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.

Presentations App Folder

It has been quite a technological journey this year.  I was an Apple newbie...I am not any more!
I have spent a lot of time on the background set up of the minis - from the storage unit to the Acceptable Use policy to the organization of apps into folders.  (All previously Blogged)
I recently added one more app folder (thanks for the idea Joan).  The "Presentations" folder contains a variety of apps students may choose to access to creatively demonstrate understanding of a concept.

We are starting to branch away from ExplainEverything.  It is, and will continue to be, an option but engagement was starting to wane...and then I introduced iMovie trailers.  Familiar to some...cool for all. Can't wait to see the results next week.

Just today I had my daughter in grade 4 using Inkflow...the infamous Medieval Times Castle project.  We used Inkflow to label photos of her castle taken from different angles.  A task also possible in Word but it was definitely easier to use the iPad to, well, do everything (and collaborate on the couch).

First Annual Central Senior Film Festival

The first annual Central Senior Film Festival was a huge success! Most classes in the school have taken part by using iPads and iPad minis to film a variety of ideas and messages. Students were able to edit and enhance their clips using iMovie on the iPad or MacBook.

From over 100 student created films, 17 were selected. Students involved in the selected films were chauffeured to the front entrance of Central Senior in an SUV limo to walk the red carpet! In the front foyer a photo booth was set up using an iPad on a tripod (over 250 photos were taken of students, parents, siblings and staff). Guests were amazed at the beautiful gym (decorated by a team of students) while a DJ provided an exciting atmosphere between 6 and 7 p.m, when the viewing began. Student MCs impressed a packed gym with their introductions and well rehearsed comedy between films.

Here are the entries created by individuals or small groups of students. I will post the final film (created by an entire class of grade 7s) in my next post. Enjoy!

Real time video feedback

A neat idea for those of you using iPads and AirServer in performance applications:

I have positioned the iPad to video half of my band class performing a song while the other half watches it broadcast onto a screen in real time from another nearby room. Removing the viewers from being in the same space as the performers allows for a more objective analysis of that performance. It's like watching a live performance on TV.

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?

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

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

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.)

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!

Creating Films in Central Senior Classrooms

Central Senior has begun the film making process. We have been experimenting with using iPads and MacBooks to film and edit short videos. I have posted links to examples of Commercials, Heritage Moments, Procedure Videos, Promotional Videos and Stop Motion. Our students are very engaged in the process and are becoming more creative and daring as they experiment and learn about planning angles and transitions.

Shoe Commercial

Heritage Moment

Music Procedure (Weight Room)

Welcome To Central Senior

Stop Motion with Watch

Stop Motion with Chalk

Stop Motion with Cups

iPads in Grade 5 French Immersion

I was very fortunate this fall to receive 5 iPADS to use in my classroom. The greatest learning and exploration has occurred not only for my students but for their teacher as well! We have worked as a team, enjoying new APPS and discovering informative ways to enrich our learning.

Students have learned about new APPS through guided groups. This strategy has worked well and has allowed deeper conversations and learning in a small group setting. Students have been supportive of each other and this setting has also allowed for individual support for students. For some of my students, this was the first time that they had used an iPAD and it was wonderful to see their eyes widen as they discovered this great technology!

I have already observed the influence of having technology in the classroom to support oral communication in a second language. My students have used Explain Everything to describe their art projects. It is evident that students listened to their own voices and were able to assess their pronunciation and correct usage of vocabulary. Not only have the iPADS improved the students’ use of correct vocabulary, the iPADS have also improved confidence and engagement in speaking a second language.

The iPADS have had an influence on not only student engagement in learning but on parent engagement in learning taking place at school. One of my students taught his father how to use Explain Everything at home and his father liked the APP so much he purchased it and will now be using it in his business! Now that’s engagement! 

What is half?

A THREE PART MATH LESSON

Cross Strand Learning:

Number Sense & Numeration:

• investigating fraction of a whole 

Geometric Relationships:

• Compose and decompose two-dimensional shapes
• Locate line of symmetry in a two-dimensional shape

Focus: What is half?

Minds On:

Identifier les formes géométriques, en faisant glisser le nom sur l'image correcte.

Activity # 1

The Minds On, was a whole group activity. The purpose of the activity was to refresh the students geometric math vocabulary from grade one.  Students had to identify the 2D shapes and drag the vocabulary over the matching image. This activity was done in Notebook on the Smartboard.  Together we practiced reading the vocabulary aloud.

Action:

Comment est-ce que tu peux couvrire une moitié de l'hexagone? Explique en utilisant Explain Everything.

In our class the students share 10 iPads, thus our Action activity was in groups of two or three.  To complete the task, students had to explore, using 2-D geometric shapes to cover half of a hexagon.  The next step was to take photos of their findings and record their thinking with the Explain Everything.

Consolidation:

Regarde les vidéos créer par les élèves et discute.

This part of the lesson is where lots of cool learning takes place.  The students are so proud to share their work and also excited to see what their peers have created.  

In the consolidation, as a group, we watched all the presentations  on the Smartboard.  (There was another step in there, I uploaded the presentations from Explain Everything to a shared folder in Google Drive).  The students immediately offered peer feedback and shared their thoughts with the class.  Students were able to pick up on criteria that was left out or  able to give an opinion is a positive way.  These videos are also great because students are able to see that there is more than one possible answer to the task.

I-Pads in the Weight Room

The I-pads have been an excellent tool for providing descriptive feedback to our Physical Education classes at FFSS.  Most recently, students took short videos of PPL2OM students performing exercises in the weight room.  Using posted success criteria, the students then analyzed their technique and were given one or two suggested areas for improvement.  Students could also read the steps to performing the exercise properly, using the Full Fitness HD App.  The App also displays pictures of the exercise and lists the primary muscle used and additional muscles used.  If anyone has experience with the Ubersense App, please let me know.  We would like to be able to compare a student's technique to a properly executed technique.

Storage Locker

With the arrival of the Griffon cases for my minis, my set-up is now complete.  In previous posts I have been sharing how I set the minis up for “acceptable” use.  Now I want to share my storage solution. 

I found a smaller kid size vertical locker that stands 54” tall and is 15” by 15”.  These dimensions make it considerably more stable than a regular locker and the storage more vertical (no more dirty knees).  Inside there are two shelves (One 12” from the top and another 14” further down).  I had to order the 2nd shelf as extra.  A third one could be added but holes would need to be drilled.

Cost (including exchange, import costs and shipping) is about $230.  Contact: Chris Sayles ChrisS@jorgensoncompanies.com  webpage: schoollockers.com  (I bought mine off ebay and he threw in the extra shelf)

On each self I attached metal sorters that could support 7 minis per shelf. 

Below each shelf I attached 2 surge protected power bars.

I used industrial strength Velcro to attach the sorters and power bars…this stuff is incredibly strong.

The total cost of this secure metal storage unit with a footprint smaller than a foot and a half square is... just over $300 dollars!!!

(Please note: assembly was required for the locker.)

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

Engagement (Student) through iPads; Explain Everything

iPad Launch (Nov. 13)

It was like Christmas opening up the iPads!  The students were so pumped:)

Thank goodness for Jeremy's patience and assistance with downloading Explain Everything.  I am so grateful for the support from the IIT team.  The basics are new learning from me.  I had never used iTunes cards or gone to the App Store before.  Challenging for me..but now I can:)

Jeremy is so skilled at engaging students.  His idea of "driver" and "navigator" for sharing the iPads and frequently switching roles is genius.  I have 4 students in particular who are challenging to engage.  With the novelty of launching the iPads and with 5 adults in the classroom for the first 30 minutes of exploring Explain Everything features, all the students were actively involved.  The process unveiled the need for further explicit teaching around turn-taking and teamwork.  Ultimately, 11 out of 15 students completed the exploration session.  Today confirmed that the technology is an engaging hook for all the students.  I also learned that students with special needs continue to need accommodations when completing tasks with technology.  Next time, I will ensure that my 4 target students do not need to share iPads as this was overwhelming for their self-regulation.  Our goal will be to gradually work with others with the iPads.  I look forward to further exploring Explain Everything.  This app has huge potential for the monitoring and tracking of student learning.