Factor Samurai and Prime Smash!

Here are two apps that could provide students with fluency practice on factoring and prime numbers. The object of both games is to break each number apart until there are only prime numbers left, either by a samurai sword or smashing the numbers with your finger. Both the apps are free at this time.

Factor Samurai (FREE)

Below is a screenshot of "How to Play" Factor Samurai.

Prime Smash (FREE)

Below is the screenshot for "How to Play" Prime Smash!

One Video A Day App

It's time to start blogging! I stumbled onto this app and wanted to share some ideas on how to use it in your classroom with students.

One Video A Day (Free)

The first step before opening this app is to decide what type of video will be taking of your students. Here is a quick brainstorm of video ideas I came up with....

• Students reading leveled text
• Student book talks
• Student explanations of math problems
• Student math fact fluency activities
• Student/Teacher Conferences
• Video diary of student reflections on activities, assignments, and projects
• Student behavior tracking and reflection
• Students reflecting on quarter/semester grades 
• Class trips or Virtual Tours

Now that you have an idea of the type of video that will be taken, let's create some calendars. Open up the app on your iPad and you should see a screen like the one below:

The next step is to set up calendars by entering a title and start date. You will need to decide if you will have one calendar for your classroom or have one calendar for each student in your classroom. This might depend on who and what devices you will be using this app. If you plan to use it as a teacher tool on a teacher iPad, set up a calendar for each of your students. If you would like to use this app on student devices and allow the students to take the video, set up calendars that are labeled "reading", "math", or "class journal". 

Start setting up calendars by entering the title and start date of your first calendar in the box at the top of the screen. If you would like to add additional calendars, click on the plus sign in the upper right hand corner of the home screen. To view the calendars that you have created click on the image beside the title and you will get to a screen like the one below.

This app also allows an online web link to view your calendar and videos (photo below). I noticed that if you have multiple titles (calendars) it only shows the current calendar that you are viewing. There are many settings to this app, which will give some different options to the teacher. 

If you think that videos might be something you are not quite ready for, this company also has an app called One Photo A Day and does exactly the same thing, except with photos. Might be fun to try with student work, journal entries, or writing samples.

One Photo A Day (Free)

2011 Summer Trip

2011 Summer Trip, a set on Flickr.

Testing out the Flickr app (Free)

TGIAF (Thank Gawd It's Almost Friday)

What a busy week, I'm not sure where it went and what I accomplished! Next week I will be presenting a couple sessions on iPads in education at the TNT (Technology & Teaching) conference in Bismarck. I have spent the past few days preparing and can't help but realize that integrating technology can be tricky, regardless if you are an administrator or first grade teacher. I'm hoping that participants at my sessions will at least take away one good idea to bring back and try.

And of course, I would never post without giving some kind of tip or app recommendation for the ipad....here is todays gem!

Sticky Words! ($.99)

The creators of this app intended it to be a place to make "poetry creations" using a photo board (photos) and magnets (words). This app has potential for much more. With a little creativity you can create a fun word sort (picture below) or even create a fluency activity with sight words (picture below). Anyone else have suggestions?

On the right side of this picture it is a little hard to see, but the user can add a magnet to the board, this would be fun with the sight words, spelling words, creating sentences with punctuation.

I created this board in another app (Explain Everything) and then took a picture and pulled it into Sticky Words from the Camera Roll. This would be a beginning sound sort probably for a kindergarten class.

Strip Designer

This afternoon I decided to mess around with the app Strip Design ($2.99). I have seen this app used with students and math, so I thought I would try it out. Here are some of the ideas I came up with....

Have students go around the classroom and find 3D shapes, take pictures, and then create a comic strip.

This app can even create a poster, doesn't look like a comic, but is a way to scaffold the project for some students.

Have the students create characters or take pictures of themselves. Then create math problems for the class to solve.

Again, students can find math in their classroom and create a problem for their peers.

This is more of a science activity...have students go outside and take pictures of leaves, plants, or trees. Then have them write down characteristics of each plant and investigate specific sites. If you have a few sites that you would like students to use for this project, what about creating a link to your diigo site....

Diigo Bookmarking....

Identifying Plants Project Resources

The above is an example of a link to a teacher's Diigo bookmarking site. Students could use these resources while working on the "Identifying Plants" project. These lists can even be embedded into a website, wiki, etc....like the one below...

Projecting IPads

There are two ways that I have used to project the IPad so that your whole class can see your screen....Wirelessly and through a VGA Adapter. I've heard there are a couple types of adapters floating around, the one I recommend is located at the link below and costs around $30. (One negative about this setup is that the cord easily falls out if you move the ipad and you lose the picture on the screen)

VGA Adapter: http://store.apple.com/us/product/MC552

There is also a software program called Reflection that loads on you computer or laptop. You then set your IPad to find the computer using Bluetooth. Here is the link below to the learn more about Relection, it costs around $15.

Reflection Software: http://www.reflectionapp.com/

I have also seen an IPad projected using the Apple TV, it is a little bit more expensive, but definitely is the best option in my opinion. The Apple TV is sold for around $100.

Apple TV: http://www.apple.com/appletv/

IPad Quick Tips

Clip Art from Icon Bug: Author is YOOtheme

Tomorrow will officially be the last day of school for the summer, at the wonderful school I call TJES. I'm writing this post today because many of you (teachers, etc.) will be putting your classroom things away for the summer. If you are fortunate to have multiple devices in your classroom, here are five quick tips......

1. Clean out the Photos and Videos that are not needed anymore or that can be saved in a file on a jump drive or teacher computer. This will also free up space on the iCloud for next years student projects
2. Which is our second tip...clean out any contents in your iWork folder (Pages, Numbers, and Keynote apps) on the iCloud that you are finished with and can be stored in another place. Go to the following url: https://www.icloud.com/ on your computer and it will make transferring your documents easier. 
3. Give your IPads a fresh new look for next year by changing the wallpaper. I usually try to change the wallpaper on the IPads around holidays. Students mention the different wallpapers and keeps things fresh and new! Here are a couple of wallpaper apps: Cool Wallpaper HD (Free) and Skins and Shelves (Free)
4. Clean your iPads...let me know if there are other teachers out there that can't stand the finger smudges on the screen. Here is a link to the proper cleaning techniques from Apple: http://support.apple.com/kb/HT3226 If your case that holds the IPad has seen better days, I just take a Chlorox Wipe and wipe them down.
5. If your IPads will be sitting for an extended period over the summer months, the best things to do for your battery is to store it at a 50% to 75% charge..the exact words from Apple are as follows: