iPad Activities

Having an iPad for every student in your classroom would be a teacher's dream.  I don't personally have one, but I have talked with teachers who have at least one and they absolutely love theirs.  I did some research on what you can do with an iPad in the classroom and I came across this wonderful site that offers 53 ways you could use an iPad in your classroom.  Yes, I said 53 ideas for an iPad.  Here is the link to the site. https://docs.google.com/present/view?id=dhn2vcv5_721gdk5jtd8  The site offers ideas for all age levels, so I picked out four that I though were ones I could use in my own classroom.

Activity 1

The first idea is using the speech into text application.  You will need to download an app called Dragon Dictation which allows you or a student to convert speech into a readable text.  This would be a wonderful tool when it comes to writing an essay.  Not only would it make it easier for students who have trouble writing their thoughts down on paper, it would help students complete the writing assignment even quicker.  This would definitely help the child with ADD.

Activity 2

My second activity would require you to download an app called Doodle Buddy.  This app turns the iPad into a mini whiteboard.  During lectures or test reviews, students can write their answers on the iPad and then show them to the teacher as a form of assessment or checking for understanding.  I use the cut-out whiteboard and dry-erase markers now.  This method would be less messy and you wouldn't have to replace the markers.

Activity 3

This next activity calls for using the iPads as small tv screen.  For students who are visually impaired, you can download the apps called Air Video or Air Video Free.  I can present our states ETV videos which correspond with our state standards to every student in the classroom within arms length. 

Activity 4

I would use the iPads as literture books.  My students read silently for twenty minutes almost every day.  (I have my language arts students for 110 minutes)  I would download the a particular novel that we are reading together as a class.  Students would use the iPad instead of the actual paperback and then use an app to record answers to daily questions that I have for the particular chapter or section that they read.

After visiting the website, what were some of your favorites?

Educational Website Reviews

The first educational website that I would like to review is called "Learn 4 Good".  You can find this website at http://www.learn4good.com/ .  The website addresses all grade levels and focuses on mainly language arts and math for younger students.  The website provides older students a place to search colleges and even learn another language.  For younger students is provides hundreds of educational games, activities, and lessons to increase skills in math and reading.  Also in the kid's area, I love the "books" section.  Here, it suggests books of interest for high school students and special needs students.  For educators, it lists where teaching jobs are available in each state.  Overall, it's a good educational website.

The second educational website I would like to review is called "Internet 4 Classrooms".  This website can be found at http://www.internet4classrooms.com/ .  This one is probably my favorite of the two.  It provides wonderful resources for all grade levels and for all subject areas.  This even provides great resources for teachers as well.  First of all it offers grade level skillbuilder links to reinforce what has been taught in the classroom in grades K through 8.  I love this next part.  For older students and teachers, it provides step-by-step technology tutorials for Microsoft Office programs, operating systems, and even Web 2.0 tools.   The last thing I want to mention about this site it that it offers professional development workshops for teachers online.  You can take an online workshop on how to intergrate technology into your classroom or a workshop on how a 5 year old can utilize the computer.  This website is definitely one to check out.

Web 2.0 Website Review

The first Web 2.0 site that I would like to review is called "xtimeline".  You can find this website at http://www.xtimeline.com/index.aspx .  I feel this website can be used in middle school and in high school in language arts, history, and even science.  It's a great web based timeline that students and even teachers can use to create projects for learning.  It's not just a standard hand drawn timeline, but a timeline that can have videos attached to it and pictures.  Students could create timelines about novels they had read, create eyepopping timelines of periods in history, and even biographical timelines.

The second Web 2.0 site that I would like to review is called "My Fake Wall".  This website can be found at http://www.myfakewall.com/ .  This website would be great for students in upper middle and high school.  The website says it is geared towards social studies, but I think it can very well be adapted towards language arts.  The website looks very similiar to Facebook where they take people from history and create a profile page for him or her.  I don't see why they couldn't do the same for a character in a book.  Students will have to really study and learn in depth about the person they have to do a profile on plus have fun doing it.

Multiple Intelligences

After taking the multiple intelligence quiz, my three highest areas were social (interpersonal), musical, and self (intrapersonal).  I think this is very accurate because I do consider myself a "people person".  I love working in groups and so I tend to do many group activities in my classroom.  I have such a wide range of learning abilties in my room so small groups are very helpful.  As far as music goes, I haven't used but one lesson where music was involved.  Many of my students love rap music so I had them create a rap in one of my poetry units.  The rap had to have certain figurative language examples within the lyrics.  I also read aloud to them quite often.  I use a lot of theatrics with my voice to make the story more interesting which in turns keeps my students' attention.  My final area, self, is something that is important to me.  I cherish the moments that I get to be by myself.  With two young children and husband that works shift work, these moments are few and far between.  In these moments I like to work puzzles, read, or surf the internet.  When it comes to my classroom, I use a lot of books on tape and a reading software program for independent learning.  I teach a scholastic reading program called Read 180 and the program provides these materials for me.

The one technology activity that I loved after looking at it was the one called My Fakewall. The original Facebook program is so popular among kids that I know they would be highly interested in doing something like this. This is a great one for the learner who is interpersonal.  Here they can create conversation between characters of a book and it would be a great group project.  Music can also be attached to this assignment.  As far as the intraperson area, the blogging part fits right in.  The language area is seen through the writing and reading of the characters comments just like the spacial area is consumed through drawing of characters.  I am not sure how math-logic or body-kinethetic areas can be applied.  If anyone has a thought on that, please let me know.