Student Collaboration Activities with iPads

This 20 slide presentation is what I used when presenting this past weekend.  Ideas include:

• Tech integration activities for vocabulary
• Classroom podcasting studio / show
• Augmented Reality
• Global Learning

12 iPad Apps You Should Consistently Use in Your Class Next Year

As I near finished my first year having 1 to 1 iPads with my 5th graders, here are twelve resources my class will be using regularly next year.

1.  Kahoot!  My students beg for us to play this app / game.  I use it to review every grammar concept, Social Studies chapter, and more.  Read about more reasons you should play here.  Also, this is technically not an app.  You can use this resource from any web browser!

2.  Subtext (through Edmodo):  This app is great for close reading.  You can create discussions, polls, and multiple-choice questions within text that students read.  Use it with Edmodo, and students sign in using their Edmodo accounts and it's very easy for the teacher to share specific texts with different classes they have set up.  Click here to view a tutorial by the creators of Subtext.

3.  Vocabulary Spelling City - I have my students take their spelling tests on this every week.  There are also some practice activities you can use.  I have parents that rave about how much they love this website/app, as students use it to study for their words all week!

4.  Front Row Math - This is a Common Core aligned app that automatically places students at their ability level following a pretest.  Students enjoy using the app, especially the pig with the top hat that throws coins every time they get a problem correct.  (It takes about 1 minute to set up your class here.)

5.  Audioboo - My students use this app every day for their daily podcasting show.  You can read about and listen to their 200th episode here.  However, you don't need a full podcasting studio for this app.  Students can easily create audio posts by simply pressing record, as their recording immediately is published to the web.  This could be perfect for fluency activities and more!

6.  Aurasma - This is my favorite augmented reality app because students can actually create their own augmented reality.  Read about how to set up your own augmented reality word wall here.  Other augmented reality apps you should look up in the app store include Daqri, Blippar, Toyota 86, Colar Art, and Space Craft 3D.

7.  Decide Now! app - This paid app is a spin wheel that people can use to decide what tasks to complete.  However, I have my students use this to keep track of their vocabulary words.  You can read about that here.

8.  Explain Everything - This is my favorite screencasting app on the iPad.  It has more options than the very simple, but similar app, Educreations.  However, my students have not had a problem learning their way around this app to make very creative screencasts.

9.  Three Ring - This free app and website is very simple for setting up digital student portfolios.  Even with one iPad, a teacher can easily document student progress with text, pictures, and videos.

10.  Kid Blog (the website, not the app) - In the past couple of months, my students have really taken to blogging.  Kid Blog has been a great site for this.  Teachers can easily approve posts and comments that students submit.  Students love reading comments from their classmates, but it's even more powerful when they occasionally get comments from worldwide readers of their blogs.  You can read our blog, Hagedornia, just make sure you leave a comment!

11.  Pic Collage - This free app is the go-to app for my students when creating anything with both text and pictures.  In fact, this week I'm having my students write Career Day thank you notes, as well as a Top Ten list document for Mother's Day.

12.  Notability - I have barely used this app, but all I've ever heard about it is that it's the best note-taking app out there.  Even better news is that it's free this week only, until Thursday (5-8-14).  Get it free while you can, I'm glad I did!

Students Go Crazy for Kahoot! Why You Should Play...

I've been using Kahoot! the past couple of weeks.  Students absolutely love it!  And so do I.

Here's why I think you should be playing Kahoot! with students in your classes:

• All students answer every question on their own.  This is perfect for a 1:1 environment.  Students can use anything that that has a web browser. 

• A display of how many students answered each item appears after each question.  As a teacher, it will be very clear to you when the class is getting it and when they don't. 

• You can download all responses at the end of the game.  I've used this to see which students are struggling with certain concepts.

• The games are so easy to find.  I've probably played this game 10 times in the last two weeks.  I've created a grand total of....... one game!  Some games I've found and used include four different geometry games, grammar games for each of the last three concepts, and a Bill of Rights review game.  Also, in the last two weeks, the amount of public games has gone from 80,000 to 102,000!

• Games are easy to share with colleagues.  Just e-mail them the link to the game or share within the site.

• Students can create their own games.  Two of my Tech Club students created their own ten-question game with images in about 20 minutes.  They figured it all out on their own.

Suggestions:  

• Encourage students to take their time when answering.  Since students get more points if they answer quicker, they get too excited about being the first to answer each question and lose focus.

• Limit students from talking in between questions.  They will want to talk about their score after every single question, guaranteed!

If you start using Kahoot! in your classroom, I guarantee it will be a crowd pleaser and a great way to review almost any type of concept!

Our Daily Class Podcasting Show Celebrates 200th Episode

Students were thrilled a few weeks ago, as we celebrated the 200th episode of our class podcast, Fifth Grade Fever.

Since our first episode on 12-12-2012, the show has come along way.  To hear more about the evolution of the show, listen to our 200th episode below.

listen to ‘Fifth Grade Fever 3/19/14: Our 200th Episode’ on Audioboo



You can also watch another one of our episodes below.

Be sure to subscribe to my blog, as I'll be covering the following topics involving our class podcasting studio:

• The equipment in our class podcasting studio
• Specifically how we set up the podcasting studio
• How students write the script for our shows
• The jobs for each show
• Fitting a daily class show into our busy school day
• Other uses for the podcasting studio
• Why your class should have a podcasting studio

*Subscribe to Teachers Use Tech on the right hand side of this page.  You can also like this blog on Facebook to get the latest articles and updates.

How to Make an Augmented Reality Word Wall with Aurasma

If you have at least one iPad in your classroom, you can make an augmented reality word wall.

The picture by the lockers is actually a video that pops up of students acting out the word, exaggerate.

Here's how:  

1.  Assign one word per student and have them create their own image that represents the vocabulary word for your wall.  My students used Pic Collage on their iPads.  

2.  Print and laminate the the images that the students have created.

3.  Students should work with a partner to assist in the creation of a short video that shows what the word means.

4.  Follow the steps of how to create an Aura using the Aurasma app to make your image come to life.  

When all is said and done, you'll have a wall full of words and pictures.  Any time students use Aurasma, they can scan these pictures.  If it's done right, the video that represents the word will appear.

This is my best attempt at a panoramic picture of our word wall.

Once you are finished, what kind of activities would you do with students to put this creation to use?

Calling All 5th Grade Blogging Classrooms: It's Time to Share our Students' Blogs!

My students love the blogging process, but they'd especially love a way to read blog posts of other students in their age group.  There's nothing better than telling students they have a global audience of readers!

To do this, I've created the website Blog into 5th.  This website will be a great way to connect other Fifth Grade classrooms that blog.

I will also share writing and editing rights for Blog into 5th with teachers that are interested in contributing.

Details:

1.  Students will be able to find the other student blogs on the right side of the site.  Each link will take students to the page that has a list of student links.  For example, here's where my class link goes.  As you can see, this works well with KidBlog.

2.  Student blog posts can be of any topic or format.  My students are currently writing about whichever topic they choose.  They absolutely love it!

3.  Teachers can use this page to write about and highlight certain blogs or blog posts that they are proud of.  This can be a great way to motivate some students.  This is optional.

4.  Teachers will be able to add their "blogging tips" onto our Blog into 5th page.  This is optional.

Fill out the form below to connect your class with the other classes that sign up for this endeavor.  Thank you!

Teaching Globally with My Sister's Class in Florida

Today, I was thrilled to have the opportunity to teach my sister's 1st graders in Florida, while I was in chilly Chicago!

My first step?  I decided to create a fun vocabulary video (using her current words).  My wife also joined in the fun as we quickly made the video that you can view below.



After I shot all of the videos on my iPad, I put them in the right order using iMovie for iPad, uploaded to YouTube, and sent the link to my sister.  This really did not take long at all.

She showed the video to her class and afterwards, connected her class with me using Skype.  Our 25 minute conversation included the following:

• A demonstration of what snow looks like (most of her students had never seen it)
• A brief Q and A about what I thought about the snow
• What to wear in the cold
• Information about my two dogs

My favorite part was calling on the eager students as I saw them through my computer.   What a fun experience!

How to Create Augmented Reality with the Aurasma App

There are so many ways to use the app, Aurasma in your classroom.  However, do you actually know how to make an "aura" within this great app?

Watch the following video to become a pro at creating auras.



I've used Aurasma for giving voice to my students' explorer projects, as well as attaching video to words in my class word wall.

How do you / would you use augmented reality in your classroom?

How to Use TodaysMeet for a Reading #StoryChat

Yesterday my students participated in their third #StoryChat to discuss their latest story in Reading.

We recently read the story "Satchmo's Blues," which teaches about the life of famous musician, Louis Armstrong.  In the story, Satchmo resold onions that he had found in the garbage so that he could buy his horn. The fourth question (Q4) of our #storychat asked students the things they would do to make money when saving for an item.  You can read some of the answers below.

How I do this in my classroom:

• I randomly choose a student that would like the responsibility of moderating the discussion.  They are given a list of questions and an approximate timeline for questioning.
• The classroom is silent during the chat.  All communication is done only on the site.  One time I even had students do this while I was at a meeting.
• Setting up the class for the chat literally take 10 seconds.  I set up this one by typing in www.todaysmeet.com/satchmo and then I wrote it on the board.  

Using the website TodaysMeet has been a great way to promote participation and class discussion about what we read about in my class.  I highly recommend it!


* You can also read about how I use TodaysMeet for participation during class movies.

Use QR Codes to Make Your Word Wall Come to Life

A couple of years ago, I decided to get a little more creative with my "Vocabulary Word of the Day Wall" that I have in my classroom. As I began to learn more and more about QR codes, I decided it was time to make these "words" more useful than ever.

Students always seem to forget some of our words and are clueless as to the definition.  Now using mobile devices with cameras and a QR Reader, students can easily scan the code and see the definition of the word.  They definitely prefer this to the old-fashioned way of taking out their notebook and looking up the definition.

To begin with, I made all of the QR codes for each definition.  Once I downloaded all of the codes, I dragged them onto a document, spaced them out and printed. Afterwards, I cut them out individually, rescanned using a QR reader on my iPod, and lightly wrote the vocabulary word on the back of the code.

After I glued each code to the correct word, I had a completely revolutionized word wall for my Vocabulary Words of the Day.

Note:  I originally posted about this project on my previous blog, Tech Edventures.

Here are some other posts from Teachers Use Tech:

• • 
    

    Create a Vocabulary Spinner with the Decide Now! App
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    Creating Rectangular Prisms with Minecraft
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    Numbler, a Favorite After-Test Activity of my Math Students
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    Students Play Mission U.S. to Learn About the Revolutionary War

How to Make Class Movies Truly Interactive using Today's Meet

My movies in Social Studies have gone from a strictly viewing experience to a "watch and listen, write, read and respond" experience.

I create a room using the website, Todays Meet, and students quickly sign in without passwords.  They are encouraged to take all of their notes within our class backchannel.  I'm thrilled at all of the interaction and reflection that takes place during this process.

As you can see above, students are even encouraged to add hashtags to further display some of their reactions to the movie.

How do you use backchannel sites like Today's Meet in your classroom?

Create a Vocabulary Spinner with the Decide Now! App

The app, Decide Now! has been a terrific addition to my vocabulary instruction.  Any time I introduce a new word to our academic vocabulary list, students immediately add it to their "vocabulary wheel" within this app.

Students use this resource in my room the following ways:

• Selecting words for sentences
• Charades
• Vocabulary games
• Quizzing themselves or each other

How would you use this with your students?

Note:  This app is usually $0.99.  However, today (1-25-14) it is free!

Strengthen Vocabulary with "Move & Match" App

Move & Match is an iPad app that I recently started using for vocabulary activities with my students, though you can use it for just about anything.

There are two sections to this app, "Make" and "Use."  In the "Make" section, they simply add pictures and type in words.  When they open the file they've created in the "Use" section, they can move and match their pictures and words.

With vocabulary, I have students continuously add words and different pictures.  They then mix and match them to write or say sentences using these words.  Students also use other classmates' iPads to mix and match their words and pictures, as well.

Making a QR Code is Easy!

QR Codes are so easy to make!  Yet, it seems like many teachers are still apprehensive to make them.  Here's how:

1.  Simply go to the website QRstuff.com.  Below is a screenshot of what you will see. 

2.  Copy the URL you'd like to use and pasted it into the "2 Content" section directly below.  

3.  Then, click on the second option (Use our qrs.ly URL shortener), and press the "Download QR Code" button on the right.  Your QR code will be downloaded and ready to be used!