Everything comes to an end, but after every ending there is a new beginning!

Bittersweet hellos!!!!!

     This is my final post on this ICT subject. It is a sad one because all endings are a little nostalgic, but it is also an uplifting one because it means that I´ve finally made it!

     I have never been specially gifted with technology but I do enjoy many of its advantages in my daily life and I do find it very practical and helpful in many fields of my life. One of them would be, of course, in my profession. 

     As a teacher, I cannot deny all the help that many apps, websites, videos, etc bring into my daily practice. Moreover, I cannot forget that I work with the youngest generations that are in continuous development and that establish what is on trend or not. Those little ones are, somehow, my "bosses" and I do have to adapt to them if I want to get the most out of them, which I do!

     For all of the reasons above described, I reckon that this subject was much more than a necessity for me. It has pushed me and demonstrated me that it is all about trying and getting to know things little by little. There are three main lessons that I am taking with me thanks to this experience:

     Believe it or not, I can do it

Do not hesitate nor procrastinate

It is all a process, be patient

     For this final entry, I have created an artifact which combines and summarizes all the tools that I have discovered and dealt with throughout the last few months. It has been created with POWTOON, which is a web-based animation software that allows you to easily create animated presentations with your students by manipulating templates, with characters, objects, effects, imported images, music and user-created voice-overs.

     In it, you will find all the activities that I have done during the course. Out of all of them, I have a clear intention of keep on using some of them like for example, Powtoon, Genially, Canva, Pearltrees, and Blogger. I have always been scared of starting a blog for my students but now I feel quite confident about creating it!

     However, what I did not enjoy much was recording myself and uploading it on the internet. That does not mean that I bet that my students will have a blast recording themselves and watching it!

     I cannot leave this post without thanking my teacher and all the colleagues that too the time and the patience needed to explain me really basic things that I had no idea about! I am aware that this journey does not end here as I still have a lot more to learn!

     Ok! Enough reading and writing! Let me introduce you to my final creation which I really wish you to fancy it! (fingers crossed!)

BESTS,

Ms.París

THE WORLD IS OUR AUDIENCE!!!!! #twima8

Hi there!

     Today I am here with a post of an activity that allowed me to know a different and engaging way to engage students in a collaborative project that can even be worldwide!!!!!!

     When I was told to share a story of mine in Flipgrid, I was like flip what!? I had no idea what that was so my first mission was to learn what Flipgrid was! So onto searching online, I found this video which I found very helpful and to be honest, more appealing than reading long texts... Here it is:

Have you watched it? I hope so! So now you can know what it is!

     Participating in this project did not seem very appealing to me just because I usually do not like recording myself, but once I overcome my shyness I was ok! The platform itself was quite friendly and I found very easy to follow the steps to record my story and share it later on. In fact, what I really enjoyed was getting silly when adding stickers to the profile pic! I enjoyed it so much that I even shared it on twitter! Click on the pic, please!

     I do believe that you can actually benefit from it by developing your student´s empathy, for instance. Sharing is caring and this is a marvelous way of opening a huge window to the rest of the world in an risponsable way.

     Moreover, we can all improve our pronunciation by listening to ourselves and we can also improve our listening skills when listening to a wide variety of accents.

     Anyhow! Back to the point! Once you are in the Flipgrid webpage, I had to create an account and start following grids. In my case, my teacher told me to follow TWIMA GRID, and once in there, to click on #twima8 - We all have a story in order to view other students´ stories and also to share mine in there. Keep scrawling down and you´ll see all of them!

 TWIMA GRID






  #twima8 - We all have a story

  My story!

WEBINAR: La Educación en Línea

Greetings my friends!!!

     Today´s post is all about a Webinar I have attended the other day. It was my very first time doing this and I have learned a lot from it!

     In case you are like me and you are not quite sure what a Webinar is, I found this video that briefly explains in general terms what a Webinar is:

Now, onto the Webinar, I did attend.

      It was called APRENDIZAJE EN LÍNEA Y COMPETENCIA DIGITAL , hosted by the Institut de Formació Contínua-IL3 de la Universitat de Barcelona, and with the collaboration of the expert of that field María Jesús García San Martín, who it happens to be my teacher as well!

     She explained in detail the different online digital training courses for teachers that are offered by the Ministry of Education through AprendeINTEF (Instituto Nacional de Tecnologías Educativas y Formación del Profesorado) and its PORTFOLIO of the Digital Competence for Education.

     The Portfolio's main purpose is to promote acquisition, development, and improvement of the teachers' digital competence through continuous self-evaluation and the updatable record of teaching, learning and training experiences. There are 6 levels of Digital Competence (A1-A2-B1-B2-C1-C2). Doesn´t it remind you of anything!?

     It is a long life learning process through the 5 areas of the Common Framework of Digital Competence Teaching:

 - Information and data literacy

 - Communication and collaboration

 - Digital content creation

 - Safety and Problem solving

     To reach this goal, Aprende INTEF offers different online digital training resources that I am gonna briefly summarize:

1. EDUPILLS

     EduPills is a micro-learning app for teachers, aimed at enabling teachers to acquire and/or develop digital skills, skills, and competencies in a simple and fast way.

     Every Friday around 11 a.m. you can find in this app a little pill to engage you in the process of improving your digital competence.

Consuming time: 5-7 minutes

Aim: to work in a just on descriptor level of one of the competence´s areas

Mode: autonomous

Other characteristics: It allows you to share your achievements on the social networks as well as bookmark your self-training pills on the topics of your interest.

2. NOOC INTEF

     It is a collaborative nano learning and free online courses. They last opened 10 days but the materials remain available afterwards for the users to continue whenever they can. They have more concrete steps that the Edupills.

Consuming time: 3 hours approx

Aim: to develop one whole digital competence

Mode: it includes online interaction (paired with a Facebook group and a live project)

Other characteristics: you can evidence your progress with a digital final product. 

Grant: Open Digital Credentials

3. MOOC INTEF

Collaborative open learning course. Many of the courses are linked to non-profit-making association projects or other educational associations. The materials also remain available. Some of the most popular were reconverted into NOOC. Depending on the different learning styles, some teachers prefer MOOC while others choose NOOC. There are also digital badges for your progress.

Consuming time: 3-5 weeks

Aim: to focus and improve active methodologies, emergent pedagogy, peer learning, professional learning communities...

Mode: online learning

Grant: Digital Badges

4. SPOOC INTEF

     This model offers free learning experiences at your own pace. Once they are opened you can access them whenever you want. You can get your digital badges once the objectives are achieved.

Consuming time: Unlimited, at your own pace

Aim: To improve one´s digital competence

Mode: Self-learning online and open courses with a Facebook group.

Grant: Digital Badge

But wait a minute... 

Where do all these badges end up?

     You can accumulate all these badges as you achieve them in a "backpack"  called Open Badges Backpack that connects directly to your portfolio. This tool was created by EducaLAB insignias.

And...what are all these badges for? Well, here is where the Portfolio comes in place...

     That backpack connects directly with your portfolio (which I have explained above) so you can keep track of all your achievements as well, as accumulate enough badges that will recognize and demonstrate certain level that you might have reached.

     Personally, I reckon this is a genius idea! The fact that you can actually prove your digital competence is a guarantee that there is a framework that supports and marks the boundaries of this field´s acknowledgment. 

     In addition, there is no pressure. Being able to choose from a wide variety of courses makes everything a lot easier. It adapts to everyone´s learning paces, personal circumstances, preferences, and levels!

     I find that the whole platform offers a very supportive system that not only offers you the opportunity to learn and openly shares digital resources that can help in the everyday teaching practice, but it also takes accountability for your time and effort in the development of your digital skills! 

No more teasers....3, 2, 1...Action!

Hi there!

This is the post where I show you the final outcome of the video project! 

Remember that post?

The title of the clip is....DISCOVERING THE AMERICAS

Do not miss it!

     The creation process of this video was, undoubtly, a great and hilarious experience. Me and my colleagues had a lot of fun and could not quit laughing!!

     

     Although at first, we were a little streesed out because none of us had had ever done it before, the customs, taking last minute decisions to improve the video and so on, we quickly figured it all out and started enjoying!

     Overall, I feel like we have raised the main objectives of the video as all of them were mentioned and represented in it. Moreover, after watching the actual final product I must say I was impressed and I thought that the video could prefectly be used in one of my future Social Science lessons in Sixth Grade. To use the video, I think I would probably plan a flipped classroom where students would have to watch it at home before starting the unit and come to class with an idea of what we are going to study about.

     I am a hundred percent sure that students will really enjoy watching their teachers being goofy! There is only one risk....they might laugh at us or with us! Hopefully with us!

Podcasts killed the radio star!

Hello!

     Are you already playing in your head the song!? hahahahahaha I cannot stop it!

     Anyway... today I have come with another tool that I have discovered! To be honest, I have heard about it before but not in an educational context, specially with younger learners. I am talking about PODCASTS!!!!!

     But... what is a podcast!? In case you were wondering, here is the answer:

     A podcast is a lot like a radio show. It can have episodes, and it’s usually in audio-only format, although video podcasts do exist. The length of a podcast episode can vary from two minutes to two hours. Listeners will typically subscribe to favorite podcasts so that new episodes are delivered to them through whatever app they use.

     Additionally, podcasts can be used in flipped classrooms in the same way you might use videos: to deliver content or explain topics in a different way for students.

     There are many tools that can be used to create podcasts. Here are some of the most popular ones for you to take a look at if you want:

• Spreaker

• Ivoox

• Podomatic

• SounCloud 

      To try this, me and some colleagues have created a weather project for students from Sixth Grade. To develop it, we finally have chosen SoundCloud because it allowed us to upload audios, promote them and share them. The audio tracks that we record or upload can be tagged, categorised, shared on social networks and organised into playlists. In addition, it has the added value of creating groups, so that in our classrooms we can make work teams with our students so that they can broadcast their own radio programs in the cloud, with frequent episodes. 

     I must say that I have found this activity quite challenging. The fact of making the final outcome of a project an audio was a little scary for me. But after overcoming my fears, I have found it very rewarding and attractive for the students and myself included! As far as the tool we have chosen to use, I must say that it is very intuitive for beginners and I didn´t have to "fight" with it too much!

     Now let´s dig into the project. For this project, we have created a Google Doc with all the details and instructions needed to know to do this project:

Furthermore, each one of us has created a SoundCloud account. My account is the following:



In there, I have created a specific playlist with some audio examples of weather podcasts:




Additionally, in that playlist I  have included the Welcoming Audio that we have created for our students:




Regarding my podcast, I have added to it a Creative Commons License:

3, 2, 1....wait, wait!!!! But first....

Greetings!!!!

     Here I am with a new project again!!!!! But this one has a completely different format!!!! The final outcome, as you might have already guessed from the title of the post is a video!!!!

 

     In this project, I have partnered with four more colleagues, Cristina, Fátima, Mei, and Laura! And I sure have enjoyed the experience, in fact, I had a blast!

     The project that we have chosen to create is for fifth graders and the subject is Social Science. With it, we wanted to recreate a historical event so out students could be introduced to it in a fun and different way. Firstly, what we had clear was that...

the main goals of the video are:

- To introduce the topic of the discovery of Americas in an interesting way
- To be able to recognize the importance of Christopher Columbus in History
- To know the process in the leading to the final voyage
- To understand why those kinds of voyages were carried out

and the future purpose of the outcome is:

- To explain the discovery of the Americas

- To differentiate the four voyages of Columbus to the New World

- To know what inventions were used for navigating

However, before getting into actually filming the video, we created a script and a draft of it in common using a Google Doc, which allowed us to write and edit cooperatively. Here is the doc!





Once we have created that document, we went ahead and created a Storyboard that was designed to show our students the way Christopher Columbus tried to get funds when he was trying to travel to the Indian Lands with a new route. Each frame depicts different scenes with the main steps Columbus followed until the beginning of the trip. Take a look!

Made with Storyboard That


     Did you like it!? In a following post I will share with you the final outcome...THE VIDEO!!!!! 

Mind-blowing maps!!!!!

Hi there!

     Here I am again with a quite helpful tool for teachers and students! Personally, I have used a mindmap many times before but always on a paper! Now, I have learnt how to make them digitally which I actually found to be much richer as you can add links and many other things!

     Mind maps organize information and concepts logically so that we can assimilate and memorize information them in an easier way. Mind Maps help students to note down only the most important information using key words and then make visual connections between facts and concepts.

       The following are web pages that can be used as tools to create mind maps:

- Coggle

- Mindmeister

- Mind42

- SpiderScribe

- Bubble.us

- Creately

- iMindMap

     The first two can allow you to create a min map cooperatively. I tried a few, and after playing a little bit with them I decided to use Creately. 

     You do have to be careful and make sure which ones require Adobe Flashplayer because they will not open on a mobile device, which it is what most people use nowadays to navigate. One of them, for example, is Mindmeister.

     Let´s talk about Creately. The tool offers a variety of resources such as collaborating and sharing mind maps, using your computer or mobile-phone, uploading pictures and videos and hundreds of templates and examples. When you start creating a mind map, it appears an upright toolbar on the left of the screen which contains elements like shapes, connectors and arrows. I would consider this tool intuitive enough for someone who is not an expert in this field. However, nothing is perfect. IT only allows you to create three mind maps for free and it can be a little slow as well. So on top of the extra time, something new requires, take into account to add some more extra time to wait for the tool to obey you!

     The mind map I created is to guide my Second Grade students through a project they have to do. It includes images and links that take them directly to a specific folder in my Pearltrees with the rubric and some resources the might be interested in using for this project called Animals. Ok! enough typing! Here is my mind map! Hope you like it!

Creating an Inphographic!

Hi there!

     Here I am again with something new, and so far what I have enjoyed the most doing!

     I am talking about making an Infographic. I was recommended to use the following online tools: 

● Easel.ly

● Piktochart

● Canva

● Smore

● Tackk

● Mural.ly

● Padlet

     After taking a look of all of them, I decided to use  Canva . I think it is very easy to create an account and it is full of templates that help you pre-visualise what you might want to do, and you can easily edit and create your own infographic.

     To be completely honest, at first it took me a while to manage the text boxes, but it didn't take too long though and I ended up being able to edit however I liked.

     My infographic is a healthy recipe that I am going to link with a healthy diet topic in Natural Science in my class. It will help my students so see at a glance the 5 easy steps to make a delicious banana bread!

I adapted a recipe I found from this one I found online: Banana bread recipe
And all the images I've used come from Pixabay

Healthy Banana Bread by Ms. París p


Images´Attributions:

All images are

CC0 Creative Commons

Free for commercial use
No attributions required

1.- Photo by 4924546
2.- Photo by markusspiske
3.- Photo by emirkrasnik
4.- Photo by shadowfirearts
5.- Photo by grelehet

Using Comics as an educational tool!

Hello again!

    I am back this time with a really creative, entertaining and useful tool for both teachers and students! It is a comic creator!

     With this tool you can illustrate emotional daily situations that children have to cope with, and make them feel identified with the story and learn strategies to deal with their emotions.

     Additionally, it can be used by students so they can express in an indirect way their feelings and make them feel more comfortable with them. It is totally a safe site for students to dice into.

     As an example, I created a comic that talks about sharing, taking care of materials and last but not least, apologising with a solution and forgiving. It is a very common scene in my classroom and I thought it would help my students how to act whenever a similar situation happens.

     To create it, I checked several options:

- Pixton: https://www.pixton.com/

- Creaza: https://www.creaza.com/frontpage

- StoryboardThat: http://www.storyboardthat.com/

      After playing around with all of them, I decided to stick with Storyboardthat since I found it had the easiest and most intuitive usage. It gives you many options, suck as scenes, characters, textiles, shapes, number of cells and so on, in an ordered and simple way. Even I could do it! The minute you start playing with it, you get familiarised with it and feel confident to keep creating.

     The only flaw I found in it, is that it is not for free...but considering it is a great tool, it might be worth the splurge! But still, you do get a free trial which allows you to decide wether you want to spend the money or not.

     Anyway! Enough talking, here is the comic I created! Hope you like it and hope you are curious enough to check this tool out! 

Made with Storyboard That

Educational Slideshows

Hello!

     Today I want to talk about an amazing tool I have discovered to make cool Power Points.

     We all already know how useful slideshows can be as a classroom tool. They are a great visual aid that supports any kind of explanation in a very attractive way. But sometimes they can get a little repetitive and look too similar to each other.

     That is why I really enjoyed coming across this new, to me, webpage where you can create many different kinds of slideshows with almost infinite possibilities. That website is www.genial.ly. What are you waiting for!? Go check it out!

     Here you can see an example of my very first creation. I know I still have a long way using it and learning how to take full advantage of it, but for my very first time, I must say I am very satisfied with the results! 

CONTENT CURATION

Hi!

     In this post I want to share my experience with content curation! I personally have used a curation tool in the past without even knowing it! This tool I am talking about is widely known and it is Pinterest! but that is not the only tool that allows users to curate, select, and filter. There are many other tools such as....

- Scoot it! 
- Diigo
- Symbaloo
- Pearltrees
- Listly

     Since I was already familiar with Pinterest, I have decided to try the rest and I finally stack with Pearltree. I have to admit that I fount it quite useful and intuitive. I created a dashboard with many things that I find useful in my daily teaching activity. Here it is embedded so it is easier for you to check it out!

Msparis

ADAPTED IMAGES FOR A CLIL LESSON

     In this example of adapted CLIL material for Science I have chosen the pictures seen below. I have chosen these because I found them very appropriate for the material I needed to create on Mountain Landscapes.

MOUNTAINS

Photo by dimitrisvetsikas1969

                         CC0 Creative Commons

           Free for commercial use
No attribution required

Have you ever seen a mountain? Have you ever been on the highest part of a mountain (the peak of a mountain)?  It could be interesting living there for a year! What do you think about it?

A mountain is a natural elevation of the Earth´s surface. 

Photo by kordi_vahle

CC0 Creative Commons

Free for commercial use 

No attribution required

Edited by Ms. París

PARTS OF A MOUNTAIN:

PEAK: the top of a mountain

SLOPE: the side of a mountain

BASE:  the bottom of a mountain

VALLEY: the space between two mountains

A set of mountains is called a MOUNTAIN RANGE

Photo by TheDigitalArtist

CC0 Creative Commons

Free for commercial use 

No attribution required