Last year I had the children writing collaboratively using a website called Storyjumper. They wrote little books using characters provided. However the characters they tended to choose had very limited story lines and plots. I found another website where they had a lot more choice - settings, characters, text styles etc.
Again I offered it during the Daily 5 reading rotation and called it Buddy Writing. It was very popular, however the end product of a 6 - 10 page book was a long time coming for some. There were too many distractions and too much choice - lots of discussion and collaborating. They boys especially spent much of their time choosing characters, talking through ideas and making changes rather than actually writing.
2014 - offer it as a before school collaborative activity?
Tuesday, January 28, 2014
Friday, January 24, 2014
Is there a place for Facebook in schools? Should schools have a Facebook page? Most schools with Facebook pages use them as a notification service or as another way of informing parents of what's going on at school.How different is a Facebook page different to a class Twitter feed?
The Chelsea School Facebook page that was set up before Christmas has certainly got a number of friends who are actively following the posts and liking and commenting.
I am now an administrator as well and can also post events and news items. I will be posting happenings in the Bachelor Syndicate such as
Wednesday, January 22, 2014
Maths Apps for the iPad
Slide Maths - a great free app - up to 4 players can play at once!
Bitsboard - a free app
A huge range of games for every curric area - load the board with your choice of topic
- now has some iPad friendly apps - go to the app store and search under Sumdog
(See a much bigger range of games on the Sumdog website - make a class account with individual logins)
Hoodamath
Another free app with a range of games - some great logic games that would be good for extension activities
(Also available on their website)
Friday, January 17, 2014
More iPad apps
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
- 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
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.
Thursday, January 16, 2014
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
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 -
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/
Wednesday, January 15, 2014
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.
.PNG)
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.
.PNG)
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.
Monday, January 13, 2014
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.
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