Operation Save the Turkey

Check out my latest holiday-themed creation! Operation Save the Turkey has your students disguise a turkey to save him from becoming a Thanksgiving feast! They will also have to create a story to go with it.

Operation Save the Turkey

Happy Thanksgiving!

Gif Creation

I love teaching with gifs! They are fun ways of reaching your students and adding a little humor to your room. A lot of times I just search for gifs that I want to use but sometimes I can't find what I'm looking for. When that happens I use Recordit. It's a downloadable program that you can use to screen record and it automatically turns your video into a gif. If I want to make it even fancier, I make my creation on Apple's Keynote, then save it as a video. Keynote has some of the best animation features that can really make things come alive. Below is an example of a gif I made.

Here are the steps I used:

1. Type and add images in a Keynote presentation 

2. Add animation

3. Export presentation as a video file

4. Open recordit and record your video playing 

5. Once your gif is recorded open it (it will open in your preferred web browser - I like using Safari with my gifs)

6. On occasion, it will not automatically open as the gif file so you will need to click gif at the bottom

7. Click file - save as - and save it to your computer. 

8. From here you can upload it to your drive, LMS, etc. 

Low-Tech Ways of Preventing Plagiarism

Plagiarism is not only becoming more common but almost too easy for students. Since the majority of our students use their computers a simple mouse click can allow them to plagiarize. I spend a good portion of time at the very beginning of school going over plagiarism and how to avoid it but inevitably students will still try. So I have a few methods that I use to help make catching plagiarism that much easier!

Option 1:
Change your font styles to something different so that when they copy and paste something from a website the website's text will stick out. Believe it or not by that is how I catch 90% of my plagiarizers (they never change the font styles to match).

To make your new font automatic follow these steps (I use Georgia)

1. Type and adjust your font to look how you want and highlight it
2. Click normal text - normal text - update normal text to match
3. Click normal text - options - save as my default style

Option 2: 

When I create my assignments I typically create the answer key first. Then I make a copy of that document to become the one my students will fill out. Then I simply delete the answers from their copy. Whenever I do this I always make the answers in blue this way it's easy to see and I won't forget to delete the answers later. If I do this, when the students go to answer the questions their text will automatically appear in blue. Now some students will change it back to black but for the most part, this becomes a quick visual check for any signs that answers were copied and pasted. 

EdPuzzle Student Projects

Are you tired of lesson planning? Want to switch things up in your classroom? Try EdPuzzle Student Projects and let your students become a teacher for a day! Instead of finding the perfect video, creating questions, and then assigning it to your students have them create their own EdPuzzle videos!

Teacher Instructions - This presentation will walk you through how to use and create EdPuzzle Student projects!

Student Instructions - These are step-by-step directions that will walk your students through how to create their videos!

Happy Planning!

Happy Halloween!

Halloween can be a dreaded holiday for teachers because of behavior, sugar highs, and costumes. BUT it shouldn't be! As teachers, we are often overwhelmed by so much of our jobs that we sometimes forget to stop and enjoy! Holidays are the perfect time to take a break from teaching our curriculum and find ways of connecting with our students! I don't mean letting your class dissolve into chaos and feeding them lots of sugar but simply breaking up their daily routine.

Here's my agenda from this Haloween:

1. Halloween Bell Ringer
- Using Forms I ask them what their favorite Halloween costume is and what they are dressing up as this year.

2. History of Halloween Video
- I'm a history teacher so I had to sneak something in!
- Using History Channel I found a 2 min video clip!

3. Build a Jack-O-Lantern
- This is a fun project where students create their own Jack-O-Lantern and write a story about it
- I'm using the amazing Eric Curts' (Control Alt Achieve) presentation!
- To use this, click file + make a copy
- Be sure to check out Eric's website for more great ideas!

4. Mapping Activity
- After we finished all of our Halloween fun they went back to working on their normal assignments
- I played a kid-friendly Halloween playlist from YouTube to keep the fun going!

Classroom Jetsetters: How to Create Classroom Explorers

Feel like taking a tour around the world? Want to teach your students lessons in fun and meaningful ways? Use Google Tour Builder, My Maps, Expeditions, and Google Earth to create student projects and bring the world into your classroom! Instead of just talking about the world, break down the classroom walls and SHOW it to them!

bit.ly/classroomjetsetters

Drive Organization

Organization can be very helpful but very difficult to achieve! One of my favorite organizational tips with Google Drive is using emojis to name folders. Here is how you can accomplish this:

1. Open up a blank Doc
2. Click Insert
3. Choose Special Characters
4. Change the symbols to emoji
5. Choose the emoji you want
6. The emoji should appear on your doc, copy it
7. Open your Drive
8. Right click on your folder and choose rename
9. Paste the emoji