Anne's+Journaling+Page

10/5/10 Found a few new apps to use with my students. Creating brainstorming pages and stories will be useful for ELA practice. The kids can use the math apps to practice math facts, and fractions. I haven't found a good app for stories for the kids to read. They all seem to have higher level stories or classics which are too difficult for my students to read. We will also be able to use the comic feature to study characteristics or accomplishments of certain people in history.

11/8 Used the ipads to read Time For Kids magazine. I am always looking for articles that my students will be able to read on their own. Their reading level is much lower than their peers so it is often difficult to find things for them to read. At the Time For Kids website they can choose to read articles that are on a 3-4th grade level. We can also use that website to answer questions about the article they read. It is so helpful to be able to enlarge the print when we need to, look at pictures of what we are reading about, as well as find similar articles quickly. Another thing we can do is if we are talking about a certain place in the world, we can quickly open the Google Earth app and find the place we are reading about. My students really enjoy reading on the ipads as opposed to reading out of a magazine. They are much more enthusiastic about reading when we use the ipads.

11/22 The ipads have worked very well for stations. When we are studying a topic like India, we are able to have the students gather information for themselves instead of listening to the teacher. I set up one station to have a video about India. The video is difficult at times based on how the internet is working. Another station can have a power point presentation, an app for google earth, or any other way for the kids to read or listen to information about a topic.

11/24 Used the ipads today to review for a Science test. The test was on phases of the moon. We used the doodle buddy app and the students drew each phase of the moon. This worked very well and the students were very enthusiastic about studying this way. I decided not to use the Draw app because the only way to erase your drawing is to shake the ipad. I thought perhaps it would not be a good idea to have my 6th graders shaking the ipads. I could envision ipads flying across the room. Doodle Buddy was a great way to study for tests or quizes that will contain pictures the kids have to label or tests where they have to draw their own pictures.

12/7 We've started using ipads for multiplication practice. We have a lot of 6th graders who need to learn their multiplication facts. The problem with this is that in math class we dont have time to teach or practice math facts. It is really up to the kids to learn them on their own. However, not many 6th graders are interested in spending time practicing math facts. The ipads have made this task so much easier. We gave each student a math fact test. Kids who struggled with the test were identified and categorized by which facts they did not know. Then we made up a schedule and the kids rotate each day taking turns using the math fact apps. The kids love using the apps to practice math facts. The apps are perfect for this because some apps practice random math facts and others are programmable for certain facts. This is a great way to differentiate instruction. The kids can work independently on exactly what they need to.

12/17 We used the ipads to write a story. I found a picture on the internet and used it as a prompt. The picture was saved to my website which is how the students accessed it from their ipads. Once they saw the picture we brainstormed some ideas for writing. The kids could have used the ibrainstorm app, but we didnt have enough time. Next time I would definitely use that app. They opened up the note app and wrote their stories there. The kids wrote great stories and were motivated to write more than they normally would. I was also able to rotate around the room and give the kids suggestions for adding detail to their writing, which they could immediately fix on the ipads.

1/27 The ipads have been a great tool to allow the students to explore a subject independently. The students were given a website that had information about ancient Greece. They could click on things they were interested in and read about them. I think this got the kids motivated to learn about ancient Greece. They were also able to see pictures from Greece which helps them understand the time period. Using Googe Earth is another great way to start a unit like this. It's so easy to flip back and forth between programs on the ipad that we can easily look at Google Earth and then go back to the website we were just exploring. On the laptops this would have been much harder.