Is Youtube blocked at your School???

Yesterday, I posted about using Edmodo, youtube and other online resources to help get students excited about reading. (You can read that bog post HERE.)  Marcia from Learning is Bliss left me a comment that reminded me that many districts block youtube.

 Did you konw that there is a way to convert youtube videos to Mp4's and save them on your computer or save them on a flash drive?!?!?! Well, there is! I learned about it at the same conference that introduced me to Edmodo. (Obviously it was a pretty AMAZING conference:) ) .

There is an awesome, FREE website called Keep Vid. I am including a picture tutorial below but basically you paste the youtube URL into the Keep Vid website and then it converts it into an MP4 file. It literally takes just a few minutes and then you are able to keep the video. (Just like the name implies!) The only draw back is that there are tons of those tricky ads that look legit parts of the website but are actually just advertisements. Don't click on the ads. Use the tutorial below.

Keep vid will give you a couple of different options to save the file. I have always save mine as an MP4. Works every time! 

I am actually lucky, in that youtube is not blocked at my school, but I still use keep vid for a couple of reasons. Our internet can be really slow at school so this bypasses that whole problem of the video pausing or having to reload the page.  Plus I don't have to worry about the ad or comments on youtube. Once you've saved your video as an MP4 you can also easily use it with power point or other programs. 

Anyway, this little website has come in handy for me. I hope that it is useful to you as well! 

Now I am off to grade papers with one of my very best friends at Strabuck's...chances are we will get very little done but oh well! A little friend time is good for this girls soul.  

Have a wonderful weekend! :) 

PS I officially hit 50 followers. So excited! :) 

Book Clubs & Edmodo

Hi all! Happy Saturday!

I wanted to share s fun little resource that kids L-O-V-E. It's called Edmodo. Have you heard of it????

I actually first heard about Edmodo at a technology conference over the summer. It is basically like Facebook but can be used for communicating with your students online. If you check out the image below you can REALLY see the similarities to fb!

It is a secure site, password protected and nobody else sees the info posted so there is a lot less to worry about than some other sites. To be honest, I don't remember all of the security details because the conference was in July but I do know that it was approved for our school and we are kinda strict about all that stuff!

Anyway, our 7th grade teachers have been using Edmodo with great success. They even post assignments online and the students turn them in via Edmodo. Since it's just like Facebook, you can use it to facilitate peer to peer discussions as well....

Which brings me to the book club. Our teeny tiny school is filled with some reluctant readers. We are using this fun Edmodo site to get them excited about reading. The 6th grade teacher and myself are hosting an all girls book club for 6th, 7th and 8th graders.

The sixth grade teacher picked our first book Ninth Ward by Jewell Parker. It tells the story of a 12-year-old girl during Hurricane Katrina. Our shipment hasn't come in yet, but I really can't wait to start reading it next week!

And the best part: the girls are super excited, too! We weren't sure how much interest this book club would generate since it requires the girls to do a lot of extra reading outside of school. They also have to post and discuss each chapter in addition to their normal nightly homework for school but so far the response has been great! 

We've already had more than half of the middle school girls at our school join our  group on Edmodo. They've  all commented on the authors introduction which was posted on our Edmodo page and watched a video clip from youtube.

The girls are already using strategies (predicting, building their schema), searching out their own info (several have commented on googling the events of Hurricane Katrina) and chit chatting about the books with their peers. 

I can't wait to see where it goes from here! I am all for any tool that has our students excited about  reading and discussing books --even on this three day weekend! Love, love, love! 

Have you used Edmodo? What are some other online resources to get kids involved? Please share! I'd love to know more! 

PS I am sooo close to 50 followers! To all of my followers:thank you, thank you, thank you! I am loving the blog world! If you don't already follow my blog I would love it if you would! :) 

Have a great weekend! 

5 Ways the iPhone Makes a Teacher's Life Easier

 I work in a low income charter school and our access to technology is VERY limited. (I'm talking overhead projector and VCR limited!) In my own little room my access to technology is limited to one Dell laptop and my iPhone. My iPhone really is my BFF and I use it a million times each and every day. Here are just a few ways I use my iPhone in the classroom. 

1)  Running records

I use the voice recording device to record my students reading aloud. This is helpful for a couple of different reasons. A) I can replay their reading and make sure that I have accurately recorded their work. B) The students can hear their own reading!!! This is the biggest plus!

Most of my students love to hear themselves read and they are able to observe their strengths and weaknesses in reading aloud. For example, J is a smarty and can read very well but whenever he reads aloud in class he reads so fast we can barely understand him. I had been asking him to slow down for weeks to no avail. After one time of hearing himself read on the iPhone recording and he identified and fixed the problem on his own.

2) Video

My students LOVE to be in the spotlight! I use the video to capture “Author’s Chair”, a time each week that the students can read their writing aloud to share with the class. My students also used  my phone to record book projects last year as well.  They loved it! It also gave me some great videos to share with parents at Open House. 

3) Google it! (Teachable Moments) 

Picture this…we are sitting on the carpet during read aloud. I am reading a Native American legend about a buffalo hunt.  The students are all interested and listening intently and asking lots of questions. Soon it becomes clear that they are REALLY confused about what a buffalo actually is. (We don’t have a lot of buffalo roaming around this California inner-city- Go figure!) Anyway, iPhone to the rescue! I googled a picture of a buffalo and passed the phone around the circle. We were even able to find a sound clip of the buffalo stampeding. It made a HUGE difference in their understanding of the story!  

4) Timer/ Stopwatch

I use the timer CONSTANTLY! I start the timer at the start of most of my lessons. My students love all of the silly sounds on the phone that signal the end of a lesson. The stop watch is great for timing math facts tests and other timed tests.

5) Music

Love the ipod feature! I use it all the time in class. I always have quiet music playing when students come back from lunch. I also download content relevant songs from itunes which the children learn to help with memorization. They love the Anemaniac’s state capitals song! If you haven’t heard it check out the youtube video below. My students learn the capitals sooo quickly with this song playing everyday before we leave!

Those are just a few of the ways that I use my phone to make my daily life easier. All of these things could be accomplished using other tools but this is what works best for me. I’m sure that these things could also be accomplished on another phone like a Droid I just happen to have an iPhone. 

One more tip, whenever I hand over my phone to my kids (i.e. when we pass around the phone to look at pictures) I switch my phone to airplane mode. This way I won’t get any texts or calls while my kiddos have their phone in their hands.

I hope that it gave you a couple ideas to use in your own room!