re still in school, how are you wrapping up the school year?

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ISM Spotlight – Top 10 Technology Resources for Teaching Arabic

This year I am the luckiest teacher in the world. I get to teach at the best school ever – International School of Morocco, with some of the best, most creative, teachers ever. Each time I walk into someone else’s classroom, I get inspired and we just seem to spiral great teaching ideas off of each other. It’s a wonderful place to teach, and since we are all collaborating, it’s a wonderful place for our kids to learn – a teacher’s dream, right? I have tried and tried to convince the other teachers to create blogs of their own to spotlight and share some of their amazing ideas, but everyone is super busy. Instead, they have each agreed to let me spotlight some of their ideas right here on Raki’s Rad Resources. So, each Friday night, I will be posting an ISM Spotlight.

All of the teachers at ISM use quite a bit of technology.  We are lucky to currently have approximately a 1:4 ratio for technological devices (both iPads and iMacs).  Today, I am going to share with you 5 websites and 5 apps that are used by our wonderful Arabic teacher, Mr. Raki (who also happens to be my wonderful husband!)  Mr. Raki teaches both Arabic as a Second Language and Arabic for our native speakers.  He has so many websites and apps that he uses, that when I asked for one of each, he told me I was crazy.  He was able to pare it down to 5 and 5, with a You Tube channel thrown in for good measure!  Here is the YouTube channel, it’s called Critical Language Service.  This You Tube Channel has great video tutorials for non-native Arabic speakers. 

Top 5 Arabic Teaching Websites

1.)  Alef-Ba-Ta – This website, and the corresponding app, are the only one the list that require money. Mr. Raki says that this site, with tons and tons of e-books and games on every topic imaginable is totally worth the $10 a month. 

 

 

2.)  Bareem – This website is linked to the amazing Arabic children’s television channel.  This link is to their set of videos which describe tons of kid friendly concepts like shapes, patterns, colors, numbers, and positional words, all described in a nice, slow, formal Arabic, which helps both language learners and native speakers alike.

 

 

3.) I Like Arabic – This website has a set of 18 tutorials and 5 videos, all specifically designed for English speakers who are learning Arabic.  For our intermediate grade language learners, these provide an amazing resources.  (I’m using them myself too!)

 

 

4.)  Omar & Mariam – This website focuses around these two characters – Omar and Mariam.  It provides e-books, videos, and games all round this character.  Think interactive Dick and Jane in Arabic!

 

 

 

5.)  Salam Arabic Memory Games – This is a game site with memory matching games.  Kids get a chance to match the English word with the Arabic word.

 

 

Top 5 Arabic Teaching Apps

1.)  Alef-Ba-Ta – This app is the same as it’s website counterpart.  It contains e-books and games on tons of topics, but there is a $10 monthly cost.  The cost covers both the app and the website.

 

 

2.) Bareem – Although this app is sponsored by the Bareem t.v.channel, the app is quite separate.  It has three pieces, letter recognition, word building and handwriting.   

 

3.) Play and Learn Arabic – This great game app helps kids to identify animals, colors and letters in their Arabic word forms

 

 

 

4.)  Iqraa Ma’a – This great app teaches students to construct words in Arabic and connects Arabic and English vocabulary.

 

 

5.) Learn Arabic for Kids – This set of online vocabulary cards has both English and Arabic, to help students learn new vocabulary.  Each flashcard also provides a spoken component.

 

 

What foreign languages are taught at your school?

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Make More Of Your Field Trips by Writing a Review

It’s time for the Wednesday Website suggestion!! For two years, I was the Technology Specialist at a school in Georgia. During that time, I amassed a large collection of websites that I use with my students. You can download my E-Book of Websites for the Elementary Classroom for free from Teachers Pay Teachers or Smashwords, or, you can check back here each week for the Wednesday Website suggestion.

 

I am in the middle of planning my summer vacation.  We’ll be in the US for 8 weeks, and I want to do a lot of fun things with my kids while I’m there.  One of my favorite websites to use when finding new and interesting places is Trip Advisor.  I love to read the reviews and get a realistic picture of whether I think my family will enjoy the place before we head out.  However, I had never thought of using it with my class, until the other day.  Another teacher mentioned that we could let our kids review their field trips, and I thought – What a great idea! 

Normally, when I take my class on a fieldtrip, I have some sort of sheet created to help ensure students stay focused on what I want them to learn about.  This trip was no exception.  We used this Zoo Animal Recording Sheet, which focused on our current science topic of food webs, by asking students to identify the predator, prey and special adaptations of 20 of the animals they saw at the zoo.  (Feel free to download this sheet for free from Google Docs.)

When we got back from the zoo, we went on to Trip Advisor and left a review of our experience.  We wrote our review together, and it was a great time to talk about audience awareness, important details, focus and a bunch of other writing concepts.  Here is the review we left:

If you want to leave a review on Trip Advisor, you must sign up for a free account.  Then, you search your location and click on WRITE A REVIEW.  Once you have submitted your review, it will be reviewed and then published.  This is also a great time to talk with students about the technology concepts:

1.  Anyone can put information on the internet, so we need to read critically

2.  We can use the internet to build community.

3.  We can learn from and add to the internet.

What lessons could you teach using Trip Advisor?

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Exposing Our Students to a Variety of Voices

As a teacher, I feel that it’s my responsibility to expose my students to multiple view points and opinions, in order to give them a chance to form their own view points and opinions.  This year, I have worked with my class to begin sharing their view points and opinions – both in writing on their blogs and in movies we have created.  Generally, my students compare their movie clips with the professional movies that they see on t.v. or d.v.d’s.  I have been encouraging them to view YouTube videos as another source of comparison, but this week I get my best opportunity yet.  I have been offered a 3 month free subscription to a great website called Indie Flix, which is a subscription website that shares videos and series created by independent film makers.  My class will be viewing a variety of films from the “Family” channel, as a source of inspiration, as well as simply having new, quality films to add to our curriculum.  One of the favorites that I have watched today is called Wood of Value, about cutting down trees for Christmas celebrations in Norway.  It will surely lend a great conversation to our Forest unit!

In addition, I have enjoyed watching the new film, Finding Kind, about girl on girl bullying.  While the subject is slightly ahead of my particular class, watching it myself has given me a better viewpoint and understanding on the subject.  This viewpoint will help me as I help guide my girls in treating each other nicely.  Even at a young age, we see the mean girl treatment happening, so as educators, it is extremely important to be cognizant of how our students are treating each other and the impacts that this treatment can have.  Finding Kind is streaming on Indie Flix until May 31st, so stop by and check it out.  Previously, this film was only available in special screenings, so it’s great to have it now available.  It is only $6.99 for those without a subscription.  However, the great folks at Indie Flix have also given me 10 FREE 2 month subscriptions to giveaway!  So, if you are interested in one of those subscriptions – here’s what you need to do:

1.)  Follow Raki’s Rad Resources in a new way – here are the many places you can follow us:

Blog

Pinterest

Facebook

Twitter

Teachers Pay Teachers

Teacher’s Notebook

You Tube

Newsletter

3.)  Leave us a comment, telling me: where you are now following us, how you use films and videos with your class and of course your e-mail address.

 

I will e-mail subscription codes to the first 10 people who leave comments.

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Do You Check Facebook While Working? So Do Your Students! How do We Teach Kids to Manage their Internet Time Well?

 

Over the last 2 months, I have been “re-delivering” to you my experience from the ECIS Conference.  I have written about Marc Prensky’s presentation on Teaching Digital Natives, Julie Lindsay’s Flat Classroom program,  Heather Martin’s presentation on Flipped Classrooms,   Chadman Nair’s presentation on Creating Truly Global Citizens, and Calien Hargrave’s presentation on the Importance of Collaboration Skills for our Students’ Future Employability.  In each redelivery post, I have shared a video of the actual speech, all of the keynotes at the conference were recorded and shared on YouTube.  If you haven’t watched any of the other videos, take the next 20 minutes to watch today’s video.  I’ve saved the best for last!

This is Jeff Utecht, and he was my favorite speaker of entire event.  He is a presenter, a consultant, and the author of the book Reach: Building Communities and Networks for Professional Development.  His keynote speech is about the importance of using the internet to create communities.  He also talked about allowing and encouraging students to use the internet to connect and create in their own way.  After his keynote, he also did an hour long presentation on using Google with your students, and how to use it better yourself. 

One of the key points he made for me was how important  it is to teach time management skills.  For adults now, there is almost no line between our work life and our social life.  Be honest, how many times do you check personal e-mail or facebook at school?  How often do you flip between facebook and lesson planning?  If we’re doing it, we know that our kids are doing it.  Many schools are using this excuse to BAN facebook, e-mail etc.  Jeff Utecht says that’s the wrong approach.  He says instead of making it taboo, we need to teach our kids how to manage their time correctly online and to encourage positive connections.  When a school he was working with allowed Facebook to be available at school, the first thing the kids did was use it to create a movement asking the store across the street to ban plastic bags – and they succeeded!

I use checklists, and priority lists to help my students manage time in the class during independent work time.  After listening to Jeff’s speech, I have started to incorporate the same strategies into their computer and iPad time.  By knowing what they have to do and checking it off, they are more focused on their task at hand.  I have also added a “Fun Things I Found” section to most of my internet research sheets, because we all know that sometimes we find cool stuff out there that is on our topic, but may not answer the questions we are looking for.

So, my question for today is – are you teaching your students to manage work and play time on the computer successfully?

Here is Jeff Utecht’s speech – it is worth the watch!

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