October 2020 Agenda—La Mesa, California
Begin at 3:30 pm
Getting Connected
Digitally…Socially…Spiritually
- Sharing for the day – If you could spend one day with a Biblical character (not including Jesus), who would it be and would there be a specific moment or day you would choose?
Devotion
Announcements
1. The next workshop date is scheduled for Thursday, October 29.
2. November 23 & 24 – All Workers Conference (Formally LEC). Click HERE for information.
Review
Let’s take some time to reflect on last month’s TEC21 Challenges and share experiences. Share a success, a challenge you experienced or a lesson learned.
Goals
- Discover the value of engaging your students in a digital storytelling project.
- Explore digital storytelling tools and resources to use with your students.
- Identify a tool or resource to share with a colleague.
Digital Storytelling
Everyone has a story to tell! What’s yours?
Literary Basis
“Digital storytelling has emerged as a fundamental, cross-curricular technique that provides structure for both sharing and understanding new information. It has become an essential way of providing information and enhancing education…by making abstract or conceptual content more understandable. In all disciplines, it offers more ways to engage students and enrich learning through the inclusion of digital media that represents, illustrates, and demonstrates. Digital storytelling brings together text, graphics, audio, and video around a chosen theme, often with a specific point of view. Bernard Robin observes that a digital story may be a personal tale, a depiction of a historical event, or simply a way to creatively impart information or provide instruction. In the classroom, they can also foster collaboration when students are able to work in groups, and enhance the student experience through a personal sense of accomplishment (Robin, 2006). The National Council of Teachers of English in 2003, challenged teachers to develop instructional strategies for students to master composing in nonprint media that could include any combination of visual art, motion (video and film), graphics, text, and sound—all of which are frequently written and read in nonlinear fashion (Porter, 2008, p. 11). Included was the process of digital storytelling, where information is conveyed in a way that is more engaging than plain text.” Strategies for digital communication skills across disciplines: The importance of digital stories (Links to an external site.)
Common Core writing standards require writing and publishing using digital tools beginning already in Kindergarten and continuing through Grade 12.
Use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing and present the relationships between information and ideas efficiently as well as to interact and collaborate with others.
Use technology, including the Internet, to produce, publish, and update individual or shared writing products in response to ongoing feedback, including new arguments or information.
Paper Slide Videos
Stopmotion Video
A stopmotion video is a series of still images strung together at a rapid rate resulting in an onscreen animation. Below is an example of one a past student created using Stopmotion Studios. It is a free app that simple to use. The video below takes advantage of some of the paid add-on features.
Digital Storytelling Resources
Image Resources
- YOUR own photo library (Always your first choice when possible.)
- www.flickr.com/photos/library_of_congress
- www.nasa.gov/multimedia/imagegallery
- www.ars.usda.gov/is/graphics/photos
- pixabay.com
- pics4learning.com
Audio Resources
- incompetech.com (Royalty Free Music)
- soundbible.com (Royalty Free Sounds and Music)
- Freesound.org
- Findsounds.com
- “Hire a Kid” – You all have that kid in your class who’s the soundFX machine, right? Give him an outlet for that talent!
- Create your own music using Garageband or UJAM.
Digital Citizenship Integration
Whether students are learning in-person, remotely or in hybrid scenarios, online learning activities are a part of the education process. As educational leaders, we have the extraordinary opportunity to be a positive influence in their lives when it comes to modeling and teaching them about digital citizenship. Common Sense is a nonprofit organization dedicated to provide parents and teachers lessons and resources to teach children in grades K-12 skills and responsible behaviors to thrive in the 21st century. Below are their six core curriculum topics. Check out their website HERE.
- Media Balance & Well-being
- Privacy & Security
- Digital Footprint & Identity
- Relationships & Communication
- Cyberbullying, Digital Drama & Hate Speech
- News & Media Literacy
Internet Safety Resources
Digital Tools & Resources

Story Bird Select artwork by theme, drag onto page left, right, or whole page layout, add text, publish. Share URL with parents!
Web-based

Adobe Spark Video and Page allow students to use format templates to create stories with impactful graphics and animated videos in minutes. Record your voice, add pictures or provided graphics, and turn into a video.
Web-based

Little Bird Tales is a website that allows teachers and students to upload, record, and create stories using images. You can use images that you already have or you can draw your own! You have the option to share tales through email once you are finished, but they are not made public unless you want them to be. Little Bird Tales is a creative way to encourage student self-expression. It is also a fun way to help reinforce reading and writing skills in your students! From what I can see, it is a paid site, but you can get a 21 day free trial.
Web-based

Storyjumper is the number 1 rated website for making digital stories. Best feature is the site can automatically translate the book into 38 different languages to share with students, parents, and relatives who don’t speak English. Use your own pictures or graphics provided. Tutorial
web-based

Book Creator is the simple way to make your own beautiful ebooks, right on your iPad. With over 30 million ebooks created so far, Book Creator is ideal for making all kinds of books, including children’s picturebooks, comic books, photo books, journals, textbooks and more. Free version allows you to make one book.
Web-based
Genius Hour
Have you ever heard of Genius Hour? Listed below are several resources to help understand what it is all about and why some teachers have been integrating this project-based learning strategy into their classrooms. Jerrita Staehr, one of our workshop facilitators, created all of the necessary assets for TEC21 Teachers to use either for themselves during their TEC21 experience or to make copies and adapt them to use with their students. She’s broken it down into steps and provided wonderful examples and templates. Excellent work, Jerrita, and thank you for sharing this with everyone! Here’s a link to the shared Google folder with all of her resources if you are are interested: Jerrita’s Genius Hour TEC21 Style Resources.
- “What is Genius Hour?” (Genius Hour)
- How to Build Community Leaders of Today – And Tomorrow – Through Genius Hour (EdSurge, 2017)
- Genius Hour in Elementary School (Edutopia, 2017)
- Tips and Tricks to Keep Kids on Track During Genius Hour (MindShift, 2017)
- Inspire Drive, Creativity in the Classroom with 20-Time (20-Time in Education)
- 20-Time Projects in Education: 41 Projects in 4 Minutes (YouTube, 2014)
Storyboard That is a web service that helps you to create such storyboards for whatever purpose you like. It is an innovative tool designed to be easy to use with a simple drag and drop interface and hundreds of carefully chosen pieces of clipart for clear expression.
Haiku Deck Presentation and slide show app/website. Amazing search feature for free images to illustrate your digital story. Also create easy clear charts and graphs to demonstrate learning. Tutorial
Web-based
Animoto is a wonderful online video creation tool. The free version allows up to 60 seconds. 4 minutes if you set up an educator’s account.
Record your entire desktop, an application, current browser tab or just your webcam. … Embed your webcam anywhere in your recording, and narrate with your microphone. … No internet connection required until you upload your video to Google Drive or YouTube.
Pear Deck is a Google Add-On that lets you insert interactive slides into a Google Slides presentation. Free slides include ideas for before, during, and after the presentation for building background knowledge, formative and summative assessment, and critical thinking. Under Tools in Google Slides add the add-on by searching for Pear Deck. Then open it as you create a Google Slide presentation. Be sure to present using Pear Deck too. Students can just go to the joinpd.com link and type in the code you give them, new each time.
Web-based, type in what you want an avatar to say. Perfect for story retelling or to hear another character’s side of the story. Voki example of Jesus and Voki example of President Trump. You can make 3 for free, then need to delete or edit to create more.
Simply take any photo, draw a line to make a mouth, and record your voice. Then share your Pix with friends and family as silly greetings, playful messages, or creative cards. And best of all, it’s FREE! Tutorial Tutorial 2
Teacher’s Guide to Digital Storytelling
Great web article on the how and why of digital storytelling in the classroom. Includes a number of lesson ideas and additional resources.
Project Development
TEC21 Challenges
- Digital: Engage your students in a digital storytelling activity or project. Share your experience by posting for others to see!
- Social: Post a question, an answer, a resource, a picture of your students working on digital storytelling, or an example of a student project to the TEC21 Educators Group on Facebook.
- Spiritual: Be a resource to at least one new person on your faculty before we meet again.
Reflection
To open the reflection in its own tab, select HERE.
Dismiss at 2:00pm
My Contact Info
Please do not hesitate to contact me with any questions, problems, or suggestions.
Email: jpayne@lutheranschool.org
Phone: 619.462.5211 Ext. 141
Cell: 619.300.6867