Storybuddy and Skitch for a Nonfiction Features Dictionary

Recently my guided reading group was looking at nonfiction features, and as I'm sure many of my colleagues have done before, we made a Nonfiction Features Dictionary. First, we brainstormed a list of all the features of nonfiction text (bold words, table of contents, diagrams, photos, etc). Then, they had to look through their most recent nonfiction text (and any other book they could find) to find examples of these features. They used their iPads to take pictures of each of the features.

After taking the pictures, they used Skitch to annotate the pictures. Skitch is an app to do just that - you grab a photo from your camera roll, and you can write, type, draw, or otherwise edit the photo. Once you're done with the photo, you can save it to the camera roll (it will save the original AND the edited versions), print it, or email it. Skitch also connects to Evernote, for those of you who are Evernote users! Skitch is an awesome app for editing photos to be used with a variety of apps, not just Storybuddy!

Here's an example of the nonfiction features photos with edits:

Students needed to say what type of feature it was, as well as how it helps them become better readers and understand nonfiction text better.

Once they had done this for all of their nonfiction features photos, they assembled all the photos into one book using Storybuddy. This app has the user create an e-book by putting in photos, drawings, and text. Students can even record their own voice and attach it to each page of the book.

Once the story is finished, it can be read within StoryBuddy, or it can be exported to iBooks, or can even be emailed or printed as a PDF. We have the free version, which means you can only have 2 stories at a time within the app. However, if students export their finished stories to iBooks and then delete the story from StoryBuddy, they can create more than 2 stories.

Just one of the MANY ways to use these awesome apps!

Gotta Get This App - Geoboard!

Can we just bond for a moment, as elementary school teachers, about the HORROR that is geoboards?!?!?!

Honestly. I get it... they're great... hands-on learning and all that good stuff... but the rubberbands fly everywhere, and they snap on the kids' fingers, kids are stealing them and you're taking them away from kids for days afterwards... ugh.

This app is the saving grace... Geoboard!

It does exactly what that physical geoboard does - gives you pegs and VIRTUAL (thank god!) rubberbands that you can stretch into shapes.

You can also switch between a small square geoboard and a large rectangular one.

Another cool benefit: you can fill in the shape that you make on the geoboard with a color.

How did I use this app?

My students were learning about area of unusual shapes. We would make the shape on the virtual geoboard, and then use the red rubberbands to trace the individual squares, so they could see how the squares were split in half (or rectangles split in half) and add up the pieces to find the total area.

Go Get This App! ;)

Quickie (but a goodie!) - App of the Week

It's going to be a quickie this time, since I'm in the midst of preparing for parent/teacher conferences!

When using my class iPads this year, I was frustrated by the amount of apps at times. Yes it's cool to have all the apps we have on our student iPads... but every time I wanted to do a new project, I had to build in an extra 30 minutes of instruction to teach them how to use the app I wanted them to use. Yes I could do this at times - but when you think about the 30+ apps on our iPads... that's a lot of minutes!

My solution to this problem was to create "App of the Week."

Each week I choose an app (and I am strategic about my choices, often choosing an app that I know I want to use in the near future for a project) and put its name on the board for the whole week. Then, on Fridays, we have "iPad Free Time" - a time when they have free choice on the iPad (so long as they don't have any missing work). We start out iPad free time with a 5 minute info session.

And who teaches them how to use the "App of the Week"?

Not me - the kids! :)

All week they have seen that app's name on the board, and many of my students are very capable and eager to learn the app on their own. Then, during our iPad time, I choose one student to become the teacher and teach their classmates how to use the app.

Not only has this been a big time-saver for me, but it's been empowering for my students as well!

That's my quickie tip. :) Enjoy!

What's a QR code... and why do I care?

What's a QR Code?: A QR code is kind of like a barcode. You may have seen it on promotional materials for various companies. You use a Smart Phone or tablet to scan the QR code using a QR Reader app (there are MANY out there, they are usually free. I recommend i-nigma or QR Reader). After you've scanned the QR code, a variety of things can happen depending on what type of code was created: a website may open up, words may appear on your screen, or contact information may be given.

(Scanning this QR code will bring you to a YouTube video on the Magic 7 method of long division)

How is this useful in education?: One of the main benefits of QR codes is that it gets you to a given website quickly and easily - so, rather than having students or their families type in a long URL address, they can just scan the code and immediately be taken to the website in question.

So, some ideas for how to use it: 

• if students create videos, this is an easy way for their families to view them, or for students to view each others' videos. 
• If students are doing a research project on the iPads, you could make a sheet with QR Codes for useful websites for them, and then they would only have to scan the QR code to get to the website rather than typing in a long URL. (Check out this entry for an example!)
• Similarly, you could make little booklets with QR codes for commonly used sites (First in Math, Odyssey, Coolmath, etc) to get them quickly and easily to the site. Or, you could make QR codes for those high-frequency sites and post them around the room.
• You could have a QR code posted in your classroom on Open House with your contact information for parents to scan. 
• You could have a scavenger hunt in the classroom - if they think the answer is A, scan QR Code A, if it's B, scan QR code B, and then words would appear on their screen telling them if they're right or wrong, or telling them where to go next on the scavenger hunt, etc.
• Create self-checking websites for centers - create a QR code that, when scanned, will tell students the answer to a problem, then create one code for each question.
• Also for centers: have QR codes for YouTube (or your own self-created) videos to help them through the work for that center, so you're basically duplicating yourself.

...and that's just a few ideas!

Okay, you've sold me... now how do I MAKE one of those things?: Some of the QR code apps allow you to create codes on your iPad. Otherwise, there are free website for creating QR codes: www.the-qrcode-generator.com, or www.qrstuff.com. Go to one of those websites, choose what type of QR code you are creating on the left, and then input your information.

Important note: If you want to use QR codes for PHOTOS or VIDEOS, these photos or videos HAVE to be stored ON THE INTERNET somewhere PUBLIC (where anyone can get to it). So, for example: you could record a video using your iPad, upload it to your Dropbox, get the link to it off the website, and then create a QR Code for that link. (This is how I did the book commercial project in the hallway). This is not the ONLY way to do it, but it's one way that I have found works pretty well.

So what do I do with the code once I have created it?: Again, this depends on what you want to do with it. The best thing to do is to SAVE the image (either to your photo roll on an iPad, or just save it as a photo file to your I Drive on a computer), and then you can print it, insert it into a document or a presentation, show it full screen on the SmartBoard, etc.

How do YOU use QR codes in the classroom?

Reinventing the Research Process

It's really unfortunate to me how social studies has been mistreated by education over the last few years. I understand just as well as everyone else the pressures put on teachers in the areas of math and reading. Of course our students need those basic skills... however, many schools have handled the problem of lack of time by taking time away from science and social studies, and this is a huge disservice to our kids! These are some of their favorite subjects - and why can't we incorporate literacy and math skills into those subjects?

In social studies in grade 4, we focus on the history of our state (Wisconsin), and then branch out to looking at the regions of the United States. For anyone not from Wisconsin, Native American history is big in this area of the country, and has a huge impact on the culture of our state as it is. 

Let me give you a little before-and-after glimpse into how I taught Native American history of Wisconsin:

Before: I split students into groups ("tribes"), each one studying a different tribe native to Wisconsin. (Ojibwe, Oneida, Potawatomi, Ho Chunk, and Menominee). Within the groups, each person would research a different aspect of tribal life (food, shelter, clothing, language, history, etc). Students would read books and do a little internet research, jotting down notes on a lined piece of paper. Then, the final product: they would write a 5 sentence paragraph about what they learned and draw a picture to go along with it, and I would use the photos and paragraphs to create a little poster display.

The problem: Pretty boring, to be honest. Not a BAD activity, but definitely not one that engaged my students in higher levels of thinking or creativity. I constantly struggled with the research aspect of it. Students had lots of problems finding appropriate and relevant information, using an efficient note-taking process, and then struggled again with putting the information into their own words and writing the paragraph. I would teach these literacy skills as best I could, but as I'm sure all experienced teachers know, some would catch on and some would totally miss the point.

After: We recently started this unit, with several changes in mind. The basic set up is the same, but I utilized the jigsaw idea even more. Before starting research, I had all the topic groups work together (the foods, the shelters, etc) to create a list of questions - what did they want to learn? They also picked out of their list of questions which ones were most crucial.

Then, they created a mind map using the app iBrainstorm. This app is very simple - Post Its and a marker on a corkboard - but it's awesome for helping students flesh out their ideas. Since this was our first time using it, we all created essentially the same mind map (topic in the center, with the questions coming out of it). My hope is that as we continue to use this app more, they will be able to create their own mind maps to help them visualize their ideas.

The students are still doing book reserach, but I also created QR codes using this website. I found several good websites ahead of time, and then created QR codes for easy access - this way we can avoid the dreaded Google Search (which, as we all know, either ends up with students finding inappropriate material, or finding nothing due to too vague or too specific search terms).

They are going to keep track of their research right in the iBrainstorm app (by creating new post its with answers and connecting them to the questions they address) and then use a worksheet I created as a Google Doc (using the Google Drive app) to plan out their final product. 

The final product is going to be a presentation using the app 30 Hands. This app has students insert pictures, text, etc, and then record their voices going through each of their slides, and produces a video. The students will plan out what they want to say based on their research, and find photos to match it. Once they're done, I plan to have them watch each others' videos and fill out a graphic organizer so they are truly learning about all 5 tribes. 

The solution: The project now has really stepped up on its use of inquiry - the students are researching these topics because they're interested, and they have developed the questions to guide them in their search - and they also understand the research process better. They are working more collaboratively (both in their topic groups and their tribe groups) and will give more feedback on each others' work. They are still reading and writing, but are using tools to help them organize and structure information, so I'm not punishing those students who struggle with these types of tasks. Not to mention - the students are so excited! Much more so than when we were writing sentences and drawing pictures.

Phew! This first blog entry was a big one. It's a big project! I'll keep everyone up to date as the project unfolds!

Time for a change...

Obviously it's been awhile. :)

A lot has changed for me in a year... (almost done with my Master's of Instructional Technology degree, teaching technology PD for my district and others, in my first year of teaching in a 1:1 iPad classroom, etc...)

All of these changes have now brought me back to this blog, with an idea for a change in direction.

Let me start by telling you all this: at the beginning of this year, I had a class set of iPads. I was already 1 year into my graduate degree and 1 year into my position as Innovation Coach in my district (a technology teacher-leader). And yet, even with all these amazing devices at my fingertips, I found myself barely using them, and even when I did use them, it wasn't for the type of transformational change that I had always thought and taught about. I came home feeling guilty, that guilt magnified every time someone referred to me as a "technology guru"or something along those lines. What right did I have to call myself an expert in instructional technology when all I was doing with these iPads was playing games?

All that changed right before winter break this year. I attended an awesome conference, and while I was there, I made a list - I took everything that I had learned about quality technology integration and iPad usage in the classroom, applied it to MY classroom, and then made a list of all the things I wanted to do, in order.

Since then, I have been implementing these projects one by one. Some of the projects are just logistical things to make my and my students' lives easier, but others really are stepping in the direction of that transformational change I've always been so excited about.

I have to tell you: it has made a BIG difference. First of all, I have come home from school every day happy and excited instead of frustrated. Wow! That's huge. Also, and I know this sounds like a cliche that can't possibly true... but since I decided to go whole-hog into this technology integration idea and changing the way I do business in my classroom, I have not had a single serious behavior problem, and the work that my students are creating blows me away. Not to mention that when we do things in class that aren't technology related, even then they are more focused and engaged in the activity.

As I'm ending my master's degree, one of my final projects is going to be to keep my colleagues updated on the things I'm doing in my classroom. I have a unique position in that I am not a full-time trainer, I am still a teacher, as well as being a technology coach. I think it would be really beneficial for my fellow teachers to see what I'm doing, to make it easier for them to envision it working in their own classrooms.

So, I've decided to renew this blog, with a new focus on my technology-related projects in the classroom. Of course if some brilliant idea strikes me that's not technology-related I may still blog about it - technology isn't the answer to everything, after all! But I truly believe that I have found my calling in life, and I'm excited to use this blog as a vehicle for sharing my ideas.

Motivating the young'uns...

Well it's been awhile!

I blame it on parent/teacher conferences... not really, those are actually this week, so I'm not sure why I'm making a post before this heinous week! haha ;)

We've been talking a lot at my school recently about motivating students to do their best on standardized assessments. All of us as educators know how unfair these can be... how it's such a slim snap shot of what a child is capable of, and how unfair it is to judge a child based on a few questions during a few hours of their educational career. That being said, those tests aren't going away! And we have to come up with ways to motivate our students, to see the value of those tests, and to help them understand why they take them and what we are looking for.

Our district takes the MAPS assessment 3 times a year, and as those of you who use this test know, what we look for most is growth and improvement. Each child has a "targeted growth" score, which is the goal that NWEA sets for them based on their previous performances of what they should achieve by the end of the school year.

Of course, I spend time before the test talking about it with my students - I'm pretty frank in explaining why we take it ("We teachers are looking to see if you're learning everything a 4th grader should be learning, and if you're improving - the point isn't getting the highest score, but in beating your previous score") and we set goals together (I blogged before about my goal-setting worksheet found here).

So how do I motivate them to take the test?

...candy, of course!

After the test, each student receives a little baggie, with a candy (either M&Ms or Skittles) for each point they improved on the math and reading tests combined, along with a cookie and a note saying "You are one smart cookie!" - an idea I cannot take credit for, as I borrowed it from my awesome coworkers.

In an ideal world, this motivation would be intrinsic - obviously I want my students to WANT to learn and grow and improve. But again - this is the real world. And in the real world, studies show that kids in poverty (like the kids I teach) do not look at long-term consequences, either positive or negative - they live in RIGHT NOW... and right now they want some candy.

Besides, it's a great visual - although some might balk at the fact that some students receive baggies full of candy while others receive only a few small pieces - it's a great visual representation and reward for how hard they have worked.

It's not ideal... but on my MAPS test this winter, my students earned a total of 361 candies for points improved in math and reading! I'm very proud of them for that.