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.

listen to ‘Emilie,Cece & jina stop smoking!!!!’ on Audioboo

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! :)

More to do with AudioBoo!

I discovered today, upon viewing a youtube tutorial @audioboo posted on Twitter, that boos can be recorded using laptops as well as mobile devices and iPads. I further discovered that they could be embedded within blogs, etc.! This is exciting because it opens the door to our students doing more with AudioBoo. Fluency Station participants can now post their read alouds to their own blogs, and students are not limited to the availability of the iPads. I created a test boo, and posted it on several of our class blogs to be used later.

listen to ‘Welcome to AudioBoo!’ on Audioboo

Here's the tweet I read...

Wow! @sconlineteacher has made an awesome Audioboo tutorial for teachers: youtube.com/watch?v=PFlnBA…

— Audioboo (@audioboo) April 15, 2013

Responsibility Rap

listen to ‘Responsibility Rap’ on Audioboo

Audioboo for iPhone

Here's an example of a rap created by our Grade 7 class around the Character Education Trait: Responsibility. Each class prepares for an assembly around a different trait and the Sevens decided to create a short movie and rap. This was before we had purchased iMovie unfortunately, so technical difficulties limited the quality during final presentation somewhat. :(

They recorded the rap on the iPad but using an iPhone app called "Audioboo" (not to be confused with the iPad app of exactly the same name that does NOT allow for recording audio but only listening). It has an option to post directly to this blog, apparently, because I was surprised to see it posted here! LOL

This is what the iPad version app icon looks like (less the title)

We have yet to discover how to pull the "boo" off the program for an offline copy. However, it appear Audioboo has released a version 2 which supports downloading. The new iPhone version's icon is IDENTICAL which is annoying when I have iPads with both apps installed. It also appears that the user account with the boos from version 1 does not grandfather in to version 2 (although it accepts the same Twitter login, which is convenient, no record of the recorded boos are listed that I can see, at least).

Record screen from Version 1

Record screen from Version 2

I discovered this app when I observed Mrs.Wideen using it to improve oral reading fluency during Literacy stations with her Grade 1/2s. We are in the process of incorporating it into Library Literacy stations as well. I'm finding I need to train one or two "Station Masters" who can then train others when it is their turn to visit the station for the first time. Finding leveled books in the Library for an independent reading "just right" fit seems to be a bigger challenge for the primaries than first expected, so we are working with the homeroom teacher to solve this issue as well.