Kevin's+Journaling+Page


 * 6/23/11** -- Being involved in the iPad grant has been a positive experience overall. Students seemed to enjoy using them in class, especially in the beginning of the year when they were eager to get their hands on them. I was able to incorporate the use of a few of the applications, namely Dragon Dictation, Notes, Safari, and U.S.A. Today. The ability to easily print from the iPads would be a huge improvement. Individual headphones would also help out when utilizing any apps or sites that include audio; the room sounded chaotic when all of the iPads were making noise simultaneously. I look forward to improving my use of the technology in my classroom next year and for years to come.


 * 6/8/11** -- Sorry that I couldn't attend the event at Depew today. I have final debates going on in one class, and my seniors are starting their final exam today as well. I have been using the iPads more than usual lately. My sophomores and seniors have been opening up Safari and going to No Fear Shakespeare (part of Sparknotes) to look at the side-by-side translations of the respective plays that we have read/acted out/analyzed. Some days we all did so, and some days it was an option. This method has been both a help and a hindrance. It has helped with the level of understanding for some students, but it has limited the movement in the class. My classes typically get up and act out the various scenes from the plays. In an effort to protect the iPads, movement was limited when they were out.


 * 5/3/11** -- I used the iPads in ENG12 today. We started //Macbeth// last week, and some of the students were having trouble keeping their eyes open and the drool contained in their mouths. In an effort to keep them alert and aid in their understanding of the play, we used No Fear Shakespeare (a section of www.sparknotes.com). The site places the original text of the play side by side with a modern translation. A student would read the original lines for a character, followed by another student reading the updated version of the same lines. We worked our way through three scenes in this manner, ping-ponging back and forth. The results were positive.


 * 2/15/11 --** Maria and Kelly from Depew observed two of my classes on Wednesday, 2/9/11. In my English 10 class, the iPad portion of the day consisted of two segments. First, students utilized Dragon Dictation to state their closing arguments in a fictitious court case (based on a short story we'd read in class). They had to take the text that the app produced and edit it. Dragon Dictation produces text that is not always accurate, so the students had a lot of changes to make to the text. Secondly, they watched a brief movie on Brain Pop and then took the quiz that followed right on their iPads. In my Creative Writing class, students used Notes for a freewrite. They emailed a copy of the freewrite to me and to their own account as well. In a separate assignment, they used Safari to go to www.phobiaslist.com and picked a phobia. Then they used the USA Today app to select a picture that related to their chosen pictures. They had to write a story that linked the picture and the phobia.


 * 2/7/11 --** I introduced my new classes to the iPads on Wednesday, 2/2/11, and they took to them the same way that my previous groups had done -- that is that they liked messing around with them quite a bit. I had one student who wanted to turn in his early, claiming that he hated working on them. He followed that up by showing a few students how to find their homes using Google Earth. His enthusiasm contradicted his earlier statement. I have three preps this semester: English 10, English 12, and Creative Writing. Since a few of my Creative Writing students are enrolled in one of the core courses, I need to make sure that I minimize any duplication of iPad generated activities.


 * 1/28/11** -- I'm feeling guilty. I've been enjoying the use of the iPads in both professional and personal capacities, but I haven't been utilizing them in the classroom and journaling nearly as often as I should. Here in Alden, we employ a block schedule format wherein we will be getting brand new shiny students this coming Monday. My belated New Year's resolution is to incorporate the iPads more often with my new groups and journal weekly about our experiences. Several weeks ago, my colleagues and I set up a calendar on Google docs to simplify our system of reserving the iPads for use in the classroom. I have currently reserved their use for a few days leading up to Depew's scheduled visit. I want to get the students accustomed to working with the technology. Whew -- I don't feel as guilty now...


 * 12/15/10** -- I set up visitations with Depew for February. I'll be going to observe in Depew on 2/16/11, and Maria McCaber, Beth Latko, and Kelly Jeffords will be coming to Alden on 2/9/11.


 * 11/1/10** -- Ann Sobol, Rob Currin, and I traveled to Pioneer today to observe how the iPads are incorporated in their classes. We were able to sit in on Ian Wienclawski's Experimental Writing class where Ian had his students using the iPads to start off a project where the students will be creating some "Poetry Collages." The students started out by using Safari to research collages; they looked up what constitutes a collage, the history of collages, and then found images of various collages. They took "snapshots" of the images and then recorded characteristics of the images. They kept track of their findings on an iPad Quest handout. After Ian's class, we traveled to Janice Fisher's room where we stayed for back-to-back classes. In an English 11 class, students used the iPads to complete an "Allusion Investigation" worksheet. Students researched various works of literature, paintings, events, and people to see how they all related to a novel that the class is currently reading and analyzing. The topics that the students researched were all alluded to in the work that they are studying. In an English 9 Recovery class, students used the iPads to complete an iPad Quest about __Deathwatch__ by Robb White. Students utilized Wikipedia, Google Earth, Youtube, and Dictionary.com to complete their task. They wrapped up the lesson by studying vocabulary words by playing hangman on the Doodle Buddy application on the iPads.


 * 10/14/10 --** Lee Hoffman wrote the following on his page; //We have our first incident of a student setting up a pass code lock. One industrious student decided to set up a passcode lock on one of the iPads. A quick restore and the iPad was placed back into service. None of the students would own up to setting the passcode. Since there is no way to restrict this from happening, I expect to see more of this in the future//.

Maybe one solution to this problem would be to adhere numbered labels on the back of each iPad. When the students use them in class, they would have to sign out a particular iPad. This would provide at least a small level of tracability. In the long-term, barcodes could be utilized.


 * 10/13/10** -- I noticed that Melissa Evingham joined a ning for educators who use iPads, and it seemed like a great idea. I did what any great educator would do -- I copied her. If you'd like to join the ning or at least give it a look-see, go to http://ipadeducators.ning.com.


 * 10/13/10** -- Here are a few sites that may be worth a look (#4 is especially interesting):

1. http://blog.stratepedia.org/2010/01/29/5-ways-the-ipad-and-education-could-go-together/ 2. http://blog.stratepedia.org/2010/09/03/5-things-educators-should-know-about-this-weeks-ipod-and-ipad-announcements/ 3. http://blog.stratepedia.org/2010/07/23/5-real-ways-educators-are-using-ipads/ 4. http://www.pbs.org/teacherline/blog/2010/01/how-will-the-ipad-change-education/

Lori Gramza, Ann Sobol, and I set up a visitation schedule with teachers from Pioneer. Ann and I discussed using the iPad to practice MLA style paraphrasing. The app for USA Today could be utilized by having students go to a particular article, read a specific portion, and then write a paraphrase in MLA style.
 * 10/5/10**
 * 10/5/10**

Free Wi-Fi Finder -- Lists free wi-fi locations near your current location or any location that you input. This is a free app.

KoBo -- free books and book reader...a wide range of books available for free and for purchase...