And of course I love how Symbaloo is also a social network....we can share the webmixes with one another and add them to our own account as well.
We have used it at Van Meter in different classes and there have been students that have used it personally, bu this year I wanted to integrate it even more into our school community.
I have created a Symbaloo Webmix called "VM Library Resources" (the image of the webmix is above). The webmix contains the Van Meter Library Site, Destiny, Mackin VIA, and the Iowa AEA Online Resources like Britannica, iClipArt, and CultureGrams. There are reading sites, Web 2.0 tools, digital citizenship sites like Professor Garfield and NetSmartz, and lots of fun websites for our students.
Not only did I share it with our school community in emails, teacher newsletters, the Van Meter Library VOICE and Van Meter Schools Facebook pages, and on the Van Meter Library Google Site, I also set it for the homepage on all of the desktops in the computer lab. It was the perfect place to teach my students about Symbaloo and how it worked.
And they all loved it! The students thought it was fun, easy to use, and had lots of suggestions for new tiles.
The next step....helping the teachers get their classroom computers set up with Symbaloo as their homepage. I have already met with the kindergarten teachers and they have even created their own webmixes that they are adding resources to.
And below is the VM Library Resources webmix....
which is easy to embed with the HTML code included on each one.
Have fun trying out our webmix and create one of your own.
Wow! What a great tool! So many times my students ask me how to get to a particular site or I would overhear a friend telling them the URL. This would definitely save the students time finding sites and give them more time exploring and learning.
ReplyDeleteThanks for sharing,
Jessica
Hi Jessica,
DeleteYes, Symbaloo is awesome! And I love showing it to students, teachers, and others....Everyone always loves it too.
Have fun using it....Can't wait to hear how you do.
Have a wonderful day, Shan
Shannon,
ReplyDeleteI, too, am a Symbaloo lover. I can't remember what I did before I began using Symbaloo as it saves me countless hours when trying to remember my truly "favorite" websites.
I worked with a high school social studies teacher who had students create individual symbaloo pages for their personal research project. Every source was added to Symbaloo with reorganization required when it came to the final draft. Then the resources that were quoted or paraphrased had to be organized in the first two rows. Students could easily share their thinking on "why" the sources were important enough to be in those rows!
Wonderful tool!
Fran
Hi Fran,
DeleteThank you so much for connecting. :) Yes, isn't it great. And now with the Symbaloo app we can always have it with us.
Love how your social studies teacher used it....That is such a wonderful idea. I am going to share it with our teachers too.
Hope your weekend has been happy, Shannon
Shannon,
ReplyDeleteThis is such a helpful resource. Thank you for sharing!
Hope your year is going great!!
See you soon in D.C.
Erin Klein
Kleinspiration
Hi Erin,
DeleteThank you, girlie. :) I am going to post a few more in a little bit. Really having awesome success using Symbaloo with the kids at Van Meter.
I am having a wonderful year....I hope you are too.
See you soon, friend.
Shannon
Congratulation for the great post. Those who come to read your article will find lots of helpful and informative tips.
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