Third Grade Common Core

It seems there is much discussion over the Common Core Standards. Lately I have seen postings surfacing about it and I've been in more than one conversation in the last 3 days concerning Common Core Standards. Well now, from CoreCommonStandards.com comes a workbook to help guide teachers in implementing the standards. This book is filled with so many resources for teachers. Worksheets, activities and listings of the standards arranged in an orderly manner with colorful and easy to read pages. The workbooks available here are a must have for teachers who are trying to navigate into the adoption of the Common Core Standards for their state.

Currently on their site, workbooks, such as the Third Grade Common Core Workbook, are available. The workbooks are downloadable so the resources are easy to access right from your computer while you are planning your lessons. The site also offers links to the standards for all states who have adopted the Common Core, plus you can look at standards by grade level or by subject (English or Math).

Be sure to take a look at the Core Common Standards and all that is offered here.

TCEA 2013 , 360 Cities and iBooks Author

I am back from a great week spent in Austin for the TCEA conference. So many wonderful sessions. My brain is still jumbled and I will need to sort through my notes of links and things. I also had the pleasure of presenting three sessions with my partner in crime, Carol Mayo, the director of professional development for the diocese. On Monday, we presented Websites with Weebly. Full session and lots of great comments afterwards. Likewise for our Tuesday session of Award Winning Websites with Animoto. And finally, a small but very enthusiastic crowd for our Paper Slide and Mime Videos. All of our session material can be found on Carol's website, Hold the Mayo (cute name isn't it? A nice play on words with her name!). If you are interested, please take a look. There are even some of the completed projects from the attendees. Among the links posted is a link to our STARCamp wikispace. This is a teacher tech camp that we have taught for a few years. Carol also does lots of other trainings and her resources can be found within the site.

I think one of the things I most benefited from this year at TCEA were the sessions on working with iBooks Author with Alexis Carroll Cline, the publications specialist at TCEA. (You can follow her twitter feed here) I had played with iBooks Author before but I feel I have a much better grasp of how to work with it now.

Another favorite session was Digital Field Trips with Naomi Thompson from the Fort Worth ISD. She shared some links I don't remember seeing before. I was really intriguied by 360cities.net. There are so many places from around the world to visit. Perhaps you would like to show your students the Colosseum in Rome up close (be sure to follow the arrows to look inside), or the magnificent Machu Picchu, or maybe a peek inside the Louvre in Paris? I could spend many hours just perusing all of the listings in this site. 360cities.net can be used in any subject, visiting a battlefield, home of an author, or the interior of a cathedral. 360 can take your students on that field trip some may never take.

Many of the presenters had handouts for their presentations which can be found here. Check out the list, there may be something here that interests you.

All in all, it was a very good week. I will try to post more of what I learned in the coming weeks. So much to digest. This coming week is a trip to San Antonio for the TMEA/TI:ME conference. More learning!

Paper Slide or Pantomine Videos

January 2013? We are more than half way through the month and I think I have been writing 2012 still. Well I hope my dear reader that you are more focused than I am. I am gearing up for 2 conferences, TCEA (Texas Computer Educators) and TMEA (Texas Music Educators). TCEA will be in Austin, Texas and I have the pleasure of presenting 3 sessions with my good friend Carol Mayo. They are all 3 hour hands on sessions and we are very excited. Monday, February 4, we will be presenting Weebly, Tuesday the 5th will be Animoto and then finally on Thursday will be Paper Slide videos. Which brings me to my post today.

I knew I had written about Paper Slide videos once before so I went back to look at the post. Not much to say was there? I was disappointed that the video from our teacher tech camp would not play and I have tried fixing it to no avail. Recently, however, I used PSV (Paper Slide Videos) with one of my music classes. I introduced the concept to an 8th grade class, gave them the song they were going to use and let them at it. The song, by the way, was chosen because I knew they had just finished studying this in their science class. I gave them one class period to complete the pictures and to film.
The next week I had them take the same song and they had to pantomime the words. Lots of fun and they did a great job. They were very willing and I enjoyed watching them come up with their ideas. This link will take you to my classroom page where you can view both the PSV and the pantomime version.

An idea like PSV or pantomime really is quite easy to do with students. I did very little prep with them other than showing them an example of other students' work. I supplied them with paper and markers and their section of the song. I do think that any PSV should be relatively short in length, a few minutes at most.

So I reccommend to you to not be afraid and try it with your kids. There are many examples out on youtube so no matter what subject you teach you should be able to find an example. It does not have to be song like I did but have your students explain a concept they have just learned. Diagram a sentence, do a math problem, create a "how to" video, so many things you can do!

Here is quick (and kind of lame) PSV about PSV!

Paper Slide Video about Paper Slide Videos! from MKuterbach on Vimeo.

2012 to 2013

December is always a crazy month for me. If you have read my profile, you will notice that I am a music teacher so December naturally has a holiday program. It definitely consumes most of my energy! I haven't been totally absent from my tech world so I had to get in one last post before the year ends. This post does not come necessarily from an educational search but it does have classroom applications also.

I was looking for a way to send a video message that my elderly mother could open and see without actually downloading a video. I also wanted it to be private and most of all FREE. I did a little looking around and of course one of my first searches for great web tools is with Richard Byrne's Free Technology for Teachers. I am always forever grateful to people like him who take the time and energy to do extensive research on web tools. I trust the sites he recommends and his thoughts on classroom applications.

My search led me to Kincast. Yeah, his post was over a year ago, but I didn't need something like this a year ago! And yes, like most web 2.0 tools, I believe they have changed since Mr. Byrne first wrote about them. However, Kincast offers a way to upload or record directly videos of any size that you can share privately. For my purposes, which is to share videos with family, this is perfect. The free version gives you unlimited sharing and 30 minutes of cloud storage. There are paid versions, monthly and yearly,  that offer more storage and other options. People that you share with do not need an account or password to view your videos (again I needed EASY for my mother) and only need to click on a link in their email.

File size for uploading is 4GB per video. In the free version, once you hit the 30 min limit, they will ask you if you want to upgrade. If you choose to stay on the free version, they will delete your oldest videos to make room for your new one. You can also delete videos whenever you want. Kincast has a great HELP page with FAQs.

For the classroom, Kincast could be an easy way for teachers to share student videos privately with their parents. Even though the site is private, please note that the site is not intended for use by anyone under age 13 and their privacy policy states that you must be 18 to create an account. This is an important factor for teachers and I remind you to always check the privacy policies of websites if you intend to use them with your students. You should also be aware of your school district's internet policies.

Happy New Year!