Two Apps Are Better Than One!

Two Apps Are Better Than One!

In this blog I am going to share how my grade 2 class used one app to create our math and used another to explain it.

In another posting I mentioned our Olympic learning block.  This covered language and math as well as our social studies.  During our shared reading on the SmartBoard, we discussed each days events, medal count and athletes that participated.  This knowledge transferred into our math, giving us real data for our surveys and bar graphs.
Together, we created a survey listing the top 5 favourite olympic sports on tv.  Each student had to survey 10 other students in the class and record the data with tally marks (shown below).

Then we used Graph (click link to find out more about this App).  This App can be used in a variety of ways and for different grade levels.  We selected the bar graph, and inputted our data from our surveys into the Graph App. With a little time and effort, the App created the bar graph for us.  The App allows you to save an image of your graph to the camera roll on your iPad (see below).

Can you guess what we did next??? That's correct, we added all the images into Explain Everything.  Slide #1 was a title page, slide #2 was the student survey and slide #3 was the bar graph.  To the bar graph,  students added photos of each sport next to the appropriate bar.  Finally, they recorded their thoughts, and explained the survey relating to the bar graph.  Here they used pointers and arrows ( a fave among the class), to show what they were discussing.

As the paper and pencil practice continued (work sheets), the students added more graphs and explanations into their presentations.

So as you can see... two apps are better than one!

Food for thought...

An interesting news article that pertains to what we're doing: http://www.ottawacitizen.com/touch/story.html?id=9628826

Two steps forward...

We were reminded why we chose to do our project when we found some questionable photos on a student's phone before March break. It's disappointing and frustrating when we've been spending this time on the topic and yet students still don't quite get the message about how some of these things are not only morally questionable but borderline illegal. Hopefully in completing the project some long lasting lessons will be learned.

student engagement with Explain Everything

My class has had mixed success with Explain Everything.  Sometimes it has impeded student engagement.  My wondering is why.  Unsuccessful uses have usually been in math to explain their thinking.  Maybe the technology competed with their thinking; having to think about how to use the technology AND the math?  Maybe their accountability decreased their risk-taking?  Maybe they simply were not able to articulate their thinking?  Maybe accountable talk just looks more productive from a distance and without evidence?
However, our newest success involved using Explain Everything to tell a narrative.  What do I attribute to this success?  We have been explicitly working with narratives in reading and writing all year.  We were inspired by storyteller Dan Yavinsky who visited our school and asked the students to tell a story from their personal life.  We immediately returned to class and used our familiar narrative planner; using pictures and/or words to plan.  Knowing that completion of their planner allowed them to record on the ipad definitely sped up the planning stage.  All students proudly completed their organizer and recorded their personal (or fictitious) story using Explain Everything within 110 minutes.  The voice clarity was excellent:)
Next, we are going to create narratives using Sock Puppets or Toontastic.  Any suggestions or tips?

Uploading PDF's: Part 2

Uploading PDF's Part 2: To Google Drive from a computer

The cool factor continues.  Now that I've stumbled upon uploading PDF's from the internet to Google Drive (from an iPad), I must be able to do it with PDF's on my computer.  With a little determination, I was able to conquer my quest.  Unfortunately it was a two step process, and took a little bit longer.  If there is a faster way, I would love to learn.

1. Create a folder in Google Drive to save the PDF 
2. Select the upload button (next to the Create button, there is an arrow pointing up)
3. Select "Files or Folders" 
4. Select the desired PDF from your desktop/computer etc...
5. Click open
6. Select the link (file), when upload complete (a window will pop up bottom, right corner)
7. Select move to folder
8. select the folder you've created
9. selectt move

I created a folder for my GB+ reading assessments (this is the French Immersion equivalent to F&P reading assessments). The PDF's (GB+ reading assessment sheets) came on a disc with the kits, which I uploaded to My Drive using the process above. Then, I followed the steps from my blog  Uploading PDF's in Explain Everything & Google Drive: Part 1.  

Now I have all the assessment sheets for each reading level stored on my Drive.  To assess my students, I can open the PDF in Explain Everything.  To begin I can select record.  I can use the pen to tick off correct words, circle ones that were forgotten, add things etc... and at the same time,  I have a voice recording of how the student actually read the book!!!

Again, when complete, upload the presentation to Google Drive as a video record.  Share with students so they can see and hear how they read.  Share with your resource team, parents and teachers for the following year.

Use of Twitter in the Classroom

In the past, I spent a lot of time maintaining a classroom website.  I would also send a parent email every day.  Now, the email was a form email and the only thing I really had to change each day was what we had worked on.  This being said, these parent communication initiatives took time and I really wasn't sure how many people were reading what I had written.

In the past couple of years, I really scaled down my classroom website and decided to write a parent email once per week.  I was attempting to assess the "bang for my buck" by comparing what I was putting in, terms of time, and how much was being noticed by parents (my intended audience).

Unfortunately, after a long week, the once per week emails seemed like too much work most Friday nights.  I would write some weeks but other weeks would be missed.

I was looking for a form of parent communication that would allow me to update it when the mood struck or when I needed to send info.  I thought about a blog because I could update it at any time but that seemed like it might lead to a lot of typing.  I had set up a classroom Twitter feed in the past but stopped using it.  I decided to try again.

As a class, we are tweeting about things that are happening in our classroom.  Using one of our iPads, we will sometimes add a picture.  It is great because we discuss what we are going to write (and how we are going to edit what we want to say so it is under the 140 characters) and we tweet it right then.  I don't have to remember to or find time to communicate it after school.  The students are thinking of things we need to communicate.  It is a "real time" update of what is happening in our classroom on a daily basis.  If a parent was following our class on Twitter, they would know exactly what to discuss over supper and "nothing" would not be an acceptable answer to the question, "What did you do at school today?"

There are at least two possible negatives we have encountered so far.  One is that I am not really sure how many parents are accessing our class tweets.  We are being followed by only three parents.  Others can view our tweets without following us but we can't be sure they are doing so.  Two is that up until now, our use of Twitter is teacher-guided and driven.  There was an article in the most recent ETFO magazine where students were tweeting on their own.  They were also following and communicating with other classes.  I am not sure I am ready to hand control over to students yet but we are inching forward and hopefully the old teacher can become more comfortable with students calling the shots in this area.

CSS unravels the secret of Oak Island

For over two hundred years treasure hunters have been digging on a tiny island off the coast of Nova Scotia. What are they digging for? Is it a hoax? A sink hole? Or something more? The truth is no one knows for certain what if anything is buried on Oak Island. Students at Central Senior School armed with iPads, Google Drive, and inquisitive minds hope to unravel the secret.

In a collaborative effort students are researching their own theories on Oak Island. They are turning these theories into short films dramatizing the truth behind the Oak Island money pit. Not only are students learning to make inferences, research, and support a main idea they are also learning to take risks and act upon their beliefs.

As we are in the early phases of this exciting project and we are looking forward to adding videos to this blog shortly. The project represents the adaptiveness of film by providing students a cross-curricular, collaborative opportunity.

Stay tuned for more!

Rory Ellis

Artifacts and web restrictions

We're finding it very difficult to have the kids find and upload artifacts when there are restrictions on YouTube and other media sharing sites. The students have great ideas but can't always access the media to support it. As much as I'd like to say that they are following up at home and posting things from their home internet where they don't have filters, they really don't, which I'm sure is surprising to no one.

Student Engagement with ipads

For the request of video evidence of students' feedback on technology, my students had two ideas.  First, they love using technology in the classroom because it is like home.  Second, they like video recording their ideas rather than having to write them.  Not a surprising finding but authentically out of the mouth of babes.

Stop Motion Studio

After our last IIT meeting, there was a presentation about a film festival at Central Senior.  One of the film "formats" was stop motion animation and the app that was used was Stop Motion Studio.  I thought it would be cool for my 2/3s to create some stop motion movies but I wasn't sure when this would be.  The time revealed itself when we were lucky enough to be able to attend a screening of "The Lego Movie".  The students loved the movie and when I discussed the possibility of creating something movies the looked similar to what we watched at the theatre, they were hooked.

This happened before the March Break and it consumed our classroom for two full days which, considering it was just before a holiday, I was okay with.  We haven't gone back to the stop motion movies again but we certainly will again when the right curriculum connection presents itself.  This app was very easy to use, even for young children and it is pretty cool to see how students innovate and learn from each other.

Intermediates and iPads

We've been finding it difficult to keep the intermediates on task and using their time and tech effectively. We will definitely try the contract/code of conduct idea posted by Carolyn L.  We've started tracking their work by breaking the task of creating a presentation in D2L down into small chunks. This has been much more effective as it provides manageable pieces and a visual checklist and it's helping the students by making the task seem less daunting. Students seem to be finding D2L hard to work with so we're hoping that by breaking the task down they'll feel more successful.

Uploading PDF's Part 1

Uploading PDF's in Explain Everything & Google Drive: Part 1

Though my inquiry is in math, I have been exploring new ways to utilize this wonderful piece of technology across the curriculum.

I was playing around with the Google Drive App and discovered a hidden button... in the top right corner.  With a slight touch of  my finger, a tab appeared asking which app I wanted to open the PDF with (the text that I was reading at the time).  A selection of apps were displayed (already downloaded on the iPad). So, as I grew curiouser, I selected Explain Everything and BOOM! Each PDF page became a slide in Explain Everything.  This was awesome and just like that, I solved my problem with journaling on the iPad vs a paper and pencil task.
Our learning block at the time was "Les Olympiques".  I found these great journaling prompts on a website, and displayed it on our Smartboard as our shared reading.  The students then had their own copy saved in Explain Everything and were not only able to journal daily, but then recorded what was written. Très cool!  Once we were done this mini journal, the students/the teacher, uploaded each one to Google Drive, which converted it to an MP4 video file.

Example of a slide in Explain Everything

Film Making at CSS

Throughout Central Senior small teams of students are engaged in film making - interesting conversations can be overheard about acting, camera angles, editing, and communication. As each group works towards a finished product they have planned, scripted, prepared and edited (one group has 1.5 hours of video to edit down to 3 mins) using iPads.

Mr. Lowell’s class - using video to meet expectations from Writing, Media Literacy, Oral Communication, and Drama and develop Learning Skills like collaboration, initiative and responsibility. Students are using Success Criteria designed for the Film Festival and given choice of the different film categories in order to develop and express their ideas using the Enduring Understanding “We can make a difference.”

A variety of genres are being represented, stop motion, PSAs using actors, drama and documentary. Students are also advertising in order to promote their films in the class.

Clips and photos of students at work

OPP Kids Project

As a culminating task for their participation in the OPP kids program the students were given a choice of how to share their learning.  The question they were asked was "What does OPP Kids offer/teach kids?"  Students were able to choose how they wanted to present this information to their peers.  Some chose a poster, while some chose to do a presentation in Google Drive.  More than half of the students chose to do the poster.  However, the most detailed and successful projects were done a device.   The exciting part was watching students who would normally struggle present their information to the class with a project that they could be proud of.  When students were asked why they chose the poster over the device the most common response was that the poster allowed them to be more creative with their ideas. But overall the students who did the poster missed some of the important details and ideas.

Student Inquiry Ipad vs. Mini Laptop

We have been using the I-pads and mini laptops in our classroom with student inquiry.  My project has been focused on giving students freedom of choice when it comes to using a device to complete their inquiry projects.  I have been tracking which device they prefer and the reason for that choice.  Students prefer the I-pads because they don't have to log on and wait for the device to load up, like the mini laptops.  The students that are proficient in typing seem to be the students that choose the computers.  Students are generating their own questions to guide their learning and having many devices in the classroom allows them to follow through on their inquiry and makes it easier to offer opportunities for inquiry based learning.

Invasive Species Trailer

In groups students created an iMovie trailer on an invasive species to Canada (idea from Bill Thompson at ITT meeting 2012-2013).  Students researched specific questions on their species and then created the trailer to clearly summarize their findings.  They watched the trailers that they created in the Fall on their narrative stories.  They deconstructed these trailers, looking for what was effective and ineffective in a trailer.  They used this information to make their science trailers more specific and detailed.  Another strategy to bump up their work was using the initial questions from their research and having the students find evidence in the trailer of where they answered these questions in their final product.  This is when the best revising and editing happened in our classroom.

Explain Everything for Droid!!!

One of my students was interested in working on his Explain Everything project at home but does not have an apple product at home.  He did a little research and discovered that...

Explain Everything is not available for Droid products!!!!

I haven't has a chance to test it out but I definitely will.  If it works, it will make the program less exclusive;  more accessible at home.

Remote assignment submission

Had a neat thing happen last week. A student was away from school for an extended period of time and was quite anxious about having missed so much work in school. He has been dealing with anxiety, which was only getting worse as time passed away from my vocal music class. I sent his father home with one of our iPads so his son could perform the vocal solos he had missed, then send it to me for evaluation on Google Drive.

Due to much time missed because of mental health issues, there was even some question as to whether this student might complete this credit. The option to complete and submit work remotely from home may turn out to be the difference between success and failure in my vocal music course.

Assessing Learning Skills and Work Habits

Honestly 'marking' and evaluating the work habits and learning skills can be difficult to do properly at the secondary level (I have no idea what it is like at the elementary level, but this might be true there too). While doing a course recently, I had to do something about assessment through technology. So I had an idea, assess the learning skills and work habits!

Its just an idea, but I have included the rubric that I made for the assignment if it gives you ideas for making your own tool for this or just use the one here:

https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B56ahhzE5dr7WHYzTXJVODctcFU/edit?usp=sharing

Comic Maker--a great story-building app!

I have recently been playing around with a free app called "Comic Maker".  It is great in a language class for the purpose of providing students with the option of "writing" a story through the creation of a comic, rather than through traditional paragraph writing. (The creation of a digital comic could either be used as an option for differentiated instruction or as an assigned task for all).  The app allows you to select any number of pages with an assortment of layouts of frames and to choose from an assortment of settings, characters, text boxes, colours, symbols, objects, etc. and to insert them into your comic.  It is a great hands-on, colourful and creative alternative to having students simply hand write, hand draw or type out a traditional story!  As my students are starting to use the app they are finding it easy to use and engaging  and I am getting better quality work from some students who normally would not excel at story-writing. :)

Struggling with Digital Submissions...actually getting them I mean

This year has been a wonderful year of learning.  I have gone from a teacher afraid of Google Drive to a teacher who uses it a lot for sharing and storing information.  I have gone from being an Apple newbie to feeling naked without my iPad.  I have gone from a teacher who didn't even know Explain Everything (EE) existed to a teacher who appreciates the powerful impact it has on the learning experience for the students.  Throughout it all, however, there is a constant, underlying struggle or barrier to feeling completely successful in this technology inquiry.

Students are using the minis to generate EE projects but, the process more often then not, seems to stop short there.  During the creation, I witness first hand the learning.  When we share our efforts using the Reflector program  I am always impressed.  But, I am seeking greater success in being able to receive digital submissions for evaluation and feedback.  

The students all have their own "Hand In" folders.  The intent is for students to place their files into this folder when they were handing something in.  It makes sense, but it doesn't happen.  Students are indicating it has been "Handed In" so what could be happening?

Possibility #1 (Which I previously blogged about)

When saved into google drive, students haven't ensured they are logged on to their own account.  The file is saved but into a place they cannot regularly access.  Are they still forgetting to do this?

Possibility #2

If there isn't a file already in the "Hand In" folder, when using a mini it is not possible to save into that folder.  Students thought they were saving into the appropriate folder but ultimately they were not saving at all.  I could have solved this problem by booking into the computer lab and having students save something, anything, into the folder but I just created a google doc and saved it where necessary. This really isn't a problem anymore.

Possibility #3

The EE project is there, I just don't recognize it because of the way it was named.  Solution: be very specific about the name students need to use when saving their files and having them also include the names of all students who shared in it's creation.  Looking at the"Last Modified" date can also be helpful.

So why, when students are instructed to hand in their files, when I check, they are not there?  What am I missing? What do I need to do differently?

I think part of the issue is that when a student hands in a project I am not able to check right away for submission.  There is a delay before it "shows up" in the folder.  With hard copy submission, it is physically in my hand or it isn't; I can easily know, as we all do, before the student leaves, whether or not I have their work.

The struggle continues.  I do and will continue to battle on because on the occasions that I am able to evaluate and offer feedback it is awesome!  I dictate my feedback directly onto the EE project and share it back with the students. Cool!!! (If only I could do this in my comfy chair at home instead of requiring the high speed internet available at school.)

Suggestions welcome!!!!

Inquiry Explosion

The month of March has been pretty exciting in our classroom in terms of inquiry. The students are continuing to look into questions they have around our science and social studies topics. They are using the laptops to explore resources such as Britannica School and the Ontario Educational Resource Bank. 

However, and this is the most exciting part, whenever we have independent reading or extra time after an assignment is completed the students are getting together in groups or independently researching topics that interest them. I have a group of boys who, everyday, gather at the back of the classroom with their writer's notebooks and materials on the chosen topic of the day/week. 

I have also just introduced them to Google Drive so that the collaboration can continue on at the presentation/publishing stage. Can't wait to see how this turns out!

Blog you later. 

Alexandra - March Blog

Alexandra Public School -  March Blog

Developing Oral Language Skills

Patricia Dillabough, Speech Language Pathologist with TLDSB, was kind enough to provide me with a list of suggested apps to help improve oral language skills. Some of these apps are as follows: Noodle Words – Active Word by Noodleworks, Vocabulary Builder 1, and Category Carousel Pocket SLP by Snapse Apps, LLC.  The focus group of 5 Kindergarten students is currently using these apps on a twice weekly basis, for about 10-15 minutes per session. Adult guidance is necessary, so either I am assisting each child or an ECE student is providing support. It is hoped that these apps will help students develop vocabulary and word knowledge.   

Student Independence

The Senior Kindergarten focus students are now quite independent using the iPads. They continue to seek assistance from me with regard to passwords [e.g., for Raz Kids] or if 'something goes wrong with the sound', otherwise they are comfortable with the various apps on the iPads. The SKs also are quite willing to help the JK focus students who are not independent using the iPads. The JK focus group is on a continuum when it comes to the iPads [beginning, developing, well-developed].

iPad Notes

This month we are learning how to use the Notes dictation feature to record students’ thoughts about activities they are working on. For example, as part of the Kindergarten Science and Technology curriculum, the students have planted bean seeds and are observing the seeds’ growth. We hope to re-locate our bean plants to the school garden – if warm weather ever arrives. Also, the focus groups are constructing ‘structures’ and will soon be making bird feeders using a variety of materials. Results are being communicated using iPad Notes.

This is all quite challenging as the dictation feature frequently ‘mangles’ the students’ sentences. Editing of text needs to be done with an adult. Nonetheless, the students love this feature. They find it hilarious when what they have said is not accurately recorded. Then they want to try dictating sentences again in an effort to ‘get it right.’ So…while Notes isn’t an efficient word processor, it is proving a great feature to capture student interest.

Photo Gallery

Picture 1                           Picture 2

         

Note

Picture 1 - “It’s my latest octan tower [Lego movie]. There’s a square based pyramid in it, 2 cylinders, and 1 rectangular prism. Also 3 more sort of cubes.”

Picture 2 - “It’s a hotel and that’s the sidewalk in front. There’s a square based pyramid in it and a semi-circle. Me and my family live in the hotel and we own it.”

Next Steps

At this point, next steps involve continuing on with what we have been doing over the course of the iPad project -  exploring various apps relevant to our inquiry question and tracking student engagement/ progress through the use of photos, videos, note-taking [speech to text], oral language checklists, and students’ journals as an expression of their understanding.

So you want to run Flash?

Part of my project was to facilitate use within the science department. Most of the use has been to be able to have students view and interact with small animations. These are usually short & quick activities where students are able to further their learning through the animation. Unfortunately many of these are flash objects.

Fear not, there is a way around this. As long as the animation is not shockwave based (ie like on gizmos (pre-app) or java based (pHet simulations), you can use "Puffin Free" browser. It has a free demo period. After the trial period, you can't use the app during peak use periods (not during the school day!!).

To use the Puffin Browser, use it like any other browser. Search the query using a search engine, find the flash based animation.

URL: https://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/puffin-web-browser-free/id472937654?mt=8

Explain Everything

Goal - students explain their math thinking and consolidate their understanding
Background - Using Patterns to Algebra students have been moving through concrete, picture and abstract representations of patterning rules.  After 12 lessons we wanted to consolidate our learning so the students created tutorials.  They were to create one pattern rule, show with tiles, graph and finally solve using just the numbers (abstract)
Learnings - the students are getting faster at creating "Explain Everything"
- creating the slides made them think and discuss what the pattern looked like
- using the labels allowed them to interact with each slike to expalin the steps involved, or explain parts of the  equation - multiplier, constant and variable

Surprise Learning - students had not connected the variable with the position number as the part of the equation that changes.

Joy - each tutorial was about 39 seconds.  So it was super quick to catch the misconception.  Initially students were upset that they had created a tutorial that showed errors in thinking.  However, we now celebrate that we have tutorials that document their learning!!!

Math, problem solving, math continuum, self and peer assessment, goal setting, success criteria, feedback

In math we have been focusing on a problem solving “Success Criteria” and are now initiating a math continuum to with 6 phases so students can identify their progress and establish next steps.  I used an Ipad and took pictures of the 6 phases. I then mirrored the 6 phases (Ipad) onto the Smart Board and we started by talking about the phases and the differences between each.  It was great!  Next I asked for volunteers. We took a picture of student work, handed out the Ipads and had the work Airplayed to all Ipads (10).  Students were able to see the student work within a couple of minutes and students were able to determine the appropriate phase on the continuum and the student was able to identify his next steps.  We went back to the pictures of the continuum on the Smart Board several times and made modifications to the language of the indicators for each phase.  The plan is to continue to look at least one piece of student work each day, develop a class understanding of the continuum, focus on the wording of the indicators and make changes so that we all have clear understanding of what is required.  Very powerful way to engage students and promote self and peer assessment in math.  Using the Ipads (Mirroring, airplay, digital pictures) fostered engagement and significantly improved student understanding of math concepts and the steps required to solve problems.  What a fantastic way to move students forward in math.

 

Artist in the Classroom, shadow puppets, drama, visual arts, literacy, poetry, media, critical thinking, time sensitive feedback

In the month of February “Artist in the Classroom” Shelly King came into my 5/6 classroom to work with my students.  Students were creating shadow puppets and then they were asked to work together in small groups to create a short dramatic presentation.  I decided that this would be a good chance to bump up poetry reading in class so for the few weeks before our first visit we read and shared lots of poetry.  A great source for poetry reading is poetry4kids.com. For the first 2 sessions students worked on creating their characters and practiced reciting the poems focusing on voice and movement.  During the 3^rd session students we used the Ipads to record student presentations.  Using the class created Success Criteria the class (and the artist) provided feedback for each group.  Students were given work time to use the feedback and then present again.  The Ipads were used again to video the updated performance.  It was really easy to see that students had listened to and used the feedback to improve their presentations.  Using video has definitely become an important tool in our classroom.  I was able to watch the videos later and pull marks for drama, oral, visual arts, and reading and most importantly, the problem solving and critical thinking that I observed was incredible! 

 

 

Getting started

Since October we've been having regular lessons in the library about being a good online citizen. This has formed the basis of our IIT project.
Tina Franzen came in before Christmas and gave the teachers who are involved in the project some training on D2L e-Portfolios. We were then able to co-plan a model presentation in D2L,  create some success criteria and insert some artifacts.  With our goal being increased digital citizenship, we created a presentation with sidebar topics (tabs) that included Digital Footprint, Safe Online Messaging, Cyber Bullying, Media Collection, and Hot Topics.  These tabs will act as an outline for students to gather their own artifacts so that they can create and share a presentation with others in our school.
We have run into some hiccups with the D2L e-Portfolio in that it's not as accessible and as functional as we would like. Having You-Tube blocked for students is also inconvenient when we're asking them to search out their own artifacts, but at least they can watch the video we've embedded.
Our next step was to show the students the model presentation and walk them through how to create their own.  We provided them with step by step instructions and a rubric with success criteria for them to follow as they create their portfolios.

Model the process...Engage the Student

After reading Mrs. Borgdorff's last post,  I though I too would plug the Ipad/Idevice engagement factor. This semester has been great, both for myself and my students.  An interesting balance between the Wood Shop and the Auto Shop.  The means of traditional pen/pencil and paper projects/assignments is still relevant; however this semester all of my classes have gone basically paperless for submissions of work (pertaining to actual services, diagnostics, and products) and accessing service literature and diagnostics for the auto students.  This was a bit of a learning curve for some while others caught on very quickly; particularly with my auto classes.  This is likely due to the fact that many of the students in TTJ2&3 had me as a teacher last semester, where this concept was developed and partially used through out the semester and most definitely for their final portfolio's.

In all three classes we are utilizing the following apps/technology:
Technology:  Apps and Programs are accessed via a couple of computers, 1 pad, 1, ipad mini, sometimes 5 ipads from the school and their own PED's (cells, tablets, etc.)

Google Drive (all course content, reference, additional how to's, assignments, and additional student documentation/pics/video, etc ) can be found.   This content is all shared with the students and easily accessible.    

Moxtra  all students have used a template that was created to model the process and aid in organization of the required content.   All students are responsible for recording and documenting their progress and process.

• For TCJ students their "binder" is broke up into sections;  drafting and technical drawing, equipment use, project process and project completion.
• For TTJ2 students there are two binders created as templates that they have used to record their small engine jobs and their automotive jobs CDX.  Again there has been a huge shift in independence and self reliance and the students responsibility. 
• For TTJ3 students there is one binder that all mandatory CDX Jobs are contained in. Students have duplicated the master binder and are working through the auto jobs. Including the use of the dongle (BT1-IIT)  All jobs have some questions that are associated and it again is the students/groups responsibility to document/support the work/jobs/tasks being completed.    The TTJ3 students have a lot of choice and re learning them to think and choose jobs to complete; thus becoming self selecting and self sufficient was the primary success criteria.  Great success thus far.

  
All classes have used the ipad/idevice technology to access the required information to complete tasks;  TTJ students tend to even use the ipads to access service literature v.s. printing off multiple pages of schematics and repair instructions.  Once some of the technology fears were overcome by modeling the process and allowing time to explore the operation of the apps/programs;  the vast majority of students gravitate towards the technology to support their learning, their curiosity and their job/task/project submissions.  LOVE IT.

iPad Engagement

I just wanted to share about a great teaching moment that happened today.

My FSF 1P class (grade 9 applied French) is working to create "ME" presentations where they introduce themselves (family, friends, hobbies etc.) to the class orally and through some creative medium (poster, powerpoint, webpage, movie etc.)  Lacking exposure to technology, most of my students were opting to create posters or powerpoints, even after I excitedly showed exemplars of previous students who create film versions of the projects.  (I was so sure they would want to try filming after seeing the exemplars, but sadly, they didn't.)  So, they started working on their projects.  I decided to try harder.  I pulled aside a couple of students and told them that I just wanted to show them how i-movie worked in case they wanted to change their minds about their medium and try something new.  I called on these two girls in particular because they appeared very bored and annoyed at having to do this task.  After the three of us snapped a few pictures and filmed a few clips around the room, I proceeded to show them how to use that footage in i-movie and to add text, music, sound effects etc. into their film.  Once they saw how fun and easy it was and how it produced quality product, the two girls shrieked in delight, grabbed the i-pad out of my hands and started to create film versions of their projects.  They went from being bored to quite engaged!  Not only that, but their enthusiasm was so contagious that it caused other students to approach me for a tutorial on i-movie and on educreations so that they could re-think their projects.  When I asked the students what had prevented them from exploring the film option in the first place they said that when they saw the professional quality of the exemplars I showed, they figured it would be too hard and that only expert tech-types could create something like that, not amateurs.  They were thrilled that the technology was so easy to use.  What a beautiful sight to see grade 9 applied French students get SO excited about an assignment! :)