For those fortunate to have access to use them in your classroom with your students, what kinds of things have you used them for? I'd love to incorporate them more in a cool way into my lessons and am looking for some ideas!
Most often for research for non-fiction writing. Last year we did a writing piece on famous natural disasters and how they impacted people. The kids watched some news clips for their research. We also have a computer based math program that the kids could use on the iPads called ST Math.
Instead of listening to stories on tapes, my minis scan QR codes with stories on them. Endless Reader and Endless ABC are used for building vocabulary. Educreations is a popular app that's excellent for creating. There are tons of great apps for intervention/small groups. What grade do you teach? Are you looking for anything specific?
I have access to 8 ipads for my second graders. i use them for math stations and also for teaching research. We just finished researching frogs and toads and kids had to write a non-fiction paragraph about 1 animal.
This is our first year with the iPads and so far we are using it just for Raz-kids for our kids to read on. We will be expanding our use of the iPads but we will do so slowly.
Last year we had 10 that we shared between the 4 1st grade classrooms. We are 1:1 this year. We have used them daily in our classroom since the second day of school. Next year will go even smoother since the kindergarteners are also 1:1 this year so we won't have to teach the basics like logging into the school's firewall or diagnosing wifi issues. I swear I have some kiddos who will be applying for positions in the IT department. *We use Ebackpack, it is like Showbie, to do assignments with our leveled readers during intervention time. Students do the work (which can be a worksheet, a blank document, PDF, Jpeg, basically anything) on ebackpack and send it to me to review. You can also create a test on ebackpack and it will grade it for you. *Some students use the Hooked on Phonics app during that time as well. This is a $50 that was offered for free one day and my school district downloaded 3000 copies! *We don't always use them in math, but at least a couple of times a week we forgo the text and do our math on Doodlebuddy or some other math apps. 10 Frame Fill by Classroom focused Software. Frames by Alexander Chen. Math Word Problems-Addition and Subtraction for Kindergarten and First Grade by Tapfun inc. There is a free version and a paid version. Number Pieces Basic, by the Math Learning Center by Clarity Innovations. Those are a few of my favorite free apps. *We use Spelling City. *Quizlet is also nice for vocab and sight words. *We also make books on Book Creator. *Piccollage is an app that is not usually what you think of when you think of educational app. We've made PicCollages for character traits, research, and presentations. * Last year we filmed commercials for persuasive writing and cooking shows to teach sequencing. I am assuming I will do the same this year. *Our district is pulling away from basals so I am using a lot of picture books to teach reading skills. I create a QR code mini poster leading to a youtube video of the book.
Thanks for the list of apps, Organic! I only have one iPad for my kinders. I have a few apps and let the kids switch out with it during centers. Sadly, I think I'm one of the only teachers that lets the kids use it. I'm not really sure what the other teachers do with theirs.
I use a lot of apps that can be interactive when the kids have their own iPads. Examples include Edmodo, Classkick, and the website www.getkahoot.com, and there are many more. If there is only one iPad in the room, you can use MathBoard, Educreations, and Haikudeck. Haikudeck lets you make slides easily, so I have my students find pictures related to what we are learning about and we share them with the class.
My school is mostly Chromebook-based, but we also have an ipad mini cart. I haven't used them a ton so far, but we have used them for: - QR code scavenger hunt to research parts of the cell - I put the codes around the room and they used the ipads to scan, research, and synthesize the info. - Book trailers -We recently finished Wonder as a read aloud, and the kids made book trailers using iMovie trailer from the different characters' points of view. Later, I'll have them make trailers for their individual reading books and in groups for their book club books. Those trailers will be just to advertise the book. I'm taking an idea I got at a conference and putting a QR code taped to the back of each book that leads to the trailer on Youtube. So far, one of my students made one on her own for Out of My Mind, but I plan to get more later. Here's a link to PDF storyboards for imovie trailer. When we did the Wonder trailers, my kids worked in groups of 3 or 4, so I needed 9 iPads. You could do it with less depending on group size, class size, and whether they're all working on it at once.
