Student Blogs--Eliminate Blogger Navigation Bar

Written Directions:

• Blogger Dashboard
• Layout
• Navbar
• Edit
• Off
• Save

Video Tutorial:

Student Blogging Preview of Chapter

I have actually never thought of it until today!  We never blogged a preview of what we were GOING to study.  Today, we Googled the one word that was written very large across the first page of our chapter in math.

"Inequalities"

Students found as much as they can about everything on this subject and placed a chosen amount into a blog post.

iPad Apps Review & Leads Into Today's Lesson

Students provided a list of apps that could be great for quick creation on the iPad.

Their list included:

• Whiteboard 
• Noterize (Notes)(PaperPort Notes) All the same
• Tactilis
• Skitch

Having the students review the formula for Simple and Compound Interest revealed that while the students knew the formula through their findings in yesterday's lesson, they did not know what each variable stood for.  For example, r = rate, t = time, P = principle.

I would not have known this had we not reflected by creating something and posting it to their blog.

Video Uploaded To Blog via Dropbox

Today students will be completing an Explain Everything creation.  Students will upload the movie to a public Dropbox folder.  Then, students will use the Dropbox app to obtain the public folder link of their creation and paste it into their blog.

For the first time, we will be able to upload a video to their blog.  (We will be doing this with 1 minute videos that students will upload to the public folder in Dropbox in the near future)

Note*** Once the link is uploaded in blogger, it needs to be copied from the blog (it is not a clickable link) and placed into the URL address bar in the ROVER app.  Additional Rover Post

Not easy, but it works!

Proportions and Blogging

Today, students applied concepts of black ink on white paper (some drill and practice problems) to pictures of real people.

We followed up the four problems with students reflecting on the day's work.  We placed emphasis on adding pictures to enhance our blog post and labeling the post with math concept words.

Blogger App Trick To Publish

When students are using the iPhone Blogger app on the iPad (or on the iPod) and adding a label a small punctuation mark can cause a non-publishing problem!

See how the student fixed the issue!

Explain Everything Used For Individual Instruction

***Teachers and administrators from the Port Washington school district were an honored guest in my classroom. I feel so thankful that teachers and administrators want to view how educational learning experiences can be dramatically changed with the use of technology devices.

All of our students did not perform exceptionally well on our Chapter 7 assessment.  I needed a way to allow for students to receive the individual instruction that they needed based on the concepts that they did not understand.  I devised a lesson that followed this format.  The entire format of the lesson is presented their and details the tech tools that are used at specific times.

All of the videos were created with the Explain Everything app.  The app provided a way for me to take pictures of the test that I completed.  I then created additional audio comments and visual help.  Students commented on how they were able to go at their own pace.

The iPad and all that comes with it allows for me to really individualize the learning experience.

Blog Comments Google Spreadsheet and Apps Tie Lessons Together

Day 2 of 3 days...See first day

Leaving blog comments on student posts was a beneficial activity to tie one day's lesson to another.



A Google Shared Spreadsheet was an easy way to gather data from all students.



Once the relationship between Circumference and the Diameter was made students were introduced to the concept of Pi.  A lesson is not complete if students don't try to memorize Pi.  Two apps helped in this process:  Pi Day and Pi Brain

Informal Assessment Prior To Formal Assessment

There is one valuable lesson that I have learned this year!  When students are asked to explain concepts with an app, they don't know as much as I hope they know.

Because of this, today I had students use whatever app they wanted to describe a concept.  Without graphing tell me how a person can find the y-intercept and slope from an equation.

See what students did:

Skitch App Two More Uses

The Skitch App continues to be a go to tool!

What would have required me to print off 50 sheets of paper with no opportunity to share the completed work, turned into a use of the app and blogging about our learning.




Different Math Class:
I really liked the use of the Skitch app as shown below.  We have been introducing the students to the area of trapezoids and triangles.  In the past, we would have simply looked at black outlines of these shapes in our white paged textbook.

With the Skitch App, we took real pictures of shapes found in our world and applied the formula and what we knew.



Some examples of student work (for privacy I have not noted source)




Students finally blogged about their experience along with using the numbers to solve the area.

Engaging?  Yes!
Productive? Yes!
Creative? Yes!
Long Lasting? Hopefully!

Skitch App Is A Winner

Today, we used the Skitch app in place of photocopying or drawing graphs for slope triangles.  This app is very efficient.

The students sounded as if this app will replace the Whiteboard App

Apps Used For Parallel Lines and Parallelograms

In the past, we would cut paper.

Yesterday, we used multiple apps.

• Whiteboard Lite
• Animation HD
• Blogger

See how we did it:

Apps To Solidify Congruent Concept

Today our math textbook gave a brief, less than three lines, description and definition of congruent.  We decided to take steps further and use the iPad to solidify the concept.

We used:

• iPad Camera
• Whiteboard App
• Blogger
• Animation HD

See how it was accomplished!

Integrating Technology, Group Work, Individual Work

Once again, implementing tech at the right time is crucial.  Today our lesson was displayed in depth for the students to follow.

Items In Today's Lesson:

• Group Work
• Individual Work
• Google Forms (for submitting homework scores)
• Contextual Problems
• Drill & Practice
• Choice
• Web 2.0 - GoSoapBox.com
• Graphing Calculator
• Blogging

See It:

Student Blogging Allows For Personalized Understanding

I can't emphasize enough how blogging has positively affected my students' understanding of concepts.  After some small instruction, students are so efficient at blogging about concepts that we can complete great blog posts in minutes.

It has taken some time (about 5 months), but students really can blog quickly!

For me it proves that digital devices can't be in a lab.  They have to be with students, a part of students, an extension of students.  Having them accessible all the time, allows for efficient reflection and creation!

Reflection Just Before Assessment

Student - Led Conferences Night 2

This night was really highlighted when a dad of one of our students placed his son's professional blog on his smart phone.  To top things off, his dad placed a notification so that every time his son posts on his blog, his dad will be notified.

Connection. Communication. Engaged.

See the son's reaction!


Another great win went like this: (apologize that I don't have video)
Two parents of our our students have not allowed their children to use Twitter.  One of those parents attended conferences tonight.  As his daughter was talking through the agenda for the night, he waved me over and asked about Twitter.

I explained to him ways that we use Twitter in the classroom:

• Our MVP - most valuable point from a day's lesson
• Anything that interests the students should be posted to the world
• We created a Twitter Timeline of events from the Road to the Revolution
• Another way to ask questions of students and teachers

I also explained to him that we teach students how to be professional while using social media and not banning it.  Just as we don't ban students at 16 from using the car, but teach them how to drive.  We do the same with technology.

After the explanation, he looked at me and said, "Sign her up tomorrow!"

Win. Win. Win.  Both for me and the smile that was brought to the student's face!

Student-Led Conferences: Parents & Students Engaged!

Day 1 of Student-Led Conferences is in the books

This was probably the best student-led conferences that I have experienced.

Why?

The parents and students were engaged because the students really knew how to maneuver the iPad to demonstrate all of the work that they completed.  I could sense that students were taking pride in showing their online professional portfolio, creations, and tweets.  I am also thrilled that the professional blogs are a year-to-date body of work.  We didn't just show them tests as was in the past, but all the learning experiences that have occurred along the journey. Students had an agenda that they were to follow and parents totally wanted to hear all about it.  Some parents and students were present for over a half hour!

My favorite video was when a parent asked, "Can I come back to school?"





 See some other reactions below.

Utilizing Time After Standardized Tests

Today, a two hour block was allotted for testing.  After everyone was done, we customized our professional blogs and linked our tweets with our blogs.  Students had fun and many learned new features of their blog without me guiding them!

Simple Mind + App To Summarize

After a two day lesson of discovering the connection between Algebraic rules, patterns, graphs, and tables, our students Tweeted the MVP of the two days.  In addition, we blogged about the connections using the Simple Mind + App.  This app allows for great color and idea organization!  It is FREE!