We received a few iPads for use in Primary School. A mini iPad cart was designed to carry them around classrooms. Students discussed iPad agreements before using the iPads. One of the students created the video below to be embedded onto our iPad Agreements Poster, when it was signed and stuck in all classrooms. Here is the poster for all classrooms.
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AirServer is a nice tool to show content on your iPad screen to an audience on a computer, which can be connected to the projector. Air server not only mirrors whats on your screen, it sends audio to your computer as well allowing you to move around the classroom, hand your iPad to one student after another to do things on the iPad. This makes the iPad the 21st century interactive whiteboard. It works on both windows and PC. We currently use it on Windows computers. I don't usually write about paid apps but had to buy AirServer (USD14.99) to make full use of my iPad in the classroom and a number of people also bought after they saw how it can transform the classroom. to use Airserver, download it from the website, once AirServer is installed on a computer, any iPad can project it's screen. You can also project two iPads on the same screen to compare and contrast with students. When i initially read about 30 Hands, i installed it on my iPad and deleted it as the GUI (graphic user interface) was not very appealing. I decided to use other apps. When i worked with Year 1 students creating a digital story, i struggled to get the free apps i had to publish the story. Out of desperation, tried 30 Hands and it did the trick. I was so impressed that the app was easy enough for Year 1 students to push the record button when they were ready to speak and when they were done. We easily moved from one picture to the other. The most amazing thing was discovering that we could go back to recordings to delete them and record all over again or delete a picture/slide and insert another one. Other apps i tried did not allow us to go back and edit. 30 Hands is a great free iPad app i would recommend for use in classrooms for digital storytelling. We saved our product on the iPad and uploaded to YouTube later. Watch our video below.
Year 2 students practiced sentence construction using the Jumbled sentences 1 free app, one for a series. Through trial and error, students tried out different sentences till they got the correct ones. Then, someone figured there would always be a clue in the middle of the circling words. We will explore Jumbled Sentences 2 and more soon! Year 5 students flexed their problem solving skills by playing the Pirate Treasure Hunt game, a free iPad app. Students were required to solve eight problems to find the hidden treasure. The whole class came alive as they tried to come up with solutions using their math and literacy skills. Problem solving skills and decision making is one of the strands we use to assess students. The app allows students to gain confidence to solve more complex problems. Stick figures are becoming a popular way to create fun, animated media to communicate ideas or tell stories. Year 4 students enjoyed creating short stories using Pivot Stick Figure Animator. We had even more fun watching the stories and trying to predict the story or idea or lesson taught by each animation. After our prediction, the creator of the animation told us whether we were right or not, then told us their version of the story. Below is an animation modeling how to be 'Caring', one of the PYP Learner Profiles that students should demonstrate. Watch the animation then listen to one of my students's prediction that follows of the idea behind the story. Narration for the animation above.
We read the interactive iPad story 'The Purple Frog". Students are now used to reading interactive stories that they stay focused on the story. We talked about the story afterwards and students knew they needed to be open minded and accept everyone for who they are. I used the story to discussed how friends should behave in the classroom, while we are learning. My questions were 'How should friends behave when someone is talking in class? Should they be talking, laughing with each other?' Students thought about it and said friends should only talk when it is time to talk. If they needed to say something while we were learning they would raise their hands for a turn to speak. I like how we used this story to talk about classroom situations. We read the Friendly Shapes iPad story developed by Tab Table Ltd. This was a good revision tool for shapes and colors. We also had an opportunity to help a student who was absent when students learned about shapes identify the different shapes. Students particularly liked the activity at the end of the story practicing their dragging skills as they had to fit all shapes in their correct places. We then had lots of fun solving tangrams to build a truck tractor and a rocket among other things. We used the Toy Tangrams iPad app developed by Tab Table Ltd. We definitely flexed our problem solving skills. I would definitely recommend these two apps for Kindergartners to practice telling their shapes. After learning about life cycles, Year 1 students read a book about the life cycle of a frog. We had fun creating content for other learners, explaining the life cycle of a frog. We used the Educreations iPad app to record ourselves solving a puzzle (putting a few pictures of the life cycle in their correct order) and explaining the different stages in our own words. We learned the importance to speak louder so that the iPad could pick up our voices. See our class recording below. We look forward to using Educreations again to explain concepts for other learners.
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AuthorKahlil Danai Maramba, Categories
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April 2016
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