🗣Class Conversations ~ Student Voice 📣

Who has the Fever for amplifying student voice?! Hopefully that's a fever

that never goes away! One tool that we shared out a bit last year

was FlipGrid. ~It's a powerful tool to add to your toolbox for awesome

classroom conversations and to empower student voice (literally!). Give your

students the reins across their learning journeys and watch them soar.

The possibilities for implementation are endless and you can go as far and wide as

you want with it. Spark conversations solely within your class, at-home with families

or connect your students with others outside your classroom! They even have

#GridPals (video pen-pals) to knock down the walls of your classroom and connect your students with the world.

FlipGrid keeps evolving ~ There is a huge library of templates that you can grab

and push right out to your kiddos to spark a conversation! You can even share your own topics to the library as well. Check out this link for implementation ideas K-8 and across the curriculum (DIY recording booth examples too)! Double-click within the Padlet to share your own links and ideas as well....

As with any "online" adventures that your students embark, have a conversation

beforehand about expectations as Digital Citizens using the communication

tool. The time spent up front having the conversation saves a ton

of management issues later.

As always, Take or Toss ~ Let us know if you want to explore anything together and get

that fever rockin.

~Kait

Icons-Only as Bookmarks!

This is not a "new" tip; However, someone recently asked me how I had icon-only bookmarks in my bookmarks bar. I wanted to share in case anyone else could use the tip! I like to do this for familiar sites to make room on by Bookmarks Bar. I don't need to have the text "Google Drive" up there when I just need the lil icon to know what link that is.

Take or Toss!

1. Right-Click on a bookmark in your Bookmarks Bar.

2. Click "Edit".

3. For Icons-Only, delete the text in the "Name" box.

4. Click "Save".

For my links where the icon isn't too familiar, I just shorten the "name" when I edit so that it doesn't take up too much room on my bar.

Classroom Conversations & Adventures

Hey Teachers! Here are just a few random gems. Many of these have been shared out before, but one or two are new. Don't try to tackle all at once ~ Focus on one that you're interested in exploring further.

As always, we would love to meet with you to check out any of them together and discuss how to integrate them into your classroom learning adventures.

Take or Toss!

• Do students need a quick audio/video recorder?  
• Alice Keeler's WebCam Record (Perfect for Google Slides. Students can extend the default 30 sec limit)
• ScreenCastify for screen-casting or audio/video recording.

• Go Deeper with Classroom Conversations :
• FlipGrid if you want to catch the FlipGrid fever for classroom conversations.
• Synth ~ another awesome tool to amplify student voice. Great for student podcasting too. Here's a Synth overview and a basic intro here.

• Travel the world with your students!  
• Google Earth Voyager ~educational tours/field trips around the world!
• Exploring By the Seat of your Pants
• Who do you want to connect students with? We've had virtual visits from archaeologists, scientists, penguin experts, zoologists, other classrooms around the globe......Break down those walls!

• Digital Literacy  
• Links we shared out last year. Too good not to share again.
• What'sGoingOnInThisPicture and more.
• Copyright friendly images (aside from adding "Pixabay" to their search) : Unsplash Google Slides Add-on. Please be sure to include this important Digital Citizenship conversation, copyright, into your class conversations. Let us know if you would like to meet to chat about this further!

Doodle for Google & Student Film Festival

Hello Teachers! Below are a couple awesome opportunities for our students.

Student Film Festival ~ Amplify student voice! The theme is "Activating Change" and the deadline for submissions is Monday, February 18th. Check out the site to see last year's winners and runner-ups.

Doodle for Google Drawing Contest ~ When I Grow Up, I Hope.... > "This year’s theme invites you to show us what you hope for in your future. Classrooms on Mars? Shoes that can fly? Food for everyone? A pill that cures everything? Take your ideas and put them into your Doodle!" Deadline is March 18, 2019 Kermit & Jimmy Fallon will be judges! Last year, a 2nd grader's drawing won. She had the opportunity to work with Google to animate her creation and bring it to life. Oh, and she also received a $30,000 college scholarship! Check it out.

If you have any questions about the rules/registering for either or about digital storytelling for the Film Festival, give us a shout! We'd love to work with you and your students. As always, be sure to tag pics #pg46pride. Also : #DoodleForGoogle for that contest OR #GSVFF for the Film Festival. 

If you don't feel as though this is something you can make happen at school, please share the opportunities with students & families as parents can submit as well.

Thank you for all that you do to support our students in exploring their passions, creativity, empowering their voice and making learning experiences memorable!

~Kait😊

👨‍🚀Explore by the Seat of Your Pants! 👨‍🚀

Happy New Year!

Just wanted to pass along the latest Exploring By The Seat of Your Pants.

As always, there are tons of great connection opportunities within.

Remember, you can :

1. Get a camera spot

2. Just be a live viewer (without interacting with presenter)

3. Watch the whole presentation at a later time when it fits best into your schedule.

Take or Toss. Give us a shout if you need any assistance. If none of these times match up

to connect live, let us know who you're interested in connecting your class with ~an author,
archaeologist, NASA, another classroom in another state, region, country......
Let's work together to break down the walls of your classroom for an epic learning adventure!

Have a great first week back with kiddos.

Kaiti