This is my first attempt at digital storytelling. To do this I used Adobe Slate. Adobe Slate is a free app. With this app you can “share your story in beautiful magazine-style layouts you can create in minutes. Anyone can produce elegantly designed pages where text slides around, images subtly move, and the whole presentation crackles with life. For making anything from travel diaries to photo-illustrated how-tos, it is a terrific tool.”
This really is a terrific app! It makes any presentation look elegant and professional. I liked all the styles to choose from and how simple it was to create.
I could easily see this app being used in the classroom. Students could use this app for book reports. Students could use this as another exception for an assignment.
“The Apps in the Classroom series was created to provide teachers with a few ideas on how to integrate content creation apps into daily classroom instruction. Each guide includes a collection of activities that span age ranges and subjects and can be modified to work in your own learning environment. Inspired by Apple Distinguished Educators, the activities are designed to encourage students to think in new ways and help them take a creative approach to applying and demonstrating learning.”
I took a look at Explain Everything Lesson Ideas. I have used the Explain Everything app for a class project. The cost of the app is $2.99. “It is a terrific interactive whiteboard and screen casting app, it is perfect for making instructional videos that clearly demonstrate concepts. Annotate, manipulate, and at narration to documents, photos, and videos, creating visual presentations that you can share. Instructors can use this app to explain everything from math equations to football plays, or they can task students with producing their own projects to show to the class.”
The Lesson Ideas iBook provided great ideas to use in the classroom. They covered Kindergarten through High School and they covered all subjects. I liked the idea of using this app for the Kindergartens to find things in the classroom that start with a certain letter. The students would use their iPads to take pictures of those items and create a presentation of what they found.
Excerpt From: Education, Apple. “Explain Everything Lesson Ideas.” v1.0. Apple Inc. – Education, 2014. iBooks.
iTunes U has an abundant amount of resources for educators. There are thirty different courses available. These courses are written by classroom teachers that are Apple Distinguished Educators and also by the Apple Professional Development team. The courses are free and provide information that you can use in your classroom. A few courses that interest me are; Primary Language Arts, Primary Math, and Primary Science. To discover these resources go to iTunes U. Under Learning Resources, click or tap on For Educators. The first row will include the Inspiring Lesson Ideas, then click or tap on see all to see all thirty courses.
There are other courses, such as Best Practices and Professional Development. There are four courses under this title. The course I read through was Building Self-Advocacy.
This unit has seven readings that focus on developing self-advocacy skills for primary grade students using iPads. There are assignments that go with each reading. The course is outlined by introducing the topic, building understanding, and applying learning.
This unit focuses on educators ensuring the students are cared for and that they feel safe so that the students can learn at an optimal level. Another focus is to provide opportunities for the students so they can establish and refine heir own skill set. Another focus is having the students identify their own stregths and needs. By understanding both, students can evaluate what they need to achieve their goals.
To use this course in my classroom, I would like to implement the assignment of the reading of Chrysanthemum. While reading the book, I would have the students consider reflecting and answering these questions. Reflect on the main character’s challenge at school,
write about a particular challenge you have faced at school, what things did you do to solve your problem, and did you get help from someone?
“One Best Thing is a collection of books created by Apple Distinguished Educators (ADEs) that demonstrate the use of Apple technologies to transform teaching and learning. Each One Best Thing book shares a unit, a lesson, or a best practice and is designed to help another educator implement a successful practice. It’s a professional learning idea championed by an educator—in word and action—that others can look to for ideas and tips on how to replicate.”
One Best thing is a great resource for teachers. This collection provides free iBooks that cover all subjects and extras, examples are physical education and technology. There are 104 books out there. I chose Active Every Minute: Ready, Set, Flip Physical Education.
“Only one in three children are physically active everyday, making inactivity a significant issues for students. This One Best Thing demonstrates way that Apple technologies help physical education and K-20 educators increase the amount of physical activity time provided by flipping the classroom and engaging the learners.”
I have not experienced or observed a flipped classroom. I always hear great things about this method and I only see examples of this method in math and science classes. This was really interesting to me how they flipped physical education classes. I like the idea of having the rules of the game and how to do an activity all online, so the class can have more time playing the game or performing the activity.
This ibook provided helpful video examples of what a teacher would post online for the students to see. Throughout the ibook there are links to more examples and information. I also liked that it was short, there were not a lot of pages to read. I suggest using One Best Thing to gather ideas and implement them in your classroom.
I read Creative Teaching and Learning Blog by Maisie Gould. This blog was really interesting, it talked about how implementing blogs at school help improve the students’ writing.
Many teachers are launching class blogs as a way of giving their students the space to share their work with parents and peers, and an incentive to improve. There is some evidence to suggest that blogging sparks pupils’ interest and enthusiasm for writing. Maisie writes about a teacher who started to use class blogs. The teacher says that he thought it would be a good idea because writing is not on the SATs, so this would be a good way to assess. He sets up a blog post for the students to respond to. It is usually based on the theme of their reading class.
The teacher noticed that the blogs have given the students more freedom with their writing and that their writing has improved. However, some students state that like writing their thoughts and ideas on paper first. They say this helps them feel more prepared and allows them to reflect on their ideas. Going to the blog right away does not give them enough time to think about what they are going to write. The attraction of blogging is it was not subject to the same constraints and the same detailed assessment as writing in literacy books. There was not the same emphasis on the need to include ambitious vocabulary or good sentences full of adjectives.
Maisie also writes about three blogging paradoxes. One, blogging improves writing despite the laid back approach to accuracy. Two, teachers are less concerned with editing and revising students’ posts despite the potential global audience. Three, despite the possibility of reaching people all over the world, students are more concerned with what their peers think of their work.
This blog gave me great insight on the effects of blogging in the classroom. Even though there are some negatives, there are more positives.
I am trying out the interactive whiteboards and screen casting on the iPad for the first time. I had a rough start with it, only because the first app that I was trying out did not let me save my file to my camera roll. The app wanted me to upgrade my app to save my file anywhere else. That app was Educreations, it is free and that is why I tried it out first. I liked the app, it was simple to use. However, when you were recording, it would not let you go back and edit it. You would have to record a whole new file. So, the next app that I tried out was Explain Everything.
Explain Everything is $2.99. “It is a terrific interactive whiteboard and screen casting app, it is perfect for making instructional videos that clearly demonstrate concepts. Annotate, manipulate, and at narration to documents, photos, and videos, creating visual presentations that you can share. Instructors can use this app to explain everything from math equations to football plays, or they can task students with producing their own projects to show to the class.”
I had better luck with this app. Again it was really simple to use and figure out. It has neat features like a laser pointer, more color options, and shapes to insert. I would use this app in every subject, in some way. Here is an example of how I would use this app in a math class.
His post was interesting. His school is purchasing Legos for students as a tool of learning. He states that the integration of Legos have a direct benefit in exploration discovery, hands on learning, trial and error learning, and cause and effect learning. Even the University of Cambridge is implementing Legos.
I’ll ask the same question he asks, will you add Legos to your students’ educational experience?
The University of Nebraska has set up a catalog of helpful short video resources for teachers, that can be accessed through iTunes U. They have resources for your iPad that could be used in your classroom. The resources cover all subjects and have topics for college students and teachers.
Under the topic, Teachers, I watched “Presentation Apps.” They talked about two apps, 30 Hands and Stage. Both are free in the App Store. The app that I liked better is Stage. I see this being used in the classroom more. This app “combines the convenience of a document camera with the power of an interactive whiteboard to bring your lessons to life. It is an exciting teaching and demonstration tool that students and educators can use to share ideas and interact with curriculum. You use the iPad camera to display live video of objects, textbooks, student work, and other projects. You can sketch, write, label, or laser point in real time. It has options like storing labels, recording, PDF import, and wireless connection to a projector via AirPlay. This app makes lessons fully interactive, collaborative, and engaging.” I liked this app because it seems useful and it makes instruction time more engaging.
Under the topic, Reading, I watched “Sight Words and Spelling Apps.” They talked about three apps, Cimo Spelling, Spelling Free, and Sight Words. Out of the three, I liked Cimo Spelling the most. This app has two different versions and for both of those versions there are the free versions. The app that they showed was the free sight words version. “This app is great for kindergarten through third grade. It teaches a combination of high-frequency and sight words. In this game, the student will help Cimo the penguin reach an iceberg to catch fish. Each correct letter chosen adds a block to his bridge. If the student finishes the word, then Cimo can cross. If the student adds the wrong letter, then Cimo will take a dip! This is a fun game to improve the student spelling abilities. This app also includes a progress report, this allows you to keep track of the students’ performance.” I liked this app because it sounds out each letter and when you put the word together correctly it sounds out each part then says the whole word.
Under the topic, Language Arts, I watched “American Sign Language and Text to Speech.” They talked about three apps, Marlee Signs, ASL Coach, and iSpeech. I liked the Marlee Signs app. This app is free. “This app will teach you the fundamentals of ASL, from the signed alphabet and basic vocabulary through to common expressions in every day life. Each lesson is broken down into individual videos, making it easy to learn at your own pace. In the spell section, it will show you how to spell any word in signs.” I like this app because of the real person signing. It looks more clear than the animated signing. This app would be helpful for me in my classroom if I had a student with a hearing impairment or a student who is verbally impaired.
The University of Nebraska has provided a great resource that is available in iTunes U. They have provided hundreds of short videos that show you helpful resources and tips. Which resources will you use in your classroom?
I used iMovie to create a trailer for Alice’s Adventures in Wonderland. This could be used as an introduction for the unit over nonsense fiction. Trailers can be included in the beginning of your lesson plan. It can be used as a hook to grab the students attention. Trailers can be used in all subjects, they can be used by the teacher and the students.
This app is $4.99. “It has a streamline design and intuitive multi-touch gestures. This app lets you enjoy your videos and tell stories like never before. You can browse your video library, share favorite moments, create beautiful moments, and watch them all on your devices in iMovie theater.”
This app took a little more work to figure out, but once I did it was easy to put the trailer together. Even though it was easy to put together, I found it tricky to make it smooth. I think my trailer has some rough edges, it was my first one, but I think I will get better with more practice.
I liked the different types of preset trailers to choose from and the different effects you could use. I liked that it had music already embedded in the trailer. This app will be fun to use for personal and professional use!
This week I discovered another Edublogs user. His name is Larry Ferlazzo and his blog title is Websites of the Day. He posts great resources and ideas for English Language Learners. He posts about other topics as well, but seems to have a great amount of passion for ELL.
In his post, titled The Best Fun Videos For English Language Learners In 2015-So Far. He writes about videos that are beneficial for ELLs. At first he lists a plethora of video links and write a sentence or two about how he would use it. Then he writes about an activity that he does with his learners. He shows a video to help explain idioms and then has them draw a picture of the idiom and verbally show it to the class. Lastly, he mentions Jimmy Fallon and some of the games he does on the show are great games to do with ELLs, for example Pictionary.
I like this post because right now in Education Psychology we are talking about ELLs in the classroom. I find this post helpful because I am sure that any school that I would be in will have students that English is not primary for them. What he has posted is a great resource for teachers and learners.
