Soft Technology

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An easy way to get a Venn diagram template is to use the Feltboard app  ($2.99) - one of my faves! On your iPad, open Feltboard, choose the Venn diagram background, then click the camera to save this blank template to your iPad. This can now be added as a template in Seesaw or background in PicCollage EDU or other apps to help your students organize their thinking. Below are a couple of examples of using this Venn diagram in Seesaw activities to compare Jan Brett's versions of The Mitten and The Hat . The top one, created by Sally Bishop, has students use Seesaw labels to type in the similarities and differences. The bottom version uses emojis. Students tap the label tool and are then able to move the emojis around the diagram.

Activities in Seesaw are awesome for so many ways, but maybe my very favorite is the fact that they are so easily SHAREABLE! I love being able to create an activity, then share the link with others to use in their classrooms. Some awesome BPS TILT (Teachers Integrating & Learning Technology) teachers and I decided to start a database of activities, organized by grade level, to share all of these creations with other teachers. This spreadsheet has contributors from Seesaw users all over the Twitterverse, so it's sure to get filled with lots of awesome ideas. Visit bit.ly/ActivitiesGalore to check it out!

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I absolutely love Ian Gilbert's Thunks. This book "The Compleat Thunks Book" is described as 'A collection of classic Thunks from a number of his books, as well as hundreds of new ones, all designed to make your brain hurt as you think, question, debate and argue your way to a better understanding of how to survive in a world gone dangerously bonkers.' To give you an idea of what a thunk looks like, here is a screenshot from the book: Thunks can be used as a great discussion tool in class. Sharing one on the board at the start of the day and encouraging children to talk and listen to each other's ideas can be a great way to settle children into a lesson. JUST BE AWARE, not all the Thunks would be appropriate for the classroom. You can also use apps like Seesaw to record and evidence children's thoughts and ideas about a Thunk. If I create a question like this: Within the explain and reflect option of Seesaw, pupils can add labels. These can be initial tho...

Guest post by friEdTechnology Associate & 3rd grade teacher,   Melissa Summerford , Tweet her at @SummerfordStars My name is Melissa Summerford and this is my fourteenth year in education. I am a 3rd-grade teacher at Bear Branch Elementary and I absolutely love my BBES Family. I realized I wanted to be a teacher while working as a paraprofessional in 2003.  I saw the impact teachers were making on students lives and I wanted to be apart of that club.  I was twenty-six years old and had three kids when I decided to go back to college. Six years later I became the first in my family to earn a college degree. I graduated Summa Cum Laude from Prairie View A&M in 2008.  After 10 years of teaching, I have decided to work on a master's degree from Lamar University.  I am majoring in Digital Learning and Leading.  I have learned that showcasing my learning is a way to grow and improve my craft of teaching.  My ePortfolio website is a place where I can ...

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I love using music in class for a number of reasons: remembering facts , teaching narrative structure  and improving comprehension.  Another song that I came across recently is Grace by Rag'n'Bone Man. The message of the song is powerful and lends itself well to PSHCE and growth mindset discussions. Here is a description of the song I read recently: You know that feeling when you've just made a wretched mistake and you want the whole world to swallow you up? When you don't want to talk to anyone, you feel like you've let yourself and the people you value down? It hurts right? But with enough strength, humility and willingness to stand again, you realise that mistake isn't the end of you. More so, that 'mistake' could be the very thing you needed in your life to become a better person. To change or let go of parts of you that aren't empowering or positive. Some people call it grace, when you experience something in your life exactly the way it wa...

We want to make an announcement that all our major platforms have received bios updates to k eep your systems protected against Speculative Execution Vulnerability threats. Taipei, Taiwan, January 11st, 2018 – GIGABYTE TECHNOLOGY Co. Ltd, a leading manufacturer of motherboards and graphics cards, has promptly implemented safety and precautionary measures aligned with Intel®’s response to safeguard customers against security vulnerabilities on systems utilizing Speculative Execution and indirect branch prediction. The newly released BIOS updates from GIGABYTE integrate the latest Intel advised CPU Microcode versions to mitigate issues potentially caused by the security vulnerability. Customers who have purchased a GIGABYTE board are strongly recommended to visit the GIGABYTE official website immediately for the latest BIOS updates. Please refer to the following micro link for the list of available BIOS updates by models (currently offers updates for models that support 6th/7th/8th gener...

You have to check out this amazing mod from IFR based around Rocket League and Z370 Aorus Ultra Gaming. We love it!

Mrs. Lang used the app Feltboard ($2.99) to have her first graders illustrate reflections from 2017, and goals for 2018. After creating their Feltboards, they added to Seesaw where they could use the microphone tool to record their reflections & goals. Great, engaging project to elicit some reflections and goal setting from young learners! Click the images below for examples.

Click the image to download a PDF.

Click the image to download a PDF.

Ok, so I am a little late to the party! Seesaw introduced activities a good few months ago, but I've only just got around to really investigating this fantastic addition to what is my favourite app to use in the classroom. I recently blogged my top 5 apps of 2017 . Seesaw was at the top of my list. For me, this app is a no-brainer for the primary classroom. The endless benefits for how it can enhance teaching and learning, save teachers time and money and embed key digital literacy skills for your pupils has meant it has become the app I use most and one I regularly share on my training sessions. I have recently been contacted by a number of teachers who have been told by their local authority that they can no longer use Seesaw as it will not comply with the new GDPR guidelines that will take effect in May 2018. I contacted Seesaw about this and this was their response: GDPR goes into effect in the EU in May 2018 and Seesaw is preparing to be compliant with it. If you are conc...