iBooks Author Software

If you have a Mac and haven't tried the iBooks Author software yet I would encourage you to check it out! All you have to do is download the software from the App Store on your Mac. I love the possibilities the software has to offer for writing books for my teachers and students and best of all it is FREE! There are so many widgets that will allow you to add video, picture galleries, whiteboards, and interactive quizzes right in your book. How cool is that? If you would like to learn more about how to create your own iBooks you can check out the following posts here, here and here. I also have an iTunes U course of "how-to"videos if you would like to learn more. All you have to do is click on the picture below from your iPad to download the course and then request enrollment.

I also have a new iBook that I created for my teachers to answer some of the questions they had about using iPads in the Classroom. If you are interested in learning more about my new book and how to download the book click on my blog link below. How would you use iBooks in your classroom?

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Techie Tuesday Link Up

Welcome to Techie Tuesday Link Up!

Every Tuesday we are hosting a linky for you  to link up with your best technology post.   Please link directly to the techie blog post you are featuring. We are looking forward to seeing your great ideas! 

 

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A Guide to Google Apps for Education

For me, Google Apps for Education is one of the most exciting things happening in the edtech world.  It is changing and evolving daily- leaving us with unlimited opportunities to incorporate technology into the classroom. At times, the sheer amount of programs and ideas available can be overwhelming, to help with this I have compiled some of my favorite resources.

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Collaboration..A Web 2.0 Solution

Hi there everyone, this is Kristen from Teacher Playground! Today I wanted to talk about "Wallwisher/Padlet". I have used this for awhile, but it came to light recently in a collaboration meeting. I was working with some Elementary and Secondary specialists and they were talking about how they did not have time to follow up with teachers after professional development trainings and build the connection amongst their campuses. The light bulb went off and I mentioned Wallwisher/Padlet. Imagine being able to input feedback on Wall Wisher and have teachers contribute their ideas and suggestions. You can multiple users on a time.

Here is a little information about Wall Wisher:
Wallwisher/Padlet, allows you to create a “wall” where you can place virtual sticky-notes. You can allow others to also place notes on the board, or keep it so that only you can do so (which is what I would recommend for students). The sticky-notes can include images you grab off the web, videos, or websites, and you can add text to them (you can also just include text without adding anything else). Each sticky has a 160 character limit for text.

Examples:

• Collaboration amongst campuses (share ideas, what works/what doesn't..no need to reinvent the wheel) 
• Collaboration after a training (share thoughts, feelings, how did the implementation go)

Once teachers feel comfortable using Wallwisher/Padlet, they can then use it with their students. Have you ever taught a Math topic and then had a student say that they have another way of doing it. This is a great way for students to share their ideas and feel vested in the learning process.

A great feature I really like about Wallwisher/Padlet is that you can export the board to Excel or as a PDF.

Below are a few other sites that are similar to Wallwisher/Padlet. I like to give you options!

• Corkboard Me
• Popplet
• Spaaze
• Linoit
• Group Zap
• Mural.ly
• RealtimeBoard

Enjoy!!

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Building Online Portfolios in LiveBinders

My students final project was to create an online portfolio of the work they have done this year using the website www.livebinders.com.  We added links to all of the projects we have done during the school year, storybirds, glogs, prezis, blog posts, even stories they typed in google docs, as well as photos and videos.  These links provide the “evidence” for learning in each subject. 

I can’t share a whole portfolio with you because they contain private pictures and videos, but here are some screen shots of different portfolios.  Feel free to stop by my blog – Raki’s Rad Resources to find out how we have done it, or download my Student Created Online Portfolios Packet from my Teachers Pay Teachers store.

 

 

 

 

 

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iPads in the Science and English Language Arts Classroom

This past week I had the opportunity to present the first of my iPads in the Classroom series.  In this session I focused on Science and English Language Arts in the Secondary Classroom.  I learned so much in preparation for this presentation.  The first portion of the presentation was must have apps for any teacher at any level in the classroom.  The second portion was science apps and the third and final portion was English Language Arts.  Check out the full presentation here!

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Make a Scene App

Have you ever heard of the Make a Scene app? I learned about the apps after I visited Ms. Carnazzo's Class wikispace. I was reading about how she uses one iPad in the classroom and came upon this iLesson that caught my attention. She had her 2nd grade students create scenes representing multiplication problems using the app Farmyard Make a Scene and annotate their pictures using the Skitch app. I thought it was a very creative idea and decided to try it out with some sweet kinders to see what they thought.

The first thing I did was explain the app and let them explore it for a bit. Always allow students time to explore a new app! I consider apps just like I do math manipulatives. Students need time to "touch and play" before the lesson. While students are exploring you will probably want them to wear headphones or turn the volume down! The objects in the app make noise! LOTS OF NOISE! After a while of hearing "Spotty Pig" and "OINK, OINK" coming from all directions; volume control is a must. Once the exploration was over we began to work on some addition word problems.  Students then saved their scene to the camera roll and transferred it to the Educreations app. Using this app allowed students to explain their scene in a little more detail and write down their math problem.

The lesson was such a success with the kids that I had to add these three apps to my core list for our district's iPad carts. It also got me thinking about other ways I could use the Make a Scene app. I came up with so many skills and concepts that can be taught and I am sure that I have only scratched the surface! If you would like to learn how to use these apps click on my blog button below for my "how-to" screenshots and some of the ideas I came up with of how to use these apps in the classroom. What do you think? What ways could you see using the Make a Scene app in the classroom?

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Techie Tuesday Link Up

Welcome to Techie Tuesday Link Up!

Every Tuesday we are hosting a linky for you  to link up with your best technology post.   Please link directly to the techie blog post you are featuring. We are looking forward to seeing your great ideas! 

 

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Techie Tuesday Link Up

Welcome to Techie Tuesday Link Up!

Every Tuesday we are hosting a linky for you  to link up with your best technology post.   Please link directly to the techie blog post you are featuring. We are looking forward to seeing your great ideas! 

 

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Jigsaw Planet

One website I love using the last few weeks of school or throughout the year as a brain break activity is Jigsaw Planet. Jigsaw Planet has online jigsaw puzzle games which can just be simple puzzles that the kids get excited about or they can be puzzles you/your kids create where your kids can still be learning/practicing a skill!

The way I use this website with my little friends is by first having them each create Wordle clouds. I think most people know about Wordle already, but if not I highly recommend checking it out- it's a great website to add to your list of classroom sites where kids can type words (like, long vowel words, rhyming words, etc) and then create fun and colorful word art. I usually choose a topic for the Wordle clouds based on what we are focusing on in our reading series or just something they need to review and have my students type up their words and then choose which Wordle they like the most.  Since my little friends are so tech-savvy, they then screenshot their Wordle and send it to me via our website. After that, I take their Wordle pictures and upload them into Jigsaw Planet!  

A 'just for fun' puzzle of one of our center activities!

Long vowels puzzle.

Jigsaw Planet is very user friendly! You can create a free account and then start uploading images from your computer to create some puzzles. Once you have an account set up, click Create and then upload your image, add a name, decide how many pieces you want included (easy to hard) and then choose the actual shape of the puzzle pieces you want to use.  Once you have all that in there, your puzzle is created and students can then complete the puzzles.  

How to create a puzzle!

I have my little friends log in under my account and choose their puzzle that they wish to complete- they just select the puzzle, complete it and then "scatter" the pieces at the end and choose a new one! My little friends really love their Jigsaw Planet time- and like I said- it can be educational where they are practicing reading sight words, long vowel words etc while creating the puzzle OR simply a nice brain break that keeps them busy! 

This is the home screen they see when logged in as me.

A finished puzzle of ai/ay words.

You do not need 1:1 computers for this to work- if you have 2 computers in your room, you can simply have students save their Wordles on those computers and then later you can upload those pictures onto Jigsaw Planet yourself or even have the students do the creating of the puzzles as well depending on their abilities with computers! You can also of course make this even simpler by having students just use the puzzles they already have created on the site- there are a whole lot on there (according to their terms of use, all their content is family safe and as far as I can tell, it is true). Or, you can have students just take pictures of random objects, people etc in your room and do "fun" puzzles. :)

Images of already created puzzles for you to use!

Come check out our blog for more tech ideas: Learning to the Core!

Have a great day!

Aylin

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