We were learning about the features of nonfiction text. We put these flip books in our interactive notebook. It was free at the TPT store. Check it out here.
After this, we took iPads to the library, took pictures of different features and the students made a shadow puppet, emailing the final product to me.
Check out this one (see if you can find the one misake):
A friend at lunch one day said,” I know an app that you will love.” Well, he was right! Shadow Puppet allows you to narrate photos and saves it all as a video. I have used it with a study group, taking pictures of the whiteboard with our notes, recording info, then emailing the video of this to each student making studying at home much easier and much more independent. I used it today to take a picture of an old heater vent in my classroom and record the rattles so that I could send the resulting video to our VP to get the needed repairs. I have snapped photos of a student’s review sheet, recorded myself reading it, then sent it to students to help them study for a test.
This is a video I made for a student explaining Pyramid Facts (she joined our class after I had already taught it to everyone else, this got her caught up.)
The emailed videos can also be viewed on a PC.
I had fun with this one:
“Over” from Potluck.
It allows you to type over a photo.
A new student, that spoke no English, wandered the school with me and with my ipad. He took pictures of his classmates and teachers. Together we added names over the photos. After that I used the Pic Stitch app from Big Blue Clip to put the labelled photos into a collage and print them.
It was a fun way to begin learning names.
I enjoy the excitement of a fresh start. Rearranging furniture, redecorating, reorganizing, refreshing… I wanted this new year, this return after a break, to renew my students’ motivation. One of our areas of renewal has been getting comfortable with a new app called Word Q.
This is a more expensive app ($25) but a license for Word Q on the PC is $199. Word Q is a word predictor program – it predicts possible word choices as the student types. The student can choose one of the predicted words or keep typing. Each word is read back to the student. There are other great features – it will read back the whole passage, give word suggestions, give definitions, to name a few.
Along with getting familiar with this app we now have an air-print printer, so that students can print from their iPads, and wireless keyboards to make typing easier. Add headphones and we have a very productive class.
I felt so encouraged yesterday to watch four students, each with headphones on, typing away at book reports. They were motivated! The best part was their confidence that they had spelled words properly and knew that what they had written made sense because they had heard it read back to them. I was impressed with the clear thoughts that they were able to express with very little help from me.
I think my students were re-energized but know that I felt rejuvenated! A writing assignment went from groans to cheers. Yay!
Another app. I like this one for articulation practice. You can choose a target sound and record the speech for instant feedback. You can choose whether the target sound will be in the beginning, middle, or end of the word. Best of all, it’s free!
I love this app!
It’s a talking calculator and it has improved student accuracy on a calculator! So many of my students were not accurate with a calculator – pressing the wrong buttons. With this app they hear their mistake. When they do make a mistake they can backspace rather than starting all over. Love the multi-sensory approach.
I love using this app. It has improved my speed, accuracy, and confidence in my calculations.
The app is free but adding the voice costs a bit. Also, be sure to have headphones if others are around.
The Resourceful Resource Teacher 