Clester

Ms. Clester's Journaling Page:
May 25 Our ELA portion of the PBL (Project Based Learning) is over! The students used Safari to look up alternative energy sources and prepare presentations for the class and later on for their parents. Again the ease of instantly accessing the internent allows the students more class time to work. At the beginning of the project, students stated that they knew very little of alternative energy sources, but by the end of the project they were debating, persuading, and informing each other the benefits and disadvantages of these energy sources. They truly became the experts! They will be sharing their projects with their parents next month.

April 10

My class used the website Study Island quite a bit for review for the state tests. As stated in earlier journal entries, using the iPad to eliminate the horrible long wait time for logging into laptops is an awesome way to save valuable class time for the students. Signing in to Study Island is very quick and the students were able to study at their own individual pace. Lessons and tests can be assigned by me to meet the individual needs of the students

March 2 6th grade students love Shakespeare! Bruce Coville's retellings of Shakespeare's plays have inspired our students to want to read more of his work. The students have made many thoughtful connections relating emotions and issues that were of concern to people during the Renaisssance and are still revelant now. The students used several apps during this unit: Google Earth, Wikipanion, Dictionary, and Safari. The iPads were a great resource to quickly get the information the kids needed to understand the time period, language, and locaton of the Renaissance. After reading, the students choice 4 activities from a nemu of Thoughtful Ed activities to show their comprehension and impressions of the Renaissance. Then the students presented their new knowledge to each other. What a fun way to learn!

January 31, 2011

Well I just figured out that I can't scroll down far enough using the iPad keyboard. I can when I use the wireless keyboard! So now my journal is a bit out of sequence. We finished with our poetry unit. Of course using the ipads for research to find poems was quite efficient, but the students had to use the laptops to construct their own poems to print to make their own poetry books. Since the ipads are shared among students they cannot always save their work and they do not have email accounts to send me their work so I can drop the work in mutually accessible folder. This is definitely a drawback. The students are pretty resourceful. They seem to look at the iPad and laptop as tools and they select the appropriate tool for the task they wish to accomplish! Other drawbacks for the iPad is the lack of flash player.

We still haven't received the update that came out in Nov. For those of you have the upgrade can you print directly from the iPad or do you still have to email the message to yourself and retrieve it from a computer? At times using this new technology seems so backwards and cumbersome when it comes to productivity. Our school building is still having difficulties supporting the amount of use with the ipads and wireless computers. The tech people are trying to figure out the problem and have tried a few things. Today during Kidbiz time when one student "got on" another student would get booted off. Students often have to walk the halls to get reception to continue to work. Very frustrating, fortunately, when I call for assistance, someone patiently listens and looks for solutions. They seem to understand the class time is very important and students' time should not be wasted.

Well tomorrow is another day. The students will be using the ipads to check out myths. Hopefully, all will go well.

September 30, 2010 6th grade

Today was the first day that the students used the ipads! They were so excited. During ELA, my co teacher and I set the expectations of how to use and care for the ipads. The students worked on Teenbiz, which they were very familiar with. They worked with ease. They were so engaged. The room was quiet as they zoomed in and out on the screens.

October 13

Students are regularly using the ipads for Teenbiz.. Time for class is limited so they are very focused. The speed of logging in is quicker than using the laptops.

October 14 &15

We had centers set up for wrap up of our reading group novels using the learning styles from Thoughtful Ed. One of the centers was to use the ipads for quick research on the animals that were in the story. At one point the character is attacked by a moose. The students watched a video on You Tube showing a young calf in a backyard playing with sprinkler. The mother comes out and the students are amazed at how huge the moose was. This helped them make the connection of how horrible it must have been for the character.

October 19

We used Google Earth to check out the Nile River and it's delta. This was a great visual of what we were reading the day before. The students then clicked on locations to learn and see various current locations and bits of history of Egypt. We certainly could of used more time with this activity!

Nov 1, 2010

ELA: Students are researching a technology of their choice. They are using the iPads to google their topic to gather information to fill out a graphic organizer. Gathering the information was great! The students can easily get to websites to get the information. They are engaged and eager to work. In our blended inclusion class, there are reluctant writers who seem empowered! The frustrating part is that once they have all of their information, they need to switch to the laptop to type up their research paper. Ipad does not allow the students to access their h:drive so they have to save to an individual ipad and other students can "get into" their work. Plus, there is not a printing application for the students to use.

Here is [|link to view videos] of students using the ipads

Nov. 16, 2010

visit to Iroquois. We saw 4th grade students writing poetry and practicing Math. The kids were very engaged while using Doodle Buddy to design their own food chain for science class. Melinda and Kathy have set the tone in their class for ipad use expectations. The students transition from one session to another effortlessly and are eager to share what they are learning and doing. They treated the ipads as respected tools in their learning.

School Board Meeting: Nov. 16, 2010

The students on our blended-inclusion class demonstrated to the school board and community members how the ipads work and how this technology was helping them learn. Two students demonstrated the document camera that was part of the grant. The positioned the camera over the ipad and the image was projected onto a large screen for the audience to see. They shared several of the applications that they have used in class and encouraged the audience to follow along on an ipad. Several other students moved around the room to assist the adults as they explored the applications. The students very capably answered any questions asked. One person asked the kids how does the ipad help their learning. The answer was ... it is fun and it helps to practice what I learn. Also the pictures are great and you can learn a bunch of new stuff!

Dec. 1. Students used Google Earth again to check out the geography of India. The students easily can find the geographic features and because we did this lesson of Egypt, they started to make comparisons between the two areas. Obseving the students conversing during the lesson about what they are finding is actually quite impressive.

Kidbiz continues to be a favorite of the students. They can quickly sign on and start the program! Sometimes they do loose wireless connections and have to be reconnected.

Dec. 15 Ipad training at Alden. We learned more about the flip camera and set up a future date to visit again at Iroquois. My goal for now is to get the flip camera in kids' hands and have them interview each other about their favorte app.

January 11, 2011

Happy New Year! During the last few days before winter break, the students worked on Comic lite to practice dialogue. They would find pictures on the internet and capture an image on the iPad. From there, they would partner up and write quite comical comments regarding the pictures. Danillo shared this app with us when we were at Iroquois!

Since our return to school, the students are continuing to use the iPad for Kidbiz and multiplication practice! Today, the students use the ipads to find poems for the poetry unit. This is much faster than logging on to the laptops. However, when the students construct their own poems, they will need to use the laptops so they can save in their h; drives. To bad, there isn't an efficient way for students to produce and share their work on the ipads.