Android Apps in our class

Home page...apps in folders

Some of the folders opened...

Also use Lensoo (recordable whiteboard) skitch (write on photos) as well as Amazing Alex, Where's my Water and Cut the Rope to develop problem solving skills.

We have Samsung Notes so the wee S-Note pen is great for using the inbuilt S-Note app for pictures and story writing.

Attack of the Androids!

As part of Samsung in Schools our class of 24 Year 1 students has the use of 8 Samsung Notes.  It has been quite a big learning curve for me going from iPads/iPhones to the Samsung Notes and having to give up some of the apps I love for the possibilities they give students e.g. Puppet Pals and Rubber Chicken Apps, hasn't been easy.

The kids love getting on them!

Today I sat with a group of students and we visited the Google Play store to find some apps that we can use to help us achieve some of our learning goals in Maths.  We already have Mathletics.  We wrote down the learning goals and then when we checked out the store we looked at different game options on the projector screen and looked at the reviews from others too - the kids quickly identified the good ones had 4 or more stars!  We wrote down the ones we thought could help our learning under the goals that they related to.  Being Mathematics, many of them were 'skill and drill' or 'glorified worksheets' but they were there to help us learn our basic facts.

There are some things I like more about the Samsung Notes...

• I love that I can have apps in more than one folder e.g. I can put a maths app in add/sub as well as in counting
• The quality of video and photo footage is an improvement
• Multitasking with split screens is very handy
• The plug in keypad that came with them is handy
• the S-Pen is a brilliant stylus

iPads to Support & Motivate Learners

So they find reading and writing a hard slog and put it off as much as possible?

What can you do about it?

Change it up!

Support them to find ways to tell their stories, read their books and grow a love of reading and writing.  It might not be the way you are used to teaching, you learn alongside the student.

Accross the board...I love using Educreations.  I can record a guided session with students in any curriculum area and post these to our class page for students to refer back to them when they are practising or at home to reinforce their learnjng.  Gives parents a glimpse into what we are doing too.  Similar apps are Explain Everything (even more bells and whistles) or a simpler feee one 'Screen Chomp'.  Students can use these apps to show you their thinking or to create a tutorial for someone else to learna from or as proof that they have met their sucess criteria.

Reading

iBooks 
Lots of ways to work with iBooks to support students in their reading.  They can highlight words, make notes, click on words and get definitions and ask the book to read some words to you - great for trying to understand aspects of a story and developing vocabulary.

Storytelling

Puppet Pals HD or Puppet Pals 2
Creative way for students to create and tell stories.  They can retell a story read, make up their own story, explain a concept, model a thinking strategy or tool... the possibilities are endless and they don't have to do it face to face - great way to present for students who prefer not to be up front and obvious.

Kidspiration/inspiration

This app allows students to create bubble maps, add pictures, graphics and even voice recordings.  These can then be put in list form which can be used as the structure for an essay or story.

Skitch

An easy app for all students to take a picture and add words, lines etc to develop vocab or simole labelling skills.  Because the photo can be one they have taken, or a screen shot they have a vested interest to motivate their work on it.

Notability

Similar in ways to evernote.  It can include videos, voice recordings, pictures, drawings etc to record notes during a workshop or lesson.

Scribble Press

Templates for telling stories and students can illustrate with drawings or photographs and feel successful as a writer.

Book Creator

This app creates books for iBooks.  When on the computer there are more options in the creating of these with more interactive possibilities however the iPad or android apps are pretty awesome too.

Success Makers

(opportunities to create without failure)

Echograph

Create glifs with one part moving and the rest still.

Silent Film

Old style film, telling a story with no talking.

I Can Animate

Heaps of applications!

Time Lapse

Similar uses to I Can Animate

Learning and doing

I posed a question to my class of 24 Year 1 students..."What do you need to learn in Maths this week?" Their first answers were the games they liked playing e.g. I need to learn the dominoes. I explained that the dominoes are more of a tool to learn other things in maths. Students then identified the number patterns on the dominoes and counting as their learning goals as they could use the dominoes for this (they love building with the dominoes).

This exercise led to another question...How do we know what we know? Good thing it's a week of assessments...an opportunity to have learning conversations with students about what they know and decide together the next learning to focus on.

Writing Rewired and some other fun stuff

On Monday it was inspiring to hear other teachers talk about the ways they are making learning more exciting, accessible and challenging for the students in their classes at a Writing Rewired Workshop in Cromwell for the eCentral Cluster.

Making the Writing Programme Fun was a google doc that was shared with us and has been compiled by teachers from all over NZ and was added to on Monday.

I had a few key take-away points

• get creative with current songs that interest students and use them in our learning - Thanks Danella
• re-read Clarity in the Classroom - Thanks Claire
• explore Hattie's work on Visible Learning further (part of our staff Teacher Inquiry too)
• Consider ways for the students to 'collect their evidence' - digital or paper? both?

There were lots of other things I am still 'processing' and are tucked away for a little later in the year when the class is more established.

Today I had a visiting teacher from Auckland in our class.  The focus was how eLearning tools are being used in a Year 1 classroom.  Our class has only had devices for 3 days - today was the third day!  This was a fabulous opportunity to share some of what I am developing with students using tools - things that will grow and change over 2014 as the needs of the learners change too.
Things we are establishing

• Mathletics on Samsung Notes (entering usernames and passwords takes up a big part of the time here).
• Letter Formation videos using our Casey Caterpillar shapes on QR codes so students can scan these with Samsung Notes to practise the letters they need to work on 
• Skitch - students have been working on character descriptions in our reading and writing after looking at the Gruffalo dvd they were photographing our class Gruffalo and then writing a description of it or labels on the picture - working with a partner for this (mixed groupings)
• PM reading on laptops with headphones - students are using their reading rocks (colour wheel based) to know what level they are reading at and selecting their reading level to explore the books and related activities.  Teaching students mostly used to touch screens how to use a lap top mouse pad has been interesting to say the least

I was amazed at how focused the students were on their learning when it was using different devices - is this because they are new to them?  Will the interest/hook/engagement continue?