Kindie Photographers!

Art Auction Update

Our art auction takes place this week - on the evening of February 27^th.  The Kindergarten students are excited about lots of people seeing their iPad photos. 

Some JK Students and iPad Photos

  

 SK Students and Framed iPad Photos

 

Engagement

Photography 

The Kindergarten students, especially the SKs, have been very engaged taking photos and are frequently finding additional opportunities to do so. Recently, as part of the Science & Technology [FDK Document] curriculum, the SKs were constructing things, individually or in groups, using a variety of materials, such as magnetic rods and balls. They asked to take photos of their work with the iPads and then had me take their picture with their “creations”.

Next Steps 

To take this to the next level, we will be learning how to use the Notes feature to dictate their thoughts about their photos. 

 Tracking Oral Language Skills   

One focus of this project is to explore the use of iPads with a target group of five Kindergarten students struggling with oral language. The Oral Language Kindergarten Checklist was completed for each student in mid-November as a baseline. Individual student goals were selected based on the checklist results. Specific apps were downloaded from LinguiSystems [e.g., Concepts, Categories, Basic Questions] and used several times weekly with each student for 15 minutes per session. Other resources were also used, such as First Steps Oral Language Resource Book, First Steps Developmental Continuum and Book Shop Oral Language Photos.  The Oral Language Kindergarten Checklist was again completed for each student in mid-February. A moderate increase was seen on 4 of the 5 Checklists, indicating that the iPads are a useful tool in working with these students; however, it is difficult to determine the impact solely of the iPads’ role.

Challenges

One continuing challenge has been finding the additional time and a quiet place to work with each of these students individually.

  

Next Steps

 A next step is to try additional apps with these students, but more closely linking the apps with the updated Checklist results. A further step is to train an ECE student to work with the students, so that additional time is put into working on their oral language skills daily.  More student independence using the iPads will also be a goal.

Using Explain Everything to Accommodate for Assessment

The facts:
7/8 Science class
34 students
13 with IEPs requiring accommodations and/or modifications
current unit - heavy on language

The assessment:
A quick multiple choice, true false, matching, short answer quiz

The dilema:
How am I going to read to and scribe for 13 students? (Any attempts to clone myself have been unsuccessful.)

The answer:
Explain Everything!!!!!!
I inserted pictures of each of the questions from the assessment onto an Explain Everything slide and recorded as I read and paraphrased questions.

What I learned/realized:
I thought I was brilliant to have students record their answer on the .xpl  but found that unless it was a multiple choice question the spacing was too small to write; a particular problem for students with fine motor skills issues.  Next time I will provide students with a hard copy to record answers on or, given the style of this quiz, I would set up the clickers to input the answers.
For assessment requiring written responses students can dictate their answers.  I use this feature a lot when giving feedback on .xpl

Student Feedback:
100% positive!  They L-O-V-E-D it!  (Although most requested a stylus for next time.)

Padlet

Padlet is an amazing learning tool. It is a website that allows anyone that types in the identical URL to write on a shared wall in real time. Padlet does not require a login or password; anyone can create a wall and anyone can write on it by using the unique URL given to the wall creator. One of Padlet’s greatest strengths is that it is relatively low-tech. It is not an app, any device that has an internet browser can interact with it. Padlet allows the teacher to export the wall in a variety of formats. As an assessment tool rather than taking an anecdotal record for participation it records what students have contributed and can be saved instantly to a single file for participation marks or levels if the response requested requires critical thinking. Padlet’s other great strength is that it gives students a forum to contribute towards a collective lesson without speaking in front of their peers.

One of the unique features that the app has is that the person who established the wall can set the background to any image. Students could then look at the image and describe an emotion or insight that the background has inspired. This image could also be a math problem to which students can submit an estimate or answer. The could also collectively annotate the work sample as part of consolidation. This app is also ideal for the co-creation of  an anchor chart. Teachers could divide the class to limit the number of people working on each wall that they create or to have different themes for different walls. An example of this could be having half of the class work towards filling a wall with the positives of first contact for First Nations and the other half of the class working towards filling a wall with the negatives of colonization. Padlet allows for two organizational methods to be selected via settings. One is freeform which allows students to write anywhere they click, the other places each comment in order as it was made vertically. Padlet allows you to change to the latter after students have already made their post as a free-click comment to organize comments in a clear readable fashion. 

A suggested accompanying app if students are using padlet with tablets is scan life (free). The wall has a share button which opens up a QR code. Once a student has scanned it they are instantly taken to the wall where they can open up the same QR code to bring to their peers. Where it may seem like an obstacle to get everyone to the same URL, the diffusion of using the QR code can happen very quickly. If older technology is being used the Educator can write the URL on the chalk board or e-mail it to students. That said it is highly unlikely but anyone could randomly enter that six digit code. It is for this reason that I would suggest turning on the moderator option (found under privacy in settings) in order to filter potentially inappropriate things from being posted by students in the class or others. With a moderator filtering what could potentially be posted on the Padlet wall students are provided with the opportunity to anonymously post questions which could be seen as a strength. 

Padlet requires no login and an entire class can be working on the same electronic wall in real time within few short moments. As a teacher Padlet can be seen as an outlet allowing for independent thinking and allowing many students to express their ideas to the class quietly and simultaneously. All of these ideas can be exported neatly to a single file in a variety of formats to be read (I suggest switching the layout to “stream” for this) by the educator at their convenience rather than collecting 20 or 30 different pieces of paper. Padlet is a great tool that students can use on a wide range of technology.  

Star Chart

Hi Everyone,
In January my class went to the Yearley Outdoor Education Centre in Huntsville and I thought, "What a great opportunity to mix technology with the great outdoors!"  During our evening program we took a night walk and brought our iPads along.  It was a beautiful, clear, frigid night when we walked down to the pond. Students listened to the story of the "Space Rock" (no clues here...you have to go to Yearley to know about the secret of the Space Rock...er spearmint lifesavers!) and the kids were just about to lose interest when the adults pulled out a few of the iPads and opened up the Star Chart app.  And VOILA...re-engaged students.  No seriously...if you haven't checked out this app you really should.  Basically you hold your device up into the sky and the app identifies the stars and constellations that are directly in front of you.  This app strongly supports the Grade 6 Space curriculum.  The app will identify the names and location of stars and constellation and the phases of the moon (which is useful if the kids start acting squirrelly and you are wondering when the full moon will occur!) The upgrade includes features for tracking meteor showers, exploration of dwarf planets, comets and satellites.  All-in-all a very cool app.
K.

Inquiries & OERB

As a class we've been exploring the world of structures and have been able to research some of the world's most interesting and famous landmarks using the laptops. The students have been working in partners on a research topic of their choosing.  

Besides using looking at different resources that are available, we have started to evaluate them and use our reading strategies of trying to find the main idea/important information. We have started to use Alpha Boxes to help the students put those ideas into their own words. 

We've also been using the Ontario Educational  Resource Bank (OERB) a lot on our laptops. The activities, especially for math, can be used as introductions, practice, and review. It is also easy to differentiate when using the site. I love it and so do the students. 

Inquiring minds

January was a great month for inquiry in our classroom! The students have really started to get excited about being able to explore their own questions. The laptops have enabled them to do so. 

The students are also loving the fact that they can publish all of their favourite writing assignments so easily and in a variety of ways. I have students using regular Word documents; some using Word Q to help with spelling and clarity; others creating "picture books" using Power Point; and a few exploring making comics using Bitstrips. It's great!

BT1 & Idevices - IIT Slideshow - Semester I Highlights & Semester II StartUp

As the new semester cranks up, new courses and students arrive ready to tear automotive systems apart.  Little did many of them realise that there is more to dismantling vehicles to successfully fulfill the course requirements; especially at the college coded level.  Ah bring on the maintenance schedules, the service manuals the resources and most importantly the diagnostics.

While looking through some of the videos and pictures we took during the initial project startup; it became very apparent that we focussed on individual student exposure, documenting their processes and technology use.  Highlighting the technology and analyzing the disconnect of thinking and self directed next steps; which service literature should the students refer to?; how do we successfully ensure that they are able to decipher the diagnostic trees and follow the steps?   Additional graphical literacy and further exposures to diagnostic trees is a must.  The acquisition of the DTCs and verification of the repairs is the easy part; fostering & modeling and redefining & shaping the required learning skills and employability skills to create self directed thinking pathway selection will be the next hurdle.

With that being said the new group of TTJ 3C students will be driven by a CDX Format coupled with Project/Task record Portfolio via Moxtra & Google; illustrating the steps and rationale for the chosen pathways as directed by diagnostic trees, DTC's and streaming data.  The BT1 and idevice technology is the gateway for the more diagnostic based CDX tasks/customer.  While still ensuring the students are fully exposed to the hard hands aspect of the trade.

                                           Refer to the following link for more CDX info

From the video request, we identified difficulties of providing student free content; however the observation does identify that we are approaching the project in a student driven and immersive manner.  There are not many photos and/or videos that do not contain identifiable students actively completing tech related tasks and using the IIT technology to diagnose and repair vehicle systems.

             There are several video shorts that have been uploaded to the shared video folder.
To aid in showcasing the process, the activities and the IIT technology we were however able to assemble several photos and create a YouTube video slideshow with annotations to aid in explaining and highlighting the technology.   This video has also been uploaded to the IIT Shared Video folder; HOWEVER the downloadable format does not allow the annotations.  So please refer to the following YouTube video link for a more encompassing video.  BT1 & Idevices - IIT Slide Show   View in full screen...

Thanks for Watching...