Geotagging: How can students use it?

This week I learned something completely new to me: Geotagging. Have you ever checked in somewhere on Facebook, Google +, or Blogger? Those ideas are not new to me. However, having my students geotag was an entirely new concept. I was not sure how difficult it would be for students to geotag or how I would create a lesson that would be appropriate for geotagging.

Luckily I was introduced to Flickr a photostream site where photos can be uploaded. After photos are uploaded you can tag them, name them, add a description, add them to a group and many more creative things. There are so many great things that can be done with geotagging.

More example Lessons on Geotagging coming soon!!!!




Geotagging Famous American Lesson-

Grade: 1^st

Subject: Social Studies and Language Arts

Materials: Internet, Flickr, Computers/computer lab, Delicious Stacks



This will be a lesson that wraps up a unit. After learning about Famous American, students will research a Famous American of their choice. The teacher will explain that after we learn about Famous Americans we will be working with a few other classes in schools from Maryland, Texas, Florida, and North Carolina. The teacher will inform students on how to use Flickr by showing students how to add tags to pictures, join the group, add a description and of course geotag. Students will

1. Teacher will give directions and guidelines for researching Famous Americans
2. There will be six famous Americans to choose from. There will be 3 students in each group in my class.
3. After students know the FA they will be researching they will get on the Delicious Stacks site on Famous Americans to search for information about their person. Students can find their chosen FA by clicking on the tags on the side of the screen.
4. Students will find facts about places that the FA lived, died, fought in war, or a historical even occurred and take notes on it in their research notebook. They will also find pictures as they search for more about the FA. They will save the pictures in the Famous American folder inside of a folder with their name.
5. When students are finished with research the teacher will talk about joining the group on Flickr where a group of students from the many different schoosl will be joined with us to learn more about FA.
6. Students will join the group on Flickr.
7. Students will add pictures. Then they will tag by the name of the FA, add a description, and geotag at least the state that the FA was in at the time. If a city was listed teacher will help to make sure students type it in correctly on the map search.
8. When students are finished adding picture, adding name and description, and geotagging they will use their Flickr projects to create a Voicethread for their Famous American person
9. After presentations the class will learn from the other class’s tags in their Flickr group

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Tagging Lesson

Tagging is a great way for teachers and students alike to organize and search. In this lesson my first grade students used tagging to sift through to find websites that help them find answers to questions and information about the subject.

Lesson Overview:

Introduction: The teacher will show students pictures of various plants on the board and have them use what they know about plants to infer where the plants habitat may be. The teacher will explain to students that plants adapt to the environment they live in to survive.

Questions: The teacher will pose questions that students will need to know by the end of the lesson. She will write down some of the “What I think I knows” on the board to save for later. Questions: “How and why do plants adapt to their environment?”, “What resources and characteristics do plants need to survive in different environments?”, “How can you identify characteristics of a plant that help them survive in their own distinct environment?”, etc.

Video: After the teacher has talked to students a little more about habitats and plant environments, the teacher will show a video on Brainpop Jr. called plant adaptations. Teacher and students will discuss the video

Student Response: The students will then take out their Activexpressions to do a short formative assessment about plant environments. Students will choose the best environment for a plant after first knowing the specific needs of that plant.

Notes: Students will take research notes throughout the lesson to add to what they have learned on the KWL chart.

Research: Teacher will have previously gone over directions on how to research Delicious stacks by typing in key words/main words on the Delicious Stack the teacher created. Teacher will put students into research groups and will explain the guidelines for group research. The students will receive an outline to assist them in finding the necessary information needed to complete the lesson. Students will use classroom computers and laptops to get on Delicious Stacks for research. There will be about 4 students at each computer. The students will get on the plant stack on Delicious that the teacher created and they will search the best tags to answer certain questions. Students, especially at this young age are overwhelmed during research if there are websites scattered on a page or all over the web without tags. Another problem is making it too simple for students, by putting each set of websites in a certain folder or spot to locate each set of questions. Tagging allows teachers to make a Stack of websites for students to use for many different questions. It also allows students to have freedom to search for the best websites to answer questions or find more information by searching key words. When students know how to search by tags, they understand the overall question and can search for an answer by using tags to find the website.

Blog: After students have finished conducting research they will each use the classroom blog to blog about 3 different plant habitats and explain how they think that plants can survive there from what they have learned in their research.
Each individual student will blog and then leave one question they have about plant environments for a peer to answer. Students can add pictures and attatchments to support their thinking.

Visualizing Poetry

During our poetry unit in 1st grade we discuss the importance of finding meaning in poetry through word choice and figurative language. We listen to songs and discuss the likenesses between songs and poems. One of the songs we listen to is "House that Built Me" by Miranda Lambert because most students can make connections to it and really find meaning withing the words. I created a podcast to read my students a poem that I wanted them to visualize. Students will use the poem as a mentor text to write their own poem using details that will help the reader visualize their writing.

Visualizing Poetry Podcast

http://www.voki.com/pickup.php?scid=5742640&height=267&width=200

 

More Ideas

I found a few really cool blogs about table top tweeting! Check it out. It may be worth while to try.

http://minimatisse.blogspot.com/2012/01/homeroom-trophy-and-twitter.html

http://artfor1170.blogspot.com/2012/01/twitter.html



Here is a website that informs teachers how to build a positive online community.

http://www.commonsensemedia.org/educators/lesson/build-your-ideal-community-7-8#.T-3PW_rdsqo.pinterest


This is a great blog!!! I found a few new resources for students that I had never heard of. Here is a website that this teacher said she is replacing glogster with http://www.easel.ly/.

http://mesmrswhitesclass.blogspot.com/- Take a look at some of her technology ideas.


Love this because I use Edmodo, but it is a great idea for blogging in general.

Blogging on Web 2.0

Web 2.0 Tools for FREE???

As an elementary school teacher I know the importance of using tools that help students learn how to communicate, collaborate, create, and think critically. I also know how much time I waste finding ways to integrate these tools into my classroom. Below there are some great FREE Web tools that I have learned how to implement into my classroom of first graders. I explain how these tools can be used for you and your students. There are a few examples from my classroom and others that I found to be helpful.


Voicethread- A collaborative multimedia slide show that is sorted and accessed online. Comments can be recorded by webcam or microphone, as well as typed in.

How can I use it in my classroom?

 

Collaborating and communicating through the cloud

• Projects- performance assessment for culminating
• Performance projects- Geometry: Voicethread
• Debates-Common Core- Understanding both sides and being able to make points about both.

Whole Group and Small Group Learning

• Comprehension of skills
• Continuous Learning
• Student involvement and engagement
• Example- Nonfiction Text Features

Example of a Voicethread my students and I created this Voicethread at the end of the year: http://voicethread.com/#q.b3058464.i0.k0Jing about Voicethread was used to explain how to do a performance project on plants.http://screencast.com/t/2HLNxJIBG

Word Clouds-

Many people have heard of word clouds like Wordle. Wordle serves the purpose of a word cloud, but the two word clouds that I mention below are a little more versatile. Unlike Wordle with these to word clouds students and teachers can save their projects and can do more with the layout and shape.

Taxedo is an exciting way to turn words into customized shapes, while using various themes, fonts, layouts and orientations. It is a fantastic way to bring words to life. With Taxedo there is an option to post the url code with the words that you use from that website. After doing this you can click on the words that have been tagged to the url and many websites will come up that have a relationship to that word.

 101 Ways to Use Taxedo - There are so many effective ways to use taxedo in the classroom.  One way we use Taxedo in my classroom is with student of the week. We upload a picture of the student of the week for the shape of the word cloud and each student comes up and types something nice about the student. Then I hang up the finished product in the classroom and give another copy to the student to keep. 



ABCya is a kid friendly word cloud that allows students to navigate easily as they plug words in the cloud.

Glogster- A collaborative online learning platform to express creativity, knowledge, ideas, and skills in the classroom. *See directions on how to register on Glogster below.

Here are the Glogster Directions that will assist you in get started on Glogster. Directions explain how to navigate around Glogster.

4th of July Glogster - Glogster can be used for many things, but just as blogs can be used to express ideas, a Glogster can be used the same way. Some really neat features about Glogster is that videos, pictures, quotes, information, and many more things can be added like a collage to the page to express ideas, tell a story, give facts about a subject, tell about yourself, etc.

Voki- My kids absolutely love Voki. There are so many ways to use Voki in the classroom. Sign up on the website for Voki classroom for free. Students can choose characters and customize them. After finding a character students can type in or record with a microphone what they would like characters to say. I use Voki to introduce new units, talk about vocabulary, and explain directions. Students use Voki to tell stories, present information, and debate. Great resource for free!!

Class Dojo- Classroom Management tool- Sometime after Christmas a fellow teacher and I came across this website while searching for something on Pinterest. We looked into it and thought we would give it a try. I think giving Class Dojo a try was one of the best decisions I made all year. This website is very easy to use and students absolutely love it! Almost every teacher in the school uses this website after seeing results.

The picture below is a screenshot of my Class Dojo website. You can add or take away points depending on behavior. Students work to reach a certain amount of points to receive Class Dojo Rewards (my rewards list) . The avatars that students have can be changed. Teachers may also upload pictures for the avatars. My students behavior has dramatically changed since using this website. They honestly did not misbehave much before, but now they work extra hard to earn positive points.

 One awesome feature about Class Dojo is the parent email feature. The points earned and lost are all on the student's report. If you click on email parent it automatically sends their report to the saved email for that student. You can send all parents an email of their child's report at the same time. I send one report each week through email. If parents do not have email I print the report. You can send behavior reports as often as you like.

There are so many great features, but the best thing about this website is how effecient and time saving it is. It organizes everthing for you, has a report on each student, charts, attendance, parent email, and much more. Check it out!!!

Bookmarks
Jog the Web and Delicious Stacks

 I have used so many different types of bookmark portals with my kids such as Share Tabs, My Portaportal, and other online bookmarking sites for kids. I use the bookmarking sites to save websites that my students will use to complete projects or assignments. This makes it so much easier for students to find what they need. Even if you are trying to teach them which websites are appropriate and which are not as helpful, it is simple to upload a few websites that are not as helpful as the rest.



Delicious Stacks-Plant Research - Delicious is the easiest and most efficient bookmarking website for students to use for many reasons (in my opinion). Delicious does not require a login to access the site. Another great quality is that students cannot change anything on the website, but they can look at every website that the teacher adds. Each stack on Delicious has a tidbit of information and a picture to introduce the site or video, so students can choose the best websites to research.

Jog the Web- this is a wonderful site to save websites you will be using during a unit, a presentation, series of lessons, etc. It saves websites in a presentation style that helps you organize.

Something different about jog the web is that you can search for other teacher's presentations that they have saved on Jog the Web. For example if I was doing a unit on Geometry I could type that in the search bar and various websites that other people saved would show up. I do not have to create my own bookmarks every time because there are many effective websites that other teachers took the time and effort to save. I don't always use what others upload, but most of the time I use at least two or three of the websites they have in my own presentation.

Edmodo- this is a website that my students use to blog. Each students have their own password to get in. There are many privacy features to keep this safe. My students are young and I do not allow them to comment on each others page, but they can post comments to me. Students post blogs about educational videos, pictures and songs. They answer questions about standards and have discussions about units.

Another really cool feature on Edmodo is the Library page and document page. I am able to save and organize songs, videos, and documents to my Edmodo where it easy to find. I save links from Pinterest and other teachers' blogs, so that I can get to it fast and easy. I do make these visible so that parents can look at these through their child's page.