This week I've been unboxing, charging, sorting, and connecting Chromebooks for the middle school to start their 1:1 program next week. While I cannot wait to blog about that, it means that many of their iPads will be redistributed down to the elementary school and that is MUCH more exciting!
A great new website to use with the little is chirp.io.
Using sound, Chirp, "sings" information from one device to another. No more scanning having kids type in URLs, bookmarking, or creating QR codes. A two second sound now shares what you need to all the students' devices.
Share webpages, photos, contacts, all with a sound from the teacher's device. It's so simple I thought "No way will this work". But, it does!
If you are not sending the students to a webpage but sharing photos with them, it does NOT require a network connection. This makes it even better than QR codes.
Students in second grade study dinosaurs in their classroom. Each student chooses one dinosaur to research and create a diorama. This is one of my favorite projects because I love looking at all the dioramas and hearing the students pass me in the hall or find me in the library and tell me a fact about the dinosaur they researched.
Here are some of this year's dioramas:
With school running so late this year the students are just done. I wanted to keep some sort of routine the last two weeks so I decided to incorporate this project into their learning during Media Time. Using the app Chatterpix, the students created a talking dinosaur full of facts about the dinosaur they had researched. ChatterPix is free in the App Store.
1. Students used Google Image to find a image and save it to the camera roll
2. Open ChatterPix
3. Select Take A Picture and choose the image from your camera roll on the bottom left
4. Move the image around and zoom in and out until the image is where you want it placed
5. Touch Next
6. Draw the mouth, the part of the image that will open and close when talking, by dragging your finger and creating a line (You can do this as many times as you want)
7. Touch the microphone- It will countdown from 3
8. Speak about your topic for up to 30 seconds
9. Touch Next
10. Add filters, stamps, borders, and/or text to your video
11. Add your image to the gallery by touching next, and/or download it to your Camera Roll using the bottom right button
There was a lot going on the Media Center this week form state testing to practice Battle of the Books but we were sure to celebrate.
Kindergarters, First, and Third Graders use Adobe Voice to take pictures of books and explain why they liked them.
Adobe Voice is a free app that allows you to easily record your voice to share a story to give information. There are a lot of choices for images or you can take your own. The app add "cinematic motion" and a soundtrack to give it a final touch the students really love.
Kindergarteners:
First Graders:
Second Graders used Haiku Deck to share their favorite books. They typed the title and why they like the book. Then students used the large range of images to find one that matches the book.
This great project idea was from Shannon Miller at Van Meter Library. Everything she does with her students is just amazing. Van Meter Library Voice
For the past few weeks I have been creating poems on the computer and iPads with my first grade students. First we made cute name and picture poems (bottom) but then we made fun sensory poems using two apps. This was my first attempt at appsmashing with the students so I stuck with two apps.
First students had to choose something to write their sensory poems about. Then they wrote it out on paper. (If my first graders were more experienced on the ipads, this part too could have done in an app like Poplet, or even Plain Text.)
1. Doodle Buddy:
This app is simple to use and the students always have fun with it. For this project students drew the object they were describing in their sensory poems.
2. Tellagmi:
I am absolutely loving this app. I wrote a bit about it here, Tellagmi post, and now that I have had multiple classes and grades explore this app I enjoy it even more. The first grade students built their avatar selves and then added their Doodle Buddy picture as the background. Students then recorded their poems. *I now know students could have just drawn right in Tellagmi and we could have skipped the Doodle Buddy step*.
I absolutely adore Digital Storytelling. Since I started teaching Computers 5 years ago, I have taught digital storytelling every year. Most years, I have even run a digital storytelling after-school club.
There are many ways to teaching students to create a digital story. Since I usually teach it to first graders I provide the students with a planning sheet for Beginning, Middle, and End. Students usually have complete freedom of characters, setting, and plot as long as: the beginning introduces the story, the middle shows a problem, and the end solves the problem. If I taught it to older grades, there were more requirements. Students drew their pictures in a drawing program on the computer and combined it with their recorded voices in GarageBand.
This year, I did I did it differently and if I must say, it was awesome.
First I started the students out with the app Story Wheel of the iPad. There is a free and a paid version of this app. The free version gives students one theme to choose from, Story Teller, and the paid version provides Story Teller plus Space, Pirates, and Knights and Princesses.
Students work alone, in pairs, or in groups to create a story. First, they spin the wheel and land on an
image. They have 30 seconds to record a part of the story. If they make a mistake they can rerecord. Next, thye pass the iPad for the next person in their group to spin the wheel and do the same. Students are supposed to build on each others recordings to build a story. Once complete, the story is played back with the animated images. It can be exported and shared as an ibook. I do not like that the students cannot pause when recording or go back and change a recording after they have clicked Next Player.
First, I put students into pairs, or groups of three. I showed them how to use the app and gave them freedom of theme since we have the paid version. Groups who struggled to keep a single story going were told to repeat something their partner said while recording their own 30 seconds. The first graders had so much fun they asked to make second stories when they finished their first. They wanted to share all their stories with me. The next week, they saw the iPads and asked right away if we were using Story Wheel again. I think this app is great for storytelling, group work, creativity, and much more.
Never wanting to dissapoint, the second week I introduced the students to a new app, Puppet Pals. In heterogenous groups students worked together to choose characters and write a story. First they created a storyboard in which I emphasized the use of adjectives to help keep their stories interesting. Students then used the app Puppet Pals HD to create their stories.
Puppet Pals is another app that has both a free version and a paid version. This is one of my all time
favorite apps for elementary age students. The free version comes with one theme, Wild West. Each theme has different characters and backdrops. The paid version, or the Director's Pass, has many more themes such as: Pirates, Fairy Tales, Zombies, Political, Talk Show, etc.
This app is great for storytelling, speaking, character writing, listening, and so much more. Students will select their characters, their backdrops, and then record their voices while moving the characters around. Characters can be resized, rotated, and can change directions. Unlike Story Wheel, students can pause and continue recording. If you are savvy in Movie Maker or iMovie you can export multiple parts and combine them. This allows students to record at different times. (This is also great if you only have a few or even 1 iPad to share with your class.)
Here are some sample stories from my first graders:
(I started this post 3 weeks ago, just after the NJ Teacher's Convention and am finally finishing it. Sorry for the delay.)
Augmented Reality while not new is really starting to come into the classroom. I could not be more excited. Whenever I can I try and use QR codes or create them for the teachers in my school to use and this is the next step. Watch this great Common Craft video that describes what Augmented Reality is: http://youtu.be/D-A1l4Jn6EY
Thanks to the NJEA Teacher's Convention last week I was able to see some things I had been researching in action.
Aurasma's saying is "every image, object and even place can have its own Aura". After downloading the app made available in both the Apple App Store and the Google Play Store, you hold your device up to something that is set to have an Aura and watch the screen. The result may be simple, like an image, text, or link to a webpage comes up, BUT, it can be so much more. You may see an 3D lifelike image, a video, or an interactive menu appear. Aurasma has created a video that shows a series of examples:
There are educators already using this in their classroom and I cannot wait to join them.
Uses for the classroom
1. A student created a poster and now they can add a layer in which they describe information in more detail.
2. Video tutorials of how to use apps
3. Video tutorials of practically anything.
4. Interactive classroom posters allow your students to see and hear word, word sounds, writing rules, proper grammar, and much more.
5. An interactive Word Wall is great for students to understand the meaning and spelling of words. You can put the students in control create the videos that put the words in a sentence or provide the definition.
6. Animate a mathematical problem being solved. Post the trigger image to your website and students can review at home.
AR Flash Cards is a free app for the alphabet and $.99 for Space.
The alphabet has 26 animals that come to life, 1 for each animal. (Included are also 6 dinosaurs.) Tap on each animal to hear the Letter and the name of the animal.
Students can interact with the animal to see it from different angles and take screenshots of what they are seeing.
First you print the flashcards in color, cut them out, and open the app. Aim the camera at the cards and it looks the images below. Students can move the card or iPad around to get different angles.
I brought this into you prek 3 and 4 year olds and Kindergarten as well.
While I do not head back to school until after Labor Day, I know many teachers around the country have started heading back this week. Each year I wonder how to start the school year.
Being in the computer lab and the library my students have me each and every year. The rules and procedures stay pretty much the same. My problem is clear, how do I go over the rules and procedures with students who have now had me or two, three, for four years already and keep both of us interested. In past years I have tried using a video. The video was interesting to the students but I found myself wanting to stop it and expanding on what I already said in the video. In younger grades I tried a PowerPoint game but the game took longer than expected and students were fixated on the score and not the content.
The last two years I had third graders create signs to hang around the library and act out parts of the rules and procedures. The skits were adorable and humorous. While that seems to be the best method for that age, months later, each group only remembered their assigned rule or procedure.
Last year I tried QR codes with the fourth graders. Using http://qrcode.kaywa.com/ I created QR codes and spread them around the computer lab and library. In groups students used iPads and the app Scan to scan and read the rules and procedures. They wrote the rules on a worksheet that told them the locations of all the codes. The students learned what a QR code was and were encouraged to bring them in when they found them. Students mostly brought in ads but I did get a Heinz Ketchup bottle and a Taco Bell wrapper. FUN.
This year I've learned. Students will have a worksheet with questions like the one below. (Theirs will not have the answers.) Instead of just seeing the location of the code they have a question to answer. Instead of Kaywa, I used http://qrphoria.com/ to create my QR codes. QRPhoria is an amazing site with a lot of options for customizing QR codes though it is still SIMPLE to use. With technology, I often feel that is the key. Keep it simple but make it look amazing.
First you choose the context you want to show once the QR code is scanned.
Next add the information. It may be text, contact information, a url, etc.
Then you get to choose a style. There is the traditional QR code if that is what you want, but you can get more creative and have scribbles, tile work, or one of the 13 other styles. Here you pick colors too.
::It is here I usually have my iPad or iPhone and I scan to make sure the QR code colors and style work easily for my students before moving on::
If you are not sure, QRPhoria will give you some ideas, so do not worry.
If you are trying to keep it simple skip down to save.
The next step, encoding is for redundant data. As the creator you must decide how much redundant data you want in your code. The lowest is L, which allows the code to be read even if 7% of it is unreadable. Then M at 15% and so on.
If you have a certain look for your code you can draw and erase but I warn you, be careful!
Last SAVE! The size depends on how big you plan to make it. I always save big, just in case.
As with last year I will use QR codes again for teaching the Dewey Decimal system and I hope to come up with more ideas throughout the year.
If my students were older they would have their own cell phones or iPads and I would put QR codes on the books leading to book trailers, author's websites, lists of new books to our library, and so much more.
The Common Core Standards are trying to make students creators and thinkers. To end the year I usually teach my fourth graders how to create animations but with the new technology and the push of iPads in my district, I have decided to teach my students how to create an iBook.
While working with the fourth grade classroom teachers we decided the students would research and write about an element of geometry. Each of the following elements will be a chapter in a class ibook: circles, measuring angles, classifying triangles, quadrilaterals and other polygons, and points lines and line segments.
We started with defining 'multimedia' and looking at an ibook created by students. "Creatures, Plants, and More" a free iBook for the iPad created by middle school students. It is full of text, pictures, and video.
Once students had an idea they used their math book and websites to learn about Geometry. Geometry turned out to be more of an interesting topic than the students and I expected because the websites were often interactive. The students used:
I read the story "Sir Cumference and the Great Knight of Angleland" by Cindy Neuschwander to show students they could write a non-textbook style book.
The students have taken pictures and recorded video and have started putting their written content into iBook Author. I hope we finish before the school year ends.
Common Core CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.4.9 Integrate information from two texts on the same topic in order to write or speak about the subject knowledgeably. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.4.6
With some guidance and support from adults, use technology, including
the Internet, to produce and publish writing as well as to interact and
collaborate with others; demonstrate sufficient command of keyboarding
skills to type a minimum of one page in a single sitting. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.RI.4.5
Describe the overall structure (e.g., chronology, comparison,
cause/effect, problem/solution) of events, ideas, concepts, or
information in a text or part of a text. CCSS.ELA-Literacy.W.4.2 Write informative/explanatory texts to examine a topic and convey ideas and information clearly.
A couple of my classes finished their poetry projects before the others due to schedule changes. Instead of moving ahead, I decided to continue with poetry.
First the students used Word Move on the iPads to create poems. We talked about how their poems should make the reader feel something, anything. It could make us laugh, for feel sad, or silly. At first grade most of them went with silly.
Word Mover is a free app that allows the user to create poems. Users can create accounts within the app which is great if more than one person is going to use Word Mover. The app gives you a word bank to drag words from or select a blank one and write your own words. Words can be moved around, enlarged, and rotated, and colored. The app also allows you add a background as you can see in my students examples below.
After they walked through the Easy Fiction section and selected books to make spine poems. This was much harder but what turned out to be a fun challenge. I debated on pre-selecting books for the students to choose from and I'm not happy or sad that I did not. The spine poems turned out pretty good considering they had already made a poem on WordMover so they had limited time a vast selection of books.
