Student Twitter Takeover Created With Adobe Spark Video

The Minutes Leading Up To A Presentation

Presenting in front of four year old students or forty year old adults isn't always easy (however, it is fun!).  I've presented in front of many people, and I am a firm believer that music makes things better! Last night, prior to the presentation Experts At Your Fingertips, music was playing.

 In 2008, I started "Fun Music Friday".  Music was played while students walked into the classroom in the morning.  It was amazing to see the positive attitudes that transcended because students heard uplifting music.  Dancing even started!  What a great way to start the day!

Below are nine songs that say,

• Welcome
• Hello
• Get Ready, 'Cause This Is Going To Be Awesome
• Just Try Not To Be In a Positive Mood

I do not have the videos playing for people to see.  The presentation that will about to happen is in one tab and the music is in a hidden tab.  YouTube continues to be a great tool to get free music and playlists are an easy organizational tool.

If you are presenting or getting in front of people to speak, consider the playlist and get your presentation off to a rocking start!

Notability To Assess Biology Slides

Today I team taught with Ms. Thut.  The Biology team, Mr. Anderson, Ms. Thut, and Mrs. Vertz,  created the lab and the slides of an onion that students were to analyze.  In the past, students would look through a microscope and then recreate the drawings of what was viewed.

With this learning opportunity, teachers took pictures of onions under a slide and provided them to students via a Notability note creation.  In this way, teachers are able to see students analyzing the slides via "mark ups" in Notability.  Students will return the lab via Canvas to the teachers.

I was able to support Ms. Thut while we helped students get set up for the first time.

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.

Notability Student User Guide Complete With Entertaining Clips To Stay Focused

As we progress through using iPads, Notability is a must have app for students!  I used the Notability app to create a High School Student User Guide and a Middle School Student User Guide.

I was also given the task of creating a video tutorial for our high school homeroom within a flex mod schedule day.  There are certainly hundreds of tutorials out their, but I felt it was important to capture all of the features of Notability while maintaining the interest of fifteen to eighteen year old students.

I used Camtasia  for the screencasting and Canva for the video thumbnail.  Truthfully, this project has used about 10 hours of my time to create.  Was it worth it?  I hope that it keeps the attention of the students and teaches valuable skills to be a successful Notability user.

Mindly iPad App For Organizing The Creative Process

Mindly is an amazing tool that we will be using in a wide variety of subjects so students can organize their thoughts.  It fits directly with the "creative" c in our four c's.  The tool was originally going to be used for THE WRITING PROCESS, but today's Lunch N' Learn will demonstrate that it can be used for any process!

A new digital workflow process that I used was the customized YouTube thumbnail above which was created in Canva using their templates.  If you haven't tried Canva, I highly recommend it.  I've been using it since 2013 for a variety of digital graphics.

iPad Challenges and Solutions We Experienced and Solved

Implementing 2,000 iPads within a two week period into our district has been organized and successful!  However, we have experienced a recurring theme of four challenges that we solve in minutes.  I wanted to share the workflow for staff and students in today's Lunch N' Learn to reduce down time by our students.

Challenges and Solutions

• Connecting to the WiFi (Slide 2)
• Email Set Up (Slide 18)
• Printing From An iPad (Slide 23)
• Self Service App Not Working (Slide 43)

I created the screenshots via an iPad and created the presentation in Keynote.  I exported the Keynote from the iPad to Google Drive in various formats.

I've stated before that Keynote is a great presentation tool while demonstrating workflow on the iPad. I use AirServer and with that I am able to quickly jump back and forth from the Keynote presentation to demonstrations on the iPad
Download the Keynote

Some people may not have Keynote to view the presentation.  Through my iPad, I exported the Keynote as a PDF into Google Drive.  I then made the settings "anyone with a link can view"
View in PDF

Finally, I wanted the visual on my blog, so I exported the Keynote as a Powerpoint via my iPad and uploaded that file to Google Drive where it converted.  View that below.

Research Topic Sign Up Cross Out When Taken

I just worked through a process where Mr. Gosse, Chemistry teacher, wanted students to sign up for research topics.  He created a Google Sheet that will be shared with students.  He added formulas to the right side of the sheet so that the topics are crossed out when a student adds their name.

Because the entire sheet needs to be shared with students in an editing mode, he wanted to know if certain cells (the topics on the right side) could be protected.

They can.

Students will now choose their topic and add their name all within the Google Sheets app on their iPad.

Here's the document.

Cell Respiration Utilizing Explain Everything Project Options

In the past, our AP Biology teacher, Mrs. Vertz, would have students either draw and cut or find and cut out images that represent the elements from the cell respiration process.  Since our entire student body obtained iPads after our district roll out this week, we decided to utilize a more efficient method.

Our teacher created four slides that contained all of the elements using Explain Everything. Once the four slides were created by the instructor, the project ONLY was exported to Google Drive.  The link from Google Drive with the .xpl file was placed for student access on Canvas our LMS.

Students were prompted to "open in" the file from Canvas.  The option to open the file into Explain Everything was present.  The teacher created file became the students personal file in which they explained the process of Cell Respiration.  Once student audio and action were complete the video was exported to the camera roll.  The finished product on the camera roll was submitted as an assignment on Canvas.

...and all of this was so simple because students WERE NOT sharing iPads.  Blessed!



View how Spanish II teachers utilized this same process with students.

Utilizing Open In - Workflow & Notability Apps Made It Happen

After taking five screenshots with my iPad based on the digital workflow of utilizing the "Open In" feature that I used, I utilized the Workflow App and the process of a screenshot how-to workflow. Once I completed the workflow, I exported the product into Notability.  Notability helped me add text and additional direction lines.

The finished product was then exported into Google Drive for sharing!

Two apps made my life easier:

• Workflow
• Notability

View the final product!