Readworks.org

Daniela Krum found this great website called:  www.readworks.org  It's full of great ideas for lesson planning with book suggestions for reading and comprehension skills (and it's free).  Check it out!

Book Creator Tutorial

Book Creator is a great tool for kids to create books on their iPads.  Like iMovie, it's very intuitive, and I suspect kids will be able to use it with very little instruction.  During our (extremely interactive) conference in Boston last month, Catherine and I made books of our own in about a half and hour.

One of the great possibilities of this App is that it allows kids to create individual pages, then it is very easy for teachers to combine those pages from multiple sources into one book that can be shared.

This is the cover of the book I created...

And one of the pages...

If you'd like to create your own book, the Getting Started tutorial is perfect, which is located in the App:

How easy is that?

I am going to include the slides from the Conference below for reference, but please know that Catherine and I are available to help walk you through the steps if need be:

Happy Creating! 

MB

iMovie tips

Fun fact: Kids love to make iMovies.  Last year, our 5th grade students used iMovie to reflect upon their field trip to Gettysburg, some of our 6th graders filmed Bible stories using iMovie (on their own devices), and our 8th graders created their 8th grade slide show using iMovie on the Macs in the Media Center.

I would love to see iMovie used more at HTS this year - it's such a fantastic way for the kids to collaborate and communicate their point of view - while having fun.  Consider the following possibilities:

• film students reading aloud to practice fluency
• film students doing a presentation to review and reflect upon their presentation skills

or create projects such as:

• a video to demonstrate classroom or playground rules, or tips for moving through the hallways safely and quietly
• filming footage at field trips (perhaps to create a travel video upon their return) - they could create a movie using photos, or film footage - or both!
• create a movie to raise awareness about an organization we are supporting on a tag day.
• filming a news report - either for current or historical events
• acting out a Bible story, or historical event.
• really, the possibilities are endless

In any project using iMovie, be sure the kids create a storyboard in advance of beginning the project, so they have a good sense of the sequence before they begin filming.  Films do not need to be long or complicated.  We can help you create a rubric to grade the iMovies

iMovie is available on our iPads.  The iMovie App is relatively simple, very intuitive and easy to use.* Most of the kids are able to work it out by themselves :)     Teachers may need a few tips however.  Catherine and I learned many new strategies in Boston over the summer at our conference, and are happy to help you get started to create an iPad project with your students.

I wanted to share a few slides from the Conference for reference (thanks to the amazing Greg Kulowiec at Ed Tech Teacher:)

*The iMovie program on the Macs in the Media Center is a bit more sophisticated.

These are the basic iMovie tools:

And some tips:

This was completely new to me, but very handy...

Once you finish the iMovie, you can project it from your iPad to the class smart board.  If there is enough interest, we will invest in an HTS Vimeo account, so that we can share items in a password protected way... (not on YouTube or Facebook people...)

Edutopia Summer Rejuvenation Guide

Hi all,

Happy Summer! Edutopia's Summer Rejuvenation Guide landed in my inbox the other day, and I thought it would be a cool thing to share with you all, just in case you need some tips to get the most out of your summer:

Link to the Guide

Learnzillion

Reprinted from the Summer Learning Blog:

Upper School Math Teacher and tech guru Polly Sileo recently attended a professional development conference, and discovered a cool new resource she would like to share with the HTS Community.


Learnzillion contains videos that review a range of math, grammar, phonics, reading and writing  topics that align with the new Common Core standards.  Our teachers recognize it will be a great resource to help prepare lessons and provide differentiation - to help struggling kids review,  or kids who need a challenge think about new concepts.  For parents or tutors, it could be a great resource for many of the same reasons.   This website is similar to Khan Academy,  but it is created by teachers and is more intentional, and far less procedural than KA.

I have provided a pair of screen shots to help give you a sense of what the lessons look like...

If the program sounds intriguing, you can read more it in the following news articles:

•  CNN Report
• EdSurge

Enjoy!

Mrs. Morell

iPads on Field Trips

I found this amazing little video on one of my Pinterest boards today.  I thought it offered some neat ideas to integrate iPads use into our Field Trips.  The video shows a class using iPads in two ways during a field trip in Chicago:

First, they filmed their adventures along the way and turned the footage into a video reflection of the day.

They also used the iPad as a reference/presentation tool in the The Art Institute of Chicago - it seems some of the students were assigned to be tour guides... which was all filmed as part of the reflection.

The video is only about 3 minutes long, so take a peek...

http://animoto.com/play/IEdk4zVDAGmch1qRhW1RLA

Museum of Mathematics

Marianne Green shared the Museum of Mathematics website with the Lower School teachers.  It's a fantastic website, and I wanted you all to have it:

In particular, check out the puzzles:

And the YouTube Channel:

Gmail Shortcut Infographic

Hi all,

I discovered this infographic from Visualeks.com on the "Free Technology for Teachers" website this morning.  For those of us who use Gmail constantly, it offers a huge number of shortcuts.  I love shortcuts.  Anything to save a bit of time.  Let me know if you need help turning on them on from the gear icon.

Enjoy!  mb

Explain Everything, Haiku Deck, Scribble Press and Scribble My Story

Last Friday, Catherine introduced the following four Apps to a group from the Lower School.  All have come highly recommended as  great resources for project-based learning.  Following are her notes.  As always, please let us know if you have any questions about any of the Apps:

Explain Everything

This app has been installed on 20 ipads in the Lower School

·         Create as many slides as you want

·         Save projects and edit later

·         Insert audio, video, text, photos from the ipad’s camera roll or photos taken while working in Explain Everything

·         Draw with a brush/pen using multiple colors

·         Add pointing arrows.  Easy to Undo and/or delete anything

·         Insert anything from the internet

·         Save projects to the ipad’s camera roll; export projects via email, save as a PDF (no audio or video on these PDFs)

Following are a few screen shots follow to help illustrate the program:

Haiku Deck – Free

·         Create slideshows/presentations/pretty reports

·         Show them on the smart board

·         Email them

·         Save as a PDF
We have used this extensively in the Upper School







Following are a few screen shots follow to help illustrate the program:

Scribble Press

·         Create stories starting with a blank book

·         Save stories and edit them later

·         Use different color markers and stickers for illustrating your book

·         Use speech bubbles

·         Type text

·         Add a background color to your pages (must be same color for every page)

·         Customize the front cover and the back cover (with author’s name, bio and photo)

·          Sharing:  Email a link to your story; open in iBooks; save as a PDF

Following are a few screen shots follow to help illustrate the program:

 Scribble My Story – fun app (Free) b/c it has an audio component to it where the student can also narrate their story (in addition to typing, drawing, etc.).  The issue is that I haven’t been able to share it or save it as a PDF yet.  That means you have to open this app in order to look at the finished product. 

Email I received from Scibble My Story:  You can register with an email account and then can download your stories as pdfs.  Use the DONE button in order to send an email of your story to yourself. 
Post script: I did all of this and still cannot access my stories anywhere (or share them).  I emailed Heather Regan again on 4/18 but no response yet.  Stay tuned….. 

Following are a few screen shots follow to help illustrate the program:

Scantron - Generating Study Guides and Tests

Hi all,

Following are the notes from our staff meeting on Friday.  This should help you to be able to generate study guides and tests tailored to the needs of your students.  Let me know if you have any questions.

mb