Elementary EdTech

Below are some ideas, templates, videos, and examples that I've done with my elementary school class. Feel free to look around, copy any templates or examples that you'd like, and please reach out to me if you have any questions!

Google Search Magic:

• It's a Calculator (Scientific, too!)

• It's a Dictionary / Thesaurus

  • Search for "define __________"

  • Greek and Latin Roots, Synonyms, Syllables, nGram Viewer!

• It's also a timer/stopwatch

  • Type "timer 8 minutes"

  • Great for group rotations, center activities, morning routines

Primary Sources:

• Find primary sources with the Google Newspaper Archive

• 100,000+ articles from all around the world

• Great way to have your students explore current events

• news.google.com/newspapers

Classroom Store (on a Google Form)

• • Google Forms to select what they want... like a "Classroom Amazon"

  • Click here to copy a template to your Google Drive

  • Notifications sent to “tellers” and not me. Automate everything!

  • Tellers email classmates, set-up times, take out amounts, automation!

Youtube Playlists:

Creating Youtube Playlists for content:

• think of them like the "review packets" of content.

• 90s mixtapes (except you don't have to sit around and wait for your favorite song to come on the radio to start recording

Pick a chapter book that you've read this school year, and record a 1 to 3 minute book review. In your book review, include the following:

Pick a chapter book that you've read this school year, and record a 1 to 3 minute book review. In your book review, include the following:

1. The title and author of the book

2. A brief summary of the problem the characters in the book are trying to solve. Don't give away the ending, though!

3. Share something about the book that you liked or disliked. This could be a character, a setting, a scene, a quote, or something else. Explain your thinking.

4. Would you recommend this book to a classmate? Why or why not?

5. Give it a rating from 1 star to 5 stars.

Earth Book Reports:

• Instead of a diorama, have students create visual book reports through Google Earth

• Search for the locations/settings in their stories where the events may have taken place.

• Have the students add summaries, questions, descriptions, quotes, etc.

• Here's an example from Number the Stars by Lois Lowry

Explore the World (on a budget):

• Check how things have changed over time using the Google Earth Engine - Timelapse

• Go Back or Forward in Time!

• ...and yes, you can watch a Total Eclipse (not of the heart, though)

• Writing Prompt: Go to Earth View, spin it, and drop Pegman at a random location. You’ve stepped into a time portal, and ended up here. Tell the story of how you get back.

• Or, drop Pegman, “Tell me a story where THIS is the setting.”

Google Earth Voyages:

View the new Google Earth at earth.google.com

Similar to Google Earth Tours, they let students explore stories in Google Earth (on both iPads and Chromebooks)

Here's one of my favorites: The ABCs from Space.

On the link below are some graphic organizers, templates, and slideshows that I use in my writing class. They're designed to be used as attachments on Google Classroom assignments. Each graphic organizer is a slideshow with blank spaces for students to plan out writing pieces. There's also Google Doc writing templates to get your students started. Feel free to grab a copy of whatever you'd like.

If you're brand new to Google Classroom, check out the video on the right to see how to create assignments.

Earth Narratives:

• Have students type out personal narratives/short stories using Google Docs.

• Copy and paste those paragraphs onto a new Google Site.

• Have students find the locations/settings of their Personal Narratives on Google Maps/Street View.

• Click to view an example written by one of my fifth graders

CoSpaces Edu:

When I ask my students to prototype anything, I ask them to do it using "CoSpaces Edu" first. This way, it can be shared and viewed by my easily. On the right is a copy a student Rube Goldberg Machine prototype.

The best part? These student prototypes can be viewed AND designed on a phone in Virtual OR Augmented Reality.

DocAppender:

• Create a folder and put inside of it a Google Doc for each student in your classroom.

• Create a Google Form and run the "DocAppender" Add-On (there's a tutorial video below)

• Anytime you fill out the form, the student Google Doc is automagically added on to.

• Share the doc with whoever needs access (curriculum coach, principal, parent, student, etc)

How to Animate Google Slides:

Google Slides can be used as ways for your students to creativity tell stories! There's a video on the right that walks you through how to do it. Down below are some other examples that I created for my students this year.

Virtual Reality has come a long way since the days of Google Cardboard. It is now an immersive experience that will change how, why, and where students learn.

I'm using an Oculus Quest 2 (which is less than the cost of a Chromebook). It does NOT need a separate computer to run.

Hand Tracking:

The latest VR Headsets are starting to get "Hand Tracking". What does that mean? It means that students no longer have to use the remotes; they literally just can interact with the world around them with their hands. It's incredible!

Teaching Math in Virtual Reality:

• Stream the VR headset live to your classroom projector, students can experience live.

• Set up the problems in advance, put the headset on students, let them solve each of them.

The Education Edition of Minecraft works on Chromebooks now. You do NOT have to be an expert in Minecraft to use this with your class. There are hundreds of pre-made worlds and experiences that you can assign to your students to complete and answer questions on. There's even a "Share to Google Classroom" button!

Step One:

Share this Google Photos album of famous works of art with your class. This will give them some background knowledge (and also make it where you won't get 39 copies of "The Starry Night" once the project is completed

Step Two:

Challenge each student in your class to pick one and recreate it in any way that they choose. Just let them know that they have to be able to email a picture of it. Or, iff your school is back in person, you could take the picture for them.

Step Three:

Using CoSpaces Edu, combine all of these famous "works of art" into a virtual OR augmented reality museum that can be shared with anyone. CoSpaces can actually be used collaboratively, so you could have your students upload their own image onto a wall from their own device. Click here to view my class example.

Step Four (bonus idea!):

Add the images that your class took into a Virtual Art Museum on a VR headset. Now it's a fully immersive experience!