Izzo

Mrs. Izzo's Journaling Page:
10.5.10

I used the ipads with my students for the first time last week on Friday. The excitement was immediate. Although for our first activity all we did was an activity that required web surfing, I found that the atmosphere had changed. Using the iPad made the setting much more intimate in nature; rather than sitting in a row at the desktops or with their faces in the laptops, we were able to face each other in a more natural setting. It just felt more natural and human...second nature. I do believe that this is the future.

I've never been a fan of apple products; I don't own an iPod and I've always hated that apple has a closed market on their products. However, after having the iPad for a few months and using it with my own children at home and briefly with at school, I'm sold. I've already decided to buy my own when I have to return this one. What an ingenious tool.

10.12.2010

My students love the iPad; they ask for it every day. I'm finding it very easy to integrate into my lessons even at the spur of the moment. For example, in my one functional literacy group, we are working on meal and menu planning. The large group part of the lesson entailed us making up a weekly menu and coming up with a shopping list for our menu. I realized at the last minute that the ipads were available, so I improvised. I had each student pick a favorite meal, such as pork chops, then look up a recipe for that meal using Safari. We went around the room and determined what items in the recipe would have to be purchased as opposed to items that would already be in the home (such as pepper). Using the iPad for this activity was wonderful because we were able to still sit at the round table in my room, making the activity more personal and learning felt more natural. I love that the iPad brings the Internet into a book-like format, right in the lap or at a table.

I love the way drop box is utilized on the iPad. I've been a fan of drop box for awhile now, well beforemthe advent of the iPad. I love that you can access you files anywhere and share them with a link. I love how the iPad has allowed for direct saving to the drop box through it's apps such as quick office. I also like how the iPad drop box app allows direct upload and download of files to the iPad photos and iBooks. I have taught students to come in, sign on directly to the drop box, and away they go.

2.1.2011

I know I have not kept up with my journal..but I use the iPad for teaching every day. The one class that I have at Pioneer HS, Literacy Improvement, uses the iPads for each class. My other two classes use them sporadically.

Just to catch you up, here are some of the ways we use the iPad daily..we read short stories (all that we read as it mirrors RCT and Regents) using iBooks via PDF..we use Smartnote to take notes using captive pens that I bought..sometimes I scan in PDF graphic organizers for the students to use in Smartnote that they write on..we look up words in dictionary.com while reading..sometimes we get "distracted" and look up things in wikipanion from the text..we write responses in quickoffice and save thiem in dropbox and my students mail them to me and I mail them back to be edited..

What I love..not like..love..best about the iPad is that I can sit with my struggling students at a round table with the device, flip from the net to the dictionary to the book to an organizer and back with the blink of an eye and not lose their focus. It makes for some excellent learning. It makes it feel natural.

It also allows for me to differentiate. I have one student who does not care much for the iPad. That student receives their story and organizers in hard copy..no biggie. No one else cares either. This student still uses the iPad for wikipanion and the dictionary, but prefers standard paper and pencil for other tasks.

Later..I will write with some more details about my lessons. ttfn!

4.7.11 I continue to use the iPads every day in my instruction. I've found that the iPads have assisted me in bringing the students to deeper thinking during my instruction; having the world at their fingertips as if they were holding a book allows for my instruction to take students to higher order thinking skills. I use instructional tools such as questioning techniques, parking lots, graphic organizers, as well as iPad apps such as dictionary, wikipanion, safari, YouTube and iBooks have open the world up for creativity, curiosity and natural learning.

6.6.2011 The Apple Ipad has continued to be an integral part of my teaching. I continue to utilize it every day in my teaching. In my literacy improvement class, it has replaced the need for paper texts entirely. For the entire last half of the school year, we have used the Ipad and PDF files that I have created from newspaper articles and online documents from coursework that I have used in the past, and loaded them in ibooks. I used my personal Dropbox account to do this. Once I loaded them once, there was no need to do it again. The nice thing about using the Ipad as a "textbook" is that it is interactive. We could look up words in the dictionary app (dictionary.com); hear them read aloud if needed and look up their meanings; even use a thesaurus for clarification. If we were curious about something when reading, we could look it up live on wikipedia. For example, when we read about Chris McCandless, a young man who died in the wilderness in Alaska, the students were curious about parents. We looked them up. I feel that the Ipad encourages that higher order thinking that we want, and it occurs naturally.

The Apple Ipad also allows for natural differentiation if equipped appropriately. For example, in my same class above, we could equip the student with the Dragon app for writing an essay. We could also equip a student with the Speak It app to have text read aloud if they could not read it.

In my other classes, I use the Ipad for many other things. I also teach assistive technology to students in a variety of other capacities. For one student with severe CP, I use the Ipad to help her increase her range of motion. We use the Doodle Buddy app and a captive stylus. The object is for her to use a stamp on a white page and stamp the entire page so that it is not white anymore. For another student with visual tracking issues, we use the app Presents to increase search and scan abilities. I have been using the Ipad to assist in curriculum based vision assessments by using apps such as memory, tangrams, etc. to observe how students use their visual skills effectively and strategically in the classroom.

On a more personal level, I may have mentioned before that prior to participating in this grant I have never owned an Apple product. I have found that the Ipad (and now the Iphone) have become integral parts of my professional and personal life. As a working, professional mom of a disabled child, I have found these products to not only be simple, innovative and cost effective, but they open up the digital age to far more users than ever before. As our digital world expands, the need for individuals with differing needs to keep up with these demands and understand and be involved with media literacy and 21st century skills increases. We cannot leave them behind. The Apple Ipad, Ipod touch, and Iphone and products that can help bridge the gap for these users. ===