More iPad apps

Fresh Pick - at a supermarket - the reviews are positive as an app that requires application of knowledge via problem solving

The chn love this app - it requires a certain amount of thinking to solve a range of problems

- giving directions to get to a product

- giving change

- buying products - how many apples at 50c each for $2

- using the language of position of products on shelves

- a memory game

Daisy the Dinosaur

Daisy the Dinosaur - reviews say this app gives children the beginnings of basics in software programming

- you have to make Daisy move across the screen to a target - you can programme her to do all sorts of moves  - spin, turn, jump, roll, walk forwards, backwards, programme her to do repeats of various routines

So very much a problem solving, thinking app

Popplet - a simple, fun way to get chn to write!
A great brainstorming app. I saw Year 5/6 children using very successfully it to show their research on a topic at Point England School when I visited during October this year.

Little boxes that link together - add text via keypad or drawing and add photos.

Educreations

 Our new FREE web tool – a special iPad app or use a laptop – http://www.educreations.com/

It is an interactive whiteboard that creates video lessons or explanations in a slideshow format. From a teacher’s point of view it has unlimited possibilities for children to become confident talking about their learning and sharing it in an exciting, motivating, e-learning way.

The features of Educreations:

• Write text or draw lines or pictures with a pen using different colours
• Write text with a keyboard
• Take photos or import photos from a folder or your camera roll
• Import pictures from the web
•  Add more pages to your slideshow
•  Add audio or talk along with your slides
• Save and share your slideshow – email, Twitter, embed it into a blog or wiki page
• You will need to sign up with an email account to share it

Ways we could use Educreations 

• share research about a zoo animal
•  explain how to solve a maths problem
• share a book that has been read
• explain how to make something

It's best to plan the slideshow - load up each page with photos, text, practise what to say or write it down, then add voice for each page

The 2 weaknesses I can see are:

 Having to record all slides in one session – you can’t go back and edit once saved

 If you make a mistake with your voice recording you have to start all over again

Only disadvantage is that you can't save the talk for each page - you have to delete the whole voice recording if you make a mistake

Maths -
Talking through / explaining maths learning - eg showing doubles, mult problems, evidence from weighing activities - photos, diagrams, add voice
Literacy Ideas -

Book review - captions, photos, story with pictures/ photos, photos with captions + voice
http://www.educreations.com/lesson/view/maori-places/9197099/
http://www.educreations.com/lesson/view/zoo-animal-tagxedos-by-zach-thomas-and-kartik/8950885/
http://www.educreations.com/lesson/view/ipads-please/9073114/

Audioboo - another favourite to use again in 2014

248 boos for 2013! Wow what a lot of fun and it shows how popular and easy this app is to use. We used it as an activity in our Daily 5 reading rotation - read a poem and record on Audioboo using the iPad, listen to your recording and self assess whether you want to save it or rerecord - or listen to someone else's boo. 

Everyone few days we would choose a few boos to listen to and using our 'Star and a Wish' system we would assess them - by the end of the year the children were quite used to hearing their own voice without feeling embarrassed and were taking on board the advice of their peers.

A Star = something good about the reading
A Wish = something to improve for next time

The children would often choose to embed a boo onto their Kidblog page or would often want to tweet it.

The other use for Audioboo was to record the children reading during a running record. I never did play it to a parent during a meeting but it was useful for me or for a child to listen to the change over time - comparison from the beginning of the year to the end of the year.

Wallwisher/Padlet - An Oldie But A Good One

This is one of my favourite apps to use in the classroom! It is an old faithful from way back in the early days of hooking children and parents into sharing the learning that happens in the classroom with home. Luckily it has updated itself. It is simple, versatile, iPad friendly, free and can be used by individuals or be used as a collaborative class project. 

Created with Padlet

2014 - Using The Blogger iPad App

Student voice and all that - the children will be rostered on to take a daily photo of classroom learning and be responsible for writing the caption. Hopefully this will take the blog into more homes and will mean more parents will use the blog and maybe leave comments and feed back for the children - an authentic audience for their writing. The Blogger app for the iPad has made posting photos and captions so easy that all I need to do is check and edit the writing before publishing.

Blogger - Our Class Blog

http://www.chelseabachelors.blogspot.co.nz/

I still see a need for a class blog and Blogger still seems to be the best platform to share with the parent community what the class or Syndicate is doing. 2013 saw The Bachelors' Blog become a Syndicate blog where I was in control of what was posted. Usually weekly I would post a least one photo with a caption to show what the learning for the week was. I would always update the Star of The Week photo too. A weekly commitment but that's what a blog is all about - regular communication with the parent community.

Kidblog - sharing an individual child's work online

http://kidblog.org/Space10sBlog/

Half way through the year I was having doubts about our class Wikispace pages. I was always fixing errors with the children's posts. They found it hard to remember to write posts chronologically and I would find their writing in all sorts of mixed up places on their page. Uploading photos and leaving comments was messy too. I feel wikispaces is probably suited to children older than my 6-7 year olds. Kidblog seems to be a cross between Blogger and Wikispaces, allowing a teacher to set up individual pages for each child in a class while still having control over each page. (Using Blogger meant having individual email accounts which seemed too big a step for Year 2s.) Writing posts was more organised and leaving comments was a lot easier.