The above picture was taken today after my daughter's team took second place at a local soccer tournament! They were pretty discouraged by this championship loss because they took second in their last tournament in August. Although I understand the disappointment of losing, I encouraged her that it's a great opportunity to learn! The above picture also depicts what I do about 75% of my life on the weekdays and weekends! It's amazing when I think about all the time I have spent at the soccer field watching my kids play....and there is still so much I just don't know about soccer!! Learning new things can be daunting, but it is also exciting to think that we will never know E-V-E-R-Y-T-H-I-N-G! There will always be a better play on the soccer field, a newer idea in the classroom and a more efficient way to use technology. So what do we do when we get discouraged?....We just keep going. Some new learning I did this week was creating a playlist in YouTube and making a picture collage in Picasa. I love finding ways to enhance my teaching, but I especially love learning new opportunities to share with my class!
YouTube and YouTube EDU
YouTube has been around a while, I mean, even I have used it at home and in the classroom! But seriously, YouTube is a great resource for videos to share with your students, as well as a teaching tool with helpful tutorials. If not for the tutorials on YouTube, I'm not entirely sure I would still be sitting here typing this blog! Now one thing I didn't know existed was YouTube EDU. It is a feature of YouTube that allows you to find educational videos with content for any age. You can search within your grade level and subject area to get more specific videos for your use. Another thing I discovered while navigating new features of YouTube was TubeSnack Playlist. This awesome feature allows you to edit videos and cut out parts that you don't want. You can also merge multiple videos together making them into ONE video to share! In my classroom, we just finished a unit on Order of Operations and I created this playlist to review the concept throughout the year! It will also come in handy during math intervention for those who need more practice!
Picasa
Now for a person who loves to take pictures, I am always interested in more ways to store and display them! Picasa is a tool in Google that files your pictures on your computer into folders and then allows you to select pictures to create a collage! You can select your background color, sizing, spacing and even the order of your pictures! I think kids would have a lot of fun telling their personal stories with this cool tool! They could use it to tell about Christmas break or as a wrap up for the end of the year. It would be a great addition to a writing piece or presentation, too! Picasa is free and very user friendly! Check out the collage I created with some pictures from our Kindergarten Buddy day. We helped our buddies count and add their steps on a beautiful Fall day!
Now, to combine both tools above...a very useful YouTube video on Picasa!
YouTube+Picasa=N.L.O. (New Learning Opportunity)!
Love of learning (in my opinion) is one of the most essential understandings we can model for our students! It's important in school, in sports and in life that we are willing to learn new things, try new things, practice new things and fail at new things in order to succeed! I hope you enjoy this week's cool tools and find use in your own classrooms!
Happy Learning!
-Sarah
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