ND Title I Conference

Picture from: http://www.dpi.state.nd.us/title1/fallconf2012.shtm

In about four hours I will be presenting two sessions on iPads at the Title I Fall Conference held in Bismarck, ND. I'm hoping that participants will take back lots of good ideas to their classrooms. It's always exciting for me to share with other teachers and educators! 

Three Tips for Introducing the iPad to Students

It's hard to believe, but summer is over and students are already in their desks. Where did the time go? This post will give you some tips for introducing the iPads to your new students. 

Welcome back to school everyone!

Tip #1

AirPlay using AirServer

Having the ability to roam the classroom with your iPad in hand, can best be done with Apple's AirPlay. The low price makes it a must for classrooms with Activboards or Smartboards. AirPlay will make demonstrating iPad rules and procedures easier.

For more information on the AirServer software the click visit the website at: http://www.airserverapp.com

Tip #2

iPad Scavenger Hunt

Use an iPad Scavenger Hunt to help introduce iPad to your students. Below are a few examples that I found online and can be done with partners at any grade level.

Downloaded from www.olecommunity.com

Few examples of Scavenger Hunts:

http://ipadschools.wikispaces.com/iPad+Scavenger+Hunt

http://primaryipad.weebly.com/ipad-scavenger-hunt.html

Tip #3

iPad Contracts and Use Policy

Students are better users of technology when they know the do's and don'ts. Consider going through your expected behaviors while using the iPads. The example below came from a site on the internet. I like this example because student can see pictures of the behaviors they are expected to display.

http://www.centergrove.k12.in.us/Page/7136

Cover Up Math

 

Cover Up Math  (Free) is a great app that works with students on solving multi-step algebra problems. To begin, the player chooses a level and pulls down the lever, which spins and gives the player a problem. 

If students are not yet fluent, they can use the "cover up" feature to work each step of the problems. These problems can be a good way to work on mental math with higher-level algebraic problems.

   

Algebra Card Clutter

Algebra Card Clutter  (Free) gives users a fun way to practice fluency of a variety of rational numbers. The object of this activity is to touch the cards in the lowest to highest order. This app gets more challenging as the player makes their way through each level. Players have the option to select levels with a list of each level and their focus.  

What a great way to practice with rational numbers...Enjoy!

How to "Zite"

The Zite Personalized Magazine App (Free) can be an educator's best friend when locating the latest professional development, lesson plans, or trends in education. This fairly new app is a fun way to create your own "personalized magazine".

After purchasing the free app you will see how easy it is to set up your Zite. You will pick sections to go into your magazine, along with enter some of your own. Some sections I recommend are shown in the following screenshot. 

This app gives you clear pictures of each article and has easy personalization options. Summer is dwindling and it's almost time to get back in the swing of school, hopefully you will find this app one that will get you motivated. Enjoy!

Yikes!

It's July 10th and I haven't even posted for this month yet...that means I have been enjoying summer break tooooo much! I noticed some activity on the blog today and wanted to welcome comments or suggestions to pages or posts. I would like this space to be a place to share ideas! .....as long as they are positive comments ;)  I'm interested to find out who is looking and reading my posts. It might even be fun to do a Skype chat with your school, if anyone was interested. To all of you...thanks for checking out the iPads in K-8 Education blog.


I have been working on making the Common Core State Standards page more user-friendly, so look for that page to change in the near future.


CCSS Math Page

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...