Ann's+Journaling+Page

Brainstormed w/Kevin Edward ways to use iPad for english research paper. Ideas: use USA today app, have all students read same article and ask them to use quick office to write an acceptable paraphrase. Create citations quiz using eckicker and have students take quiz in eclicker. Met with Kristen chernowski from iroquois and jen izzo from pioneer - set up visit to pioneer for nov. 1st- will see eng 10 & 11and reading/literacy coach. Pioneer coming to alden on nov. 17 will observe eng 10 in library. Downloaded free app today: free books for education- signed up and registered the library as a class.
 * 10/5/10 -pioneer visit**

Today Rob Currin, Kevin Edward and I visited three classes at Pioneer High School. The first class visited was Experimental Writing with Ian Wienclowski; using the iPads & the Safari app., students researched the history of collage and found sample collages to share with the class. A few students went up to Ian's computer and used the camera to project the collages they found on their iPads - this use of technology was impressive! The ultimate goal of the assignment is for students to create a collage and a poem visually sharing one theme. Our second class was English 11 with Janice Fisher; in this class the students used the iPads to research literary allusion in the novel //Twisted// by Laurie Halse Anderson. The students were directed to the app. Wikipanion and were asked to document the author/creator, a description of the work alluded to and explain how that work connects to the novel. Our third class was English 9 Recovery with Janice Fisher. The students used the apps Wikipanion, Google Earth, and Dictionary.com to research aspects of the novel //Deathwatch// by Robb White. After their research was completed, students were given time to play hangman using vocabulary from chapters 14 & 15 of the novel, and using the app. Doodle Buddy. After walking around asking students why they liked the iPads and if they liked them better than laptops, the most common answer was they liked that the iPads do not "freeze-up" and that there is "no time wasted logging in." As far as whether they liked them better than laptops, a few of them stated "they are fun and they are different, but not necessarily better than a laptop." Students definitely seemed engaged in the work using the iPads. Overall, I was very impressed with how Ian and Janice seamlessly integrated the iPads into their curriculum for the day; their ease of use on the part of both teacher and student was very evident. Students definitely knew how to handle them, navigate them, and securely return to the cart for charging when done. I noticed how quickly the students were able to get to work as there really was no time wasted logging in to a wireless network; all students also worked uninterrupted for app. 39 minutes with no freezing or battery issues, as often happens when using a laptop on a wireless network.
 * 11/1/10 - Pioneer High School visit**

Students worked in pairs today using the 12 iPads available on the cart and researched famous Supreme Court Cases; This research could have been done on a laptop, but the students did not need to print anything, so it was a perfect opportunity to get some experience with them. The students were immediately comfortable using them, knew how to navigate, control font size, etc.; (I suppose I would attribute this familiarity to many of them having smart phones?) The students loved the fact that they did not have to spend time logging in, and their wireless connections were fast and uninterrupted; Many of them said the touch features were "very fun!" They were definitely more engaged and had more fun doing this research on the iPad than they would have had using one of my library laptops. There was one strange glitch that occurred, however; one of the websites they were using had court cases broken down by decade - when one clicks on the decade, it is supposed to take you a list of famous court cases that occurred during that time period. What was happening, however, was that the iPad was recognizing those decades as phone numbers and when clicked, asked the student if they wanted to "add this number as a new contact." When the site was checked on a PC, this error was not occuring, so it was definitely just an issue with the iPads.
 * 11/5/10 - iPad use with U.S. History class**