Engagement - Garage Band playing rhythmic composition

I was impressed with my Grade 2s and 3s success with composing rhythmic patterns.  They really enjoyed playing their compositions on Garage Band's drums.  We learned to turn off the metronome (we were not playing on the metronome's beat) and to convert the saved file, as prompted by Google Drive.

Engagement - Garage Band

Pure Exploration of Garage Band with the only task demand being to explore various instruments and app features.  The students think they are rock stars:)  They love jamming, recording and listening to their compositions.  Engagement is 100%.  I am considering purchasing the paid version for even more instrumental options.  Feedback is welcome if you have made this purchase.  Next step is to use the app to explore musical elements.

Engagement - Sock Puppets

My Grade 2,3 class LOVE Sock Puppets.  I have learned (the hard way) that just like math manipulatives, students need lots of time to explore apps before the apps are used as tools to uncover curriculum.  So, although we have used planners and success criteria many times for retells, students were not given (nor sought out) either of these items for a retell of their independent reading book using sock puppets.  All students enjoyed using the app.  Many students' plays were related to their book.  Although the quality of retells were lower than pencil and paper versions, this was the trade-off for their enjoyment, "This is SO FUN!".  The students particularly enjoyed...in fact, thought it was hilarious, how the app changed their voice for each character.  All students spoke.  Risk-taking increased...that was a HUGE celebration for many students!  All were happy and proud to share their creation.  For the past two weeks, the students have taken the initiative to use sock puppets independently:)

Music Inquiry with Touch Piano and Taiko

In Kinderland we sing and make music daily. We use music to learn and consolidate letter names and sounds, sight words, counting by 1's, 5's, 10's, etc. We write music and record audio and video of us creating music. We love music! So, we decided it was time to do an inquiry about music since the kinders have such great interest in it. On the SMARTboard and iPads we've been watching stomp and other garbage band videos. Pinterest has been helpful for brainstorming ideas about how to make an outdoor music wall. Kinders made their own instruments and recorded their songs with repeating patterns(Math and Music) on video and Garage Band.  We went for a parade at an assembly showing off our instruments. Kinders have also been practising repeating patterns on a piano app called Touch Piano and a drumming app called Taiko.  We've put simple lyrics to these repeating patterns as a phonemic awareness activity with syllables(i.e. apple-apple-pear).

Lego Inquiry with Lego Movie and Blocksworld

In Kinderland we've been inquiring about lego.  We went to see the Lego Movie and yes, "everything was awesome!"  After seeing the movie the kinders came up with wonderings such as, "how is it made?", "who invented lego?", "how do you make lego?", etc.  We have used the iPads in researching videos and websites that can answer our wonderings.  Our vocabulary has been expanding through these questions with words like, creative, manufacture, structure, foundation, etc.  To encourage writing the rule is, if you want to save your lego creation for later than you need to write about it.  Some kinders chose pencils and paper while other students chose to use the camera, video, or explain everything on the iPad.  We take pictures and put them up on our lego documentation panel to show our learning.  Students have been creating lego challenges and writing signs inviting other kinders to take up the challenge.  A new to us app has been Blocksworld.  It is similar to Minecraft in the sense that you can build structures, however geared to a younger audience.  It uses 3D shapes and the students have been excited about creating and sharing their worlds with other classmates.  They challenge each other's thinking continually and taking risks, and this app has introduced experimenting with 3D shapes.  This has been a perfect lead into instructing 3D shapes informally in small groups and formally in Math.  The Lego Movie app has been an exciting way for the kinders to explore their creating in story telling and cinematography.

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. :)

ipads vs notebooks

Our school is debating which type of new technology to request.  What are your thoughts about the need for mini laptops vs iPads?  When it comes to class composition, I tend to revert back to notebooks.  Have iPads with the keyboard covers replaced your need for notebooks?  Must EQAO be completed on notebooks?  Our staff and students love the math game Prodigy which, unfortunately, is not compatible with the iPad platform. Thanks for your input.

Procrastination Project

The Procrastination Project!

Raise your hand if you like to write report cards! Don't be shy... If you do, than you are in the minority.  Now tell me, who likes to clean and organize their house from top to bottom? Not many.  BUT, I bet if you are like me, your house is spick and span just before report cards are due.  Three times a year, I could put my house on the market, with an all day open house.  I call it the procrastination project!

I dread writing report cards.  First, you have to remember how to use the report card program.  Don't forget your password!  Next, is the never ending, time consuming, data collecting, followed by searching through the multiple pages of anecdotal notes (spread all over the couch, your bed, the dinner table...) BLAH! My stomach is in knots thinking about it.

Not this year!!! iPads in the classroom has changed my outlook, on what use to be daunting a task (for me anyway).  This time around, it was simple and satisfying.  Maybe, because everything I needed, was at my fingertips.  Anecdotal notes, photos, voice recording, movies etc... all accessible, all in one place, from my Google Drive (I love you iPad). 

I think too, because the students in my class have to create presentations in Explain Everything, I have seen them "explain" their thinking on a specific task, more than once.  You walk around the room while they are working/creating, you watch it as a whole group and listen to the accountable talk and peer feedback that follows, and sometimes you watch it again. You get a better understanding of your students abilities, with lasting images in your head.  Creating Next Steps wasn't so bad, all I needed to do was close my eyes and picture my students in the classroom.  Or, as I like to call it, a picture of a picture (picturing student work created on the iPad and displayed on the Smartboard).

Happy Writing!

Kinderland Reading Focus with Raz Kids

Our reading focus in Kinderland has been on making connections.  We have songs, actions, and pics that help us to make deeper connections, but the iPads have put a whole new spin on things.  In guided reading with the Raz Kids app kinders make a connection, take a screenshot and upload it to educreations.  There they can highlight, annotate, and record their learning.  The following pic also shows how we highlight our sight words and speech sounds that we're working on.  Kinders take great pride in sharing and celebrating their thinking with their classmates.  This inevitably challenges others to think deeper and expand on their classmate's thinking.  

Kinderland's Machine Inquiry

We've just started using our iPads 6 schools days ago because that's when we got our cases.  So, our first project is still in progress.  We've followed student interest which has led us to learning about machines.  Students have been taking photos and video of their learning of investigating old computer motherboards.  They've been using educreations to record their observations and wonderings, as well as adding photos and text.  Other kinders are using the iPads in our class' "Santa's Workshop" where they are building toy machines and recording procedural steps of how to build their toy.  Kinders are most excited to share their inquiries on the SMARTboard so others can collaborate and expand on their thinking and understanding.  Heads up Santa!  You're going to want to hire some engineers from Kinderland this year.  We're always looking for ways to make richer experiences for our kinders.  Ideas are always welcome!

Engagement Success (Students' and Parents')

Video Clips to Google Drive (Nov. 25)

Learning Goal:  We are learning to add details to our writing (recount).
Strategies:  We use the 5Ws to include Who, What, Where, When, Why and How.
                 We visualize and describe with words what we see in our head.

Background Info:  The students used the 5Ws planner to determine details to include in their writing.  The students also listed their main events, in time order.  My discovery was that the students did not include the information in their planners in their recount.  Sometimes students claimed they did not need to because it said it "right there" (on their planner).

Mini Inquiry:  What will the impact of viewing a video clip of themselves reading their own recount be on their understanding the reader's perspective (not knowing the information in the planner), as measured by the accuracy and reflection in their self-assessment?

Student Engagement (Block 2 & 3):

Taking videos is inherently engaging, we had 100% eager participation.  Uploading to Google Drive was a new experience for the students.  They persevered and we had 100% engagement and success.  The third and final step was to share their clip in Google Drive with me.  By now it was third  block and the same student who in block 1 (before iPads) claimed he was not doing any work today, said he was not going to share.  Explaining that the only way I knew how to share his video clip on the Smartboard (partial truth) was for him to share with me on Google Drive, quickly brought him around.  All students proudly completed the third step :)

Coincidentally, almost half of the class was absent this day.  So the next day, we shared our video clips with the whole class and awarded each Google Drive Sharer with a Google Drive Expert Crown.  

It was incredible how proud and engaged my "Experts" were in teaching the previously absent children! All students successfully uploaded and shared their video clip.

As far as the mini inquiry question, the process took a life of its own.  They were so proud of their technology accomplishment that reflecting upon their writing was overshadowed.  

The AMAZING part is that I had 3 parents visit me on different days after school to see their child's video.  The students' excitement and crowns were the best "What I did at school" conversation starter. The next week I had a note in the agenda from one of these parents who explained how proud her son was to be able to share his school work with his father at home!  That is the BEST parent involvement our class has had (so far) this year!!!

Here is one clip.  Please remember that the video clips were never intended to be polished products but for the purpose of self-assessment.

https://docs.google.com/a/tldsb.net/file/d/0B4GUaYmPr4wXNXBkZHlTUnZNU2M/edit

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

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

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. 

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