Back to School with a Tech Twist

I've been preparing ideas for teachers as they come back to school this week.  With several of my schools moving 1:1, I have been looking for resources around the web to share with them.  Here are a few back to school lesson ideas and freebies I've found.  I hope these will be helpful for your classroom as well.

If you know of other great back to school resource, add them in the comments below.  I hope to continue to add resources to this ThingLink.

Upstate Technology Conference 2015

This week, my team hosted the Upstate Technology Conference in Greenville, SC.  Our conference hashtag this year was #2015utc.  Check out the image below created from the most used words in the tweets containing our conference hashtag.

In case you would like to read the story of our conference through the hashtag, I created a storify to save those tweets.  I hope you enjoy reading about our conference and will join us next year!

Tweets, Chats, & Hashtags, Oh My!

This week I presented at the Upstate Technology Conference in Greenville, SC.  One of my presentations was on one of my favorite things...Twitter!  In this presentation, I provided educators ideas for using Twitter to build a personal learning network.  Click below to view the presentation.

Fraction App-tivities

Are you looking for some activities to reinforce your students' learning about fractions?  I've been working with a few 2nd grade teachers on this standard: 2.G.A.3 - Partition circles and rectangles into two, three, or four equal shares, describe the shares using the words halves, thirds, half of, a third of, etc., and describe the whole as two halves, three thirds, four fourths.  Recognize that equal shares of identical wholes need not have the same shape. Here's a few ideas to have your students creating fractions and explaining their fraction learning with the iPads.

1. Choose one of the following apps to create images to represent the fractions:

Doodle Buddy - Use the shapes tool to draw circles & rectangles.  Students then use the crayon tool to partition the shapes into two, three, and four equal shares.  Students can even use the text feature to type the vocabulary word to match the picture (halves, thirds, half of, a third of, etc.).  Save these images to the camera roll to use within another app.

 
Skitch:

Take pictures of your classroom shape manipulatives.  Use the shape and line tools to partition circles and rectangles.  Save the images to the camera roll to use in another app.

Geoboard app:

Use the app to create squares and rectangles.  Then use the rubber bands to partition the shape into fourths, halves, and thirds.  Screenshot these images to use in another app (Book Creator, 30 Hands, or ChatterPix).

2. Choose one of the following apps to add voice to the images to explain fractions using the key vocabulary terms:
ChatterPix - Use the images created in Doodle Buddy, Skitch, or Geoboards apps in this app.  The students can make their fraction speak by adding a mouth.  Then the students can describe the shares using the vocabulary words (halves, thirds, half of, a third of, etc.)  and describe the whole as two halves, three thirds, four fourths.

30 Hands - Students would create a fractions video clip using the pictures created in the other apps.  Students narrate each fraction image using the key vocabulary terms.

3. Use one of the following apps to create a picture showing the fractions and their vocabulary terms: 
Popplet - Use images of fractions created in Doodle Buddy, Skitch, or GeoBoard Apps.  Add vocabulary words to identify fractions.  Use several different images to create a fractions web.

Word Clouds - Create a word cloud showing the key vocabulary terms from the lesson or unit.
Book Creator - Students can create a fractions iBook using the images created from the ideas above.  Students could also draw and speak directly in this app.
4. Compile the student fraction app-tivities into a bigger project such as a book, created with Book Creator, or an imovie at the end of the unit.

Celebrating South Carolina Day

March 18th was South Carolina Day, in honor of John C. Calhoun's birthday.  In all classrooms across the state, students learned about South Carolina.

In one third grade classroom, the students independently researched South Carolina on the CultureGrams website during the reading lesson.  The teacher had posted the link in Edmodo and the students accessed the South Carolina page from the States Edition section of the website with his/her iPad.  

Then during writing, the students used his or her research to create a digital project about South Carolina.  The students were to showcase five facts about South Carolina for the second graders in either Book Creator or Explain Everything.

In a second grade classroom, the class read the book P is for Palmetto for the interactive read aloud for the day.  Then students created a Popplet with pictures and sentences about different SC symbols. The students posted his or her Popplet to the class Padlet wall.  The teacher had created a QR code to help students access the padlet site.  Then they shared their Popplets with the class from the Promethean Board.

Celebrating Dr. Seuss

This week we celebrated Dr. Seuss' books all week in honor of his birthday and NEA's Read Across America project.  The interactive read alouds all week focused on different Dr. Seuss books.  For a culminating project at the end of the week, teachers wanted to integrate an iPad project.  We had the students use the Doodle Buddy, a free drawing app, to draw his or her favorite Dr. Seuss character.  Then the students used their pictures in ChatterPix Kids to have the character come to life.  The students explained which character was their favorite and why.

Spelling App-tivities

This week, I've had the opportunity to help some classes practice their weekly spelling words on the iPads.  These app-tivities could also be used with other skills in your Word study as you practice other phonics skills, such as vowel patterns with your students.  Here's a few app-tivities to get you started:

Doodle Buddy App-tivities -

Have students rainbow write the words, where they use a different color for each letter in the word. 

Have students draw a picture (or use the stamps) to represent the word.

Play "I'm Thinking of a Word" where you give the students clues to guess the word in which you are thinking.  Have students write the word they think you are thinking of on the iPad as you give the clues.

Word Clouds App-tivity - 

Students type the spelling words in the app to create a word cloud.

QR Code App-tivitiy - 

Students scan the QR code and then unscramble the word from the letters on the screen.

I hope these spelling app-tivities will be useful in your classroom!