iPads in Kindergarten at Alexandra

In Kindergarten we are looking at using the iPads to address a few areas of need.  First we considered our focus groups:

• JK and SK girls [targeting girls’ engagement with the Kindergarten Science and Technology curriculum]
• 5 JK and SK students demonstrating a need to increase vocabulary and semantics, including 2 SK girls experiencing receptive and expressive language delays
• 1 SK boy [targeting enrichment]

Then we decided that our Diagnostic Assessment would be based on interviews to be recorded on video with each of the Kindergarten students. The responses to the interview questions would be our baseline starting points for each child. The following are the questions we used in our interviews:

1. Using a large moth - (a) I am placing an insect on a tray. Look closely at it. What can you tell me about it? Use your describing words to tell me what you know. What do you wonder (want to know) about it?  
2. Using a frog habitat - (a) Now I am going to show you a home built by people for a tiny frog to live in all year long. What do you see in his home?  What do you wonder (want to know) about it? (b) Most frogs live in big ponds outdoors - in the woods or marshes. It is getting colder now and soon it will be winter. What do you think happens to the water in the pond then? What do you think happens to the frogs then?   
3. Using class collected tree photos of leaf-bearing and evergreens - Let’s look at some pictures we took on the playground recently. We called this time of year “the fall” because leaves were changing colours and falling to the ground. What might we see when we go back and look at those trees [picture # 1, then picture # 2] now that is has been so rainy and windy?
4. Using a book about composting and a pot - I am going to show you the cover of a book called Compost Stew: An A to Z Recipe for the Earth . We will be reading this book soon. What do you think this book might be about? Look at the cover (front & back) and the pot Mrs. G. has brought in to help you make your predictions (guess).
5. Using both a bird nest and a bird house - I am going to show you 2 objects. One object is a nest. The other object is a birdhouse. What do you know about nests? What do you know about birdhouses? How are they the same? How are they different?  
6. Using a poster of lightning over a city - When I uncover the photo, I want you to just look at it and think about it and think about what you want to say about it.
7. Using binoculars and a magnifying glass - We are going to be trying to locate birds on our school playground. I am going to show you 2 objects –  a magnifying glass & binoculars. Which object do you think is going to help us do this best?  Explain using the word “because”.

 Video Clips

Here are some video clips of JK and SK girls. The JK girls show a lack of wondering in response to the interview questions. The SK girls appear more involved but not actively engaged. So…can the use of ipads promote more active engagement with the Kindergarten Science and Technology curriculum?

Here are video clips of 2 SK girls attempting to respond to the interview questions. The girls struggle with receptive and expressive language during the school day. So… can the use of ipads increase oral language skills [e.g., vocabulary, semantics, concepts]?

Here is a video clip of an SK boy. He reads easily [Primary Benchmark 19] and loves to do so as often as he possibly can. He is a reluctant participant in any other tasks/activities that he engages in during the school day; notwithstanding that he is a very capable student. This reluctance is seen in the video clip where he gives minimal responses to the interview questions. So…can the use of the ipad provide him with enrichment tasks/activities that he will find challenging, enjoyable and worth putting an effort into?

Summary

Now we are going to once again look at the interviews, this time with a view to deciding, after reflection, what apps we might select to promote growth within our focus groups.

Rules for iPad Use in an Intermediate Classroom

Found this awesome website that identifies, from experience, some essential rules for effectively using iPads in middle school classrooms.

http://isource.com/2013/03/12/essential-rules-for-effectively-using-ipads-in-middle-school-classrooms/

I particularly like the suggestion to group apps like settings, messaging, FaceTime and game centre into a folder labelled not for use.

iPad to video student responses

Nothing fancy....I have a student in my class who is non- verbal autistic. We are in the process of making some changes to her IEP and her amazing EA was asked to use 15 different kinds of candy to establish the candy that will be her most potent reinforcer.  The EA used an IPad and video taped this process.  This was great because the Ea was able to share the video with our resource teacher later in the day.  Later the spec. Ed consultant was wondering if the student preferred a certain colour.  The video can re-watched to see if there was a preference to colour.    So simple....and very valuable

e-Texts at Mariposa ES

If we provide access to eTexts and supportive technology, what impact will this have on student engagement and collaborative learning?

At Mariposa, we are trying to find the balance between old textbooks and new curriculum. We currently are using Geography textbooks that are clearly out of date, as the information and statistics make predictions for the population in Canada, for the year 2000. SO! We're tired of saying 'sorry' and have decided to venture into the world of e-Texts!

In our proposal, we outlined the value of being able use up-to-date texts as well as interactive features that will take the learning just from a note on a page, into actual context and understanding. 

We are also curious to see the effects of more access to computers in the classroom, on the acceptance of the SEA laptops for some of our students. Currently, there is a 'stigma' amongst our students, in that none want to be labelled as a 'laptop kid'. We hope that if EVERYONE has access, then this stigma will be broken down.

At this point in time, we are having some difficulty actually acquiring the texts. We are in the process of purchasing and hope to have them up and running for the next blog! 

education + creation = EDUCREATIONS!

Hello All
Nice to read about the various uses and ideas surrounding our new tech!  :)

For the past few weeks I have had my students using the i-pads in a variety of ways.  Below is a list of activities they have been doing collaboratively or individually with the assistance of i-pads.

1) Using the Educreations app, students have made posters that are interactive.  Upon designing a poster that has traditional images and text, they have also added music, their own narration and extra drawings or images that appear throughout the recording of their poster "show".  This activity was very successful.  Students were engaged, had fun, were able to take their creativity to the next level and became quite proficient with it, very quickly.  They then shared their posters in various ways-- with a partner, in a carousel seating and in front of the whole class.

2) Using the Videolicious app, students created 1 min. films (with images, film clips, background music and voice over) of a description of a character from the novel we were reading or of an advertisement for a product (media study).

3) Currently, as a course culminating activity in French, students are creating their own short films.  They are collaborating and working on their scripts at school and from home using Google Drive and are using the i-movie app to film and edit their work.  I am still learning how to use this app in order to train them through this.  They are SO EXCITED about the real time nature of Google drive and are thrilled to create movies as a final task.

4)  Currently, another class has written children's short stories (for thier grade 1 reading buddies) and would like to create digital, interactive versions of their texts.  Using the Educreations app or the Book Creator app, they will record images of their books and of their voices reading the books, page by page.  This will provide an excellent resource for the grade 1 buddies to have digital story books that they can read, listen to, and follow along.

It's been a great start and I am excited to learn more and implement more ideas!
Cheers!
Rebeka

Diagnostic

This month I wanted to perform a diagnostic so that I could compare my
results from the beginning of this inquiry to the end. I did this by
providing my students with a quick survey that asked about their research
skills and knowledge of how to use technology to help them answer their
questions, which I will use again at the end of the year. As well, we did
a mini-inquiry into Remembrance Day and Veterans’ Week. Without much
help or advice, the students went on to research one of four questions of
their choice. They were able to use our laptops; however I did not give
them any instruction on which sites or programs to use. I’m excited to
be able to compare the quality of product and the answers of the survey to
yearend results. 

The students' wrote Halloween narratives based on the work of Mike Wade's books and then it Happened.  Our focus was on writing the main idea/problem, events and details in our work.  After completing their stories the students created an iMovie trailer based on their work.  The trailer was to highlight the main events, giving clues about their story without giving the solution/ending away.
As they complete their trailers they will be uploaded if you would like to watch.

Smart Notebook App Worth It?

I think Smart Notebook is a really versatile program both for my needs as a teacher and for my students' needs.  In fact they will often choose it as their "go to" program to demonstrate their learning.

I am wondering about the Smart Notebook app for the iPad and would it be worth purchasing (at $7.00 per iPad)?  I am thinking it might take the place of purchasing some other apps, and be in a format that I and my students would be familiar with.  For example: we could create base ten blocks in Smart Notebook and students could use those to show their work rather than purchasing the base 10 app.

Thanks for any input/opinions you might be able to provide.

Scott

Vehicle Diagnostics on ward...to infinity and beyond...

Well maybe not to inifinity and beyond....

But definitely moving forward in exposure to easily accessible automotive diagnostics.
Our proposal was  “HHSS Diagnostic Skills Development, Utilizing GUI Interfaces for Qualitative Automotive Diagnostics in a Collaborative Environment”

Note there are great possibilities for this combination of technology, which in many cases is currently being used in the states are college and dealership levels to aid in diagnostics.  Now that we have recieved our Dongle (BT1, bluetooth OBDII interface) and its linked to the Ipad Mini's its time to experiment with the free apps....who better to experiment that two senior level girls in Mr. Dulongs.'s TTJ4 class.  Plus we could trust them to care for the technology and also they used an old Ipad II  (protective cases had not arrived....they are here now)

First they hooked up a traditional Snap-on scanner to a Mazda pickup which had DTC's present (ses light, diagonistic trouble codes)  A process that took approximately 12 minutes, finding the right adapter key, getting the vehicle VIN data, plugging in the data. accessing the data stream and DTC menus.  They verified what codes were present.

 Note that this scanner is approxiamtely likely about 10 years old and original purchase price was likely towards the 4000 dollar mark.

They then used the free apps from goPoint and had great success accessing the vehicles ECM (computer) and retrieved the same DTC codes.  Way to go girls!!  Simplicity of the interface and working knowledge of how an Ipad works made this process very quick for the female techs.

 The following pictures show the pad in use accessing the free app BT1 Monitor.  Wicked quick, easy hookup/link up once we enable the bluetooth.

Note the ladies obtained the same codes as the snap on scanner and they did it in less than 5 minutes including a bluetooth hicup.   Way to go Ladies!!

 
 More to follow folks.....don't want to ramble too much more.   We are very excited to further impliment the procedure and technology.  Mr. Dulong has since purchased a paid app to support the Dongle; Dash Commander as supported by goPoint technologies.

Post experience for the female techs,  NB and SB; they have filled out and submitted a IIT - Auto Poll as part of our data collection process. (via google Forms)

If curious....check out....http://goo.gl/kNzaAt

Lots more to follow....implimenting the process
                             ....technology exploration
                             .....diagnotic trouble codes
                             .....diagnostic trouble trees
                             .....vehicle repairs and verification of repair
                             .....live streaming data sets.....
                            .....data interpertation
                            .....emmission monitors
                            .....pairing with CDX jobs
                            .....e-portfolios............just the tip of infinity...

Surveys...

What are you doing for your surveys? Are people doing a survey before they use the devices and then one at the end? Are you just surveying at the end of the semester (H.S. question, sorry).

OMG - it's MAGIC!!!

So in 15 years of teaching - music theory has always been a bit of a struggle...  I see the value in theory - my students have learned to see the importance of theory - but it's difficult to teach (and learn) this part of the course - mainly because both the students and I would rather be actively involved in playing music.

For the FIRST time EVER I had an entire room of music students TOTALLY enthralled in THEORY - to the point where I had 3 of them staying into the next period (their spares) to work on theory on the iPads!!!  Even the kid who usually instantly gives up on "paper work" was totally absorbed in what we were doing!  And I had a number of them asking if we could do theory again tomorrow!  WHAT???  This has happened before with PERFORMANCE but never with THEORY!!!

They were so excited!  And now I'm even more excited!  I'm looking forward to sharing some of their projects with you.

Fun things happening with Garage Band, and music on iPads at LCVI :)

Smiles,
Sheri

padlet.com with all devices

In my plan I had stated that I wanted to use the iPads as engagement/consolidation tools. One site that I have been using a lot is padlet.com. Good news, this site (not an app) is free, and is accessible on all devices as well. I've set it up by getting an account for myself (free) and then pre-setting up some of the wall for use.

For example, when doing a Think-Pair-Share, students will have the iPads in front of them for the "share", use the qrcode scanner app (free) and then be navigated to the site. They then share their work and I encourage other students to expand upon each other's posts/notes (see ionic vs. covalent TPS wall). They can post images or graphics. I'll have the 'wall' loaded on my classroom computer and have the digital projector displaying the wall. Since I have an account and created the wall, I can edit, reposition or remove posts made on the wall.

I did a consolidation/check-in where students posted their "I feel..."s and "I need..."s after the second day of mass to mole to particle conversions. It was really just a glorified ticket out of class, but I think it was good because it was anonymous and students out loud stated that they were relieved that they saw others were struggling with grasping the content. As a teacher, it was great to be able to visually scan the notes and see where people were. Some students posted more than one comment which was good. I often struggled to get students to even post one post-it note on ticket out of class activities.

Examples:
I vs. C Share:
http://padlet.com/wall/ip22fbi0b0
I feel.../I need...
http://padlet.com/wall/nwmxrbhtv8

Explain Everything in Action!

Students had a lot fun with the camera/video tool in
Explain Everything.

I had a fantastic time working with Kathryn Murray's grade 6/7 class using Explain Everything (EE) on her mini iPads. After 5 minutes of initial playtime in EE, students were able to share their findings on what each tool did. Very quickly, they were becoming the experts on the tool. With exploring the tools even further, the students were able to provide examples of how and when this app would be useful.

The software, AirServer, was used for
students to share their screen on the SmartBoard.
 

Taking the tool to the next level, we explored how Siri can be used in EE and how to export final products into their Google Drive accounts and share their video with others.

To finish the lesson, students worked in pairs and used EE to share their summaries of articles in a special Remembrance Day newspaper. When they are done, they will export their videos into their Google Drive account and then share it with their teacher.

Thank you Kathryn for inviting me to spend the morning with your class and giving me the opportunity to help your students learn all about my favourite app!

Wow!  Intense learning for me...the students seem fine!
Watch out!  Sometimes home screen with iPad number disappears!  We learned we needed to put iPad number on back of mini!  We did this with masking tape.  Panic over!

Fun time just with native features.  Sometimes kids are so distracted by applications, it was amazing to see all we could do without one application downloaded.  They listened to SIRI, Google mapped - 3-D, made videos and blogged about a video.

First download was MyScriptCalculator.  Really helpful with Grade 7 BEDMAS questions.  They did questions by hand, inputted on Calculator and compared answers. Fast way to get exponents and operation signs in!  Lots of student thinking as they had to figure out why the answer was different!  High level of student engagement in solving math problems!  Hehehehe!

Finally on day 5 we looked at Explain Everything.  Almost too many options for students to grasp in one go! Lots of menu options.  We really looked at how to take pictures and videos and move them into Google Docs.

E-Portfolio

I spent today working in Julie McColl's classroom. We've been working on E portfolios. Students are able to create learning goals tied to the learning skills as well as highlight various tasks they have completed in the classroom. Students are then using this portfolio to present to parents about the learning that is taking place in their classroom at parent teacher interviews. The E portfolio we chose to use is available through Desire To Learn, the provincial learning management system. 

Charades/Heads Up

If you have ever played Head Banz, or Heads Up (as seen on Ellen) you will love this free app. ($0.99 if you want it without adds). Cherades.  You hold the tablet to your forehead facing out, your partner gives you clues to say the word. Tilt the tablet up over your head if you pass and down to your lap if you guess the word.  See how many you can do in a certain amount of time.  I haven't even got to the cool part.  The very last category folder is Custom...now your options are endless.

I have been trying to play this game with my grade 4s using cards with names of quadrilaterals...no more cards!  I will also use it to practice mental math; put in the answer and the clue needs to be addition questions, or subtraction, or multiplication..you get the idea.

Screen Shots

I'm in the process of creating a couple of worksheets for my students and have found the screen shot tool very useful - so I'm passing the info on to all of you who are using iPads or iPad minis.

Go to the screen that you want.  Press the power key (at the top of the iPad) at the same time as the home/menu key (bottom front of iPad).  The screen should flash.  Your screen shot is complete!  EASY!  The photo will be stored in the cameral roll.  You can then email it to your PC/laptop or upload it directly to a Google Drive document :)

Have fun :)
Sheri

Ipads mini

Looking forward to using in my classroom!