The App Class

Here’s a fun easter activity you can do with your class.  First off, you have to use “Puffin” or another browser that supports flash.  Here’s what you do:

1) Go to www.y8.com, and have the students search for “Easter”

2) Pick an easter decorating game, and allow them time to play and decorate the images

3) Have them take a screen shot of their iPad (press the home & power buttons at the same time) 4) Add that screen shot to “PicCollge”, decorate the collage with stickers & add Easter messages!  

Simple & fun!

One thing I've heard from people over the last few years is, "Why are we experimenting with technology in education?  We should stick with tried and true methods of teaching".  That sentiment misses the point of what I and many other educators are doing with technology.  We absolutely ARE sticking to the fundamentals of sound pedagogy.  This doesn't fall by the wayside.  What we are doing is taking those "tried and true" methods, and updating the way students are interacting with the curriculum.  There are many benefits to using tech, but I'll give 3 straight forward reasons why it's such an awesome tool to use.

Less Paper: I'll be honest, since I began using the iPads in my class on a regular basis, my photocopying has gone down DRAMATICALLY!  The students are still learning, and I'd submit are retaining the information far more than if we were to simply use worksheets.  It's more authentic, and certainly more engaging.  I'll give you an example; when were were learning addition, we used some apps as "question generators", along side manipulatives & whiteboards.  They learned the concept, my assessment was done through photographs and watching them solve the problems, we had an awesome time doing it, and it was dead simple!  Now, granted this particular activity was low on the S.A.M.R. scale, but we don't have to be breaking ground with EVERY unit we teach!   2. It's More Engaging: Last week we discussed energy, and focussed specifically on "electricity".    Sure, we could have done some sort of work sheet, but instead we went on a walk around the school and used the iPads to photography everything we found that used electricity.  We then returned to class, and added those images to PicCollage.  It was a lot of fun, and I was able to help students who photographed things that didn't use electricity (e.g., the water fountain).  It was great for generating conversations! 3. The way of the present & future: Technology isn't just the future, it's the NOW!  These kids need to be far more tech savvy than we were when we were in school.  Using technology on a regular basis gets students familiar with the "language" of the tool.  For example, they'll know what the "sharing" icon on an iPad looks like and what it does.  It sounds simple, but learning the "language" of a piece of technology is one of the major hurdles that adults have when learning how to use a device.

The bottom line is that the world is changing, and as educators we have to move along with it.  It can be scary and confusing, but who better to teach using this stuff than us!  If you're not familiar with the tech, pick it up and start playing with it!  That's how I learned how to us it.  

Final word...if you're using an iPad or Tablet...don't worry, you won't break it if you make a mistake

For this first installment of the "App of the Week", I want to highlight an app that I purchased for my 2 1/2 year old who LOVES books!  "Disney Story Central" comes with a few free books, but has many other books for sale featuring many of Disney's favourite characters (yes...including those from "Frozen"!).  The prices are good, too.  I purchased 8 tokens (a book costs 1 token) for $9.99.  That works out to $1.25 per book!  Not only that, it syncs to all your devices, so I can read them to my students!

Check it out here: https://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/disney-story-central/id836813279?mt=8

A while back, during a nutrition break, 5 of my girls brought their chairs over to the Reading Centre, put them in a circle, and began reading together.  Seeing that communal behaviour, it sparked the idea for our "Book Club".  

Our Reading Centre is beside our windows, so I decided to make use of them and use the various panes as a writing surface.  As you can see from the image, we have 3 panes for writing down the titles of the books we've read.  Then, below we have 3 reading strategies: Inferencing, Visualizing & Connections.  As they read, they write down the titles and can write briefly about one (or more) of the strategies they used (by the way, we use regular Crayola Washable Markers, not the "window" ones as those leave a film).

Now, here's where the tech comes in.  I have a LOT of books in the Reading Centre, but most of them are one offs, with the exception of a few doubles.  So, how would a group of 3 or more read the same book together?  We use either the "Raz-Kids" app, or we visit "Tumblebooks" using the "Puffin" web browser (it will play Flash on the iPads).  Raz-Kids is especially popular, because they're all trying to move up to higher reading level, and to do that you have to read more books!

So there's a simple way to add tech, and to use classroom space in a different way!

iPads, along with Apple TV's, are a great way to debrief an activity the students are participating in.  As the students are engaged in the activity, record video of what they're saying and doing.  When you're nearing the end of the lesson, AirPlay your video to the Apple TV to elicit discussion.

Another way to do a debrief is to use "live video".  For example, when introducing a concept (i.e., Sorting), I put various manipulatives on the 4 groups in my room.  As a group, I'll have the students figure out how to sort them.  After a few minutes of working, I will "mirror" my iPad to my Apple TV, then turn on the Camera app.  I won't actually record video or take a picture.  I will simply hold the iPad over the group, and while the rest of the class is at their respective groups, I will ask the students I'm with to explain how they sorted the manipulatives.  It's like having a live, portable TV studio right in your hand, and it allows a debrief without everyone clamouring around a single desk or group.

So there are a couple of examples of how to use your iPad, along with Apple TV, to debrief a lesson.  Have fun!

Learning Addition and Subtraction can be fun, especially when the learning is linked to iPad games. We've used a number of apps, but with each game we also used white boards and various manipulatives. The games are meant to add an element of fun, but the students need to have an understanding of how to use manipulatives to solve the equations. So with that, here's a list of a few apps we've used, and how we used them (trust me...some of them will have you scratching your head at first!).

Flappy Wing It works better for addition, but can be used for subtraction as well. They play a round until they crash their bird. Then, they write down their score on a white board, followed by a "+". Then, play again. Write down that score, followed by "=". Then, using manipulatives, they'll answer the equation, and play again. By the end their white board is filled with equations and answers. The goal can be to have the highest score in the class, or just beat your highest. This is a great game for grade 1, because it's really difficult to get past 20!

Circus Math 1 They'll click on either "plus" or "minus", and be presented with 10 questions. With manipulatives, they can answer the questions. This one is great because the game tallies up how many mistakes they made, so it encourages them to finish all 10 questions with 0 mistakes!

Math Racing Turbo It's a racing car game that pauses on the track to ask a question. If the question is answered correctly, the car continues. If it's answered incorrectly, it spins out and you need to start over. Tract 1 is just addition questions, and tract to is addition and subtraction combined. Grab an iPad, some manipulatives, and go nuts!

Head Soccer Another one of those, "huh?" apps, but it's great! The soccer games last a minute, and it's you versus the computer. What ever the score is at the end, you write down the scores as an equation on a whiteboard (e.g., if you won 4 to 3, you'd write down 4 + 3 =), then use manipulatives to answer the question. You can also do subtraction, but I tell my students that the higher number always comes first and their goal is to make their win as large as possible (e.g., 5-2=3..."I won by 3 points!").

The good people over at "Evernote" have just released a new scanner app, appropriately titled, "Scannable".  The premise is simple: You hover your iPhone or iPad's camera over a document, and the app will detect the edges, take the photo, crop the image, and even adjust the colours.

Now, for someone like me who takes photos of all my student's work, it's great.  I used to use the native camera app, and that worked fine, but I like how this cleans up the images automatically.  I now have an exact digital file of what my students have done on paper.

It gets even better!  I've tested the app on the iPad screen, and it works great!  So now, rather than have my students use the app "Transfer" to send their work to me (which, despite being fairly simple, still confused some of my students), I can just walk over to them, snap a photo with "Scannable", and I have a perfectly cropped image of their screen on my iPad.  Easy peasy.

Last year my class and I experimented with "Candy Crush Sorting", and that was a blast. I figured I'd change it up a bit this year and do "Candy Crush Sorting". Here's what we did.

1. The kids play "Candy Crush" with a black and white copy of candy beside them. As they play, they colour in the candy with the appropriate colour.

2. After the playing portion (which is only about 5-10 minutes, really), they begin the graphing. They finish colouring the candy, then pick 4 to graph. They cut out the candy (in squares...it's just easier), then begin gluing it onto a separate paper with a graph lines drawn on.

3. They tally each column, and put the number at the top.

When everyone is done, we bring our graphs to the carpet to debrief. It's a fun and simple way to explore graphing. By all means, download and use our black and white sheet below!

Click Here to download the "Candy Crush Graphing" Sheet. It can also be used for the "Candy Crush" sorting activity.

A couple of weeks ago we were in the introductory stages of patterning. One activity I had set up was the following: I have 4 groups in my room, so on each table group I put a different manipulative (e.g., geometric shapes, word tiles, etc.). Each student began by standing at their desk, and as a group brainstormed, then created a repeating pattern. I gave them about 5 minutes for that. When we stopped is where the tech came in! I mirrored my iPhone (you can do this with an iPad as well) to my Apple TV, then turned on the camera app. I basically had a live video feed to my projector. As the kids stood at their desks, I walked over and "broadcast" their pattern, while the group explained to the rest of the class their thinking. This worked out well because a) they were sharing their mathematical thinking with the class, and b) it took away the "fear factor" of standing in front of a group of people and talking (they were just standing at their table with everyone else). The activity continued with the students, as a group, rotating to the next manipulative table to brainstorm and create a new pattern with a new manipulative.

As my students completed a group activity, they were welcome to head over to centres. Some of my boys headed over to the snap cubes, and began making creatures. When they were done, they just walked them around (like they used to do last year). This sparked an idea. I didn't want to squash the play that was going on (creating things with snap cubes is a lot of fun!), but I wanted to get some reading and writing in there as well. I went over to them and asked what they made. Then answered, "Cheetah's". I asked, "Can you spell "Cheetah"? Some tried, others said, "no". So, I offered this challenge. "I will give you a special piece of paper (a "post it"). Who ever can figure out how to spell what they created gets a million dollars!" (an "imaginary million", of course. But a REAL imaginary million, not a FAKE imaginary million as some of my students suggest!). Immediately they went to the word wall and their "word books". Nothing. Some tried to sound it out, which was great! Then I showed them how to use the iPad. We logged into BYOD, then in Safari tried to sound out the word. We hit "go", and nothing really came up EXCEPT a question from Google saying, "Did you mean CHEETAH?". They clicked that and low and behold, photos of cheetahs started popping up! They were so excited, they couldn't write the word fast enough! When the period was over, we headed for gym. One of the boys said do me, "Mr. Stepien, I can spell cheetah! C-H-E-E-T-A-H!". Amazing what 10 minutes can do to ones confidence!

Well, it's another school year, and I have a fresh group of Grade 1's. Coming from a kindergarten background, I can relate to the huge transition between the Kindergarten and Primary programs (though I try my best to keep it as seamless as possible!). You might be at a point this year where you're thinking of introducing iPads into your program, but you might not know where to start (especially if you have little guys like me). This is a post to hopefully give you a few pointers on what you can do to get started. STUDENT NUMBERS In our school board, every student has a student number that they need to use to login to both our computers and our iPads (including Office 365). What I do is I make a very simple spreadsheet with all their names, student numbers, and passwords (all the passwords are the same, luckily) in individual cells. I then cut the spreadsheet into squares, and have all the students put those squares into the plastic pouch on the front of their agendas (we did that as we sat on the carpet in the morning). Every time we need to use the iPads now, they know to pull out their agenda and their login info is right there! Next step, we simply practiced logging into our iPads (in my board, it's our BYOD page). This first step of discussion, handing out squares, and logging in took about one period. 2. PAPER Now that we've practiced logging in, I wanted to introduce them to an app that is basically a replica of what they already know: Paper! We booted up the app "Paper" by FiftyThree, and I explained to them how to use the pen, eraser, colour selector, and magnifying glass. Then, off to work! Yesterday for Science we went to the marsh beside our school to observe what the natural area looks like in summer (because, despite their disbelief, it is still summer!). In "Paper", we drew a picture of what we saw and labeled it. It was so easy for them because their finger is the pen and the iPad is the paper! Finally, as they finished one by one, I showed them individually how to save their images to the camera roll. This took one period to complete. 3. Simple Transfer Now that the images are done and saved to the camera roll, the third app I showed them is called, "Simple Transfer". This app allows them to send their completed image to my iPad so I can print them off, assess them, or simply collect them. On my iPad, I booted up the app (my iPad is called, "Christian's iPad"...they'll need to know that). Next, I had them all turn on the app and search for "Christian's iPad". When they found it, they selected my iPad, selected the image, and hit send. My iPad lit up with all the images as they arrived! This took about half a period or so. So, that's it. Three things, three periods, and we're off to the races! "Paper" and "Simple Transfer" are apps we will return to time and again this year, so those are two of the most important. As we continue to use the iPads, they will become more familiar with the ins and outs of iOS (e.g., The Control Panel, the home button, etc.). Hopefully this will help you as you make the leap!