kbloodgood

Well we are on week 4 of summer school and I can't teach without my ipods anymore... I have realized that. I have not used them on a daily basis this summer but we have been working with them about every other day. I have a kinder prep class and the students all knew what they were, and had no fear working with them. We have used apps for putting the letters of our name in the correct order, letter formation, letter names, some ELD, counting apps, shape apps, it has been great. The only problem I had with this age group (many are still 4 years old!) was keeping them on their apps. They want to check out all the apps, so it is a bit of a challenge keeping them on task. I think it may be beneficial to strip them down to only the apps you want them working with, but that can be time-consuming.

For our second project, I am THRILLED to see we are actually using the ipods. I have already been planning some uses, so it works out perfectly. The first one is using the ipods for weekly spelling practice and spelling tests. We have been using the notepad feature for taking tests. They take the test directly on the ipod, and I can easily check them because we are a 1:1 class. The next step is doing it independently! Starting with our next theme I am recording myself reading the test, and will be posting the recordings to my google site page (which is forcing me to get it in use!) and the students will listen to the link and take the test independently. I think this will be an awesome way for them to learn some good time-management and responsibility! It will be one of their jobs to get done on Friday (and think how easy it will be for students to take a test they are absent for!) We will be getting a couple more routines in place, hopefully before break.

Well, we are constantly trying to add new apps that are free, fun, exciting, high quality, and educational. Sometimes it is hard to find apps that meet all that criteria. It was suggested that I test out some new apps that are leveled readers (LAZ Readers). They are in a full range for kinder and first, and the ones I have tested out were free. The free part was great, the educational part was great, and they are high quality. But without the "fun and exciting" even putting them on an ipod is not going to get the students to read them more than once, so I definitely won't spend money to purchase more titles. I tried offering some motivation, but the students have no desire to read them again. They have no sounds, bells, or whistles. They have no free "show" when they are done, nor do they have any moving animation. They do have decent comprehension questions at the end of each story, but most of the questions cannot be read by the students independently. When our students do a comprehension quiz on AR, they receive points for which they are awarded prizes. So the moral here is it is always better to try before you buy!

Well, we are having trouble with two things: getting our photos to insert into the keynotes and getting our recordings off the ipod devices and onto the keynote. I hope the techs can help me solve this at the meeting today.

Well, we have been using the ipods to directly enter comprehension skill and strategy answers.  The students love it!  I found it goes quicker if I put one ipod out per answer.  Only problem- how do I upload them?  I hope to find out at the meeting tomorrow because I have tried several things.  

Well now that we have completed phase one Keynote, we are working on the Garageband component.  This project out of the 3 is proving to be the most challenging for me as this was the software that I had the least amount of experience with.  I am hoping (let's hope it works this week!)  that we can record each student using the questioning strategy for our anthology story this week.  The questioning format this week is actually coming up with a question after a little preview of the story (almost like a prediction?).   We would then review all the questions after reading the story and actually answer them.  We'll see how this goes-

Well, after a lot of trial and error, I think I have gotten all of this together.  Using all of this new technology has been challenging for me as well as my students!  One thing about the students though, especially in First Grade- they are FEARLESS!  If you hand them an Ipod touch, with no direction, it's guaranteed they will have something figured out in the first five minutes.  They are amazing.  

The first project I will be doing will be based on Theme 5 stories.