Literature Circles with Google Drive

We are using Google Docs to collaborate with Literature Circles. I created a document in Google Drive for each novel and shared it with students that are reading that novel. The students still have the traditional Lit Circle jobs each week, but instead of filling out a paper (that often gets lost) they add their information to the Google Doc. This allows students to easily collaborate outside of class. As a teacher it helps me ensure that all students are doing their part along the way and not waiting until the last minute. I have noticed increased student excitement and participation about reading and sharing.

QR Reader

I have used the free Android and Smartphone app QR reader as a way to quiz my students on books we are reading, stems and vocabulary. This activity gets them moving around the building since they have to find them first and encourages them to work as a team to find the right answer. At this point they do have to write down the answer but most of them do this on their device as well and show it to me at the end. I have not been able to build the questions in a way that it could be an actual scavenger hunt but my students enjoy it anyways and they are reviewing painlessly. The following link will take you to a free site to generate your own codes; http://qrcode.kaywa.com/ You will need to save them to your computer and then print them out. Any QR Reader will be able to access them. Have fun!

Picking Pixorial

We like to do a lot of video recording in our classroom, and oftentimes, we cannot get a video camera.  With BYOT, we have the luxury of using our own devices to record and take care of this issue.  The problem comes in when we have to download or upload the final product.

However, we recently found a free app (both Android and iPhone friendly) that will help to alleviate some of those headaches.  Pixorial is a video and picture sharing program that stores media in the cloud. 

We found that using Pixorial is a very easy way to upload video (and pictures - but we weren't using pictures) so that we could share them with each other. There are many share options; the most popular ones are through Facebook, Twitter, and other social networking sites. There is also an option to embed the image or the video, if you don't want to involve social networking.

And it also is a great tool that can be used for video editing. While we didn't need it for our project, that option is still there in case we want to use it in the future.

It offers 7 GB of free space, so while we can't upload monstrous files to the cloud, we can upload several. And after the year is over, students can use the account to share their own pictures and movies with their friends and family.

Pixorial Logo