Trying Something New: Seesaw

No comment on the fact that I have not posted for two years.  (Seriously, what can I say?  I was busy?  I had nothing to say?  I kept forgetting?  Nothing sounds too good, so let's let it go and move on!)

I like to begin each school year by writing goals for myself.  Some goals I meet and others I don't. (Sounds just like New Year's goals, right?)

Well one of my goals is always to try something new.  Not the something new that is a new district requirement.  (Actually, there seem to be more and more of those, right?)  No, this something new is something that I pick out myself.  Something that makes me curious and excited.

For this year, my something new is Seesaw.  No, not the Scholastic Book order form.  (That was very confusing for me at first, too.)  Nope, this Seesaw is a "Student-Driven Digital Portfolio".  It is a website and an app. But what does it do?  OMG!  It allows students to create online portfolios.  For FREE!!!  Students can easily add to their portfolios and parents are given a notification for each addition.  Of course, all of the additions must be teacher approved (which seems easy to do).  But there's more!  Students can add comments to each item either in written form or (BE STILL MY HEART!) via a recording.  That's right folks .. my kindergarteners will be able to add items to their portfolios and then record their voices talking about the item.  OMG!  So, so, so excited!  I have been watching videos on the Seesaw site and got so excited that I couldn't wait to try it out.  So I created a fake class with fake students who completed fake assignments that fake parents looked at.  So far, so good! But I, of course, have to hold judgement until I have real students completing real assignments that their real parents look at.  Once that happens, I will let you know how it goes.

In the meantime, if you want to learn more about Seesaw, here is a video to watch.
Seesaw: The Learning Journal

So what new things are you trying this year?

Love to all,
Camille

iTalk Doodle Buddy

Today I am linking up with The Brown-Bag Teacher to discuss iPads.

I will begin by telling a story.

I was sitting on a panel in front of a group of teachers.  We were asked to name one "go to" app.  I decided to name Doodle Buddy since I used it with my kinders all the time.  But before I could answer, I heard a fifth grade teacher answer, "Doodle Buddy".  What?!?  I thought of Doddle Buddy as an app for primary students.  Fifth grade?!?

Doodle Buddy

Yep.  Doodle Buddy is a versatile app that can be used with any grade level.  Doodle Buddy allows students to paint, draw or even stamp pictures.  

Unfortunately, I can only share how I use this app with kindergartners.  But I am hopeful, my ideas will spur you brilliant upper grade teachers to come up with even better ideas of your own.  

Here are some ways I use Doodle Buddy with kindergartners:

1)  Patterning

• Students use two (or three) colors to create a pattern.  Another student has to tell what comes next.
• I make a pattern with our manipulative bears (example: blue, red, red ... abb) and students have to make that same pattern using two different colors on their iPads.
• Students use two (or three) shape stamps to make a pattern. 
• I make a pattern using attribute shapes (example: circle, square, triangle ... abc).  Students have to stamp that same pattern on their iPads, using different shapes.
• I make a pattern (example: aab) and students make that same pattern on their iPads, but they get to decide if they will make that pattern with shapes or colors or size.

What I am loving about all of this is that my students can quickly make multiple patterns this way.  They can take a screen shot of their patterns and then add it to the photo roll on their iPad.  Pretty cool! Sounds like the beginning of a portfolio to me!

2) Addition / Subtraction

• Students create a drawing to match an addition or subtraction problem I give them.  They can draw circles / triangles / squares or they can use the stamps.
• A student creates a drawing and a partner writes an equation to match the drawing.  (Both the drawing and the equation can be created using Doodle Buddy.)

3) Decomposing

• I gave students a number (example: 5) and students decompose the number.  I had them begin by drawing two squares and then drawing dots in each square.  Then students shared the various ways they had decomposed.  For example, one student drew 3 dots in one square and 2 dots in another.  A different student drew 5 dots in one square and 0 dots in the other square.  Then students erase their responses and come up with a second way to decompose the number.

4) Geometry

• Students draw and label various shapes.  They can even take photos of a variety of items in the room, open the photos in Doodle Buddy and then label the shapes.

Yep, I L.O.V.E. Doodle Buddy!!!!  What app do you love?  Please link to The Brown-Bag Teacher and let us know.

Love to all,

Camille

iTalk iPads: Story Creator

I am going to try to focus on one new iPad app a week.  That will insure that I keep trying new apps, plus will help me reflect on our use of iPads.

I have a new favorite iPad app: Story Creator.  I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it!  What about my firsties?  They LOVE, LOVE, LOVE it, too!

Here is what makes this app so special:

• It is free.  (How awful that I list this first, but you all know why!!)
• It is easy to use.
• Children can create their own books.
• Drawings, photos and text are all easy to add to the books.
• Audio can be added, as in, children type in their text and then record themselves reading the text.  Then when you scroll through the story, you hear the child's voice reading each page to you.  Oh, be still my heart.  I SO love this feature!
• The tech support is phenomenal!  I sent an email to the developers asking a few questions and I received a reply.  A real reply.  But it gets better.  I got the reply within hours.  The reply contained answers to my questions.  Like I said: phenomenal support!

Here is what I don't like:

• The only way to share the created books is via Facebook.  That means we are NOT sharing our books.  But this is one of the improvements on their list for the December upgrade.  (Which I know because I received an email telling me this. : )  This same thing tends to be a glitch in quite a few apps, especially the ones that are free.  So the books will stay on each iPad and have to be shared via buddy reading or author's chair.

Here is how I unrolled this app for my first graders:

• Ahead of time I created a three page book using Story Creator.  The first page had a drawing and text, the second page had a photo and text and the third page had a photo, text, AND audio.  
• I used my document camera to unveil my three page book.  (I just placed the iPad directly on the document camera so my kiddos could see.)
• I showed my students how to access the app, how to start a book and explained each icon at the bottom.  All in all, my presentation was five minutes max.  I really try to not overdo my instructions with apps.  I want my students to have lots of freedom because then they will be much more creative.
• I let my students loose to use the app.  Some of them began to draw pictures for their books.  Other started by taking photos.  A few students began adding audio as soon as they had typed in text.  Some students discovered the spelling correction feature.  (Which can be both a help and a hindrance with beginning readers!!!)
• I buzzed around the room listening, reading and mainly learning from my amazing digital natives!
• As a few students finished books, I sent them to the office to share their stories.  They came back with HUGE smiles.
• We ran out of time or we would have had a sharing time at the end.  As it was, my students were VERY upset with me when I had them cleanup because it was time to go home.  ("What school is over?  "Can't we stay longer?  PLEASE!!!!")

That's it for now!

Love to all,

Camille

iTalk iPads in September!

Sigh ... I really meant to post a lot more iPad ideas, but using iPads in kinder and first in the Fall is so very different than using them in the Spring that I am once again a beginner.

(Background: A class set of iPads was delivered to my room in April 2012.  My kiddos already had our routines down and had so many skills that we were able to immediately start using the iPads.  Starting off the year with iPads is completely different so I still figuring this out!!  Don't get me wrong, I LOVE the iPads.  It is just that I am at ground zero in the learning curve once again!!)

My kinders are learning about patterns so we have been using the iPads to aide our learning.  The kiddos have been using the app Doodle Buddy (free) to create patterns.  Doodle Buddy allows them to paint, draw or even stamp pictures.  We have been working on color and shape patterns.  So here are some of the activities we have done:

• Students use two (or three) colors to create a pattern.  Another student has to tell what comes next.
• I make a pattern with our manipulative bears (example: blue, red, red ... abb) and students have to make that same pattern using two different colors on their iPads.
• Students use two (or three) shape stamps to make a pattern. 
• I make a pattern using attribute shapes (example: circle, square, triangle ... abc).  Students have to stamp that same pattern on their iPads, using different shapes.
• I make a pattern (example: aab) and students make that same pattern on their iPads, but they get to decide if they will make that pattern with shapes or colors or size.

What I am loving about all of this is that my students can quickly make multiple patterns this way.  They can take a screen shot of their patterns and then add it to the photo roll on their iPad.  Pretty cool! Sounds like the beginning of a portfolio to me!

Now I am off to plan for next week!

Love to all,

Camille

iTalk iPads - Guide

This post is dedicated to my new bloggy friend Erica from Minnesota.  Erica sent me the following email:

Hi Camille,

I came across your blog and am in LOVE. I am feeling your adrenaline as I recently found out my teaching partner and I were awarded a class set of iPads for our kindergarten class.  AHHHHH!!!  I am sooo not ready and we start in 3 weeks! Exciting and scary.  Do you have any other advice for newbies just getting started- organization wise/setup etc?  I am all ears in case you do.   Erica

Well, my life has been crazy and my head has been spinning so fast that there was no way I could think of one single thing to post about.  Erica to the rescue!  Seriously, how could I not respond to this sweet email?  So here goes ....

Camille's Quick Guide to Getting Your iPad On  :)

Disclaimer:  I first touched an iPad on March 26, 2012.  A class set of iPads arrived in my K/1 class on April 16, 2012.  GULP!  My kiddos used iPads for 7 weeks.  So repeat after me:  Camille is NOT an expert!!  Camille is NOT an expert!! Camille is NOT an expert!! 

Okay, onward we go:

1)  Smile!  Smile and enjoy the moment.  Magic happened and you, yes you, are getting a class set of iPads!!

2)  Practice! Get your hands on one of the iPads as soon as possible.  Give yourself permission to play with it.  Get comfortable using an iPad.  If you already have one, great, but make sure it is the same (1, 2 or 3) as your students are receiving.  This was super important for me because I had never used an iPad before. Luckily, I have a MacBook and an iPod so had a beginning familiarity.  

3)  Be Aware That Your Students WILL Become Experts!  No matter how much time you have spent using an iPad, you WILL have students (yes, even kinders) that will know more than you.  Accept it, celebrate it, rejoice in it and learn to ask your kiddos for advice.  I learned the true meaning of "digital native" when I placed iPads in my students' hands.  Also, your kiddos will automatically became collaborative when using their iPads.  It is amazing to behold!  Have your camera ready at all times!!!

3)  Learn to Download Apps the District Way! Find out how you are going to download apps.  Talk to your IT people about that. You will need a special iTunes account.  Find out how this is going to be handled.  Our six teachers were each given our own account and password.  I am making this sound very simple, but it can become super complex.  In some districts teachers are not allowed to download apps, that is up to the IT people.  We were given free rein (lots of trust here and I LOVE that).  We were given a small budget to work with, but strongly encouraged to seek out free apps.  (More on that in #3.)

3)  Investigate Free Apps!  Know that apps can be very, very expensive.  Two dollars may not sound like much, but multiply that by 26 iPads and OUCH!!!  If you do find apps you want, look into the Apple school voucher program which gives you half off when you buy in quantity.  (Note: Not all apps qualify for this, but most do.) However, I would encourage you to look for free apps.  In the primary grades, we have thousands of free apps to choose from.  Some of them are fantastic!  Here is my post on my favorite free apps.  Get connected with a free app website or email list.  There are many out there and they work in different ways.  My favorite is Smart Apps for Kids. I have signed up for their daily email and each day receive a summary of their "Free App of the Day".  I like that there is not a long list, but just one app so I can make a quick decision as to whether this app would work for us or not.  They also send out emails if a great app suddenly becomes free for just a day.  (Companies like to do that to boost their numbers quickly.)  If I see a free app that might work for my class, I quickly download it because it may not be free tomorrow.  Then later, I try it out and may end up deleting it.

4) Plan!  There is not one right way to set up your iPads.  However, iPads are different than desktops or even laptops because they are personal devices.  You will want each child using the same iPad each time.  So we numbered ours and the students always knew which iPad was theirs.  Here is my post on how I organized my iPads.

5)  Questions to Ask!  Become good friends with your IT people.  Really, really good friends!   (The six teachers  involved with the iPad Academy in my district have nicknamed our IT guys "The Magic Men".)  Here are some questions to ask:

• What is the procedure for downloading apps?
• Is there a budget for downloading apps?
• What is the procedure for syncing iPads?  (Syncing allows you to add apps to ALL of your iPads at the same time, rather than individually adding them for each iPad.  See #7 for how I go about this.)
• Is there enough bandwidth in my room for all students to be on the internet at the same time?  If not, what is the limit?
• Are we allowed to use an app like Rover so that students can access sites that use Flash?  (Since Apple and Flash are mad at each other, you have to use a third party app like Rover to deal with this.  Rover basically streams the Flash sites onto the iPads.  My IT guys checked out Rover and approved it.  It was created for teachers and is free.  It does NOT keep information on students stored anywhere.)
• Where will the iPads be housed at night?  (I take them to the office at the end of each day because it is the only building on campus that is alarmed.  Oh, side note:  I am in California and out here, our schools are typically not all under one roof.)
• Will the iPads go home with the students?  (We do not send the iPads home ever.  But some districts do allow for that.)

6) Glitches Will Occur!  Not only are we dealing with technology, we are dealing with new technology.  Be prepared to be frustrated at times.  You cannot just go down the hall and ask a veteran teacher what to do.  Your questions may even stump your own "Magic Men/Women".  But together, you will prevail.  (How cool that there are two of you that are beginning your iPad journey together!!)

7)  Accessories!  Yes, even iPads need accessories.  What you get will depend on your budget.  But here are some ideas:

• Cases - Ahead of time a friend told me I had to get "grippy" cases.  I didn't know what she meant, but now I do.  You need cases for the iPads that are not slick, but instead are "grippy" so that the students can hold onto the iPads.  If given a choice, get them in different colors to make the cases easier to differentiate.  Mine are all black, so I used four different colors of tape and ran a strand along the front of each case.  The tape won't hold up forever, but it will help in the beginning.
• Stylus- Since my kiddos are just learning to write, I use several handwriting apps and want them to practice the correct grip.  Using your finger to practice making letters just doesn't cut it for me.  I looked around and picked the AppCrayon from Dano.  These are pricey, but Dano gives a 50% discount to schools.  There are much less expensive ones, but I liked Dano because it was fatter and triangular in shape so it helps primary students grip correctly.   Dano also has a free app called AppCrayon that is good.
• Charging / Syncing Cart - My district provided a cart that allows us to both charge and sync.  I LOVE IT!  Syncing is a pain, but this cart makes it manageable.  There are some glitches with this cart, but still it makes it possible to sync all my iPads at once.  (Glitch: Sometimes the cables don't connect correctly and a few iPads don't sync so you have to go back and manually sync those.  The first time this happened it caused tears in my class because one sad girl didn't get the new apps that everyone else did.  After that, I knew to check.)

7) Think about your philosophy!  There is no right answer here.  My decision was to view the iPads as tools.  Just like my kiddos use pencils, paper, etc. so they use iPads to aide their learning.  They got their iPads out of the cart first thing in the morning and had them available in a team tub on their desks all day.  I feel like I only scratched the surface in terms of using the iPads as tools.  This year, I plan to integrate them far more.  Not sure what that will look like, but I will keep you posted.

8) Prepare for Negativity!  I hate to bring this up, but want to forewarn you.  Please realize that there may be jealousy and misunderstanding from other teachers.  It has nothing to do with you, so just let it go.  The teachers at my school were supportive, but not so at some of the other schools.  Comments were made about our students not using pencils, paper and paintbrushes, but instead sitting and playing Angry Birds all day.  I typically stayed very quiet at district meetings, but looking back I wish I had shared what it actually looks like in my classroom.  The fact that my students do use pencils and paper and paintbrushes.  They also use clay and crayons and construction paper.  They build with blocks and legos and Lincoln logs.  You get the idea.  We found humor in the anonymous quote "You can always tell who the pioneers are because they have arrows in their backs and are floating down the river."    

9) You ARE a Pioneer!  You are taking part in something that is so new and different that there are no manuals to help you on your way.  I told my students that it was our job to do research for the district.  The question we were supposed to answer was, "Do iPads help students learn?  Of course my kiddos all knew the answer before I did.  (A resounding YES!!!)  

Here is a quote to leave you with:   “A pioneer is not someone who makes her own soap. She is one who takes up her burdens and walks toward the future.”  Laurel Thatcher Ulrich 

So there will be glitches, there will be issues, but your iPad journey will be amazing!  So just start walking!

Whew!  Longest post ever!  Hope this helps!

Love to all,

Camille

Links to learn more:

I Teach With iPads - Katie has been using a class set of iPads for a few years and I feel like she is my mentor!!!  (I have only met her in Bloggyland, but I think she is A.M.A.Z.I.N.G.)

Digital Kindergarten

iTalk iPads Organization

This is the continuing saga of my joyful journey into 1:1 iPad land with my kinder/first grade class.

So now I had 25 iPads for my 25 students and a charging/syncing cart to keep them in.  BUT there needed to be a bit of organizing to make this all work.

Here are some of the organizing ideas I used:

1) Number Everything!  (Children, iPads, slots)
The children in my class all have a special number.  (I have the amazing Rick Morris to thank for sharing this great idea!)  So it made sense to number the iPads with my student's numbers.  This was done with a silver marker on the apple on back of the iPad.  (Since the apple is an advertising symbol it shows through the cover.  Works for me!)  The cart arrived with each slot for an iPad already numbered.  So student #1 used iPad #1 which was placed in slot #1 at the end of each day.  I do love having things organized!  (But read idea #4 as to how I further organized the cart.)

2)  iPad Test and iPad License
Since you can't drive without a license, it seemed to me that students shouldn't be able to use an iPad without a license.  And nobody gets a license without taking a test, right?  So I created an iPad license that could only be earned by passing the iPad test. Luckily for me, my students totally bought into it!  To pass the iPad test they had to demonstrate a variety of skills such as turning their iPad on and off, getting it out of the cart and putting it back it, AND they had to explain WHY we were using iPads in our classroom.  (A little brainwashing occurred here ... if they used the word "play" they automatically failed the test.  If they used the word "learn", they passed that question.  In fact, if a student later asked me, "May I play on my iPad?"  I always said NO!  If they used the word learn, that was a different matter! :) When each child passed the test, they were given a very special iPad license that could be revoked at any time.  (Sadly, a few were revoked from time to time.)

3)  Daytime Home
I had to decide where my students would keep their iPads during the day.  Hmmm ... but first I needed to consider how I wanted the iPads used.  Just like everything in teaching, first you have to clarify what your philosophy is and then you do your planning.  I decided I wanted the iPads to be another tool in our classroom.  I also decided that like pencils and paper and other tools, I wanted my students to have easy access to the iPads.  So I purchased a dishtub from Target for each team.  (Cost: under $2 each.  But for that price, my only color choice was white.)  Each team received a tub to permanently place on their desks.  When we weren't using the iPads, the children placed them in their team's tubs.  This meant that if a child finished an assignment early, they could pull out their iPad.  It also meant that when my entire class was reading individually, some students chose to read on their iPads.  (Some children continued to choose traditional books, but the option was always there to do either.)

4)  Nighttime home
The charging/syncing cart is the nighttime home.  Each iPad has a numbered slot that it "lives" in at night.  BUT it was super hard for my kiddos to find the correct slot.  I decided it was time for ... COLOR CODING! So I bought four rolls of colored tape (blue, red, green, and orange).  I put a strip of tape on the front of each iPad and a small square of the same color next to the correct slot in the cart.  (Of course, I created an ABCD pattern: blue, red, green, orange, etc.)  Volia!  My students were easily able to find their iPads at the beginning of the day and then at the end of the day, find their iPad's correct slot.  Hurrah!  (The tape won't last forever on the iPads, but long enough for students to know which color slot to look for.)

Whew!  I love things to be organized!!  In fact, I just read a hilarious note on Facebook.  Here goes:  I am CDO.  CDO is like OCD, but the letters are in order, like they should be. Oh yeah, that is so me!  A place for everything and everything in its place!  Love it!  But if you could see my classroom right now - I am moving classrooms and it isn't pretty right now OR if you could see my living room - I am moving classrooms so decided to bring a few (cough, cough) boxes of things home to organize ... then you would revoke my CDO license.  So, it is off to organizing that I must go!

Love to all,
Camille

iTalk iPads

On April 16, 2012 twentyfive iPads arrived in my classroom and my teaching life changed completely.  Prior to that date I thought iPads might be helpful in education.  Now I KNOW they are.  I am stunned by what the term "digital native" really means.  My students have not only surpassed me in their understanding of iPads, they are also fearless in learning more.  There is no hope, not even itty bitty, that I can ever again be "the sage on the stage" when the iPads are being used.  For years I have expoused on wanting to be the "guide on the side, not the sage on the stage", but now I am living it.  (... and there are moments that I really would like to be the sage - just sayin'.)

I was challenged by my district to use free apps as much as possible.  (Just think about the math:  each app you buy you have to buy for 25 iPads, even with the 50% educational discount, this begins to add up).  Well, I am pleased to say that there are many, many, many WONDERFUL free apps out there.

Here are four favorites:

Sushi Monster - This is one crazy app and my students loved using it!  In this app students are challenged to add and multiply to feed the Sushi monster.  I love it because the children are given the sum and must find the two numbers to add together to get that sum.  Students may select their level and may also select multiplication (which was a wonderful challenge for my firsties who were ready for multiplication). This app was a little too hard for my kinders, but perfect for my firsties.
Sushi Monster


Sock Puppets - I discovered this app the last week of school, quickly introduced it and suddenly my students were making plays on their iPads.  My kiddos LOVED it!  I also loved it because it reinforced the ideas of character and setting.  First, students choose their characters (all sock puppets, of course).  Then they choose a setting.  They can also add details to the setting (microphones anyone?).  Finally, they get to record.  The mouth of each sock puppet moves as the children speak.  (Lip-syncing with sock puppets!!)  Even better, there is a way to change your voice by making it higher or lower.  I created a sock puppet play to introduce this app and my students had no idea that I had recorded my own voice.  Too funny!  The plays have to be one minute or less, but that worked for us.  (You can buy a VIP Content Pass to add more options, but I plan to stick to the free version.)
Sock Puppets


Monkey Drum - When we voted for our favorite app, Monkey Drum won by a landslide.  Why?  I am not sure.  This app is all about a monkey who plays a drum.  The children can mimic the sounds the monkey makes or create their own tunes.  The children loved to create songs and then have me listen.  This app was reserved for Free Choice Time in my class and it was selected during that time by most students.  During Free Choice Time, I let them unplug their headphones and the noise was (almost) deafening.  But they loved it.
Monkey Drum


Rover - If I got to vote for App of the Year, this app would get my vote.  It is a utility app that allows an iPad to use Flash content.  You see Apple (the maker of iPads) and Adobe (the maker of Flash) don't get along so anything with Flash content does not work on iPads.  This meant that my students couldn't use Raz-Kids or anything else with Flash.  Boo!  Hiss!  Enter Rover, my hero!  Rover allows items with Flash to be streamed onto your iPad (think about how NetFlix streams movies).  Amazing!  All year when my students finished work, I let them read.  Once Rover entered our lives, they could pull out their iPads and read books from Raz-Kids.  (Note:  Raz-Kids is NOT free.  I pay about $80 a year for a class subscription to it.)
Rover

Well, that's all for now.

Love to all,

Camille

iTalk iPads

Thank you to all who suggested iPad apps.  I am busy researching them all!!!!

So here we go ...  Camille's adventures with iPads .... Part One

Preparation

After school on Monday I attended a four hour training on using iPads in the classroom.  I will be receiving 26 iPads to use with my class thanks to a district grant so this training was to get me going.  Since I had never, ever used an iPad I tried to soak up as much as I could at the training.  

Day One:  Tuesday

I took the one iPad I received at the training into class.  (The other 25 iPads are being prepped.)  During stations my students took turns using the one iPad. I quickly discovered that even those students who had never used an iPad before, quickly left me in the dust.  I just had them use Doodle Buddy (a free drawing app) to introduce them to a touchscreen.

Day Two:  Wednesday

I introduced my students to a new app by placing my iPad on the document camera.  Students were easily able to see it and thought it was super cool to see the iPad so very, very big!  The app we used today was ShowMe.  It turns the iPad into a whiteboard that records what you write AND what you say.  I am in love with this app and plan to use it all the time.  (... and can you believe it is free????)  I made a few recording myself and showed one to the class.  They were hooked!  I asked for three volunteers to come in at lunch and try out the app.  (That way my maiden voyage with my class and this app could be done without a huge audience.)  The videos turned out great!  They actually made me cry.  I admit to being a sap, but really, hearing my firsties voices explaining how to solve a math problem is so endearing.  Here is one example.  If you could see the huge smile on this little girl's face when we played back her recording, you would cry too!!!  Just so precious!!!

Math Talk Using ShowMe

In addition to math, ShowMe could be used to record student writing (as long as it is only a sentence or two because that is all that will fit on the screen).  Or to give directions or teach a lesson to the class.

Although I am excited about getting an iPad for every student, it is nice to have just one to start with.  This way I can ease into this new learning situation.  It is exciting, but also scary.  I am so glad that I have my bloggy friends to hold my hand in my new adventure!

Lots and lots of love to all,

Camille

iTalk iPads

Have you ever received some news that is so wonderful and amazing and incredible that you go into stun mode?  You know, that mode where you just can't believe it so you don't think about it too much because if you do, you might find out it's not true.  Deep sigh.  Well, I am definitely in stun mode!

Here is my wonderful, amazing, incredible and actually quite a bit scary news:
I was chosen as a pilot teacher for iPads.  Can you hear me screaming?  But wait, it gets better ... the pilot program is for a 1:1 iPads.  (More screaming!)  That means 1 iPad for each child.  (Hopefully you are covering your ears!!!)  That means 25 iPads for my class.  (I know, it is so amazing that I may never stop screaming and may never come out of stun mode!)  That means .... I don't know what all it means.  This is such new territory.  I am fairly techy, but I have never used an iPad (though I have always coveted one).  I wrote up a super long application with lots of ideas for apps and projects, but now I am quaking in my boots (and this California girl knows all about quaking!!!).  I keep telling myself to breath.

So (deep breath) ... I thought I could devote my blog once a week to talking about lessons I have learned about using iPads in my classroom.  Although I hope recording my journey will help others, I will definitely derive the most benefit.

Monday I go for the preliminary training.  It is for four hours after school.  I will be joined by four other teachers.  One I know and she is marvelous.  I just hope the others are nice since we are going to be breaking new ground together.  (How pathetic do I sound?  Somewhat like the little girl going away to camp with a group of strangers?  "I hope they are nice!"Been there, done that!!)

If you are using iPads in your classroom, whether it's one iPad or more, please let me know.  I have found lots of resources, but you are the folks in the trenches and you are the ones I trust the most.

In case you are wondering, my grant is from my district.  Here is a link for my iPad grant application. The formatting may be crazy because I simply cut and pasted it from Word into Google Docs.  If this can help anyone, great!

Love to all,
Camille