How Does that Mouse Work?

Not so many years ago we spent time teaching young children how to work a computer mouse. But then computer-savvy children arrived knowing exactly how a it worked.

Enter the era of tablets! Touch screens are the norm now and we’re back to providing mouse practice: when to click, when to click and drag, and so on.

Fortunately there are lots of fun games to help students with those skills. We practiced several with our kindergartners yesterday in the lab. I have several links on my TVS TechnoWizards website. They really enjoyed the activities as they had lots of practice with mouse skills.

The funniest thing happened though. One child had her name card on the monitor (the signal that the student needs help) so I went over to check on her. In a very frustrated voice, she announced, “I can’t get it to go down. What I want to do is down there and it won’t move.” As she spoke, her little fingers were doing their very best to touch that monitor and scroll that page down so that she could find what she was looking for! Gently, I moved her fingers down to the mouse and demonstrated how to use it to scroll down the page. “Oh, I get it now,” was her sweet reply.

Times have changed . . .

En Mi Mochila

I absolutely love what our K-2 Spanish teacher did with her second graders!

Sra. Ross had her students write about what they might find in their backpacks.What a fun way to practice Spanish vocabulary for school items!

But Sra. Ross didn’t stop there – she photographed each student’s illustration and uploaded it to the Fotobabble app on her iPad. Next the students recorded themselves reading their text in Spanish. Sra. Ross then decided to share the work by adding QR codes that linked to the students’ Fotobabbles to the paper backpacks and posting them on a bulletin board. Parents and visitors can now visit the board, scan the QR codes and listen to the children speak Spanish!

Here is just one of the Fotobabbles (flash version):

Here is a non-flash version:

The project took awhile since it’s a bit hard to get everyone recorded with one iPad but it was well worth it – a wonderful way to share what students are learning with parents!

Celebrating Presidents’ Day

What would a second grader do if he or she happened to be president for a day? The students were able to write their thoughts using a template available in Kidspiration.

The students uploaded their self-portrait that they had previously drawn in Microsoft’s Paint program. They really enjoyed labeling their pictures as “President ___________” with their name filling in the blank. Then the children typed in three statements of what they would do if they were president. Young children really do have a grasp of what is going on the world!

 Once the work had been printed, a couple of the teachers put them on bulletin boards.

The students also conducted research to learn more about presidential pets.

Did you know . . .

  • Calvin Coolidge had a pygmy hippo, lion cubs, and a wallaby?
  • John Quincy Adams raised silkworms?
  • Theodore Roosevelt had a badger named Josiah?

The students discovered lots of new, little-known facts about our presidents!

 

A Snow Person Glyph and iPads

As a fun winter activity, I sometimes have the students make a snow person glyph. It’s a good way to share information about themselves by answering questions and drawing features according to their responses. Plus, this is about as close to snow as we get in Texas!

In the past, I’ve provided a template to use in Microsoft Paint but this year I had another motive. I wanted to get iPads in the students’ hands and I wanted the teachers to see how the students would respond to them.

The assignment was:

Since we had different drawing apps I didn’t spend time explaining each one. I thought the best way was to let students explore. And it didn’t take them long to learn!

The hardest part was determining the best way to email the drawing. Each app was different enough to be just a bit confusing. Some allowed emailing from within the app; others required saving the image to the photo roll and emailing from there. The best part was that once a child learned how to do that, the knowledge was eagerly shared with others.

As much as I enjoy working with students, I have to say that the very best part of this activity was watching the teachers! A couple of them really got into this. The students LOVED watching their teachers exploring and learning alongside them! They especially enjoyed it when they were asked how to do something or how a tool worked. And it was fun watching the eagerness to come to their teacher’s rescue when they heard, “Oh, no!” or “Oops!” or “What just happened?”

When one of the teachers raised her hand because she couldn’t figure out how to email to the picture to me, several students immediately appeared at her side to guide her through the process.

It was amazing to watch the interaction between the teachers and students. The children were absolutely thrilled to see their teacher being a learner!

Was there a lot of higher-level learning going on with this particular activity? Not so much. But the valuable aspect was that the students were exploring, problem-solving, and teaching.

Enjoy the animoto video of the Snow Person Glyph!

Gifts of the Heart: Creating an eBook with Second Graders

I so enjoy sharing what our teachers do with technology and, although I’m a bit late in posting this, it’s too good NOT to share!

Before the winter holidays, Mrs. Cooper, one of our second grade teachers, wanted to build on her lesson of “Holiday Traditions Around the World.” Each year she reads the book, The Legend of the Poinsettia, by Tomie dePaola. The class discusses traditions of Las Posados in Mexico but this year she took it a step further. During the rereading of the book, Mrs. Cooper asked her students to draw a scene or a picture that came to mind as they were inspired by the simple gift that Lucida was able to give to the Baby Jesus in lieu of the beautiful blanket she intended to give.

Mrs. Cooper chose to have the students do this on the iPads.  Each student picked one of the drawing apps (Drawing Box, Art Set, or Color Box HD) and worked on their drawing as they listened to the story. When the drawings were complete, the students emailed the illustration to me (new experience and they did extremely well!).

The next step was to write a statement about the meaning of a “gift from the heart” – this was done in their journals.

I pulled everything together in the Book Creator app and then had the students record their voice as they read their statement. Book Creator is a wonderfully easy, yet powerful way to make an ebook to share with parents. This was a class book made on a single iPad but it’s easy enough for students to do on their own!

Here is a short video showing how Mrs. Cooper and her students went through the bookmaking process.

The Making of an eBook from Trinity Valley School on Vimeo.

This was a fun and meaningful way to share student work with parents. It took a bit longer than planned – but only because the days before a long holiday are extremely busy! We weren’t able to finish the book till January but that’s alright! The students enjoyed the project and are thrilled that they have a book that they can read on their iOS devices.

Link to Mrs. Cooper’s class book: The Book Creator app only allows you to open the ePub book on an iOS device that has the iBooks app (i.e. iPad, iPhone, iTouch); not on a PC. Downloading instructions are below the book link. We hope you enjoy their book!

Mrs. Cooper’s Class Book: Gifts of the Heart

Directions to download to your iOS device:

  • You will need the iBooks app installed on your iOS device.
  • Click on the book link above.
  • Tap on the download button.
  • Choose Open in iBooks
  • The book is now in iBooks.

If you do not have an iOS device, click below for the PDF version. This is the print copy of the ebook. You will not be able to hear the recordings or view the video from this but you will be able to read the story.
Gifts of the Heart pdf

 

Comments Wanted!!

image from Haiku Deck

Mrs. Weth’s third graders have been busy writing in their journals! All kinds of writing!

  • Non-fiction: What animals need to survive
  • The Most Embarrassing Moment!
  • A Bucket List: Things that want to do before reaching age 100! (What a great 100th day of school activity!)
  • and much more!

Before the students came for their regular computer lab time, Mrs. Weth and I were discussing how to share the students’ writing. They write in their journals and share with each other but that’s as far as it’s gone.

The students need a bigger audience! We brainstormed a few ideas such as using some of the storytelling apps (Book Creator, Puppet Pals, Toontastic, etc). However since the students had just written their “bucket list” for the 100th day of school, we decided to do something that would immediately put their work out for everyone to see.

We decided on blogging. The students brought their journals to the lab, logged in to their class blog, and off they went! Most chose to write about what they want to accomplish by the time they are 100 years old but a couple chose something else from their journals.


As you can see below, they are eager for responses and would love to hear from you. They are hoping that they will get questions about what they write so that they can respond.

Thanks so much for taking a look at their writing!

Mrs. Weth’s Class Blog

Popplet and the Mid-Atlantic Region of the United States

Our third graders study the regions of the United States. After learning about Popplet, Mrs. Gramentine asked if she could borrow the iPads for a brainstorming activity for the Mid-Atlantic Region.

The students had read the information from the textbook the previous day. The main points had been discussed so it was time for the children to look for details. In groups of two, the students opened the Popplet Lite app on their iPads so that they could record their findings. Popplet is an excellent visual brainstorming tool – easy to use; with the ability to print or email the popplet. Images can also be added.

Mrs. Gramentine reported that the students enjoyed this alternate way of gathering information. She said every single student was actively engaged in creating the mind map! All quickly figured out how to add “spokes” to the main idea. Plus, they were able to share more details about the Mid-Atlantic region!

Blogging, Bookmaking, and More!

It started with a book . .

I like to bring in literature as writing prompts. When the first graders came to the lab a couple weeks ago, I began reading It Could Have Been Worse, by A.H. Benjamin. It’s a wonderful book for making predictions and that’s just what we did!

The story is about a little mouse on his way home. Mouse slips and falls and laments that he is having a terrible day. What he doesn’t realize is that the “terrible” things that happen to him save him from snakes, fish, birds, and more. The humorous illustrations show that it really “could have been much worse!”

I read a different amount of the book to each of our first grade classes; stopping just before another “it could have been worse” part. The students were to predict what they thought might happen next. I then asked them to log onto their blog and add a comment to my post:

We just read part of It Could Have Been Worse, by A.H. Benjamin. Poor Mouse is having a hard day! Write a comment about what you think will happen to the snake and to Mouse. What do you think will be the next “But it could have been worse!” part?

Mrs. Hutchinson’s Blog

Mrs. Kee’s Blog

Mrs. Orehek’s Blog

After submitting their comments, the students used Microsoft’s Paint program to illustrate their prediction.

When the students finished, I then read the rest of the book. We discussed our predictions and how to use clues in the story to help us as we predict what will happen next. The students truly enjoyed the book and blogging about their ideas!

Having introduced the Book Creator app to our teachers, I wanted to take this idea a step further. In all my years of teaching, one of my favorite activities is to make class books with students. It is very exciting to now be able to make e-books where students can add text, images, and voice recording. Book Creator is the perfect app for this and it’s extremely easy to use.

I added the students’ images to the app, copied and pasted their blog comments, and then asked the teachers to supervise recording while I worked with the rest of the class in the computer lab. The process took just a couple of weeks, meeting just once a week in the lab!

Cover of Ms Orehek’s class book

student page

Links to the class books: The Book Creator app only allows you to open the ePub book on an iOS device with the iBooks app (i.e. iPad, iPhone, iTouch); not on a PC. Downloading instructions are below the book links. We hope you enjoy the books!

Mrs. Orehek’s Class Book

Mrs. Hutchinson’s Class Book

Mrs. Kee’s Class Book

Directions to download to your iOS device:

    • You will need the iBooks app installed on your iOS device.
    • Click on the book link above.
    • Tap on the download button.
    • Choose Open in . . . and then choose Open in iBooks
    • The book is now in iBooks.

Making an e-Book in Kindergarten

After introducing our teachers to the exciting Book Creator app in our iPad Adventures workshop a couple weeks ago, the Kindergarten teachers and their assistants jumped right into it with their students. In fact, I think they had plans already under way before our workshop ended! This app allows users to create a digital book that can be opened in iBooks. The best feature is the in-app recording. What a wonderful way to share with parents!

Our kindergarten classes have been talking about neighborhoods and community helpers. All classes read A House is a House for Me, by Mary Ann Hoberman. The students filled in: A ________ is a house for _____________. Next, they added illustrations to their house shape. The teachers used the iPad camera to photograph each child’s work. The pictures were added to the Book Creator app. Finally, the students’ sweet voices were recorded as they read their story.

Below is the note one class (Mrs. Rea and Mrs. Morgan) sent to the parents.

We created a digital class book “A House Is a House for Me” during our class study of shelters and community.  The best part about this book is that when you click on the audio icon on the top right of the page you can hear your child read his or her page!  How neat!  Unfortunately this app only allows you to open it from an iPad or iPhone under iBooks.  When you click on the icon click on “download”.  Then choose to open in iBooks.  It will not open on a desktop.  We have it saved to our iPads in our classrooms so if you are unable to view this at home you can always come see it on one of our iPads.  Here is the link to see our class book with your precious children reading their part:

Mrs. Rea’s Class Book

Mrs. Moore’s Class Book

Mrs. Newton’s Class Book

I’m sure the students  and their families will treasure this forever!

Screencasting on the iPads

Last week our technology director discussed planning a workshop for our teachers to cover how to “keep the learning going” in the case of school closure due to winter weather or illnesses of students as well as teachers. There are several topics we’ll discuss – Skype, blogs, wikis, etc. My focus will be using screencasting apps to share lessons.

We are focusing on three apps: ScreenChomp, ShowMe, and Explain Everything (the first 2 are already on our iPads; EE will be added this week). All of the apps we’ll be discussing allow the user to:

  • record audio and annotations
  • change pen color
  • erase parts of the screen or delete everything
  • import a background image from camera roll or take a photo to use for background
  • upload in some fashion for online viewing

Let’s start with ScreenChomp, developed by TechSmith Labs. ScreenChomp is free and is extremely easy to learn. Background photos can be added from the camera roll or you can take a photo. There are 3 different pens, each with a choice of colors and pen size. The app allows the user to record, pause, and continue recording. The finished video can be shared by sharing the link with others.

 

 ShowMe, like ScreenChomp, is a free app and very easy to use with just a few basic tools available for creating a screencast. Again, the user is able to record, pause, and continue. There is only one pen size with 7 color choices. ShowMe requires the user to create an account (free). When the account is created, you are able to choose topics to follow. One of the best things about ShowMe is that the access to numerous educational screencasts shared by teachers. Search for a topic and you are likely to find that someone has already created a teaching video.

Among the free apps is another that is certainly worth consideration – EduCreations is very similar to the above-mentioned apps in that the interface is simple; not many pen color choices, one width for pens; text can be typed as well. However, besides being able to insert pictures from the camera roll (pictures can also be locked in place which is a nice feature), there are background choices for lined or graph paper and a coordinate grid – excellent for math! Like ShowMe, an account is needed to post and share lessons. Plus, you are able to search their collections of educational videos.

Explain Everything is a $2.99 app with a slightly steeper learning curve than the previously mentioned free apps. However, I used this with 2 fourth graders and they picked it up in literally seconds! (see post)

There are several advantages to Explain Everything:

  • ability to add slides and rearrange them in the slide sorter
  • import a variety of file types
  • many options for color and pen thickness
  • ability to add shapes, text
  • has a laser pointer
  • record, pause, re-record without having to start over completely
  • many export options – YouTube, DropBox, etc

Really, what you choose is personal preference! But don’t think that screencasting is just for you as the teacher. Yes, it’s an excellent method to use to create mini-lessons for your students. It’s also a way to assess student understanding and to peer teach. Let your students explain a topic to share with peers!

To learn more:

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