Seesaw @Pikeschool

 

For week 5 of our Learn | Try | Amplify initiative, we are sharing a couple of videos (4 minutes) about how 1st and 3rd grades are using Seesaw as a digital portfolio app to engage parents, teach digital citizenship, and encourage students to reflect on their learning. Seesaw is one of the best educational apps to come out in the last couple of years so, I encourage you to carve out some time to check it out. Are you using Seesaw? Share how you’re using it in the comment section.

1st Grade Seesaw Video

3rd Grade Seesaw Video

For more See Saw activity ideas in Grades K – 2 click here.

For more SeeSaw activity ideas in Grades 3 – 5 click here.

iPad as Teacher’s Assistant

The iPad Can Help Manage Your Classroom

Ever wish you had an assistant in your classroom? In a way, your iPad can act as your assistant and, in a sense, amplify your lessons and activities. Full Disclosure…. I’m completely stealing this idea, verbatim, from Tony Vincent’s blog. Tony’s infographic is filled with great ideas for using your iPad as your assistant. Each section of the infographic is organized into common tasks like manage your classroom, assess student work, or interact with your students. Below, I have shared just the section titled “Manage the Classroom” to narrow things down and provide focus for this week. I encourage you to give one of these apps a try this week and report how it went in the comments. That way, we can all learn from each other.

Choose Your Own Adventure

Remember the choose your own adventure books? You can make choose your adventure stories using Google Apps tools like Docs or YouTube.  Click here to see a really cool choose your own adventure YouTube video.  Want to get the nuts and bolts of how to create these stories? The following Google Presentation has directions and examples of how to make and use choose your own adventures stories in your classroom. Here is an example created by a 3rd grade class.

Extend the walls of your classroom with Global Projects

Collaborating with other classes around the world is a great learning experience for students.  The hardest part is finding projects. Look no further. Projectsbyjen.com is a great resource for finding and participating in PreK -6 global projects. There is a wide range of projects both in topic and length. Some projects are 1 day long others are longer term.

Making a Makerspace

Over the last couple of days members of the Innovation Committee have been hard at work putting together Pike’s pilot makerspace called “Spark”. The makerspace now has tools like hammers, drills, and screw drivers as well as electronics like Mindstorms and KIBO robots and other tools like 3D printers, vinyl cutters and button makers. The committee also spent time planning the use of the space so that students and teachers in each division would have an opportunity to come to the makerspace. There is still work to be done before school starts but we are looking forward to all the making coming up this year.

 

Kathy Cassidy on – Engaging Young Students with Technology

 

Check out this 10 min interview with Kathy Cassidy (1st grade teacher in Canada) on engaging your students with technology.  In the interview, she describes how she got started with technology and turned her classroom into a Global classroom. Below are some notes I took while watching the video. If, after watching the interview, you want more information, read Kathy Cassidy’s book Connected From the Start

Why have a global classroom and encourage global learning

  • We should all be global learners.
  • Social Media is already a part of our students lives. We should teach them how to do it in a safe way.
  • Teach students to have empathy.
  • Students know how to have fun with technology, but we want them to learn how to use technology to learn.
  • Teach students appropriate ways to act online.
  • Create a digital footprint that you are proud of.
 Tips on getting started with technology
  • Start with one thing. Let that be successful and then build on that.
  • Try Skype in the classroom.
  • Follow blogs of other teachers and then maybe start your own blog.
  • Get started by creating a network of teachers that can support you via twitter or blogs.

How Will We Make 2015 the Best Year for Pike Students?

EdTechTeacher and Google have partnered to create the EdTechTeacher Google Jamboree. The jamboree is a one day conference designed for educators including panel discussions, keynotes, and hands-on sessions at Google Headquarters in Boston on February 27th.  This is a chance for educators to learn from cutting edge thinkers and innovators in the field of technology and education and connect with other educators around the world. The event is limited to 200 participants.  To apply applicants must submit the answer to the following question ” How will I make 2015 the best year for my students?”  publicly in 250 words or less via a blog post, google doc, info graphic, image, poster, google slide, video, screencast or animation.  The following is my application and answer to the the question above.

EdTechTeacher start reading here.  

The Pike School is halfway into year two of our 1to1 iPad initiative in grades 6-9 and we are very excited about the opportunities that this initiative has already provided for our students. Students have created videos and iBooks to explain their thinking and show their understanding, backpacks are lighter, and students have access to a  world of knowledge at their fingertips throughout the entire day. To make 2015 the best year for Pike Students, the Pike Tech Department is taking advice from EdTechTeacher’s Justin Reich. In his checklist for “Moving Beyond Pockets of Excellence”, Justin recommends picking a small number of goals on which to focus, rather than, a large number of broad goals that can be more difficult to implement. The Tech Department has chosen these two of the six 21st century literacies from the National Council of Teachers of English to focus on with teachers and students this school year.

  • Develop proficiency and fluency with the tools of technology
  • Design and share information for global communities to meet a variety of purposes

To work towards these goals we are developing a four part course that will give teachers ideas, strategies, and training for classroom activities which will be available on this blog for teachers who cannot attend. We will be organizing Educamp style workshops for both teachers and students where the community can learn and share ideas. In addition, we will be assessing our progress via surveys to both students and teachers. Working in partnership with our teachers and students on these initiatives is going to make 2015 a great year!

Inspire Creativity – Three App Smashing projects from Greg Kulowiec

 

Looking for new ideas to help students tap into their creative side?  Check out this post by Greg Kulowiec.  App smashing discussed in a a previous post is when “students and teachers use multiple apps to create individual pieces of content that are then merged or smashed together into one culminating product”.  Three App Smashing projects by Greg Kulowiec gives details on how to create ….

  1. Animated paper videos
  2. RSA animate style videos
  3. Video lab reports
  4. Art reflection videos

As always the Pike Tech Department is available to help you get started with these projects.

 

The iPad Ideas Book

Looking for ideas on how to use iPads in your classroom?  Greg Kulowiec, from EdTechTeacher and guest iPad trainer for the Upper School faculty has published a book with lots of great classroom ideas.  You can download the book from iTunes for free.

The description reads “Created entirely on an iPad, the iPad Ideas Book is meant to be a quick inspirational guide to using the iPad in the classroom.  The ideas are not meant to act as direct step by step tutorials, but rather as a conceptual framework that can be modified, improved and adjusted as apps change, update and improve over time.”

The great thing about this book is that ideas are general enough to be applied to many different subjects and lessons. Download it and check it out.