App Smashing on the 100th Day of School

We celebrated the 100th day of school with App Smashing!

We started with the AgingBooth iPad app and took pictures of ourselves. 

We used the AgingBooth app to transform our current image into what we image we might look like at 100 years old. 

The results were pretty funny!

After saving our elderly images to the camera roll, students then moved on to the PicCollage app. They imported their AgingBooth image (this is where the SMASH comes in) to create a cool poster of themselves at age 100.

When the collage was completed, students then imported that image into their Google drive. They made the link to the image public, took that public link and went to goo.gl to shorten it and create a QR Code. They took the QR Code image and inserted it on a Google slide, with instructions to scan.

 Finally, we took turns scanning all the QR Codes to see what our friends 

will look like in 90+ years. 

App Smashing projects are a lot of fun because they really allow students to be creative and reduces the limitations of just a single app. The use of multiple apps is a higher order thinking skill because students must follow quite a few directions and complete many steps before they are able to finalize their project. 

Importing a piece of the project from the iPad to a computer, adds another challenging layer and it is amazing to watch how easily students are able to switch back and forth between devices and apply so many skills to one project. 

My class had a great time with this project and I heard more than one student say they were going to save the image and check back when they were 100 to see how accurate AgingBooth is. 

Field Trip to Phoenix Courts

Every great field trip always starts with an exciting bus ride! Students were wowed by the tall buildings of downtown Phoenix and enjoyed the trip. 

First stop was "The Old Courthouse" and everyone had to go through a metal detector.

We spent a good deal of time in Judge Barton's courtroom and she gave us lots of information about the history of The Old Courthouse. She pointed out the lack of technology and even how some technology was impossible to incorporate because the building was built so long ago. She very patiently answered many of our questions, too! 

 Next, we headed across the street to the much more modern, South Court Tower. We took a combination of escalators and elevators all the way up to a courtroom on the 8th floor.

When we arrived, the person in charge of technology for the entire building gave a presentation about the technology used in the building including assistive technology (which several students got to test), microphones, projectors, and document cameras. This was very different than The Old Courthouse!

Next, students took a seat in the jury box and we heard two different mock trials.

First, Goldilocks took the stand and tried to convince us she was not guilty of breaking and entering and burglary in the home of the three bears.

The interrogation was pretty intense, and unfortunately, Goldilocks was quickly found guilty.

Next, Gretel of Hansel and Gretel took the stand. She explained to us how her poor brother had been captured and caged by an evil witch and she feared for her life! 

After a brief deliberation, the jury found Gretel not guilty and she was free to go! 

Thanks so much to our wonderful parent volunteers for all your help with this field trip and a HUGE thanks to Mr. Vingelli for all his hard work coordinating and setting everything up! 

Learning New Vocabulary With PicCollage

On Friday we competed in our first of three WordMasters Challenge meets of the 2014-15 school year. The WordMasters Challenge is a vocabulary competition based on completing analogies. Analogies involve higher order thinking skills which is based on logic and reason. We have been working on analogies and higher level thinking all year.

To prepare for the meet, students took up to three vocabulary words expected to be part of the WordMasters Challenge, looked up the meanings of the words and created a PicCollage using an iPad to demonstrate the meanings of their words. Students then presented their vocabulary words to the class and we discussed possible analogies and relationships for these words.

PicCollage is a fun, free iPad app that allows students to easily create beautiful photo collages. This app is easy to use and has lots of options to add text, stickers, different backgrounds, rotates photos, etc. 

Students really enjoyed becoming an expert on their new vocabulary words and sharing the information with the rest of the class. Our first WordMasters meet was very successful and the top five scorers were announced at the end of the day. This is a cumulative competition so scores from our next two meets will be added to the scores from this week to determine our final winners at the end of the year. 

Honored to be Named a Jacobs Educator

Dr. Thomas Brush (Chair, Instructional Systems Technology Department), Josh Mika, Me and Kate Baker

This past weekend I had to great honor of traveling to Indiana University to accept the Jacobs Educator Award. This is an annual award which recognizes teachers across the United States who are using technology to support innovative inquiry-based teaching and learning activities in their classrooms. 

The weekend was a whirlwind of activities and events including touring the IU Campus, meeting with faculty, staff, students, parents of students and the other two awardees. Saturday morning we were part of a panel during Parent Weekend called "Why Teach?", speaking primarily to EDU students and their parents about our views regarding the opportunities, challenges, and rewards of the profession.

Part of the Jacobs Educator Award includes new technology for the classroom along with communication and ongoing collaboration with Indiana University's prestigious school of education. We will be doing many video conferences and professors and students from IU will be visiting the classroom throughout the year to observe how my students use technology for Inquiry Based Learning. 

Google Glass!

The events this weekend were extremely positive and inspiration and I am so excited to be a part of the team of Jacobs Educators and working with Indiana University. Of course, I am so excited for new, cutting edge technology, too! 

Differentiated Lessons via Front Row Math

You may have heard your 1st or 2nd grade student talking about something called "Front Row" when they get home from school. No, this doesn't mean I have rearranged the desks (again!) and he or she is sitting in the front row. Front Row Math is a fairly new online math program that accurately isolates skills and gaps with every student. Then, it fills the gaps and builds on student strengths.

My favorite feature of Front Row is that it is adaptive. This allows students to work at their own pace on skills that are relevant to each student. During our math block I have been pulling students who are at the same or very similar levels and working with them either individually or in small groups. I am able to view data and reports through Front Row so I can see exactly what a student is struggling with or excelling in. So far I have found this data to be extremely accurate!

The students enjoy Front Row because it is gamified! When they get questions correct the earn coins and stars. Every so often the Front Row pig makes an appearance and students can spend their coins on items for the pig. From a teacher's point of view, I love that there is a game feature to keep students excited and engaged, but I also love that the game feature is minimal and limited so students are not able to spend excessive time playing games while not actually learning any math.

While students are working independently on Front Row and get stuck, there are a few options for them. My favorite way for them to get un-stuck is for them to watch a short, one-minute video which reviews exactly what they are having a challenge with. The videos go step by step to help students figure out what they need to learn or what they might be forgetting.

What has created the biggest buzz in education this year? That's right: Common Core Standards! Front Row Math is common core aligned. This program covers common core K-8 standards so students can work well above their current grade level, while still staying on track.

It's Never To Early To Start Learning Math!

Front Row is totally cloud based and students can use it on nearly any device including Chromebooks, iPads (there is a free app), MacBooks, etc. I explore a LOT of technology programs and am lucky I have the freedom and flexibility to be very choosy. Front Row is the best math program I have found so far to accurately differentiate math with my extremely unique group of gifted learners! Students are welcome to log in any time at home and show you what it is all about or use it on the weekends or evenings if they are looking to advance their skills on their own. The link for students to use is: https://student.frontrowed.com and our class code is lztsbw.

Emailing The Future

This week my returning students were excited to receive emails from... themselves! These emails were written last year when they were mere 1st graders and they got to read them this week as much older and mature 2nd graders. 

After reading their emails from their younger selves, students wrote again to their future selves, and this time the letters will arrive when they are in high school! 

We used a fun and free site called FutureMe  to send ourselves emails in the future. Students told their future selves about themselves right now and included information like their current favorite color, what they liked to eat, what they liked to do at recess, etc. Students are looking forward to seeing how much they change by the time they receive these emails! They also asked themselves questions and made a few predictions. FutureMe was a fun way to get my class excited about writing! 

Geometry with Candy and QR Codes

We have been working on a geometry unit in math class!

Students learned about lines, rays and angles and got to demonstrate what each was using toothpicks, marshmallows and candy corn. 

Later in the unit, students used an iPad to scan assorted QR Codes. Each QR Code brought them to different information about a shape including an image of the shape, the definition of the shape and properties of the shape. Each student created a chart of all the different shapes we learned and included all of this information. 

Mother's Day Cards With The Tellagami App

 An early Happy Mother's Day to all the fantastic moms! We created Mother's Day cards, but of course, added a 21st century twist.

First, students wrote a script in Google docs containing the message they wanted to send to their mom. After editing and practicing reading aloud, students were ready for the next step.

Using the Tellagami app, students created an avatar that looked like them. Then they set the avatar somewhere. 

What I love about this app is you can take a photo and set the avatar somewhere, real, like the classroom! This adds an element of Augmented Reality, one of my favorite new learning tools.

Next students read their script into the app, attaching their voice to their avatar.

Once they finished, a link to their video was generated. Students took the link and inserted it into a QR Code Generator. Then, they copied the URL of their QR Code and inserted the image of the QR Code into a Google doc, which I printed for them. In order to scan your special message, use any free QR Code reader. I like the i-nigma app, but there are literally hundreds to choose from.

The final step was pasting the QR Code onto their card, adding stickers, decorations and a personalized handwritten message to mom! Everyone enjoyed this project and the Tellegami app (free!) was a big hit! Happy Mother's Day!

Here is a link to an adorable sample gami and here is another! 

Tweeting In The Classroom

Click here to read about some of the ways we have used and will use Twitter this year! 

We have interacted with Steve Spangler, Mrs. P, The Daring Librarian and even the White House this year via Twitter. We also followed our buddy class (Mrs. Bird's class) as they tweeted from their adventure in Catalina Island. I love using social media to learn!

Fun Is In Session

We were excited to kick off our first field trip of the year at The Apple Store in Scottsdale to learn about iMovie!

Each student worked with a partner to first create video footage and take photos and then edit their movie.

After the movies were edited, the Apple Store Geniuses helped students upload their creation to a bracelet zip drive.

Everyone had a wonderful time and walked away with a movie strapped to their wrist! I uploaded all the movies to my YouTube Channel and created a playlist which can be viewed here. 

We were a little sad to ride the bus back to school because we had so much fun at The Apple Store, but we are excited for our next field trip in a few weeks.

Watch the video below for an inside glimpse of the field trip in action!