Use Animoto for creating short 30 second videos

Animoto is a FREE web tool that allows users to create 30 second videos that incorporate:

• images
• short video clips
• text
• music

Animoto can be found at http://animoto.com/. Users may provide all content or utilize images, videos, and music provided on the website. Completed videos may be viewed online or downloaded and viewed offline. 

Animoto for Education
Teachers may apply for a Free PLUS account that allows users to create videos up to 20 minutes in length. With an education account, teachers can monitor student work and limit access to the videos produced. After registering, teachers receive a code to share with up to 50 students. It took me about 30 minutes.The access code will expire after 6 months and you will need to request a new code within 30 days of expiration. The PLUS account is usually $60 per year for each non-education user. 

How to make an Animoto video

Love this - The Five Minute Lesson Plan from @TeacherToolkit

cc: http://chriswallace.net/category/blog/icons/

(This is a cross-post from  a post I wrote on the Schoolnet blog)
Twitter is definitely a teacher’s best friend! The ideas…and CREATIVE ideas at that… that come from one’s Twitter PLN are phenomenal. For example in a recent tweet I saw that Mark Anderson (@ICTevangelist) recommended #FF (which means ‘follow’) @ict_magic and @teachertoolkit. Now I know  the wonderful @ict_magic (Martin Burett) virtually and follow him,  but didn’t know @Teachertoolkit so I looked at his profile. It turned out to be Ross Morrison McGill, an assistant Head Teacher from the UK, who has developed the popular 5 minute lesson plan to help teachers with the Ofsted teaching assessments in the UK.

I really liked the sound of a five-minute lesson plan because... this sounds like the answer to a busy teacher's life - a great lesson plan in only five minutes!

What is the five minute lesson plan?
This 5 minute lesson plan has turned out to be hugely successful. Tes Resources advertise it like this “Now that Ofsted requires evidence of a ‘planned lesson’, you can reduce your lesson planning time and stay focussed on key learning phases within a lesson with this simple 5 Minute Lesson Plan resource.”

Here is a video explaining the five minute lesson plan from @TeacherToolkit (he presented it at a TeachMeet in the UK)


Hello everyone...

A closer look at the 5 minute lesson plan 

Take a look at @TeacherToolkit's website on the five minute lesson plan:
http://teachertoolkit.me/the-5-minute-lesson-plan/

This is how he explains the various parts of the five minute lesson plan:
The big picture : How does the lesson  fit into your scheme of work / topic? What knowledge are pupils coming to the lesson with already? What links have you made / can you make? Describe the lesson in 30 seconds!
Objectives : Your objectives for the current lesson. The arrow is just a visual reminder that your lesson is building on what’s gone before. I’d always try to incorporate at least 2 different leveled objectives – perhaps allowing students to choose their own.
Engagement : What’s the hook? How will you gain student attention at the start and throughout the lesson that is exciting and meaningful (without you working to hard!) that you’ll be using to lure pupils into learning? it’s not needed every lesson….but a good story often is enough!
Stickability’ : What will stick in pupils’ minds as they leave your lesson? What key point(s) do you want them to remember and bring back to the next lesson?
AfL (Assessment for Learning Strategies): How will you assess where your learners are at during the lesson, so as to know how to take them where you want to go? What AfL strategies are you going to use? What key questions will help you to lure pupils into learning? Plan for various (AfL) Assessment for Learning strategies to allow students to see progress. Use a Targeted-Question grid to help frame higher-order questions. Where possible, use the Pose Pause Pounce Bounce AfL strategy to stimulate discussion.
Key words : Literacy has never had such a high-profile as it has at the moment. Encourage students to read lesson objectives out. Pick out keywords and extrapolate their meanings. Use techniques to break down the phonics of each word and encourage visual recognition to reinforce. Plan what key-word you want students to learn. This promotes high levels of literacy which is an Ofsted focus. YOU COULD ALSO ADD NUMERACY TO THIS SECTION. Every lesson should involve some mathematical reference of link.
Differentiation / Groupings : Plan – at a glance – what activities you will provide for gifted and talented students; students with SEN/D and EAL. What sort of groupings are needed, what are they doing and when? Do you have this mapped to a seating plan with current levels of progress?
Learning episodes : What is going to happen in the lesson from start to finish? Identify as many opportunities for pupil-led learning as possible. The four boxes do NOT denote a four-part lesson. Just fill them up with what needs to happen.

Adaptations of this five minute lesson plan
Sparky Teaching has recreated this for elementary teachers and Ross gives the link on his website.

http://www.sparkyteaching.com/creative/the-5-minute-primary-lesson-plan/

How popular is the 5 minute lesson plan?
!37+ countries are using this lesson plan already.How do we know? Ross has created a Google map with pins. He asks folk to pin the whereabouts of their school if they are using this lesson plan and he gives a hyperlink to the Google map on his website.. So if you decide to use it let Ross know! 

The link to this map can be found here

Resources to take note of
1) Tes Resources has a link to this lesson plan 
Lesson plans for school teachers: 
2) The lesson plan as it stands on Tes (you'll need to join - free - first)
3) How to move your lessons from good to outstanding

My conclusion
I just love this idea. It all happened in a day’s tweeting. A teacher cannot afford to be without Twitter these days.

Curating with Paper.li

Have you discovered, like me, that Twitter is a very beneficial way of learning from a  PLN (Personal Learning Community)? I find most of my ideas stem from my educational Twitter community. But did you know that your Twitter feed can be made into an online newspaper using a free webtool called Paper Li? Every day I come across an online newspaper that has been created by a PLN member using Paper.Li and their Twitter feeds so I decided it was time to try it out for myself.

What is Paper.li?

Curation, as you probably know, is a current buzz word. Paper.li is a free curation tool that takes Twitter links from people you follow or specify and automatically publishes a digital newspaper on a daily or weekly basis. What happens, in more detail, is you tell it which sources to use. Paper.Li then pulls from those sources and arranges the material in different categories. Very clever!  After you have signed in you will be asked to Start your paper. Paper.li is a free service that takes links from the people you follow on Twitter and organizes those links into a virtual paper for easy reading. 

Finding sources to add

Once you click on 'Start your paper' as shown on the right you will be required to choose your sources. One has to be choosy in who you add as your sources if you have a desired outcome for the final version. Paper.li allows you to add around 25 sources from traditional news sources, Twitter hashtags, or Twitter list feeds. I experimented about four times with this not realising that each time my Paper.Li might have been circulating among my Twitter followers! Oh dear! If that happens to you, then delete the newspaper each time when you start again because it saves automatically.

The diagram above hows show the page looks when you are adding your various sources.At this point you have to be very selective and only choose the sources you really want to draw from. Make your selections from the left grey bar, or add your own hashtags to the window at the tip of the middle column, and drag them accross. 

How to make your own Paper.li

So let’s get started. Give Paper.Li a try. Here is a short basic list of steps:

1. Ask Google for http://paper.li/
2. Select “Start your paper Paper”.
3. You will be prompted to sign in using Twitter.
4. Select “Create a newspaper”
5. Provide the sources for your paper – lists, hashtags, or twitter accounts from which you want the paper created

I came across a very good screencast from an educator saying how she went about making her first Paper.li so I am going to embed it here.

http://www.screenr.com/92Ss

The structure of a Paper.li (click on the thumbnail)

This picture above shows how a Paper.Li turns out. Basically you don’t much say over what appears – the tweets are sourced by Paper.Li from the sources you provided. I found that I deleted a number of the tweets as they weren’t relevant to what I wanted, and then Paper.li just added another.  If you click on this thumbnail you’ll be taken to the actual paper I created which gives a good idea of the structure. If you are unsuccessful here is the URL: http://paper.li/fibeal/1341787139#

How to use Paper.Li as an educator

1. Set up a class hashtag if your school allows it.  Recognize that tweets with links to articles, videos, and images, make the best content for Paper.li. You could even create a relevant  paper a week for your students.

2. Student’s could use paper.li to create newspapers that are aligned to a particular topic. They would then have to source people who write or tweet on their topic, or a hashtag that is used for that particular topic. Here are three examples of subject specific Paper.Li’s from Lucy Grey. One is devoted to global education, another to mobile learning and a third focuses on her favourite general education resources and thought leaders.

3. You could set up a hashtag based on a Unit of work you want to cover,  and then tweet a series of web pages, videos, articles, etc. on that topic. Your students could then read your Tweet Paper for the day to get information.

Undoubtedly as you read this blogpost your mind will be jumping to ideas that are relevant and specific to you for trying out Paper.Li. Would love to hear about them!

Further reading

1) A newspaper of tweets:

http://mullinshe.wordpress.com/2012/01/26/a-newspaper-of-tweets/

2) Revisiting paper.li as a curation tool:
http://www.lucygray.org/weblog/2012/06/revisiting-paperli-as-a-curation-tool.html

3) Provide students with a personalised newspaper every day
http://theinnovativeeducator.blogspot.com/2010/10/provide-students-with-personalized.html

4) Kate Morgan: Curating the classroom
http://community.paper.li/2011/10/12/kate-morgan-curating-the-classroom/

5)How to use Paper.li
http://www.stayonsearch.com/how-to-use-paper-li-the-daily-twitter-newspaper

A slideshow of the Microsoft TeachMeet

I am adding this Slideshow of the Microsoft TeachMeet in Johannesburg because I was asked to find the participants and collect their PowerPoints. This was the first TeachMeet in South Africa so it was a very exciting event. If you want to visit the TeachMeetSouth Africa wiki I've created here is the URL: http:teachmeet-southafrica.wikispaces.com

A TeachTweet? That's a novel idea!

cc: http://chriswallace.net/category/blog/icons/

While browsing around on one of my favourite applications, Twitter, I came across a couple of interesting tweets inviting folk in the UK to a TeachTweet! I know about TeachMweets (and love them) but TeachTweets?! Well luckily for me, it is all happening tonight (31st October) so I’ll be there virtually to investigate! It is all part of the #ukedchat Twitter chat.

The TeachTweet website
There is a TeachTweet website (http://ukedchat.com/teachtweet/) so I have taken a surf round it. Awesome! Just look at some of the presentations for tonight’s TeachTweet – and they know exactly what time they’ll be broadcasting!

So, what exactly is a TeachTweet?
TeachTweet is an online twist to the TeachMeet genre to bring the Twitter backchannel to the fore. @UKedchat and @ICTmagic host the events together, and they encourage educators to submit videos sharing ideas and innovation within schools. Wow, and this is the fourth one tonight!

I looked through some of the rules to get the gist of everything

• The sessions run from 8pm to 9.30pm approx, and we ask for pre-recorded* videos between 3-5 minutes long which can be viewed openly on sites such as YouTube or Vimeo** and discussed by the Twitter audience.
• We request that these are new presentations, please. The links to the videos will be tweeted out for the audience to watch, so they should be viewed in ‘near’ sync.  Please ensure you are available online during the session to talk or answer questions about your video (via twitter).
• If you wish to make a video to showcase during the session, please ensure you are free on the evening, so you are available to discuss your presentation and answer any questions from the audience, via the #ukedchat hashtag.
• *We are using pre-recorded videos to (hopefully) minimise technical problems.
• **We are using video sites because we wanted anyone to find the presentations easily on a range of devices within needing to sign in to a video discussion forums. This also lets us use Twitter for discussion where the audience can ‘@’ to people rather than just appearing in a feed and to feel more like a regular TeachMeet backchannel.

Previous sessions
There is a PDF link to previous sessions with their videos on their website.

There is a blog showing archived sessions: http://ukedchat.com/2013/03/28/session-144-teachtweet-session/

There is a Scoopit with links to previous presentations http://www.scoop.it/t/links-from-ukedchat-sessions (usually stored on the presenter’s blog)

There is a form for signing up to present at future sessions.

Last night’s session (Session 175 – TeachTweet 5)
So, last night (31 October) I tuned in to the TeachTweet’s #ukedchat and lurked...and watched the videos! Fascinating! Exciting! As the short videos were watched individually at the assigned time, so the attendees at the #ukedchat Twitter chat commented on what was being said in the videos.

Here are the video links:

1. James Abela (@eslweb) Vector Drawing with PowerPoint –View the video here.
2. Lee Parkinson (@ICT_MrP) - The power of the internet to inspire writing. View the video here.
3. Alessio Bernardelli (@asober or @Collaborat_Ed) - Peer Assessment with Aurasma. View the video here.
4. Jon Tait (@TeamTait) – The Global Classroom; how to use SKYPE to create a global classroom. View the video here.
5. Hannah Tyreman (@HannahTyreman) – Feedback strategies and methods. View the video here.
6. David Obst (@david_obst) - How to make your own high-speed video. View the video here.
7. Martin Burrett (@ICTmagic) - Tricks and Treats for your classroom. View the video here.
8. Andy Lewis (@iTeachRE & @TalkingDonkeyRE) - ”Dazzle Us!” Our Family Learning Project. View the video here.
9. Danny Nicholson (@dannynic) - Interactive resources for teaching Science. View video here.
10. Andy Knill (@aknill) - Mishmash reflection. View the video here.
11. Daniel Harvey (@DanielHarvey9) - Applying research models to classroom practice. View the video here.

Well done on this fantastic innovation #ukedchat. I love your idea of TeachTweets!

[Grade 7] Make a Popplet about a famous medical person

The Grade 7s are learning about medicine in Social Sciences, so I thought we would do a revision lesson today. They could choose theiir own famous medical person and they would learn to use Popplet at the same time. Popplet is a great mindmapping tool - pity you are only allowed five free popplets!  I created a PowerPoint on using Popplet for those who struggled and needed support.



Popplet links

}An example of a Maths Popplet: http://popplet.com/app/index.php#/103497
}Open Popplet http://popplet.com/
}A PDF giving step by step instructions on how to make a Popplet
http://darceynoska.weebly.com/uploads/1/0/4/7/10473613/howtousepopplet.pdf
}A video tutorial on using Popplet http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0uubtN4ybYE



The Grade 7s loved using Popplet.