Common Core Writing Lesson With AudioBoo: 9/11 Narrated Art

Kayleen Browning teaches 6th grade Social Studies at Yukon Middle School. This year, she asked her students to identify a word which summarized things they had studied and learned about the 9/11 attacks in 2001 by al-Qaeda on the World Trade Center and the Pentagon. Mrs. Browning recently heard about the free iPad app and website AudioBoo, and the idea of helping students create "narrated art" using the program. She taught her students how to photograph a drawing they had made or upload a photo they found online, and then read a short essay they wrote about their 9/11 reflection using AudioBoo. This is a two minute video interview with Mrs. Browning recorded today in her classroom, in which she describes the assignment and its connection to the Common Core State Standards which Oklahoma is transitioning to now. This is a great example of how YPS teachers are integrating writing assignments across the curriculum, helping students practice practice their oral communication skills, and helping students safely publish their work in digital forms online.



Here are links to seven of the 95 AudioBoo "narrated art" 9/11 reflections Mrs. Browning's sixth graders recorded in September this year. Access all of them on audioboo.fm/Brownink.

listen to ‘Surreal’ on Audioboo

listen to ‘Gallantry by Emily ’ on Audioboo

listen to ‘Sadness by Brady’ on Audioboo

listen to ‘Fearless by Paige ’ on Audioboo

listen to ‘Strength my kathleen’ on Audioboo

listen to ‘Shocking by Sakura R.’ on Audioboo

listen to ‘Sadness by Aaron Sailer’ on Audioboo

Parkland Elementary School Library's YouTube Channel

Chris Eskew, the librarian at Parkland Elementary School in YPS, recently created a YouTube channel and uploaded her first video: "Library Procedures."She recorded this with an iPad in different segments, and then edited them together using iMovie for iPad. Mrs. Eskew is using this video with students at Parkland this year as they discuss appropriate and inappropriate library behaviors! Check it out! Way to go Mrs. Eskew!

Check out more YPS teacher "interactive websites!" All teachers, librarians, and club/team sponsors in YPS can create a FREE YouTube channel to showcase student work, projects and activities. To learn how, see the post "Create an Educational YouTube Channel" on our YPS Instructional FAQs site.

Learn About Your Teacher Through Her QR Code

How did parents in your classroom or your child/grandchild's classroom learn about new teachers this year? At Independence Elementary School in Yukon Public Schools, parents of students learning with Dawn Dukes in the Gifted Program could use a smartphone and a free QR code reader app to scan the following sign outside her classroom.

This QR code forwards smartphones (and other devices with reader apps, like iPads) to this webpage with a photo and some biographical information about Mrs. Dukes.

QR Codes provide a fast way to share web links and other resources with other people who are using smartphones or tablets. i-Nigma is the free QR code reader app teachers in YPS used this summer in iPad Media Camp. Many other free apps are available for reading QR codes as well as creating them. The free website createqrcode.appspot.com is an example: Simply paste the web link or other information you want converted into a QR code, then click CREATE. You can print and share the QR code with others like Mrs. Dukes did outside her classroom.

This year several librarians in our district are working with students who are making digital book reports. Their plan is to use QR codes in the library to link those student audio and video projects, so more parents as well as classmates will be able to access them!