School is almost over and what have we done?

It is hard to believe that the school year is almost over, time has flown by and yet like many I am ready for a summer break to refuel. We (Crystal and I) cannot imagine our classrooms without iPads. Technology has become a daily want and need. However, we know that we have barely tapped the surface of what we could be doing. Since I am authoring this blog I will talk primarily about my experiences with the iPads lately and goals that I know Crystal shares with me. First and foremost, our school PTA has graciously purchased an iPad for every teacher in our school to use in their classroom. This is a big deal and we are very thankful and excited about having more staff members enthusiastic about technology.

 I have continued to use iPads for research as my 6th grade students were working on country fair projects and for quick references for vocabulary meanings. I have also used them with MobyMax during Daily 5 as an additional tool for comprehension. It has helped me form small groups for guiding instruction and prepping for retakes of state testing. During the last week of school the students have been creating a Tellagami (free app) of their favorite book of the year. In Tellagami they record their voice (they can also type a response) to tell me about their favorite book. The title and author must be included as well as a sentence frame that describes a main character and a characteristic they possess that helps them in the story. They can drop in a picture  from the internet or some type of background to illustrate the setting. Lastly, the student expresses why this book was their favorite read of the year. These are automatically saved to the photos of the iPad for quick reference.

 

 

My goal this summer is to better familiarize myself with apps that can be used for collecting student  work, like Dropbox. I need some place that all students can use to send me their work. Another goal   is to try to add technology into every unit of study and embrace the idea of change, knowing that         anything I attempt in technology is a step in the right direction.