U.S. History & Imperialism: Explaining With Creativity

Tools Used:
Mindly App
Explain Everything
Adobe Draw

I'm a huge fan of "Common Craft" type of videos.  Students will be creating "Common Craft" type videos completely on the iPad using their creativity and some tools.  Since 2012 our students have created "Common Craft" type videos, and we have progressed with our tools.  I look back on my first explanation video and we definitely can improve.  I feel we are!



Student Created 2018

Mindly App In Action

Today, Mr. Krause and I were able to guide students using the Mindly App which we have concluded is a great starting point for the creative process.

Mr. Krause used the Mindly app to create the labels that students were to personalize about the script they are to write.

Team teaching is the BEST part of my daily routine!

The writing process can all be completed on the iPad.

iPad Apps and Technology Tools For Learning Vocabulary Terms

Writing a vocabulary word followed by a dash and the definition is fairly isolated learning.  Enhancing the learning opportunity through connecting to real life situations and experiences can be so much more valuable.  In the upcoming semester, provide consider using offering technology tools to solidify a student's understanding and application of vocabulary in specific content areas.

Explain Everything
With an endless stage and the ability add images, videos, web pages a student can provide imagery to words.  Add in the ability for students to record their voice for understanding along with easy exporting to the camera roll, Google Drive, or Canvas and Explain Everything is perfect.


Popplet
A screen that provides web making options to tie all of the terms around a main idea fits learning vocabulary terms easier.  Adding images in the same "bubble" as the words and definitions will add to the understanding.  Text is easy with the typing of characters or writing with a utensil.  Easy exporting to the camera roll, Google Drive, or Canvas allows for an efficient "Check For Understanding".




Skitch
While Evernote is ending it's life with Skitch in mid 2016, Skitch continues to be a tremendous tool for an image annotated with shapes, text, or drawings.  The only negative would be the option to only add one image at a time.  If a variety is needed before the end of the school year in 2016, give Skitch a chance.


PicCollage
With the opportunity to have a controlled, framed image or a scattered image, multiple words, pictures and definitions can be placed on to one collage.  Exporting to the camera roll, Google Drive, or Canvas is simple for students.


SimpleMind
Perfect for word webs only, SimpleMind has the opportunity to be color coded with words, definitions, problems & solutions to understand the vocabulary word.  Exporting is easy as an image once the web is completed.  No inserting of images is available in the free version.


Stick Around
While our district has not purchased an entire district set of this app, Stick Around is perfect for labeling and practicing terms relating to images. Currently, the Science and some of the social studies' iPads have Stick Around available for use with students.


Google Drive & Shared Document
Having students create a folder for images that represent the definitions or applications of vocabulary
words could be a method for putting all of the information in one place.  Don't forget that a document shared with partners or groups could be a method for collaborating on words and definitions.  One students could be responsible for the word and an image, while another student could be responsible for the "book definition" and parts of speech, while a third student could be responsible for an applicable activity or statement.



Quizlet
This tool can be a place for students to create "flashcards" in which to study.  Images can be added.  Learning is one section but two games exist, Scatter and Gravity.  Surprisingly high school students like these games which is evidence by the "what time did you get" comments that occur followed by a "let's do play it again". Lastly, all of the terms can be included in a custom designed test filled with written, matching, multiple choice, and true/false assessments.

Snapguide: How To Make...Tool

Snapguide has been a tech tool for a few years.

I have not had a reason to use it until Mrs. Moehr, FACS teacher, presented me with "Is there a technology tool that can create a step by step guide to demonstrate creating a garnish for a food?" View the complete project

Enter Snapguide.

While Snapguide is web based, the iPad and Snapguide App is truly the tool that makes the entire process quite simple.

After thinking through the Mrs. Moehr's project requirements, I decided Heavenly Mint Dessert would be perfect for an Andes Mint garnish and a great example using Snapguide.

The final product viewed on the web looks like a scrollable poster.  Embedding the Snapguide is also available with custom creation of the "highlight color" and size of embed.

Check out How to Create Andes Mints Garnish for Heavenly Dessert. by Recess Duty on Snapguide.

While taking pictures from the internet for a Snapguide is an option, I found it was challenging to find the exact steps in pictures that I wanted.  After creating an account for the first time using the iPad, small tutorial bubbles of help text will be displayed.

Taking the pictures prior to creating the Snapguide proved to be effective as I was able to click on all of the pictures in my sequence at one time.  

If a web browser is available, the same process exists for creating a Snapguide.  It is possible to drag and drop multiple images into the Snapguide on the computer.  The images will be placed in the order in which they were on the computer.

After screen shotting each step of the next example on the iPad, I uploaded the images to Google Drive so that I could download them on my computer.  Snapguide needed to have the images be a .jpg.  I needed to convert the images from a .png file which was accomplished in a few steps.
My second Snapguide provides step by step directions to create more storage on an iPad.

Check out How to Create More Storage on Your iOS Device. by Recess Duty on Snapguide.

To complete the project, a Google Form has been created to acquire the web links associated with each Snapguide.  In addition, students will have the opportunity to create appropriate comments on peers' creations.  Again, this will be a great opportunity to for teachable moments on appropriate digital citizenship.

*No "under 13" age restrictions allows for all grade levels to use this tech tool for creating step by step tutorials.

Snapguide Ideas For Content Areas

• Social Studies: How to understand (any event in history)
• Science: How to create (a certain lab)
• Math: How to create (an answer with the Quadratic Formula) or any math concept
• English: How to create (a well written paragraph)
• FACS: How to create (any food item)
• Autos: How to change (a tire) or related activity
• Woods: How to make (a chalkboard cabinet door)
• Art: How to draw (a face) or anything
• Foreign Language: How to write (a proper sentence)
• ELL: Choose a Snapguide and read through the steps while viewing related images

Upon completion of using Snapguide, students had some completed products.

VIEW THEM  Visit Mrs. Moehr's Blog Post

View how students used the Snapguide as a reference while creating the garnishes.

Search iPad For Purchased Apps

Helpful for managing space on the iPad.  Delete apps not using, but quickly install apps when needed.

2014 Education App Bracket

March Madness is upon us! Uh, Let's call it App Madness!

We love sports in the iPaddiction & RecessDuty world!

I used Bracketeers to create a scheduled 64 app bracket.  The Bracketeer app was so easy to use.  Create a title for the challengers, add an image or a link, and seed them.  The seeding part is a fantastic tool.

Bracketeers could be used for "Battle of the Books", "Classroom Ideas or Topics", Favorite Anything", and really any topic!

Voting Has Started! Join In!  CLICK HERE

Middle School Math Apps (Chicken Coop, Thinking Blocks) Installed Today

The following FREE math apps were installed on our seventh grade iPads today.  Below are some reflections of each math app.

Chicken Coop Fraction Estimation Game

• Be aware of the music.  Fortunately, there is a button that can mute the music.
• Three easy, three hard levels
• Proper Fractions, Proper Fractions of Numbers, Improper Fractions, Improper Fractions of Numbers
• Middle school students may find it humorous that the chickens raise their backsides an "pop" an egg out
• Chickens will "fire" an egg toward the correct answer
• Get the answer wrong and things will get messy
• The "hard" problems are challenging
• No method for pausing and calculating while still looking at the problem
• If a student does pause to work on the problem, the answer is given immediately upon "continuing" of the game.
• Can adjust "time per question", can create a "no time" game
• Can adjust "accuracy"

Thinking Blocks Fractions, Addition, Multiplication, Ratios

View All Screen Shots

• Word problem based
• Diagrams & labeling first, numbers added to the model next
• Can't proceed to next step without "checking" first
• Built in calculator 
• Writing on iPad capabilities
• Instructions for students (should they choose to read them)
• Checks along the way provide "new" mathematical manipulatives
• CONFUSING: Number pad to enter answer, "Calculator On" button to obtain calculator for work

iVisual Touch Infographic of 2103 Lunch N' Learns

Today, I learned about the iVisual info Touch iPad Infographic App through Richard Byrne @ iPad Apps For School.  We have implemented infographics in our high school Human Geography last year so I was intrigued to see if an iPad app could be used with students.

I created an infographic for Lunch N' Learn statistics.  This is the first full year of volunteer learning opportunities for our high school staff.

Positives of iVisual Touch 

• Free Form Writing Lines
• Multiple Backgrounds
• Four Pages of Icons
• Colorful World Flags
• Color Palette
• Seven Fonts
• Add Pictures (Great to use with other apps such as Skitch or PicCollage)
• Grid Lines for Creating
• Save To Camera Roll (Great for uploading to Google Drive)

Negatives of iVisual Touch

• No Locking Options of Objects
• No Undo Button
• No Automatic Save
• Free app great to try, but limited options (I purchased the full app)

Impact On Students:

Creativity: Students can continue to use their imagination to create graphics that express their summary skills.

Trading Card Final Sharing Activity in AP Human Geography

The Trading Card activity was taking to a level by Mrs. Brylski that actually had the students print the Trading Cards and trade!

Video Link



Impact On Students:
Creativity:  Students needed to decipher the information that should be placed for each question.
Collaboration:  The discussion that incurred during the trading of cards was pretty in depth.  Some great feedback was provided for each student by each student.

App Smash Challenge To Our Teachers

Because of a tweet by @mrbadura and his compilation of App Challenges, I decided to present the challenge to our teachers after yesterday's Lunch N' Learn topic.

The app challenge was promoted as this...

• Combine Two Apps for a lesson in your classroom
• Chrome/Web Based OR
• iPad Options
• Submit challenge USING any method (email, link, Google Drive)
• $25 iTunes Card to the Best One (undefined)
• All submissions combined and shared with all teachers
• Deadline Dec 17; 4:00 PM

I also had PRINTED copies for the teachers as this was something that could be taken with them when the left Lunch N' Learn.  

Impact On Students:
Creativity:  Encouraging students to integrate two apps together challenges students to take their thinking to a higher level.  Determining the "work flow' forces students to think "how best can I make this work?"  This is a life long learning lesson.

Critical Thinking: (Similar To Creativity) Encouraging students to integrate two apps together challenges students to take their thinking to a higher level.  Determining the "work flow' forces students to think "how best can I make this work?"  This is a life long learning lesson.

*All credit for this idea needs to be given to @mrbadura and a large thank you to him for sharing!

Essential Skeleton 2 iPad App For Anatomy

The Essential Skeleton 2 iPad app provides every student with a model skeleton that can be used to learn and master the bones and all their features.  Mr. Anderson believes this app is a great app especially in large classes.

Some benefits include of the app:

• Seeing individual bones
• Rotate bones 360 degrees
• 3-Dimensional
• Full model for each student (great for larger classes)
• Mobile
• Highlight individual bones
• Identify and isolate an individual bone away from the full model
• Annotation tools
• Zoom In & Out 
• Screen shot for Pic Collage and SMORE
• Correct audio pronunciation
• Multiple search options
• Exporting options of annotated objects
• Quick Reference to all skeleton parts
• Quiz Set Up-multiple choice & free response

Video Link

ITLS: Standard 3
The impact on the students...

• Collaboration--N/A
• Creativity--Combined with SMORE or Pic Collage provides for creative finished product of concepts learned
• Critical Thinking--Quiz format for analyzing aspects
• Citizenship--if documents are shares, students will understand that their creations are visible by the world.

It Ain't About The Device, It's The Impact That It Has

Coach My Video has so many options for physical education class. Last January, Mr. Goodness made the jump into using Coach My Video to aide in the student's understanding of a concept that was being taught. The iPad video and the drawing tools provide instant feedback to the student as to what they can improve so as to accomplish a task.

While this is great, the purpose for this blog post is the following email received yesterday from Mr. Goodness.

Clay,
I just had an amazing session with a student.  I was using the CMV app
with a student to help illustrate what he was doing and then used the
drawing tool to show what to change.  He got it!!  The best part was
that we sat down together and he was able to communicate to me via
drawing on the iPad what form was better and why.  It gave me
goosebumps.
Have a great day,
Kare

Using technology is tremendous if it's used beyond "this app is cool".  In the above situation, the student couldn't visualize what they were doing.  However, with the use of a portable tablet (iPad) the student was able to instantly visualize what was being performed correctly and what needed to be fixed.  The inspirational part was that they student and teacher were able to communicate via the drawing tools from Coach My Video.

Techcoach's need to continue to know that what they are doing is for a purpose.  The purpose is to implement the correct tool at the correct time for the correct reason.  This truly points our focus to the SAMR model.

I am so blessed to work with teachers who understand it isn't about the coolness of the tool, it's about how the tool impacts a student's life.

Video Link

iDevices, Google Drive, and Over App To Document Successes

Mr. Fullerton, our middle school principal, and Mr. Krause, our middle school assistant principle, created an opportunity for staff to use two and one half hours of a professional development day to allow staff to create their own learning environment.  Staff were able to choose their own area to think, question, collaborate, and create.  Some staff chose our own school forest and made bacon over an open fire, some chose a local coffee shop, while others chose a comfortable couch in our school.

To document these great areas of learning, Mr. Fullerton and Mr. Krause asked staff to send in a picture via email or text of their learning environment and who they were with.  After receiving the pictures a place to house the photos was needed.  Before doing this, the Over App was used to include messages that were sent with the picture.  The Over App allows for text to be placed on a picture.  A Google Drive folder could be accessed by both men so they could simultaneously upload pictures to the same digital area.  To share the folder, the two gentlemen placed the link on their Google Docs agenda.  This work flow provides digital documentation of successes from the original agenda.

I am extremely proud of our middle school administration team as they are utilizing the technology to enhance their learning environment.  As they become familiar with the technology, they can offer innovative technology solutions for our teachers!

View Their Story!

PHS iPad Apps By Department

I was finally able to create lists of apps that exist on our department iPads at the high school level.  I was able to save these lists as pdfs via the iTunes store app on our MacBooks.  I liked how I could include the name of the iPad app and a picture of the app.

It is truly interesting to see how the types of apps are different between departments and how some are the same.

VIEW THE APPS

Air Server For Connecting iPads To Computer

While conducting Day 3 of my "Teaching With Technology Tools" graduate class, I was able to incorporate the Air Server app for displaying iPads on my laptop computer.

Bottom line: Fantastic!

Students created Explain Everything screen casts or PicCollage creations that could be used in their classroom.  In an efficient sharing method, the Air Server app allowed for students to quickly connect to display their creation and to disconnect so that another student could display their creation.

Thankfully, our district has decided to purchase this amazing tool for our teachers!

Docsteach iPad App

Docteach from The National Archives Experience 

The App

DOCSTEACH - Bring History To Life For History Students

DOCSTEACH - iPad App Explanation

Teacher Tells Their Story - Episode 3

Mrs. Deprey completed an engaging collaborative project using the iPads.  The Explain Everything app provided the perfect tool for students to create a fractured fairy tale complete with audio and animation.  The video was then shared with third graders in another city.

Hear the process:


View Mrs. Deprey's example:

Climate Apps

As the completion of a class, I created a lesson that incorporates four apps that can provide a better understanding of Arctic and Antarctica climate and its impact on the area. Lesson Plan

Arctic Watch


Clast


Climate Finder 2.5


Climate Pathways

iPad Whiteboard For Authentic Connections In Science

Mr. Lenz discovered the whiteboard app and put it to good use.  View how technology was incorporated into his Science classroom at the right time and for the right reason.

Romanticism vs Realism

In E11, Mrs. Noe wanted the students to experience learning about the difference between romanticism and realism.  The students had a choice to create anything with music, art, apps, and even Legos.

One of the great tools that students used was Pixntell iPad app.  Pixntell allows for students to complement a slide show of pictures with audio.

The two creations below were created with Pixntell.