Tuesday Tips November 26, 2019

TECH TIP:  Animoto for Making Videos

Animoto has been a long time favorite of mine for making videos, but they have recently added the ability to do voice overs.  This is a huge improvement, as it allows students to share more of their own knowledge with their personal narration and not a limited amount of text.  

I used Animoto to make this quarter's report on library events.  You can see how the voiceover narration works.  It is a one minute long video.  

BOOK TIP:  Happy Thanksgiving!

Wishing you lots of time to read and eat this vacation!

Tuesday Tips November 19, 2019

TECH TIP:  And Then I Was Like: GIF Maker

A little Thanksgiving message as a 3 second GIF from me to you!  I used the site https://andtheniwaslike.co/ to create this.  It uses your computer's webcam, hit record and you've made a GIF!  

  

BOOK TIP:  Faculty Book Club Meets Thursday

The Faculty Book Club will meet this Thursday after school in the library to discuss Teach Like a Pirate.  The mission of the MMRHS Faculty Book Club is to promote reading and the discussion of professional and inspirational works in an atmosphere that fosters positivity and community. Even if you haven't read the book, please feel free to join us for the discussion.

Tuesday Tips November 12, 2019

TECH TIP:  Fling the Teacher Review Game

Classtools.net has a whole array of games and tools you can customize for your classes.  The latest game is called "Fling the Teacher" and is a play on Angry Birds.  If students answer 15 questions correctly, they have 60 seconds to "fling" the teacher as many times as they can into a hole.  

You can create your own questions and put your face on the bird (imagine your face there).  Try out the demo game to see how it works (I was not very good at the flinging!)

BOOK TIP:  Internment by Samira Ahmen

  Internment is set a not so distant future United States, where Muslims are being sent to camps.  In fact, they are put in Manzanar, where Japanese were held in WWII.  Layla Amin and her family are sent here and Layla quickly sets to leading a revolution from within.  The book tackles themes of discrimination, fear, and what happens when the world stays silent.