The One Where We Showcase our iPads

Yesterday I invited parents to our class for an overview of the iPads (which includes our district philosophy regarding them) as well as a question and answer session. During this time, the students were out of the room at specials.

When they returned, students shared with parents some of the amazing work they have been creating in class. Their projects, which included a Skitch/Tellegami/iMovie App Smash involving Reading Vocabulary and a "Geometry in the Real World Scavenger Hunt" which involved Skitch, Photo Booth, iMovie and (for some) Garageband, were simply incredible and (as my colleague Brent Catlett noticed) the kids were SO excited to play their creations for them - most of them turned their heads to watch their parent's reactions to what they had made. Very inspirational!

After the sharing, I gave an assignment to each parent/student team. The assignment was given to them much the same way I now communicate many assignments with the class - as a shared doc in Google Drive. Basically - the families were asked to use Tellagami and iMovie to create a child/parent interview. Children used Tellagami to ask their parents a set of 4 questions (for example, "What is a special memory you have of elementary school?"). Children then recorded their parents in iMovie sharing the answers. They then spliced together the Q&A from each source to make one movie. It really gave the parents a nice understanding of what the children are capable of and how they are continuing to become technology leaders in our school.

One of the questions a parent had that we spent some time talking about was "Digital Citizenship". While it is a topic that I have covered off and on throughout this whole experience - it is definitely something that we will delve deeper into as the year progresses. We heard several parents voice their concerns with their kids at home when they play games online (Like Minecraft and Clash of Clans) with people they don't know and accept them as 'friends' in the game. This worries them. As a parent of three boys myself (ages 4, 9, and 11) it concerns me as well. As we enter the 3rd quarter I will be developing more lessons with the students on what it means to be a good Digital Citizen.

All in all it was a great day. The highlight for me was watching the students lead their parents (and grandparents) in the planned activity. Hosting this also gave me a good idea of the concerns and comfort level of parents of child in a 1:1 iPad classroom.

 

The One Where We App Smash Our Reading Vocab with Tellagami

My 1:1 iPad Tech Specialist, Brent Catlett, recently introduced our class to a "New-to-Us" App called Tellagami. Tellagami allows students to make an avatar and place it in front of a premade digital background OR any picture of your own. Once the picture is placed and your avatar is made the avatar stands in front of the picture and can speak (in your own voice or in several digital voices) about whatever you want to. One nice feature is that the app only allows you to record for 30 seconds so if challenges students to be thoughtful and precise in their creation.

After we had our discovery time with the app, our class was asked to think of ways we could use it within our curriculum. One great suggestion given was to use it to demonstration knowledge of reading vocabulary. We tried it out this week for the first time and below and a few of the results.

Here is the process each student had to go through:

1) Look up the definition of each word.
2) Find a picture (or take one of yourself) the "shows" the meaning of the word.
3) Put each picture in the app Skitch and write the name of the vocab word that matches the picture.
4) For each word, put the picture you chose in Tellagami, create an avatar for yourself and then yourself A) saying the word, B) defining the word, C) Using the word in a sentence and, D) describing the word in the picture behind the avatar.
5) Export each Tellagami video file into iPad camera roll.
6) Open up iMovie and create a single video file with all 8 Tellagami videos. Bookend the Tellagami clips with a video of the student introducing the project.
7) Upload the video to our classroom YouTube account.

Whew! As with anything practice makes perfect. For their first time doing this, I was amazed at what they came up with! We also also working on being original (which may include being funny) in their work. In the first example below - I loved how the student used that comical picture of the owls in the house to illustrate what the word overwhelm means. It was definitely memorable and that is one of our main goals in doing this - making memorable experiences that they can recall from later.

For all of my students, this experience will be something they remember much better than if we, say, just talked about the words and definitions at the board or had them do a worksheet about the vocabulary words for the week.