Continuing to Learn with the iPad- Storytelling In an attempt to document the trials and errors of using a classroom set of 20 iPads in our K-8 school, I am adding a new post to the collection of iPads in the Classroom: 5th Grade- Storykit- Creating a story in Hebrew One of the Hebrew teachers approached me with an interest in having her students create a story book in the target language on the iPads. We chose to test the free app Storykit with this project. Students read a poem by Leah Goldberg called: (That’s Not Me). We had the Hebrew letters added to the iPad keyboard by going into: Settings> General> Keyboard> International Keyboards>Add New Keyboard> Choose Hebrew Once the International keyboard is added, a globe appears on your keyboard. Once the storyboards were finished, students were ready to work with the iPads. I showed students how to go to Microsoft Office ClipArt, search for images and download or take a screenshot and edit the image. Students also used each other to stage scenes from their story to take a photo. Like this:
How should we use technology in assessment? I'm looking for brain-storming ideas. You can either share ideas you've tried, or just half-baked ideas that you think would be interesting. Let's make sure not to bash each other in this post, our objective is to think of as many ways as possible to use technology as a tool in assessment. I'll give 10 ways to start the ball rolling. 1. 2. 3. 4. 5. 6. 7. 8. 9. 10.
Tune-Ups and Teachable Moments - Finding Common Ground Children are not supposed to be perfect all the time. Adults certainly aren't! When I was in seventh grade I had to go to the principal's office. My early teenage brain had gotten the best of me and I was rude to a teacher, which is something that did not please my mom and I heard about it when I got home. The classroom where I made my grave mistake was on the second floor of Queensbury Middle School and the principal's office was on the first floor. The principal talked at me for about five minutes, which seemed like an hour, and I left his office vowing never to get in trouble again. As an elementary school principal, it's interesting to me that students may leave my office feeling the same way that I did in seventh grade. Many parents get embarrassed when their child gets sent to the office, which is human nature. Clearly there are times when students make grave mistakes the require suspension or expulsion, which can provide lessons on another level.
Rubrics for Assessment | Classroom activities: Assessment and Technology Students’ Assessment through Portfolio | School of Educators | Classroom activities: Assessment and Technology The “I Don’t Know” Zone: Student-directed and Inquiry-based Learning » The Cloverleaf School of Atlanta Students at Cloverleaf spend the last class period of each day working together on a project of their choice. They recently wrapped up their two-month long elevator inquiry, in which they rode a gigantic elevator, built a working elevator, watched elevator videos, read books about elevators, researched outstanding elevators around the world online, and wrote letters to an elevator technician. We explored the elevator topic in as many different ways as we could think of. I was trained in the inquiry model during my time spent teaching in New Zealand. I was lucky enough to work in a school whose charter was based on student-directed and inquiry-based learning. This model centers on providing an open forum through which students may pursue their own educational interests. When students are given the freedom to come up with their own ideas, they immediately feel a sense of ownership over their learning. Overall, I couldn’t be more proud of what the kids accomplished in this inquiry.
Arts Involvement Narrows Student Achievement Gap - Miller-McCune A new NEA study finds disadvantaged students do better academically if they are intensely involved in the arts. Students from the lower end of the socioeconomic ladder tend to do less well in school than those from more upscale families. But newly published research identifies one sub-group of these youngsters who tend to exceed expectations: those who participate heavily in the arts. “At-risk teenagers or young adults with a history of intensive arts experiences show achievement levels closer to, and in some cases exceeding, the levels shown by the general population studied,” a team of scholars writes in a new National Endowment for the Arts Research Report. “These findings suggest that in-school or extracurricular programs offering deep arts involvement may help to narrow the gap in achievement levels among youth.” This will be good news for the characters of Glee, and their counterparts in real life — especially those from poor families. What’s more, those higher grades paid off.
bloomsapps Using Blooms Taxonomy in education is a highly effective way to scaffold learning for the students. With the recent popularity and pervasive nature of iOS devices in school districts it is essential for educators to understand how to implement Blooms in the classroom using the apps that are available. While this list is by no means fully comprehensive, it will assist educators in getting started when implementing iOS devices in the classroom. This site will change almost daily as it will be updated with new and exciting apps! If you find any that you have worked with in your classroom please email dmileham@e1b.org or tweet @bloomsapps or @dmileham75 with your suggestions. Two Links to some iTunesU courses relating to iOS Integration: 1 iPad by Erie 1 Boards of Cooperative Educational Services ( Movie Making\Digital Storytelling Camera to PDF Free - cool little app that turns your device into a scanner. LiveBinders: I would be remiss if I didn't post this.
QR Codes Explained and Ideas for Classroom Use When I lead workshops or give presentations I typically don't distribute handouts in paper form. Instead I just give the link to my digital resources for that day's presentation or workshop. Recently, I have started to deviate from that policy just a little bit. Distributing those QR codes before the presentation also creates a good segue into conversations about what QR codes are and how they can be used in schools. The following posts have more ideas about using QR codes in schools:Interactive Bulletin BoardsQR Codes in the ClassroomQRPedia - QR Codes for Wikipedia EntriesAssign QR Codes to Your DocumentsCreate a Mobile Language Lesson With QR VoiceTom Barrett's Interesting Ways to Use QR Codes