Kids in Story App. What Fun!!!

I really want to try this app with my students.  We all like to read about ourselves and tell our stories.  Here is a fun and not so intimidating way for kids to write, create, publish, and have a load of fun at the same time.  I can see it working from first to 6th grade effectively.

Padlet Success

Yesterday we tried something new.  I introduced the students to Padlet.com.  We created a community graphic organizer to keep track of what we are learning about wildfires.  Each student has the opportunity to contribute to the Padlet using their own iPad.  Below is a screen shot of our work so far.  The kids engaged well and enjoyed the new use of the iPad.  They will then use this info to write a paragraph or two about what they have learned about wildfires from multiple sources - news article, National Geographic, and the internet.  Big time Common Core goal for our 5th graders.

                                             The kids love to have their name "up in lights".

Wrapping Up the Colonial Region Project

Using the links as mentioned in the last post was very successful.  Kept the students from going all over the internet and spending useless time on sites that were somewhat related but not helpful in them creating their research.  We finished our posters today.  Below are a couple of pictures of the final projects.  I tried to upload a video but without success this evening.  It's too late to keep trying.  Maybe next time......

Making the Student's Research on the Web More Specific

I co-teach with the 5th grade teachers here at Free Orchards during the language arts block.  We are presently working on a project in which the students work in teams with the end result being a poster presentation of one of the original colonial regions.  Keeping in line with the CCSS they need to gather their information from multiple sources.  Now maybe all of you have thought of this before but I had researched a number of good web sites for the students to explore and I was thinking I really don't want to just give them a list of the sites that they have to type in.  We all hate typing in those long URLs, right?  So I took the list and posted it on our 5th grade blog.  The students then went to the blog and were able to just click on the links.  I thought that was pretty slick.  Certainly not rocket science but it meant that no one was going to worthless web sites or getting really side tracked with sites that were not grade/age or subject appropriate. Sometimes it is the little things that really make the difference.  If you want to check out the 5th grade blog and the kid friendly post here is the URL for the 5th grade blog: http://thewholearray.blogspot.com/

I Couldn't Believe My Ears

Music to a teacher's ears......We have been using the Newsela web site  since the first couple of weeks we were awarded the grant.  The kids enjoy the program and have become very independent  in using it.  Last week one of the girls raises her hand.  I go over to check out what the issue is.  She says, "Mrs. Haskell, can I do this at home? Sometimes I get bored at home and I like reading these articles."  Without trying to sound too giddy and enthusiastic, I said to Eyllin, "That is a GREAT idea.  You can just go to the web site and log on just like you do at school."  She wrote down her login and password to take home with her.  Now I just need to remember to ask how it's going at home.

I have imbedded a YouTube video above to walk you through a tutorial showing how you can mirror what is on your or your students ipads to your PC or Mac.  There have been a number of times since I started using the iPads in the classroom that I have wanted to quickly show what is on my iPad to the students. As we are all gathered around my "mini" trying to see, I think to myself, "this is less then optimal".  Mirroring would be especially helpful when trying to teach the students how to navigate on a specific web site or a computer skill that is new to them.  It beats trying to put the iPad under the Elmo.  The picture quality when the iPad is slipped under that Elmo leaves nothing to be desired.

I will be honest and let you know that I have only done this at home but it was very successful this evening and was excited enough with my success to post and share with the other HSD teachers that are on this technology adventure.  Hopefully it will help some of you out. It will also be a place where I can easily go back and review myself (especially after the summer break!).

Guidance to allow kids to post their work directly to your blog

Logins and Passwords

Oh, the woes......I have had to pray for an exorbitant amount of patience in working through 10 students with learning challenges getting logged onto a particular website/app.  I believe I am not alone in my personal frustration in remembering the plethora of "magic words" I need to keep stored in my long term memory for quick and easy reference.  But now it is not my own that I need to call to mind at a moments notice, my students for some unknown reason believe that I too should be able to remember their passwords.  Yikes! Spikes!  At one a breif low point I was ready to send all of the iPads back to the DO.

I started out with good intentions.  The ones we all have in setting our own logins and passwords...I will just make them all the same with some sort of easy pattern to remember.  Ooops, the kids had to have at least one capital.  Ooops again, on the next website they had to have more than 5 letters.  3rd strike and I was out.  The next one had to have a special character.  I wanted to throw in the towel.
But once we all FINALLY got logged on we were learning and having fun all at the same time.  Now giving up now.

After my second week in to the password journey and sharing my woes with a colleague, she seemed to have a simple solution.  Have an index card for each student and they access it each time they need it to remember how to get in.  So each created their own card.   I thought I was getting real smart.  Not so easy.  It seems that it is harder to copy passwords than one might imagine. "They have to be exact," I said with emphasis over and over again.

I did learn that I had to be diligent to keep a document of all the kids with all their logins and passwords and without fail keep it updated.

Now 8 weeks into the iPads and perfect index cards (May they never get misplaced.) I have yet to have a login session without at least one student exclaim, "It's not working."  My reply, "Try again, each letter has to be exact."  I am waiting with baited breath for the time when it comes off without a hitch.  I will keep you posted.

To day we had a great learning experience creating "Telegamis" about the explorers we were studying. More on that later.

Oh and one more thing.  Check my 5th grade math work blog as well.  It is simply called Math Work.
http://foesmathwork.blogspot.com/

Listen to Mariah give her insights about our new iPads.  She has a future in public speaking.

Step #2 - Warming up......

A quick tip in helping with organization: Each week I assign one student to be the iPad helper.  Everyone wanted to be the first one - of course!   They are so stoked about this technology.  The helper hands them out when we are ready to use them, picks them up at the end of our time together and checks to see which ones need to be charged  then hooks them up to be charged as necessary.  This is an advantage of working with slightly older kids. 

After introducing the iPads into the classroom I soon discovered that the students wanted to spend more time on the iPads than just the time in class.  They REALLY wanted to explore.  So we now have Free iPad time several times a week during their lunch recess.  Means I give up some prep time but I think I am gaining the time back in what I learn along with the students.  It is a very informal time in which we can have fun and explore with no academic demands.  Exploration is the focus of the time.  The only rule is that the students don't get to go into settings without asking me first.  There are several budding artist in the group.  One I have asked to be my class photographer.  She is delighted to take on that responsibility.  Below are Felicia's first attempts to be creative and catch her peers enjoying our new learning tools.  Soon I hope to have them adding to the blog.

 

The learning has ramped up and the questions don't stop coming.  About 4 weeks ago I learned that I was lucky enough to be awarded a technology grant.  I am a Resource Specialist at Free Orchards Elementary School in Hillsboro, OR.  

The grant was written to focus on a  co-teaching endeavor that I am engaged in with the three other 5th grade teachers at Free Orchards.  Our goal is to make sure that all the students at our grade level are engaged in the same curriculum no matter what their achievement levels.  It is a lofty one but we thought one tool that might help us meet that goal would be an infusion of technology.  Hence the grant writing began.  

The students knew I had written a grant and as the announcement date grew close they were asking every day.  Did we get the grant?  Did you hear yet?  When am I gonna get my iPad? Why is it taking so long?  I felt like I was back in my early parenting days and taking a long road trip.  Are we there yet???????

A roar of delight filled the classroom when I announced that we got our grant.  Hold on to your seats.  This salt and peppered 57 year old  was going to have to step up to the technology plate.  I was very thankful that I had had an epiphany last summer when I knew our cell phone contract was coming up for renewal.  Up until then I had not had a smart phone.  I just watched the ads for them and was in awe of what they could do.  I told my husband that I think I needed to take the plunge or I would never be able to keep up with my students.  I walked out of the Verizon store in August with my iPhone in hand.  The "i" journey had begun.

Mid January 10 iPad minis were delivered to my office.  Yikes! Now there was no going back. I was a bit hesitant to break them out but I knew I just needed to take the plunge. The next day they were in the kids hands. But I did start simple.

Step #1- Get Our Pinky Toes Wet: Actually I cheated and used the schools iPads first.  I serve a group of 10 5th graders in a smaller math group.  Every day we work on math facts.  The school iPads had a nice facts app that I had yet to download on the new pads so we all tried it out.  WOW.  I couldn't believe how much fun the kids had that first day.    The next day I had the app loaded onto the new pads and we have been using the app and the pads every day since.  Below is Felicia so totally engrossed in doing her math facts that she didn't even realize I was taking her picture.