Beth+Latko

October 5, 2010

We spent three days in August learning about IPADS and what they can do. I added some apps that looked good. It won't work at home so I needed to buy a wireless router. Today I made up two activities. One for my books and film classes and one for English 11 dealing with themes in Hamlet.

We met with other English teachers and I gained some ideas for other activities, including a white board activity and the draw free app to make a chart with movable sticky notes.

Since I am curriculum mapping on Nov. 1, I will be visiting Pioneer High on Nov. 8th. I will be visiting English 10, English 11 and Exp Writing.

October 2010 My juniors worked on the Hamlet theme sheet I made up for them. On the first day I allowed them to take 15 minutes to look at the other applications. They enjoyed google earth,etc. Then it was onto the assignment. I had stored the websites for them on ikeepbookmarks but they couldn't open that on the first day. A student who was absent could open on day 2. They spent the rest of the class and the next two days researching themes in Hamlet. They enjoyed using the Ipads.

My seniors worked on the Ipads for two days. Again they were able to spend 10-15 minutes on the first day looking at the apps. Questions came about what is an adverb as they played with mad libs. Much laughter as they received the paragraph. The seniors were given a website to go to with a timeline of film history. They had to find the answers to the questions. One girl with a 504 plan hated iPad and grabbed a laptop. She found it moved to fast for her.

November 2010 Senior research paper. Many seniors chose to use the Ipad instead of the laptops to conduct their research.

December 1, 2010 Juniors used google earth to tour NYC and the places Holden Caufield visited after he left Pency Prep. Some troubles. They tried to navigate this site for their first time.

February 2011 Creative Writing Students read an article from Yankee Magazine entitled "Sledding.". Then students researched something from their past or current times that they played/play with. They had to find when the first one was created and any other background info. Then they had ro see if any had been auctioned off. One girl wrote about beanie babies and someone else wrote about basketball.