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Transforming Teaching & Learning

Category: Resources (page 3 of 4)

ES Online Learning Exemplars: Weeks 1-3

February 7, 2020 / / 0 Comments

eLearning Exemplars Main Table of Contents

Routines

Care/Confer: One way to do set new routines and expectations is to ensure students have a dedicated learning space with necessary materials, free of distractions. To set up this routine, Tom shared his own learning space in a Seesaw post and asked students to share their learning spaces in the comments.

Clarify: In this flexible learning environment, making expectations, learning objectives, and the “schedule” clear will support students in building habits and developing a routine. For 4SM, Scott created a slideshow for the day before posting his Reader’s and Writer’s Workshop Lessons. The slideshow includes the Content and Language Objectives for the day. He adds reminders, directions, and sentence frames to help his students be successful.

Math

Care/Clarify: In this lesson, Julie reteaches a concept for her students who need extra practice/support using a combination of visuals, text, and audio.

Captivate/Confer/Consolidate: In this lesson, the grade 4 team uses pictures to engage students and encourages them to discuss their learning with their parents. They then helps students solidify their learning by creatively telling their teacher everything they know about fractions.

Reader’s Workshop

Challenge: In this lesson, Renee revisits Pointer Power and encourages her Kinder students to use this strategy to support their reading.

Clarify/Challenge/Consolidate: After explaining how to describe characters, Veronika challenges students to consolidate their learning by sharing a picture of their stop and jot. View lesson.

Writer’s Workshop

Care/Captivate: In this lesson, Judy speaks slowly and clearly. She uses visuals to engage students and support the flow of the mini-lesson.

Care/Clarify: In this lesson, Stephanie shares that she misses them and acknowledging that she will be reminding them of things they already know in this video. By re-explaining the strategy of ‘crashing the parts together,’ she clarifies understanding for her students.

Clarify: In this lesson, Erin offers structure and support via both a template and detailed, step-by-step directions.

Visual Arts

Care/Captivate/Clarify: The ES Visual Arts team has been making short videos for each day of eLearning. These videos have demonstrated care by making personalizing learning for students through being silly and having fun. They captivate students because they are short, interesting, and funny. They help to clarify by making the learning explicit through clear content & language objectives and directions. The team has also been leaving voice recorded comments for each student response, which helps students feel connected. 

Mix-a-Pokemon (Kinder)

Superhero Pose Drawing (Grade 3)

Embedding Slideshows from Office 365 into DX

September 23, 2019 / / 0 Comments

Teachers use a lot of Powerpoints. And most of those Powerpoints, for us here at ISB, are stored in Office 365/Sharepoint Online. So how can you give access to those Powerpoints to your students in DX without making them download the file? How do you help the students find the resources that they need easily? The answer: Embed them into your unit pages!

  1. Make sure your powerpoint is stored in a folder that has “granted access” to view for everyone except external users. (Note: you could just make this file available to your specific students, but then you need to make sure you do this for every file that you want to embed. By changing this permission at the folder level, anything you add to that folder will be able to embedded easily.)
  2. Open up the PPT and copy the embed code (use ⌘+ C).

  3. In DX, on the materials page add a “link/embed” block and paste (⌘+V) it in. Resize and reposition it as you need.
  4. When the student views the page, it may say that they need to sign in to Office 365. They just need to click the “Sign In” button since we use Office 365 to log in to DX anyway… it will then show.
BTW, this works with other Office Online docs like Word and Excel too…

Adding Teachers to DX Classrooms

August 15, 2019 / / 0 Comments

This is something that we often get requests for but it is really easy for you to do and will probably be faster than sending us an email and then wait for it to be actioned!

Step 1: Find a teacher that is currently in the class and ask them to open up the class in DX.

Step 2: Click on the People tab

Step 3: Click Add People

Step 4: Select Teacher from the drop-down menu (you can also add students in this way – just select the Learner option instead)

Step 5: Enter the email address of the teacher you want to add to the class.

Step 6: Click Add people

Step 7: For the teacher(or student)  being added to a class, you might need to log out and then log in again for this to take effect.

 

Accessing units in DX from previous years

August 15, 2019 / / 0 Comments

Many of you have come to see me about accessing your units from previous years classes. Follow these steps to do so and remember, it’s always a good idea to share your units to the relevant Sandbox so that you won’t have to do this each year!

Step 1: Go to your locker

Step 2: Select Locker Units. You can also access your posts and other information (explore the relevant tabs

Step3: Filter by classroom. In the drop-down menu, you will see your archived classrooms.

Step 4: Select the units you want to copy or re-share. You can select multiple units to share/copy at once, or you can do them individually.

These units will now appear in the classroom you chose to share/copy too. Remember to add them to the sandbox so that they are easily accessible year after year. If you cannot find units you are looking for, check with a colleague. If they made the unit, it will be in THEIR locker, not yours! Have them share to the Sandbox so that you and others can access the resources.

Parent Access to DX

November 20, 2018 / / 0 Comments

Currently, parents can access Dragons’ Exchange (DX) to see the deadlines that have been set for their children and to see how

In order to access Dragons’ Exchange, use the quick link at the top of the ISB web page/Dragons’ Gate or go to http://dx.isb.cn.

Click the login button:

When logging in, use the same email address that you use for Dragons’ Gate: first.last@isb.cn:

and use the same password:

Once logged in, you will see your children in MS or HS listed:

 

From here, you can either click their name to see a list of their active classrooms, or click the “to-do” link to see their full calendar.

Current Active Classes for this Student

 

Monthly Calendar of Deadlines

As a parent, you can also select the calendar function in  to see overdue and upcoming assignments and tasks for each student in DX:

Please note that parents do not have access to classrooms beyond the “About” page or to specific classroom resources.

Blogging!

September 18, 2018 / / 0 Comments

All images are free for use from Canva

A few simple rules for blogging:

  1. Don’t post your last name
  2. Cite everything that is not yours!
  3. Categorize your posts
  4. Embed your media & create “clean” links
  5. Use this rubric to write engaging MASTERY blogposts

 

How can you IMPROVE your blog:

  • Make sure you have categories for:
    • Humanities
    • Science
    • Math
    • Integrated
    • Design
    • Arts
    • Enrichments
    • Activities
    • Languages
    • Global-mindedness
    • Integrity
    • Respect
    • Balance
    • Service
    • Myself as a Learner (this is a category you use for posts to support your SLC)
  • Make sure your banner is personalized
  • Add a widget?

All done?  Have you blogged about a cool activity you’ve done or an athletics accomplishment?

Read other blogs… give them good feedback on their blogs!

 

 

 

Strip Designer – Comic Strip Creation

September 4, 2018 / / 0 Comments

Strip Designer is now available on our iPads! It’s a great app that allows students to create their own personal comic strip using photos from the photo album on the iPad or hand-drawn sketches. You can add simple image filters, speech bubbles, stickers and effect text like this – OMG!

While you edit your comic you can freely zoom and pan to manipulate even small details. When you are done, save the resulting image to the iPhone’s photo album, email it or share via Twitter or on the student blogs! Another cool alternive could be to use Book Creator an export to iBooks as full blown eBook for sharing.

There are loads of benefits to having students create comic strips in your classroom. Plasq Education describes the following as reasons to incorporate comic strip creation into your classroom:

  • They are a great visual representation of knowledge
  • Presents what is essential
  • Easier to remember a visual graphic containing key information
  • Engaging through thinking, creating and writing.
  • A perfect avenue for writing dialogue
  • Incites students with a low interest in writing
  • Helps organisation through storytelling and storyboarding
  • Using visual images convey meaning to a story or topic
  • Develops creative and higher level thought processes
  • Develops composition techniques through visual-verbal connections
  • Enriches reading, writing, and thinking
  • Serves as an assessment and evaluation tool
  • Sequencing promotes understanding

How do I use Strip Creator?

This app is simple to use but it also has the ability to use some more complex features. The following series of videos outline these features. Begin with the introduction and from there it’s easy to get started! If you’re keen to know more about a specific feature,  including image options, stickers and effects and cells, continue to view that video accordingly.

Introduction

Image Options

Stickers & Effects

Cell Adjustment

Now go, have fun and make comics! Be sure to share student exemplars with the Ed Tech team (and with the world via Twitter #learnISB) so that we can publish them here to share with others. Any support you might need, don’t hesitate to ask.

Enjoy!

Made by Laura in approximately 60 seconds!

 

 

VideoScribe – The Whiteboard Animation Tool!

March 2, 2018 / / 0 Comments

VideoScribe is a super great app for creating whiteboard animations. The application allows you to create fun, energetic and animated presentations without the fuss of having to draw on your own. The final product makes it look like you are drawing the illustrations and text – it’s impressive! Every time I’ve created and presented a VideoScribe video, I’m asked “Is that your hand?” – the answer, no! In addition to the simple and effective means to creating an engaging, scribed presentation, the app allows you the option to zoom out, at the completion of the video, and provide the audience with an overview of the story having just been told. This is an added bonus as presentations can essentially double as both video and print based media. This adds an additional challenge for students – What will my presentation look like in print? Will it tell my story without the need for audio or the structured flow of a video?

Here is a short video, created using VideoScribe, that outlines the many benefits of using video as a powerful tool for communication, in particular, the effectiveness of whiteboard style multimedia.

Recently, I have been working with a High School EAL class on a digital storytelling unit. One of the three tasks within this unit, was to develop a persuasive piece, using VideoScribe, on a current political issue, from an English speaking country. The planning process was significant in that, not only did students need to storyboard their persuasive argument, they also needed to consider how they would use the app to effectively convey their message. This included:

  • the selection of appropriate images and key words
  • the right balance of images vs. text
  • a clear and concise script for the voice over
  • selection of an audio track that would assist in conveying the message
  • the visual layout of the information (text and images) at the completion of the video (zoomed out view)

Wumian from Grade 9, choose to research and present his persuasive piece on the current debate in Australia: Should the date of Australia Day be changed?  This is his presentation:

This is another example of VideoScribe being used in the classroom. This time, a Grade 8 student explains the Syrian Revolution. Emily (Grade 8) says “The bloody Syrian Revolution is still going on and people to this day are dying. We think that not a lot people know about this subject, which is why we made this video.”

VideoScribe is now available on the iPads in the Middle and High School and will soon be available on the ES iPads. If you’re keen to offer this app as an alternative option for video creation, or perhaps use this app to create your own flipped learning content, let me know you need any assistance. The VideoScribe website offers a series of tutorials to help get you started. These include adding text and images, change draw and pause times, adding audio and soundtrack files, and publishing and sharing your scribe. I encourage you to give it a go!

How to Embed Video on your ISB Blog

February 13, 2018 / / 0 Comments

First – record awesome media!

Second – login to Dragon Tube

Third – Complete the following required information:

 

Fourth – scroll to the bottom to click “Submit” (make sure you see this message):

Wait a few minutes while your video uploads and converts

Fifth – Find and copy the embed code for your video

Sixth – go into your blog post, switch to “text” mode and paste the html to embed.  You will not be able to see the embedded video until you publish your post.

It should look like this:

 

Seesaw for Student Led Conferences

January 15, 2018 / / 0 Comments
Here are some recommendations for how to get the most from Seesaw in the upcoming Student Led Conferences. We would love to help you in any way we can – invite us to a team meeting, make a time for a one-to-one chat, or invite us to your class to guide student activities.

How can Seesaw enhance SLCs?

  • Begin by creating an “SLC 2018” folder for students to categorise their most effective SLC posts
  • Establish criteria that leads students through the process of reviewing their Seesaw journal and curating posts that highlight their learning most effectively;
    • Posts that demonstrate individualised student choice
    • A range of in progress and finished works (formative/summative, process/showcase)
    • Work across a range of L21 Skills and disciplines
    • A demonstration of incremental learning over different timeframes
  • Once students have added their best posts to the “SLC 2018” folder, they should review each post to make sure that the point they wish to articulate in the conference is clearly communicated (this could work well as a peer feedback/critique activity).
  • Students can then create a new comment with appropriate reflection and clarification if necessary to guide their conference.
Thanks and we hope to hear from you soon,

 

Sam & Bec
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