Day 11

Book Creator Presentations:

I can’t believe we presented Assignment 3 today.  I wish we had more time to present. We got quite excited about some of our activities and took a little longer to present. I am hoping to create the welcome book for my school – some of the links in our book are specific to my school already, so I can use some of the pages as they are or with little changes. I think if I do a good job on it, my principal will send it out to all parents/students not just students in my homeroom.

John and Laurianne:

I love the animal idea: picture and sounds…so cool! I also like the share what your day is like activity and create a family album. The flashcard idea is also very neat. As a math teacher, I also really liked your math journal idea and the star over the add word and + = very effective!

My teaching partner always creates lifemaps with the kids and then autobiographies. I think I will share your timeline in Book Creator idea with him.

The choosing your ending/path for your story is awesome.

Holly and Alecia: "Our Journey Through Primary"

Your cover page is gorgeous! I think it's an excellent idea to have a journal/portfolio/memoirs for the primary year. I have started taking photos of my kids work or my kids at work and sending it to their parents and for my students to include in their student-led eportfolio. The animal print background is awesome. I think pre-recording the Show-and-Tell will help some kids with anxiety that may feel very uncomfortable presenting in front of others. I love the doing math outside part and taking photos of it for evidence. The perspective taking activity is very cool.

Joanne and Tracy: "Job Interview Skills"

I love your overall theme. We often don't take the time to teach our kids those skills. We do an Interdisciplinary Unit with our grade 8 kids in June every year where the kids create their own business. We should totally create an activity book like that for them. The body language part is crucial for a good interview. Love the do's and don'ts activity. Book of references is awesome. PERSONAL SPACE ....hahahaha....so true...I'm thinking that's a page Joy and I need to include into our Welcome Book.  By the way, the pictures and characters in your book are priceless: "Think before you Stink" - very effective, engaging and entertaining.

Suzanne and Dave: 

My teaching partner was actually looking for a website or App to create a yearbook..I think I found it for him! The social stories activity is great. The visual dictionary is definitely helpful in my math class as well. They often tend to not use the proper vocabulary because they don't know how to pronounce it, e.g. hypotenuse. The Phys. Ed. activity is great. The teacher could put all activities together into one book for future years. 

Chelsea and Christine:

The "How to wash your hands" step by step page looks awesome. The Funny Movie Maker App is fantastic. Can't wait to try it out. Bringing in all those other Apps is a great idea! I have never seen the Sock Puppet App...super entertaining. The punctuation page is something I will share with our ELA teachers. The Artist Time activity will make my "Artist study" a lot more fun for my kids. Thank you for sharing! The culture book is a neat idea as well. 

Rachel and Terry:

A scrapbook in Book Creator is a great idea! Thank you for including the rubric. The Elevator Pitch and 2 Minute Rant is amazing even without using Book Creator. I also get my students to create a stats project, and I am definitely looking into using Book Creator for it this coming school year. I can actually create a template for some kids that may need some extra support. I love the concept of getting older grades to create something to use with the younger students. 

Sheri and Michelle:

Thank you for including the link to the social stories information. The interactive cookbook is a phenomenal idea. I like the concept of creating a little portfolio after the classtrip. Each kid could create their own page with their favourite photos, quotes and a reflection or something...brilliant! I also really like your word wall idea. As mentioned above, sometimes the kids just don't know how to pronounce certain new vocabulary. The family tree activity is wonderful! I have also already made up my mind that my kids will be using Book Creator for their art portfolio this coming year. You idea for "documenting their time away" is great. Thanks for sharing!

Sue and Nick:

The ABC book is a lovely idea. The sports broadcast idea is also very engaging. We always have students that can't participate in some activities, so having them create a broadcast will keep them engaged and practice their speaking/presenting skills as well. The travel book is a neat idea to get students to research a particular place. Your "Whose Line is It Anway?" activity made me think of creating a staff book where we share our best practices...cool activities, games, websites or Apps we created or found that we can share with the rest of the staff in a shared book.

Jill and Chris:

I really like the solar system activity. I had my kids choosing from a bunch of different ways to represent their knowledge of the solar system this past year...now I can include Book Creator as well. I really liked that you included what grade level your particular activity could be used for. I like the Sentence Starter stories as well. Neat Idea!  

There are so many ideas of how to sue Book Creator online already, but I felt everyone came up with many more unique ones. Just re-reading all of the comments I wrote above...I like/love a lot of things *lol*

Book Creator can be used in so many ways in our schools: administration, library, staff, students, etc. I hope my students don't get sick of using Book Creator next year :-)