Scribble Press

If you aren't using this app yet, I would get it downloaded pronto!

Great app for book creation. You can add drawings, pictures, text, etc...

It creates an epub file that you can read online or download on the iPad. Once it's downloaded in iBooks, you can tap on the words and have it "speak" to you.

NICE!

Here is the iEar Review.

Here is the book I created about my dad!

Flying by the seat of your pants...

Jon shared an article with us today and this statement really stood out to me:

"It requires a totally different skill set on the teacher's part," Stutzman says. "We have to be comfortable with being uncomfortable, because we don't know the exact direction that a class will go when we walk in. Depending on student questions, reflections, or activities, our plans could quickly morph into something we never dreamed would happen at the outset."

 I think this is a part of the change we face as educators.  Teachers 

guide students on their "chosen route" to their individual learning.  The students become more involved in their own learning process, therefore making it more meaningful to them and keeping them engaged in learning.  

I am excited for this venture.  I really look forward to seeing what the students come up with.  They have some great ideas.  We all learn from each other!

Sample Podcast

Give up some control...

As teachers, we like our classroom to run exactly as we planned in our lesson. Unfortunately, students don't learn in the same manner as they used to. They are MUCH more "wired" than we are.

I think we try so hard to keep up with technology, we sometimes forget to give some of the responsibility to the students.

For example:

Challenge:I want to be able to share a google doc with my 3rd hour class. I don't want to have to type in all of their addresses manually. That would take a lot of MY time.

Solution: Have a computer set up in a wordprocessing document. When students walk in (or as part of a center) have them type their school email address on the page and then press enter. Once the class is done, you now have a document with the email addresses of each student. You can copy/paste this into the share box or even use it to email all the students.

Benefits: Students have taken ownership. If they didn't type it or type it in correctly, they won't be getting the documents they need. The teacher has just saved a lot of time, especially if they teacher several classes. We are modeling the fact that we all have to work together as we journey towards success!

You can't do it all! Just do your best job at what you can do!

Don't sweat the small stuff :)

SHOW ME!

The Show Me app can be downloaded for free from the iTunes store. It can be used on an iPad/iTouch to record voice and writing on a whiteboard. You can even add images. You can save the screen cast you create right on the device or upload it for free to their site. They have a private or public option for you also.

There are several teachers having students create screen casts to show mastery of skill and to build a library of RTI resources for their students.

Nothing is better that having students take ownership of their learning!

Feed Books public domain ebooks

Feed Books allows you to download public domain Feed Books allows you to download public domain pieces from The Curious Case of Benjamin Button to The Call of the Wild. The formats are .pdf, epub, and kindle. These can be used easily on any apple device with iBooks or on a kindle. What a great resource for students to read digital text!

Did you know?

We are starting a series of videos for staff. Some are created using iMovie and some will be created using iPad apps, so they could look a bit different.

They are all short, sweet, and to the point!

:)

iTunes

iTunes has 69cent love songs for sale right now! 60's, 70's, 80's, 90's, pop, country, modern and classic are some of the great categories! Check it out!!!

Changing Education...

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zDZFcDGpL4U&feature=youtu.be

This was a very interesting video that I got from Pam. There are so many things that I agree with in here. One being that kids should not be grouped by age. I have felt that as a teacher, however, I feel very strongly about it as a parent. When my son started school, he wasn't always up to "grade level" standards. However, he eventually got it. His light bulb eventually turned on. I wasn't worried about it because I had confidence that it would come. Everyone's light bulb just turns on at different times, so why do we say that a 5 year old should be able to do certain skills when every person learns at a different pace? It makes some feel inadequate, while holding others back from extended learning... When will we embrace some of these ideas and begin to see some change?

Email Organization

I have started to become more aware of how disastrous my email box looks... If an email gets pushed to the "2nd page" on my long inbox list, it is sadly forgotten!
So - I am trying to take Jon's advice and keep it clean and organized.
You can watch Jon's presentation here.

The GMail Blog also has some great tips. These are two that I have just implemented and they work GREAT!
Inserting a Calendar invite directly from your gmail message.
Nesting your labels.

Enjoy!
:)

Love is in the air...

Yesterday, one of our 3rd grade classes came and did some shared writing on Wall Wisher. Click here to see their writing.

We took their ideas and created a motivational poster using BigHugeLabs.