Classroom Tools

Here is the class story in situ.

The screen shot above is the class story example. 

The above class report shows how the students are doing as a whole.

The  individual student report below shows how 

this student is doing overall, but gives specific details 

on behavior.

At first glance, ClassDojo looks like an app for elementary and middle school teachers. I am not so sure it would be appropriate for seniors in high school, except for the online students I monitor.

I  have to give a weekly report on the online students I supervise.  I am not their teacher, but I am in the computer lab with them to assist them and to help them to be accountable. This would be a way to keep their parents informed.  I do send them email each week that shows their grades, but it doesn't show their engagement at school.  This would give parents more information.

ClassDojo might work with my sophomores.  This age level still appreciates the little kid in all of us.  I have given participation points before. This would be an easy way to keep track of them.

I was skeptical at first that ClassDojo was worth my effort as a high school teacher. I have changed my mind.  It is worth a second look.  I expect some of the other teachers at school might feel the same way.


I

#2 Learning Management - Schoology

My three additions to my Schoology class are in the discussion,

 assignment, and media areas.

This screen shot shows the iMovie trailer I added.

We use PowerSchool and Moodle  at my high school.  PowerSchool is a grading program. Moodle has my assignments on it. It also has tests and resources.  Both are ways to communicate with students. It is a way they can get their work and turn it in when they are absent.

I had used Edmodo before, but barely. I offered to help in curriculum development. The discussion took place in Edmodo.  I had trouble joining the group, but when I did, I could see the value in keeping a record of discussion and files.   Edmodo offered a cool polling feature. My students can use that in research.  

Schoology was new to me. Schoology was easier to use.  It was clear how to add media, assignments, and discussion areas.  I looked at discussion groups. In order to make comments, I was required to add my cell phone number. I am not comfortable doing that.  Apparently students do not have to do that, so maybe there is a way I could just use my email address.

To be honest, all these apps are a bit overwhelming. When all is said and done, I will look at the needs I have and see which app suits that need.

#1 Learning Management Edmodo

This is a poll I could give to my students on what

books they like best.

I added a photo of the trailer I want them to create, as

well as the directions.

This note in Edmodo tells students they will have an 

assignment that involves making a trailer in iMovie.

These are the directions for making the iMovie trailer.

This is the snapshot of the plan for the trailer I would like my students to make.

Scanning and Saving

This being a snow day, I decided to bake muffins with a recipe they use at the Wild Goose Inn in East Lansing. I took a scan of the recipe and annotated it. Then I baked the muffins and took a scan of them. I added the note and annotation in PDF Notes.


The image to the top left is what I put into my Evernote folder for this assignment.

I use Dropbox for storing files in the cloud. I like it because it stores the files on my computer, too.  It helps me because I can easily transfer files from a computer at school to my computer at home.

I can see the benefits of Evernote.  I could put reminders in it instead of writing a note and putting it in my pocket. Sometimes I forget the note and find a faded lump of paper in my pocket after I threw the pants in the wash.  I don't see that happening with Evernote.

The annotation of PDFs is great for me. I have my students use iBooks and they can easily annotate books in the epub format, but not PDF. This might be a way to do that.

#3 iBooks PDF

I use PDFs in iBooks for directions. I have directions for this class. I have directions for setting my watch.  I have directions for a new camp stove I recently purchased.  Sometimes I will create PDFs of ebooks when I don't have access to them as epubs.

I much prefer epub books. It is harder to annotate with PDFs. They don't have the cool page turning feature either.

#1 iBooks Post Books

These are some of the books I have in iBooks. I am an avid reader. I like the instant availability of ebooks. I like being able to take notes for books I teach in my English classes. These are not even all the books I have, but imagine trying to carry print version of all these around. I don't think print books will die anytime soon, though. There is a real feel to them that I like.  And you can take them to the beach and not worry about the elements.

#2 iBooks Notes and Highlights

 I use ebooks in the English classes I teach.  Most are free and out of copyright.  They have several advantages over print books. They are free. They can be obtained at the tap of an icon.  Highlights and notes can be taken, saved, and shared. Words can be defined by tapping on them. They often have a companion audio file for my students who struggle with reading.

Paper books do have their advantages. They can be shared. I can use them again and again. Some people find them easier to read. They do not need charging.  They have a "real" feel to them.

This is a highlighted page of A Journey to the 

Interior of the Earth. 

These are the same highlights, 

but with a note.

By choosing notes, I can see my highlights

and notes all together.

    

Book Artifact #2

I have wanted to use iBooks Author with my English students. They can use it in the computer lab, but that means they cannot work on it at home.  Now that I know about BookCreator, they can use that to make ebooks.

I have my students write poetry. They can use these book creation apps to put them into collections.

They can add photos and sound to them.  In the SAMR model, this is augmentation.

That's the creative writing end of things. They can also use book creation apps to create chapters on school lessons, too. I can see students collaborating on a book with other classes. We could do a cross-curricular unit on the early 20th Century.  My American Literature students read Close to Shore, which is a novel about the 1916 shark attacks on the East Coast.  We could collaborate with history students to get create a book that has information on the shark attacks as well as the culture of the 19 teens and WWI. We could also work with science classes to put in information on sharks.

Finally, they can make books that we could share with elementary students. They could be on lessons that they learn in specific grades. In math, it might be orders of operations. In science, it might be the water cycle. In English, it could be how to write poetry.  It wouldn't just be cross-curricular, it would cross-school.

This is the cover of a book I started in  BookCreator.

This is the cover of the novel I wrote and made an iBook.

This is the first page of my novel.

Comic Artifact #1

English is all about communicating.  I use the standard read and write approach to studying literature, but I like to mix it up, too.  A comic app would give my students another way of expressing themselves.  

When we read "The Golden Kite, the Silver Wind, " I have my students retell this fable of the Cold War as a children's story. I could have them do it as a comic book.  This would be modification in the SAMR model.  

  I have used comic apps when teaching Digital Media. My students wrote a detective story. They acted out the story and took pictures. Then they put the pictures into a comic book app that made them look like cartoons. Finally, they added words.

The French teacher at school had her students make comic book. The point was to use French vocabulary.  It just makes learning more fun that memorizing new words by rote.  I could have my students do something similar, but with parts of speech or vocabulary related to poetry.
    

I  have my freshmen make comics about a super
hero after reading about Greek heroes. This
comic is about Odysseus. Some of the pictures
were "comicized" in the ComicBook! app
before I added them to this page from
ComicMaker.  I took all these pictures while
on summer vacations.

Animated Story Artifact

I can use this animation to introduce the play, Romeo and Juliet to my students. 

They can use apps like PuppetPals2 to do scenes from the play. The idea

is to lead to better understanding of the words of Shakespeare.

Text	Explanation	characters/ action
	Hello, I am William Shakespeare I am hear to explain the Prologue to my play, Romeo and Juliet.	Shakespeare comes out.
Two households, both alike in dignity,	Two families of the same social status.	Two heads of families.
In fair Verona, where we lay our scene,	The play takes place in Verona, Italy.	Verona background.
From ancient grudge break to new mutiny,	There has been a long-standing feud.	Characters with swords.
Where civil blood makes civil hands unclean.	These "civilians" are not being "civil." They are fighting in the streets.	Have sword fight.
From forth the fatal loins of these two foes /A pair of star-cross'd lovers take their life;	Romeo and Juliet are born into families that hate each other. The stars control their destinies. They will have tragic end.	Romeo and Juliet come out. Others off stage.
Whose misadventured piteous overthrows / Do with their death bury their parents' strife.	Their deaths end the feud between their families.	Families shake hands.
The fearful passage of their death-mark'd love, / And the continuance of their parents' rage, /Which, but their children's end, nought could remove, /Is now the two hours' traffic of our stage;	Their story is the topic of our play that will last about two hours.	Shakespeare points to stage.
The which if you with patient ears attend, / What here shall miss, our toil shall strive to mend.	If you didn't get all that, watch the play and it will be explained.	Shakespeare  walks across stage.

Presentation Artifact

     PowerPoint is the de facto presentation application.  I learned to use it first. When Apple came out with Keynote, I switched to it.  It has more style.  Then I heard about Prezi.  I tried it, but I am such a linear thinker, it frustrated me. I enjoy watching a presentation made with it, though.
     The best tip I have for creating any presentation is make an outline.  You need a roadmap to know where you want to go.  That outline will include the words you want to write on each slide.  The next step is to create the slides and type the text. Finally, find graphics to go on your slides and put them into iPhoto.
     I teach English.  My students make presentations as an alternative to writing essays all the time.  In World Literature, I have my students create a visual essay on Don Quixote. We read the selections form the book and discuss them. Then they choose from among a list of themes.  After choosing a theme, they find quotes from the text that have that theme. They put these quotes on slides and explain them. Finally, they add graphics to illustrate them.  In English 9, we read A Night to Remember, which is an account of the sinking of the Titanic. I have my students choose a passenger and create a Keynote biography to present to the class.  I like to teach step-by-step. I have my students create a Keynote that teaches us how to do make or do something.  I have also used
Snapguide to do this.
     I am still working to make my assignments transformative.  These assignments hover around augmentation.  That tends to be the way with Keynotes, though one can add sound and film.

This is the link to the Poetic Language Presentation I created for this  assignment.

Enhanced Photo Artifact

                                               

Th    The pictures are my efforts to use Skitch. The top one is the original photo I took of St. Philip High School.  The bottom one is my enhanced photo. I added text and arrows in Skitch.

         I used Skitch to add arrows and labels to a picture I took of the exterior of St. Philip High School.It took a bit of experimenting, but I figured out how to add the arrows and text and change their colors. I don't think it would be hard for students to use Skitch. They could use it for foreign language class.They could label pictures of objects with their French or Spanish names.   

Photo Editing Artifact

     I try to use technology when I teach English. It breaks up the reading and writing and gives students new ways to communicate.  My ninth graders and I are reading Romeo and Juliet.  I gave my students an assignment that unites old and new.  The premise is "What is on Romeo or Juliet's iPhone?"

  I have my students "create" apps by naming them an drawing their icons, they take or find photos that Romeo or Juliet might have taken, they write texts between the two, make calendar entries, and make playlists of songs they would like.  I have them take screen shots of the calendar, take photos of the icons they draw, and take the photos the characters might have.They then put this all in a Keynote and add explanatory text.

I intensified the color of these oranges and cropped them.

This screen shot shows an iOS game that asks players to match same color blocks to delete them.

This is the screen shot cropped to show the

 3-D look of the blocks.

 

Flipboard Magazine Artifact

This is the link for my Flipboard:    http://flip.it/aZ5P7  I chose to focus on technology and schools.  Our students have iPads 24-7.  They need to move from the iPad as entertainment to education.  This magazine addresses that.

I have my students do a reading notebook assignment each year.  It gives them independent reading time that is heavy on non-fiction. Flipboard might be anothe way to incorporate non-fiction into the English curriculum.

News App Artifact

Here is an email set to go to my colleague who teaches health.  It is about the Flint water crisis. She also teaches social studies. This could be a good starting point for a discussion about politics and real people.

I have my English students find news articles and write about them.  It seems fewer and fewer high school students read the newspaper (even online), let alone watch news on television. They just are not informed.  The common core state standards for English point to students reading more non-fiction. News apps are a way to get them doing that.

Social Media Twitter Artifact

I have a Twitter account, but until this class, I think I had only posted once and that was to learn how to do it. My first impression of Twitter was that it was for people who either had too much time on their hands, or those who needed to hear the words "Too much information."  I have no desire to share my every thought and action with the world.  

I do like the immediacy of Twitter. When we had an earthquake in Battle Creek this past year, I had my suspicions confirmed by people who tweeted about it.  

Being a teacher is rewarding, but it is tiring. I need down time. Being connected with my students and principal and other teachers is important, but I do not want to be available 24-7.

I have concerns about connecting with people I do not know on the Internet. Just because someone says they are a teacher does not make it so.  I would prefer to use Twitter to get information, not give it.

Here are some of the tweets from the people I followed for this assignment. Below are my tweets.

Shared Spaces

https://docs.google.com/a/bcacs.org/document/d/1ajcc9zxxWmUiesNn-isCz0GzLEPfmUO30-YZjfdHF0M/edit?usp=sharing

The above link is to a collaborative Halloween story I asked my American Literature students to write.

     When I was a kid, we told collaborative stories. One person would start the story and each person the circle would add to it one at a time. I have had my students do this assignment orally. I have even written it down as they spoke.  Shared spaces on the Internet changed all that.
     After my students and I read and discussed"The Legend of Sleepy Hallow," I had then write a collaborative Halloween story. I started it in a Google Doc and emailed them the link. Before they started, I asked one of them to be the one to end the story.  I gave them a deadline for writing, but they could do so whenever they wanted to in that timeframe.
      There were students who watched other students as they wrote in real time. There were students who wrote at home alone.  There were students who did not write at all.  To honor their effort, I read the work aloud when it was completed.  It gave public validation to their words.
     I have improved this lesson by letting students choose their time of writing. The first time I did it, they were assigned an order. That meant if someone did not do his or her part, they had to wait. This way was more fair.
    Google Docs is big in our school. My theology students use it to collaborate on study questions.  Teachers and administrators have used it in the accreditation process to share information. I use it to store large files my students need.  I have students with accommodations.  Some of what they read is recorded so they can listen to it as they read. I keep these files in a folder in Google Drive so they can access them.
     I have not used Padlet. It looks like a good way to brainstorm. That is one of my favorite ways to prepare to write.  My students could do the same.
     Sharing is so much easier with these programs. They go across platforms. They go across time.
They go across the curriculum.

   

Connections Artifact FaceTime

The above is a screenshot of my husband and me using FaceTime.  He used an iPhone and I used my iPad.

Video calls can save a lot of time and travel.  We are in the midst of curriculum alignment among the schools in the Diocese of Kalamazoo. It would be helpful for teachers from our school in Battle Creek and those at Lake Michigan Catholic in St. Joseph to use Skype or FaceTime or Hangouts to collaborate.

I like the idea of using Classroom Skype to connect with other schools.  Penpals were common when I was in elementary school.  It was cool to write to someone halfway across the country, let alone the world.  Now we can communicate instantly with people all over the world.  Despite that, my students are insulated from other cultures. It would great for students in French or Spanish or social studies to connect to students who likely know more about Americans than we do about them.

Pedagogy Artifact

To better understand SAMR and Bloom’s Taxonomy, I read the information we were given.  I understood it on a basic level, but I needed more examples. I searched for examples for high school and found a Prezi by Jim Cash at:

https://prezi.com/r1-_udbvf6kb/samr-examples/.  That took me through the four parts of SAMR with one assignment.  That made it easier to apply SAMR and Bloom’s to the videos I watched.

I watched the Chicago, Hamilton, and Zeeland videos on our list. The 9th grade one did not work, so I found one at apple.com that was from Burlington High School. The Chicago video touched me most as it had special needs students going out into the real world with their iPads to help them communicate.  The Hamilton video was ironic. The kids talked about using iPads in front of books in the school library.  The Zeeland video showed gathering data to put into their iPads. The Burlington video showed how transformative iPads can be in schools.

For Substitution, I used Zeeland students gathering scientific data and putting it into their iPads.  It is a step up from writing it down in a journal. This fits with the first step of Bloom’s Taxonomy, which is Remembering. It is just a way to store information for later use.

For Augmentation, I used the Chicago special needs students.  They took a field trip to a grocery store. They took their iPads to help them find items for sale. When they checked out with their items, they used iConverse on their iPads to talk with the cashier.  This is tied to the Understanding stage of Bloom’s Taxonomy.  They could go from picture to real life and from the written to spoken word.

For Modification, I used Burlington High School.  The teaches their create their own iBooks to supplement or even replace their traditional texts.  These iBooks are interactive. This is the Analyzing and Applying stage of Bloom’s. The teaches take the written word to another level.

For Redefinition, I again used Burlington High School.  Students create iMovies and websites to share their knowledge. This is Creating and Evaluating in Bloom’s. Students create projects in the digital world that most certainly did not exist when I was a student in high school.

Here is the list of SAMR and Bloom’s Taxonomy Clips:

Substitution

(Remembering)

Zeeland. :30. 

Put data into IPad. 

Augmentation:

(Understanding)

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=EV8M6P9st9Q&feature=youtu.be. (Chicago) 1:37

Special Ed students iConverse 

Modification:

(Analyzing, Applying)

http://www.apple.com/education/real-stories/burlington/. 3:00

Interactive iBooks. 

Redefinition:

(Creating, Evaluating)

http://www.apple.com/education/real-stories/burlington/. 2:12

Create websites and iMovies. 

Substitution

(Remembering)

Zeeland. :30. 

Put data into IPad. 

Augmentation:

(Understanding)

https://m.youtube.com/watch?v=EV8M6P9st9Q&feature=youtu.be. (Chicago) 1:37

Special Ed students iConverse 

Modification:

(Analyzing, Applying)

http://www.apple.com/education/real-stories/burlington/. 3:00

Interactive iBooks. 

Redefinition:

(Creating, Evaluating)

http://www.apple.com/education/real-stories/burlington/. 2:12

Create websites and iMovies. 

LTSMiller Home Screen iPad

Being organized is part of my DNA.  My father started as an accountant. I became a librarian before becoming an English teacher.  I like my life orderly, despite my creative side.

I have an iPad mini.  I made the background for the home screen. I took a picture of some icy snow one winter. I used Remix and Alien Sky to make it look like a scene from space.  I use it as my background because it is artistic, but because it doesn’t overpower the icons for the apps.

There are several apps and web links I use daily.  They tend to be the apps that are not in folders.That makes them easier to spot.  I made one for this course, so I wouldn’t have to look it up each time.  The others apps are in folders.  They are of like mind. I read newspapers and check the weather more than once a day. Since I read more than one newspaper and view more than one weather app, I put them in their own folders.

I  put Dropbox and Mail in the app bar at the bottom of the screen, because I use them multiple times a day.  I usually have the AppStore on page two because I find the red update badges irritating, butI put it on this screen for aesthetic purposes.  That is, it looked more balanced.  I have the settings icon on the bar because  I don’t want to have to look for it when I need it.  I usually need it when something goes wrong, so I don’t want the added frustration of trying to find it.

I am not a big fan of the grid.  I would rather have clusters of icons.  I prefer my iPad in portrait mode and use the toggle to keep it locked.  However, there are times when I need landscape and I try to put apps in the corners. They tend to stay in the same relative position. That is one way I stay organized. 

  I haven’t really thought about teaching my students about how to organize their home screen. It’s such an individual thing.  I have told my colleagues that leaving so many loose files on their Mac screens can slow down their system. It also overwhelms me when I look at their screens. Less is more in my book and on my screen.

February 5, 2016 This the blog for my 21 Things for the iPad course. I am not sure how to use it yet, but I am sure I will learn.