Archiving Google Classroom

As you begin to create your new Google Classroom for this school year, make sure you take a moment to archive your class from last year.  Watch below to see the steps.

Book Creator + Classroom (Saving & Turning In)

Are you using Book Creator and Google Classroom?  We have been creating books in Kindergarten and submitting them to classroom.  Yes!  It's easy enough for a kindergartner!  The teacher is then able to view students completed work in her classroom and share great examples on the Promethean Board with the class.  Here's a Google Slide with the steps to walk your class through the process.

Spook-tacular Tech Ideas

Here's a couple Halloween themed iPad lessons I've had the opportunity to help third grade teachers with this month.  These teachers began their 1:1 journey at the beginning of October, so these lessons were the introductory lessons with these apps.

Multiplication arrays in Doodle Buddy

With the free Doodle Buddy app, students made pictorial representations of multiplication problems.

With this activity we did also see some wrong answers.  An extension to this lesson would be to take some of the student made examples, correct and incorrect, to revisit the following day.  Have the students review the multiplication arrays with the equations and explain if they are correct or incorrect and why.  

Spook-tacular Stories with Carve a Pumpkin & ChatterPix Kids App Smash

The students began with the free Carve a Pumpkin app.  With this app, they created their pumpkins and "carved" the faces.  

Then students imported the pumpkins into the free ChatterPix Kids app to record their "spook"-tacular stories!

Readbox Bulletin Board

I love QR codes, especially when they are mixed with great bulletin board displays.  QR codes are a great way to bring student work displays to life.  They can also provide your community an interactive view of student projects.

Ashley Landreth (@mrslandreth3)  a third grade teacher in Greenwood, SC had this awesome bulletin board.  I first saw this idea from her tweet as she was getting ready for open house:

The Third Grade Readbox is ready for Open House! #gwd50mer #learnitall #landrethslearners1516 pic.twitter.com/L4qx3kVoxK

— Ashley Landreth (@mrslandreth3) September 15, 2015

I loved the display so much, I asked her permission to feature it on my blog.  Third grade students at her school created book recommendations using the ChatterPix Kids app.  Now students can scan the QR codes to hear a little book preview before they check out books in the library.

Click the ChatterPix video clips below to see two student samples.

What a great way to get students excited about books!  A book recommendation from a peer can go a long way to encouraging reluctant readers in your class.   I love how this display encourages a community of readers in the school.

iPad Basics: Camera Introduction Lesson

I recently introduced the camera app in several kindergarten classes.  Teaching students how to work the camera lays the groundwork for using content creation apps throughout the year.  Students will be able to take pictures to document skills we are practicing or what they are learning.

I taught several mini lessons, over the span three days, on the basic features of the iPad camera.   I would model each of these skills, then the students would practice.  I would take good and not good photos for each item so we could talk about the difference.

Camera Basics:

• take a photo
• delete a photo
• delete multiple photos at the same time
• focus the camera while taking a photo
• double tap for the yellow square
• hold the iPad steady (you may need to prop up on your elbows)
• zoom in with a two finger pinch
• zoom in by moving closer to the object is best
• change from front to back cameras
• switch to video
• crop a photo

After our intro to the camera mini-lessons, the students completed a short activity to practice using the camera the following day.  Since kindergarteners were practicing counting to 10, we had the students count groups of objects and practice taking photos.

Materials: number cards and math manipulatives

With this activity we could quickly see where students were on their counting skills.  After looking at the photos, we had the students recount pictures where we saw an error.

App-tastic Rules, Routines, & Procedures

With school beginning next week, I have been thinking of ideas for integrating technology into the normal back to school lessons.  At the beginning of the year, I always spend lots of time explaining and practicing rules, routines, and procedures.  I feel this time is critical in helping the rest of the year run smoothly.  This is also a great time to integrate small technology projects which gives a little extra practice for those rules and routines while introducing a few apps to your students.  Having students create projects about your rules or routines, is a great way for students to explore an app in a non-pressure way.  The students can really focus on the ins and outs of the app, while creating a project about familiar content.  

Here are six ideas to get you started this school year!  Click here to download a PDF copy for yourself. 

Save student projects and create QR codes to finished examples.  Hang these QR codes around the room for students to revisit these directions as needed throughout the year.  These will also be a great reference for new students as they join your class mid-year.

Rules, Routines, & Procedures: iPad Edition

From the Beginning...with iPads!
I am helping several schools launch a 1:1 rollout this fall with iPads.  As I meet with teachers and help them formulate plans for how to begin with iPads in their classrooms, I have gathered some resources to share.  I hope these resources will help you with establishing rules, routines, and procedures with iPads in your classroom!