Smartboard Videos to iPods

Making Smartboard videos become iPod videos is easy and fun. The following video will give step by step instructions on how to make Smartboard videos and sync them to the iPods for a more individualized instruction in the classroom.

Songify App

This summer the Gregory Brothers put out an iPod app that will auto tune words that are recorded onto the iPod.  The app is free and it would be a great way to have the students memorize something that has a pattern.  For example- Have fourth graders say the names of the 5 regions of Virginia.  Then the app will put it to a rhythm that the student can listen to repeatedly to get the region names into their brain. 
The app has 3 free tunes- any after that must be purchased. 

Miss Spell App- Language Arts/Spelling

The app Miss Spell by Dictionary.com is great for older children to recognize the correct spellings of words.  It gives the students the opportunity to use word patterns they should be familiar with as well as sounds and letter patterns.  It gives the students a score at the end so they can keep track of their improvements over the weeks of practicing the words.  Students can also list the words they do not recognize, then look them up in a dictionary to identify the meaning, correctly use them in sentences and learn to spell them correctly!

Do any of you readers out there know of other spelling apps that are similar to this one?

Brain Pop- Osama Bin Laden Video

The Brain Pop app for the iPod touch is wonderful!  It gives a new video each day.  The daily videos are very current and timely!  Yesterday, May 2, 2011, the video was about Osama Bin Laden and the September 11 experience.  At the beginning of the video it asks that students watch the video with an adult.  I watched the video before allowing my students to watch it and the video was so well done, that I found it quite appropriate for my 4th graders!  Many of my fourth graders were not aware of that part of history and it was quite instructional and understandable for them.  I applaud Brain pop for this fabulous, well-done explanation of a very difficult topic!   I would encourage teachers to use the Brain Pop app and check out the daily videos!

Pass the Past App-- Virginia Studies SOLs

I learned about this wonderful app Pass the Past from another blog!  This app is amazing for practicing for any history SOL!  My students used the Virginia Studies section.  It has 40 questions on it and it is scored for them. My students were to answer the questions and then if they scored 80% or better they could play a logic game app of choice.  They were to try to not use the hints and see it they could still score 80%. The app is just the right length of my fourth graders and the motivation of playing a logic app when meeting the 80% goal motivated them!
Try it for any history SOL!

Why the Blog? EDET 650

Why the Blog?

During this spring semester at Radford University, I have taken the class EDET 650, Web 2.0. During this class I had the assignment of creating a blog to share some educational ideas- thus the birth of this blog.  The most difficult part of creating the blog was getting followers and increasing traffic to the blog.  Thanks to all of my followers and people that have viewed my blog.  IT WILL CONTINUE even though my class will be over!  

Strategies to Increase Blog Traffic:

1- Throughout the past several weeks, I have tried increasing traffic by continuing to share my new posts through twitter and facebook.  The twitter updates have increased my traffic a lot recently.  I have chosen this strategy because as I have increased the people that I am following, it seems to have increased my hits! It is exciting to see this strategy working.

2- The most successful strategy though has been when I changed my blog URL so that my name was not included and then my blog was linked to the iLearn site in conjunction with the 4th grade videos taken in my classroom.. Most of my hits have recently come through that posting! (Thanks Dr. Dunleavy for working out that linking!) I chose this strategy because if other educators are like me, the more links that are closely tied together, the easier for me to look at them and find information. (This is why I get easily sidetracked when blogging and reading blogs.)

650 Reflection:

This blog has been an extremely powerful tool for my professional development!  Many of the educators that I know are using blogs in their classrooms and I always thought, "I don't have time for that, I don't see the benefits."  Now- I cannot wait to set up a blog for my classroom next year! 

This has also increased my awareness of the benefits of having an extensive PLN. I like conversing with other teachers and reading their blogs, lesson plans, ideas, strategies... Having a connected PLN makes that easier and it is really beneficial to my professional development.  It helps me continue to learn what others are doing and how I can utilize those ideas to the fullest extent!  

Watch for my new classroom blog next year and please stay tuned to future postings about how iPod touches are changing my classroom daily!

iLearn Videos from 4th Grade Classroom- Using iPods in the Classroom

Check out the videos from iLearn about using iPods in my classroom.  These are really helpful and very practical!  Leave comments here so I get an idea of what you learned!

Pocket Zoo- Free App for Earth Day

On this special Earth Day, April 22, 2011, the Pocket Zoo app is free for the iPod touch!  It is so great!  It allows students to learn information about various zoo animals as well as it has video and some live web cam.  It would be a wonderful app for multiple ages and can be used in a variety of ways including Science, writing, reading... Get it before it costs again!

Word Bubble App- Useful for Vocabulary and Spelling

My classroom has been buzzing with SOL review, SOL review, SOL review!!!! While I have been working with individuals and small groups for review during our Language Arts/ Reading time, my students have been working through some literacy rotations.  One rotation is to use the Word Bubble app. This app is appropriate for various ages of students. It has 3 levels: easy, medium and hard.  The students try to pop bubbles in the correct order to spell words.  They are timed and given a score based on speed and accuracy. My students, being late fourth graders, are being encouraged to use the medium level and see how many words they can remember after they play the game.  The words they remember are to be written on paper and then later they will use some of those in sentences or define the ones that are not familiar to them.  This is a fun way to build vocabulary and improve spelling using phonemic patterns. Try it for             
                                      your students and yourself!  It is addictive!

EDET 650 Presentation

The following is a presentation about my project for EDET 650. Enjoy reading!

" What Kids Say Is the Biggest Obstacle to Technology at School"

The following article is interesting to read: Read, Write, Web. It highlights some of the things kids say about technology obstacles.  When I asked this question to my students, they responded with comments like:
"Apps not working"
"Videos not syncing"
"Not enough time to complete the task"
"Don't like it when the game doesn't work"
"Clicking on the iPod screen and things move around or I click the wrong thing"
"At home my computer is really slow!"
"At home my computer freezes"
"At home I have slow downloads"
"When I shake the iPod it sometimes turns to something different"
"At home I get a virus when I go to google"

How would your students answer this question?

Difficult Technology Day- It Happens!

Days like today can discourage the use of technology.  Here's the saga:
This weekend I spent almost 6 hours creating a video for a Geometry review.  This one I created on my Mac and recorded it on my Mac in Smart notebook.  I also tried converting it using Handbrake.  It seemed like everything had worked well and I was pleased with the outcome, so I arrive at school VERY early today (7:15) excited to sync my new video to the iPods.
The first discouraging moment was when I realized that the form Handbrake converted it into was not successfully syncing to the iPods, so I quickly sent it to Format Factory on my PC, reformatted it, sent it back to the Mac, and then we had a successful sync!
So- I thought things were great and we were over the first bump of the day, but NO- when the children were watching the video, my voice and the pictures were NOT in sync.  It was frustrating for them and for me. At that point in the lesson there was nothing to do, so I had the children complete their review as best as they could and I went to work on recording the video again on the actual Smart board this time!
The video is now recorded for the second time and reformatted ready for syncing in the morning. Hopefully, it will be better this time.
All of this to say-- be careful when making the videos in Smart Recorder.  It definitely needs to be made on the Smart board not the Mac and so far Handbrake is not working for this task.
Oh well- hopefully tomorrow will be more successful with technology!

On the bright side-- Look at my wonderful students in the pictures below as they are working and learning so hard using the "messed up" video. I love their efforts as much as they love mine!

These are some of my precious, hard-working students!

Metric Mass Video- 4th Grade Math SOL 4.10

As an introduction to Metric mass, the students used this video to help them learn about measuring mass with metric units.  This video was created by my student intern and she created it in Smart notebook and recorded it using her Mac computer. 

My students really enjoy learning with these videos and it has really improved the differentiation in our classroom.  Enjoy it and use it to help in your classroom.

Handbreak- Free Download

Thanks to one of my wonderful technology experts in Radford City, I learned today that I can use my Mac to create my app videos and then convert them to MP4 format using Handbrake a free download!  I have been creating them on my PC converting them through Format Factory and then transferring them to my Mac for syncing.  This is a great discovery!  It just reminds me that there are so many wonderful things out there and that there are so many ways to achieve the same outcome. Check out Handbrake with the Youtube video below.

Comparing Decimals 4th Grade Math SOL 4.4c

My students have been learning to compare decimals. I teach this math skill just like you teach putting
words in ABC order; line the numbers up by the decimal point and then compare the numbers from left
to right.  This video helps the students be reminded of those steps as many times as necessary.
It also includes a guide practice activity and is self checking at the end. Videos such as these are so helpful for my students!

Whole Class Response Ideas Using Two Apps

I am constantly looking for ways to get my entire class to respond to answers so that everyone is involved in the learning and so I can quickly assess the learning. I have found 2 apps that help with this all student response strategy: The Flashlight app and Doodle Buddy.
FLASHLIGHT APP: My class uses the free Flashlight app (link below) to show the response to a question.  The app is really easy for the students to set up to show different colors on the screen.  For a lesson on ounces and pounds, if ounces was the correct measurement for an item then the students showed green, if pounds was the correct measurement then the students showed red.  This way the teacher can check the students' answers quickly and quietly and everyone is responding.  The flashlight can be set to show many different colors so there is the possibility of many different responses.


Free Flashlight App

DOODLE BUDDY: Another app that can be used as a response system is the Doodle Buddy app (see link below). Students can respond with short answers on this app.  They use their fingers to write an answer and then hold it up for me to check.  This is really easy to check if the students write large and if the answers are short.  Of course there are many others ways this app can be utilized. This app also allows students to create texts or draw pictures, add in "stamps"... There are many other uses for this app other than the idea listed here.  Check it out! Send me your ideas through comments on this post!  

Doodle Buddy App

Freddy Fraction 4th Grade Math SOL 4.3

My class has been studying fractions for several weeks now.  At the beginning of our study I taught the students several fraction apps including the Freddy Fraction app.  At that time, the information about fraction and decimal relationships was basically unknown to the students. Today one of my students was using that app again and became very excited because the information now made sense to him.  He played it for 45 minutes and was upset when it was time to put it away.  He wrote that the app was challenging yet fun and he wished he could play with it longer. Seeing his learning progress so quickly just through the observation of when he first used the app until today was so rewarding.  It was also exciting to see his enthusiasm for learning through something as simple as an iPod app.

Click here for Freddy Fraction Link

Reading Motivation and Skill Review 4th Grade Language Arts SOL 4.5

 My students used many story apps today to practice some reading skills that we have been learning this year.  To begin this review lesson I showed a book on the Kindle app that is downloaded on my computer and shown on the Smartboard. After a review of the skills conflict/resolution, genre and paraphrasing  the students were allowed to go to any of the following apps and find a story.  The apps they could access for this activity were as follows: Read Me Stories, Andersen Fairy Tales, Fairy Tales, Fairy Tales Andersen, Fables Part 2, Happy family, Snow Queen, The Angel, Thumbelina.

The students were to then read the story of their choosing and complete the following activity about the story:

Conflict, Resolution, Genre and Paraphrasing Review

The story I read is 

                                                      

The conflict in the story is

The conflict was resolved by

The genre of this story is
Paraphrase the plot of the story

This activity went so well.  The students were motivated to read different genres and they continued to read more stories after they completed the assigned activity. The iPod was such a motivational tool for them in Reading.

Using the iPod as Inspiration for Writing

Today my intern had a wonderful writing lesson where the students were learning to write a story of sequential directions. They began by writing a story about how to tie a shoe.  After discussing all that needed to be included and practicing with this simple task, she had them write a paragraph about how to use an app that they enjoy on the iPod.  The students were to begin turning on the iPod, finding the app and then continuing from there.  She asked them to pretend they were introducing their grandparent to the iPod and how to use a particular app of their choosing.  It was a difficult writing task for some, but a very unique way to include the iPod in a writing lesson. 

Same Sound- Homophones- 4th Grade Language Arts SOL 4.8

The app "Same Sound" that was created in the RU Games Lab is wonderful for introducing students to a variety of homophones. In this app the students have to decide which homophone should be used in a sentence to make it correct.  As the students used this app, they were asked to make a list of the homophones they saw. Afterwards, they discussed the new homophones introduced to them through this app.
An extension activity would be to use the new homophones in sentences and illustrate them to show an understanding of the meaning of the words.
My students have used this app several times and are always fascinated by
the new words found here. It is appropriate for grades 3-6.