Why, hello there.
The end of the year brings upon us a lot of trying questions. How do we keep these kids engaged after state testing, am I still going to be teaching the same grade level, and my personal favorite—-how am I going give up my sweet babies to 4th grade?
I was given information about a wonderful FREE app that I just have to share with you all. I am in love with all things technology, it’s my favorite subject to share with you all. I hope you all have taken these tutorials and ideas and made them functional in your own classroom.
I month or so ago, I blogged about web quests and how my class is borderline obsessed with them. I am obsessed with buying purses, so I have to accept their behavior if society can accept mine 😉
The kids received a link that I posted to on edmodo. The link took them to a “SYMBALOO”.
A symbaloo is a grid that houses tons of links to anything you would like in one specific place.
To see what one looks like, click {HERE}
I pre-searched articles and videos that were appropriate for my third graders and placed them on a symbaloo. The kids were given a task to research a national hero that aligned with the 3rd grade Texas TEKS.
Each student received a piece of paper like the one below to organize their information that they were researching. We had great conversation for the, “Why is this person important” part. We discussed that it is basically a summary of all the nonfiction articles we read. We must ‘get the gist’ of these heroes and highlight them without dragging out the summary.
Once the student finished researching their hero and their information page was approved by me, the creation began! Each student was placed into a group of 4. Each of the 4 students researched a DIFFERENT hero. They were required to make a Vidra video (don’t worry the explanation is coming) about their hero. On Friday, they traded iPads in their group to learn about the other heroes by watching the videos that their peers created. They took notes on the videos and provided feedback to their peers. They gave warm fuzzes and areas to improve on their videos.
To know what was required in each video, I printed a check list rubric on the back of their information page. The rubric told them which slides needed certain information. I also created an editable rubric so teachers can edit to meet the needs of their classroom.
What is Vidra?
I will be honest and say that I was hesitant to jump right in and get my kids creating on iMovie. It is definitely a program I do want my kids to become familiar with. Vidra is a movie making program that has options like educreations and powerpoint.
Do yourself a favor, download the app and click the pre-made video, “How to make a Vidra”.
The setting buttons has options to change the background music, how long the slides will be played, and background.
One feature that I just LOVE, is that you can turn down the background music if your students voice is too soft.
Vidra is FREE, however it does offer a paid option which means that some of the options on the free version are limited. You can house up to 5 videos at a time BUT you can save them to your camera roll.
I love the way that Vidra breaks down the components into slides. The kids had a much easier time recording their voice and checking to see how it turned out. Check out the example in the video below.
Want to see some final products from my kids? Click the videos below! 🙂
A Vidra on Hector P. Garcia
A Vidra on Juliette Gordon Low:
A Vidra on Harriet Tubman:
A video over Ellen Ochoa
A Vidra on Todd Beamer:
Want to try out these Webquests? I have aligned these web quests to the TX 3rd grade TEKS.
They can easily be modified to Common Core reading and researching skills.
For National Heroes click {HERE}
For Space travel heroes click {HERE}
Recently created….INVENTORS!
Click the picture or [HERE] to see it in detail!
Feel free to pin any of these images for future reference on this great free app!
I hope you enjoyed this #PZTechTips!
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Sra. Carro
May 2, 2015 at 11:11 pmThis app looks super cool and like why haven't I heard of it before?? Thank you for the throrough explanation and details on how you use it!
FlapJack
A Classroom Full of Smiles
May 11, 2015 at 11:46 pmGirl! This is awesome.
Rachel Mack
May 17, 2015 at 10:50 amI can't wait to check this out!
Rachel
thirdgradecupcakes.blogspot.com