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. :)

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! :)

Dance Units - iPads for Descriptive Feedback…and deeper understanding

by Donna Hannivan-Taylor

We have used video devices to provide descriptive feedback to students in the past, but iPads provide an opportunity for students to experience deeper understanding.

CRITERIA

Visible Effort Do your best!

Be on Beat Practice evident

Moves work with music & flow --Unison with other group members

Use a Variety of Elements—Speed, Weight, Relationships, Level, Directions

Use a Variety of Elements—Body Parts used & balanced on +Shapes, Floor Paths, Types travel (walk, run, skip, sidestep, crawl…)

Routine is original/ interesting

A Learning Goal for this unit is to have students understand & apply various elements of movement.  This results in an assignment where they work in groups to choreograph & present a dance routine.

My goal was to get students more invested in stepping outside their comfort zone of only using the typical dance moves they know & enjoy.  So, to begin the process I had them help develop the criteria that would be used for evaluation.

Next, once the dance routines were done, the iPads were used to video each group so they could compare their routines to the criteria for feedback.  You can’t get any more descriptive than that!

Finally students videotaped their final product, then used iMovie to voice over this recording, explaining exactly what they did during their routine that demonstrated the evaluation criteria.

This step places the responsibility for demonstrating learning onto the students.  They thoroughly understand the elements and what is expected of them & get immediate feedback on their achievement.  They also were proud of what they did.

Learning Surprises and Staff Collaboration!

So, the other day I had a great time discovering something new, by accident!  I had taken photos of my students on my ipad and my colleague asked if he could have them to use in our school yearbook.  So, I proceeded to click on photos with hopes to email the photos to him.  Having emailed photos many times from devices before, I know that this method (or even sharing photos via google drive) can take some time and be a bit tedious as they are downloaded/uploaded.  However, upon selecting my photos in my photo app, the ipad prompted me to share them using "Airdrop".  I had no idea what this was but I was curious and decided to try something new by following the oh-so-easy prompts on my ipad to turn on "Airdrop" in the Control Center in the settings app, on both my ipad and my colleague's ipad.  Then, with just one tap, (selecting my colleague's ipad number that suddenly appeared under the Airdrop symbol in the photo app), all 10 of my photos instantly appeared on his ipad!  It was so fast and simple!  What another great way to collaborate in the classroom and as staff! :)

The Power of Collaboration!

Upon teaching my class how to create and share documents on Google Drive, using the i-pad minis in class, my students have been thrilled to find that they can create group assignments in real time!  My grade nine French Immersion class is currently working on creating their own movies, in any genre of their choice, in groups, in French.  First, they worked on the script in Google docs.  They were thrilled to be able to work from devices at home (or on the bus or in the car) to write one script, as a group, in real time, seeing changes being made by their peers on the spot.  They have used this form of collaboration inside AND outside the classroom setting and have actually been excited to do homework and collaborate on this project due to the technology involved.  They have furthermore used the i-pads in class to film their movies and will be using the i-movie app to edit and put together the final product.  I am excited to see the end results! :)

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

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

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