Thursday 27 June 2013

Look What I Found: Geography September 2012 to June 2013

So this year I've been learning so much and, like every teacher knows, there is more enthusiasm and potential than there is actual time to make it all happen. One thing that I absolutely LOVED the idea of but did not make the time to implement, sadly, was the use of Skype in the classroom. Today I found this video that reaffirmed my belief that Skype is one of the best ideas for increasing authentic learning in a classroom that I've ever heard of!  Next year, this will be us! #fingerscrossed



Monday 17 June 2013

Creating Movies from Snippets Filmed on the iPad

We are exploring how to create a video presentation about the trait of Trustworthiness. The Grade 8s are in charge of the character assembly in June and the chances of them actually being present are slim since it's after grad, so video is the way to go! They filmed a variety of scenes using iMovie on our iPads and now we are figuring out how to put it all to together to view. So here's what I've learned so far:

  1. You can export iMovie content to a desktop computer to be saved in a folder and possibly used in Windows Movie Maker or whatever by doing this:
  • with iMovie open to the appropriate project, from the menu screen choose the out arrow export button
  • select "camera roll"
  • plug a cord from the iPad into the usb port of the desktop
  • when the "choose your option" box pops up, choose Microsoft Scanner and Camera Wizard and follow the prompts:
    • select the appropariate movie
    • select the desired folder on desktop to save
    • name the video
Now I'm thinking - why don't I just bring all the pieces BACK into iMovie for another project and see if I can use this process to burn to DVD and upload to YouTube? Hmmm...

Thursday 13 June 2013

End of the Year Reflections

Three more weeks, give or take, and we are currently reorganizing our library shelves and space, wrapping up report cards, and preparing to say goodbye to our 10 iPads. I don't want to let them go but at least we get to keep five of them. We'll have a few more when they replace the netbooks but I'm not sure how much a chance everyone will get to use them now that they'll be shared between all the teachers in the school.  I'm hoping some fundraising opportunities and school funds will be available to add what technology we need so that everyone can enjoy it with their students as much as possible.

Tomorrow I get half a day of release time to connect with some interested teachers in their classes to help them become more familiar with what their students have been using the iPads with me for, and also what some of the apps I've been collecting can do to get the juices flowing for how they can utilize this technology in their own classrooms next year. I hope they find it worthwhile!

Wednesday 5 June 2013

Some Student Work Samples

So much to write about, hopefully once report cards are handled I'll find time to debrief everything we've been doing and what I've learned about it! As for right now, part of our requirements is to share some of the student work that was created with the iPads, so here's a few things for everyone so that I can provide the link to the gracious powers-that-be! ;)

In Science we have been creating nonfiction books about animals. One of the requirements is that the students produce their own labelled diagram. We used Skitch to create a sample together and then they created their own. Here's an example:


Another thing we did was a text features search of non-fiction books. Students learned about various text features and then worked in partners with an iPad on a text features photo hunt. They needed to find an example from a book of their choice of their assigned feature, take a picture of it and list their names and the title of the book. We chose to use Explain Everything to create this.


Students also created drawings to be used later in BookCreator. They used an app called Colorific to make good copies of the pencil sketches they had planned.


In Drama, students recorded radio plays as a supplement to the Health unit they were covering in their homeroom using AudioBoo2. One of the young students in this group traditionally struggles with working in groups or completing assignments. However, the chance to record on AudioBoo and share with a wider audience seems to have inspired her to push past her challenges and participate.

An older group used AudioBoo to record a rap about the character trait their class was assigned to teach during a monthly assembly. I shared it in a early post which you can find here.

That's just a few of the things we've been working on. Thanks for tuning in! :)