e-Reading Resources

Love this Symbaloo board!  Free e-books, magazines, audio books, and literacy websites in one convenient, visually appealing site.

SloMo Science

It is always exciting when I find an educational use for an app that doesn't fall under the “education” category.  SloPro is marketed toward coaches and athletes, but when our fourth grade students were learning about their bones and muscles, it was the perfect app for them!

Here’s how we went about what came to be known as the “Science SloMo Project.”
1.       Each student selected a motion such as jumping rope, eating an apple, throwing a basketball, etc.
2.       Teachers used the in-app camera to video the students doing their motions.  The app recorded the video in slow motion.
3.       At the same time, the children began to write down the narrations that described what their bones and muscles were doing as they performed their motions.
4.       The teachers emailed the videos to the students' iPads and they saved to their photo roll.
5.       They watched their slow motion videos and revised their narrations.
6.       The children imported the videos to iMovie, selected one slow-motion clip at a time, and muted the sound of the action clips so background noise would not be audible.
7.       They then recorded the appropriate narrations for each clip and added scrolling captions.
8.       After posting the completed videos to their blogs, the students were able to watch slow-motion videos of everyday activities while listening to their classmates explain the movements of each bone and muscle as the activity was being performed. They loved it!

Options:  You can have the students video each other, but that would require purchasing many more copies of the app. For a more complex version of this project,  you may want to use Coach's Eye and have the students annotate the movie before importing it to iMovie. If I did the project again, I might try using Explain Everything instead of iMovie, which would not have the option of selecting frames, but would allow the students to annotate the videos as they record.  Too bad Explain Everything tends to crash…

Teaching About Fractions?

Here are some apps that could be really useful during a unit on fractions. I love the fact that although they are free, they aren't buggy, give appropriate feedback, and are easy to use. As someone who has spent endless hours cutting, laminating, and attaching magnets to hundreds and hundreds of tiny fraction slices, my favorite is definitely the first app on the list!

• https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/virtual-manipulatives!/id471341079?mt=8 (Free) Virtual fraction manipulatives that go up to 1/12. Offers block and circle models, labeled or unlabeled pieces, decimal/percent labeling options, pieces that layer nicely over each other and snap to each other. Students can also draw, erase, and take a picture of their work. Way easier to work with than paper or plastic pieces…especially when working with eights, tenths, etc.
• https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/geoboard-by-math-learning/id519896952?mt=8 (Free) Digital version of the classic geoboard…Great in conjunction with problems that involve shapes that are fractional parts of other shapes
• https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/oh-no-fractions!-curious-hat/id593418681?mt=8 (Free) Compare fractions and use a visual block model to check
• https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/tiny-fractions/id570161866?mt=8 (Free) 3 units that teach about estimating, ordering, and comparing fractions. It models the concepts, gives feedback, and tracks progress…good for a group that has a variety of levels and need to get to the skills at different paces…
• https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/chicken-coop-fractions-game/id484561886?mt=8 (Free) Really challenging…Estimate the spot on the number line (which is labeled as decimals) where the fraction should land
• https://itunes.apple.com/app/everyday-mathematics-equivalent/id417016316?mt=8 (Sometimes Free) This is a virtual card game that has the students match cards with equivalent fractions. The cards are labeled and shaded…
• https://itunes.apple.com/ca/app/basic-fraction/id460652734?mt=8 (Free) Covers a wide range of fraction concepts, includes feedback and review games.
• https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/motion-math-zoom/id451793073?mt=8 (2.99) Decimal placement on number line, students need to zoom in and out to see more/less detail.
• https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/motion-math/id392489333?mt=8 (1.99) Helps students visualize placement of fractions on a number line, fun movement aspect great for kinesthetic learners. 

The No Email Emailing Solution

I'm an optimist. I believe that one day, there will be a flawless system for sharing all kinds of files across devices. I will not need to use Dropbox for large files, iCloud for files created on Apple apps, Google Drive for documents, and email for when all else fails (or  I want students to avoid navigating yet another app.) Until that flawless system is invented, what do I do when I have shared iPads and students without email accounts? Hence... the no email emailing solution:

• Create one email address for the grade or class. Ex. sharedipads@yourschool.org
• In the email account settings, specify that outgoing mail may only be sent to sharedipads@yourschool.org
• Specify that incoming email may only come from sharedipads@yourschool.org, and from your email address
• Install the shared email account on the iPads
• If you need to share a file with the entire class, email it with the subject line "whole class"
• If you need to share a file with one student, email it with that student's name as the subject line

Have any other easy file sharing solutions? Please share!

Show it on the Big Screen

 Video tutorial by Nicole Gordon

Learn to project your iPad wirelessly, and it transitions from personal device to collaborative tool in a matter of seconds.

A) It is a more effective visual aid: Demonstrate how to use an app. Play a slide show. Screencast a lesson.

B) It fosters student-centered lessons: Students can project their own iPads onto the Smartboard to show their work, demonstrate a strategy, start a discussion, or ask a text-based question.  Remember to change your airplay password after the students have used it so that they don't project their iPads without permission.

C) It becomes an instant, portable document camera: Just turn on your camera, point the iPad at something, and the students see it on the Smartboard.
     You can then use your iPad camera as a motivator. "Wow! Let's all look at Jane's paragraph and see how neatly she wrote this sentence! Check out Sara's specific adjectives!" 
     You can use use it for live demos. "See how the water changes colors when I mix the two solutions? Notice the antennae moving as the caterpillar approaches..."
     You can use it to annotate: "Take a picture of the starting sentence in your favorite book. Now let's look at the board and highlight the words that make it exciting...This is your homework sheet. Circle these two sections..."

Projecting Options

• Apple VGA dongle ($29): It works, but movement is restricted by the physical connection to the cable.
• Reflector  is the program I use. It costs $14.99 and runs on either a PC or a Mac.  In addition to projecting your iPad to the computer, which then can then show up on a projector screen or Smartboard, it can also record what you are showing in the iPad (screen casting), allowing you to have a movie of your sounds and actions, which can then be emailed or posted online.
• AirServer costs about the same, but it does not have the recording capability.
• You can also mirror your iPad to a projector using Apple’s Apple TV hardware ($99), but that is the most costly option.

History Maps

Zeitag NYC is a simple, user-friendly app that has thousands of location-based, historical photos embedded in the default iPad map. Teaching about immigration or the history of New York City? Zeitag offers students the opportunity to view the city from a whole new (or old) perspective.  You may want to partner this app with Google Earth (select Panoramio Photos layer), have students choose a given area, and compare life today with life in the past. If you have iPads with 3G, enrich your field trips by using Zeitag to add a historical layer to any spot around the city!

For all you Canadians out there, check out Zeitag Toronto.

Please note: The apps below have a similar concept, but were designed for the iPhone.
Historypin
History Here

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