"Inspiring" Ideas??

iMovie Book Trailer Plans??

*Read book:)
*Create summary
*Plot summary on story board
*Select images to match student writing
*Use iMovie to create the book trailer
*Enhance with music and transitions:)

Flickr Polygon Album

We uploaded pictures to my Flickr account today during math. We started by reading The Greedy Triangle which is a book about polygons. Next the students were put into groups of 4 and were instructed to use their devices to take pictures around the classroom, pod, and hallway of some of the polygons we read about/saw in the book. Then came the tricky part... I had my Flickr account and email ready to go. They were supposed to email the pics to my account. However, since they are 8 year-olds, most of them did not have email set up on their devices. I had to adjust and the kids just took my iPad around and retook their pictures.  We were able to email from there. It took longer, but I guess if the photo book was the goal, we made it. If it was for them to utilize their own device, it was an epic fail. A couple groups took pics of some figures that were not polygons, so it was also a good assessment tool. If mistakes were made, they were in shapes that did not have straight sides (a couple took pics of the globe or of coins.) This was a good opportunity to reinforce the properties of polygons! We displayed the pics on the whiteboard and discussed their sides and angles. Here is a link to our book: Flickr Polygon Book.

Socrative Rocks

Our class was engaged and enjoyed using socrative today. We had taken a pretest in reading based on the close reading unit we are starting. We had the iPad cart checked out to our room so we checked our answers and went over the test using socrative. It is the best tool I have found yet. We started with answering some multiple choice and true and false questions. The kids liked seeing their answers show up on the whiteboard (I had my teacher account pulled up on my computer). The bar graphs were a great visual.

The coolest part was the short answer questions. We answered some main idea and sequence questions. Their sentences appeared, but the best part was they were able to read everyone's answers and then vote on which one they thought was the best. They loved this and it was a great way for them to see and discuss why the correct answers were the best.

This was great MAP Test practice. It also was the easiest and most successful technology tool I've used in the room yet. The "thumbs up" when they were in and ready to go were so fast. They were able to do everything independently with no lag time and no password confusion. I will definitely use socrative again!

YouTube Playlist ~ Matter

I created a playlist on my youtube chanel with some videos that related to our unit on matter. My students enjoyed viewing them on their devices. For those who did not have their own device, they used classroom laptops. I wasn't sure how to get them logged into my channel without broadcasting my password, so I ended up putting it into all their devices myself, which was a pain and took a little time. I had a small reflection page that went along with the lesson that helped keep them on track.

There were three videos on the list. One was silent and they had to read short prompts about what they saw, one was put to music with written prompts also, the third was a scientist talking about matter and showing the different states. Most of the kids enjoyed the video that was put to music (which also showed glass in its liquid form).

They enjoyed using the playlist, but due to having to log them all in, it may have been just as good as a whole class activity with showing it on the whitebaord. The advantage of them having it on their devices was that they could rewind anything they may have missed and they were in control. All the reflection pages had good responses and they all rated the lesson a 10! I will use the youtube playlist again!

Photos and Anchor Charts Shared

One of my goals was to keep my students' parents "in the know" of what we are learning in our classroom. It is a whole new world from when I taught 16 years ago. I know as a parent that I always appreciated teachers who used technology to keep me updated on what my kids were doing. In the beginning, emails were great. As technology grew, I loved seeing the pictures and videos some of them put on the web. Now that I am back in the classroom, I want to do my best to let parents see and enjoy what we are doing. Here are a few pics I have shared. It is definitely an area I need to grow in. I definitely have "blog envy" of some of my colleagues and even of people I've never met! I am confident that as my handle on our curriculum grows, so will my ability to communicate it.

iPad Updated - awesome app!

I found an awesome app when I attended a Christmas break iPad session. The app is APPSGONEFREE. I spent a lot of time after I loaded this app on my iPad getting my iPad classroom/center ready. My students love all the new apps I found. My third grade team also has benefited as we spent some time during our last PLC working together and sharing what we had found.

The top three apps I have found recently are:

Animal Kingdom HD
Math Ninja
Opposites

I have organized my apps into folders on our class screen. My students are having a much easier time navigating the iPad now. Bring on the classroom iPads!

Audio Consumptin on the Web - Wilma Rudolph

My students really enjoyed the book Wilma Unlimited. It tells the story of Wilma Rudolph. I found this youtube video that tied in perfectly. By just watching this 11 minute video, we were able to compare/contrast what we learned from the book and the video. We also compared the differences of reading the book vs watching the video. Most of them said they enjoyed the book more, which I was happy to hear. Another huge advantage was reaching some of my lower readers and autistic students in a way that they related. (They made up most of the group that said they liked the video better.)Here's the link to the story Wilma Rudolph Story.

I am also going to add the digital book I found to my iPad. Here's the link Wilma Unlimited, youtube digital book . A possible center project??