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