Using iPads During Math Stations

I am continually trying to think of ways to use the iPads in a producing or student creation way, rather than a "lets play a game" kind of way.  I am also trying to be as paperless as possible this year, so using the iPads is a win, win situation.  I share the 20 iPads with another teacher so in all honesty, I only have 10 during math and I usually use 4 with my guided math groups, which leaves me 6 for math stations.  My students are partnered up and do 2 stations a day.  I have 10 stations that I change every 2 weeks.  I try to link my math stations to what we are currently learning about and a review of things we have already learned.  Here are a couple of math stations we are using this week and links for you to download the instructions if you wish.

iPad Domino Measuring Math Station

Students will be given dominoes, the "I Can Card" and 2 iPads (one for each student) in their Math Station bucket.  Students will be asked to measure three different books in the classroom with their dominoes.  The second task is to open the "Explain Everything" app, take a picture of their measurements and explain their thinking using at least three words from the word box in their video.  If you are interested in downloading the task card that I created, please download it here.

iPad Problem Solving Station

Students will be given the "I Can Card" and 2 iPads (one for each student) in their Math Station bucket. Students will be directed to click on the "Youtube" icon on their iPads.  Students will be directed to a reading of "The Napping House".  Here is the link.  Students will then open the "Explain Everything" app and will answer a math problem using pictures, numbers and words.  If you are interested in downloading the task card that I created, please download it here.

An organization tip:  I have created a folder on the iPads labelled, "Math Stations"  that way students know exactly where they find the apps they need.  Here is a screenshot for this particular math station:

Guided Math Groups With The Teacher

During guided math, students are working on telling time to the hour in grade 1 and to the quarter hour in grade 2.  I have uploaded  a picture of a clock face to their dropbox accounts so I we can work on this with them.  I will have students draw the hands on the face of a certain time and record the time, while recording themselves with either the "ShowMe "app or the "Explain Everything" app.  While students are doing this I am taking notes in Evernote for assessment reasons on my iPad or computer.

I have another iPad station involving my children's left over Halloween candy and tying in google forms and graphs.  I am still working out the details. (New Math Stations start on Thursday of this week.)  I will post pictures and this last station next week.  I am happy to say that all my other math stations this round do not involve paper except for the laminated directions and the laminated activities I have created.  No paper to send home!  Students will be taking pictures or videos of their work and uploading their work to their blogs to share with friends and family.

Are you doing math stations this year or do you have an iPad math station?  I would love to hear what you are doing in your classroom!

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Tips and Tricks for Creating Authentic iPad Learning Stations for Primary Students

A few weeks ago, I did a workshop on Creating Authentic iPad Learning Stations for Primary Students.  I thought I would share some of the things that I spoke about and some of the key points that I tried to get across in my workshop.

First, an iPad Station does not consist of handing a child an iPad, putting them on an app and letting them click away.  Come on people, aren’t we past this by now?  In the past, I have had colleagues come ask me if they can use the iPads in my room the following period.  When I replied yes, their next question was, “What apps do you have on them?”  WHAT!? Integrating technology doesn’t mean that you hand a child an iPad for a period because you have nothing planned.  Using technology needs to be purposeful.  It needs to be thought out, and there needs to a reason to use it.

Technology is used to give students a voice, give students choice, to give students a global audience, to make thinking visible and to allow me to assess and give feedback using voice and video.  It also enables my parents to see their children’s work on a daily basis through Twitter and their personal blogs. 

When I first started creating my iPad task cards, I only had 2 iPads in my classroom.  I originally used them as a centre or station during my daily 5 or my math stations.  I was able to put the task card along with an iPad and voila! My students were able to all have a turn using the iPad for something meaningful.  All of my iPad stations stem from the Ontario Curriculum. 

Now that I have a cart of iPads, I still use the iPad stations but, now many of the task cards are made for whole class activities and are step by step instructions for students to follow to complete a task.

All of my iPad stations are content creation stations.  Which means, that students use their creativity and knowledge to produce something that shows their learning.  Here are a few examples:

My second key point is that you only need one page of apps for your students to be successful.  I too, have fallen into the free app downloading frenzy.  What happens is you have so many apps for your students to use that they never get comfortable using it and then have to spend extra time learning the functions rather than concentrating on their work.  If you have a handful of apps that your students can use efficiently then they are not distracted by trying out a bunch of new apps that probably aren’t as good as the ones I am going to suggest anyways.

Here are the must have apps we use in my classroom:

I like to use apps that you can use for different purposes.  We use two whiteboard apps in my room.  For young children or children new to the iPad, Draw and Tell is where to start.  For experienced iPad users (which is most children) or children in grade 2 or higher I strongly suggest Explain Everything.  If you can only buy one app for your iPads, make it EE.

Here is an example of one my iPad stations using EE:

And a student sample:

Another favourite app we use all of the time is Popplet:

We also use Pic Collage for many different applications:

Lastly, Geoboard is a great free app to use for math:

This year, I have used Padlet walls to assess work.  Some of my students choose to use paper and pencil instead of the iPads to show their learning, with a quick picture of their work they can upload it to the Padlet wall and I can look at all of my students' work in one place from anywhere and see who is ready to move on or who needs to work with me the following day in a small group.

Created with Padlet

These are only a few examples of the iPad stations we use, please feel free to use any of the stations I have created.  You can download and print them for free.  At the top of the page where it says iPad Stations is where they are all stored.  Enjoy!

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Using Scratch Jr. as a Stepping Stone for Coding

As my students and I continue on our journey exploring coding in our classroom I wanted to find an app that would help my students build a foundation on how to code in a simple and creative way.   I took a look at several apps and chose the Scratch Jr. App for several reasons:

1. It is free.
2. The app is a content creation app where students are able to create and express themselves, try new things, take risks and experiment.
3. Students that cannot read, can still use this app successfully.
4. There are some fabulous resources for teachers.

When I first opened the app, I wasn't really sure what to do, there are many buttons and options.  I wanted to let my students "tinker" with it but I also wanted it to be purposeful and not too frustrating.  I went to the Scratch Jr. website and clicked on the activities tab.  It brought me to an introductory video that I shared with my students and 9 different activity cards that could be printed out or shown on a screen in your classroom ranging in difficulty.  

One of the Scratch Jr. Activity Task Cards from their website

I loved how even my struggling readers could follow the simple instructions and that at the end of each task card was two challenges to try.  Each of the nine activities demonstrates a different skill or action that children can do to create a program.  I decided that I wanted my students to go through the nine task cards so they had a solid foundation of how to use the app and all of the options that were provided.  I printed out all nine activity cards and created a checklist for my students to keep track of the activities they had completed.  

 Scratch Jr Activities Checklist

My students were so excited for this activity.  We worked on the activities for about forty minutes. Most students got two or three of the activity sheets done.  We worked on the activities  again today and my students are so excited to see all of the different things they can do with this app.  They are already asking me when we are going to continue with the activities.  I have other students that can't wait to code stories they have written during writer's workshop.  I was thinking of eventually using the app to code number stories that the children have written in math.  Instead of just reading their number story, they could code it!  There are so many possibilities with this app, I can't wait to see what my students come up with!

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A Letter To My Husband

Today, January 3rd, 2014 is my 8th wedding anniversary.  My husband and I have decided not to do gifts this year because frankly, if we really want something we will go out and buy it.  Truthfully, is it nice to get gifts, but the moments shared between the two of us and the little ways we show each other we care are far more meaningful.   Life is made up of memories not things.  This is the reason that we have decided that we will be spending the day together (thanks mom for watching the kids) and going to a nice place for dinner instead of gifts.  This year, instead of buying a card from Hallmark and signing my name to it,  I wanted to write him a letter instead.
My husband is also a teacher @mrwideen and is the tech junkie in our family.  If you have a question about anything tech related he will find the answer for you.  He is my go to guy for everything about my blog, how to set up anything tech related in my classroom, and my trouble shooting guy all rolled up into one. He is the expert at the tech, I am the expert on implementing it into the classroom. Whenever I ask him to help me out (which is ALL of the time) he jokes to give him a footnote at the end of, my blog post, my website, when I author something, etc.  So honey, this is your GIANT footnote.

Dear Eric,

Can you believe it has been 8 years since we exchanged our wedding vows on that little beach in Grand Cayman?  A lot has changed from when we met teaching at the same school in Inkster, MI.  Somethings have not changed though, my heart still skips a beat when you walk into a room or when I see that you have texted me during the day to tell me you are thinking of me.   I think back about when we met, and how we overcame a lot of obstacles and hurdles to be together.   Thank you for sticking through it and not giving up on me.
We now have 2 beautiful children, a beautiful family, content in our careers and our relationship is stronger than ever.  I know that our fantastic life is because of you.  When I am stressed out, you are my calm.  When I need help, you are always there to lend an ear, a hand or a reassuring hug.  When I leave you with our two little ones because I am at a conference speaking or on my computer for hours at a time, you never complain.  You are an amazing father, husband, colleague, teacher and friend.  The success I have had in my career is because you have encouraged, supported and said, "Yes, I can help" every step of the way.  I would not be half the person I am if it weren't for you.  I take full responsibility and ownership for all of my mistakes and failures and I share all of my success with you.  You are my constant calm and keep me grounded.  I feel loved and cherished by you each and everyday.  Without a doubt, you are my soul mate.
I hope that I fulfill your life as much as you fulfill mine.  I now realize that my life was incomplete before I met you, and now, everyday, I wake up excited to continue our journey together, because with you by my side, anything is possible.

I love you today, tomorrow and always.

Happy Anniversary,

Kristen

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Have You Tried The Aurasma App?

I went to Edcamp Detroit last weekend and Erin Klein shared a free app that she has used in her classroom with a lot of success.  The app is called Aurasma.  The app allows individuals to create and publish their own augmented reality experiences they call "Auras."  I'm sure you are thinking the same thing I was thinking when Erin was talking about this app, "Sounds cool, but what does it do?"  Students and teachers can make lessons come alive with this platform.  It is difficult to explain so I will explain it step by step, then show you what it looks like in action.

This past Friday we had a Mother's Day Tea to show our appreciation for the special women in our lives.  My students made portraits of their mothers and posted them in our hallway at school.  We thought it would be fun for the moms to try to pick out their portraits when they came to visit.  This was the perfect opportunity to try this app.

After my students finished their portraits, I took a quick 5 second video of each one of them saying a special message to their moms.

1. I opened up the Aurasma app and pressed the plus sign.
2. I then chose device at the bottom,
3. Next, I pressed the plus sign and chose the photo album option.
4. I then chose the video of one of my students from the camera roll for the overlay.
5.  Then, I chose to create an Aura with the video.
6.  I then took a picture of the portrait that my student created.
7.  Finally, I gave it a name and made it public so other people could see it.

When our guests came to the tea they saw this message on the wall above the portraits:

I took a quick clip of one of my students using the app to show you what the final product looked like.

The parents thought this was amazing.  We had some parents with tears in their eyes, watching their little one appear in a video saying happy mother's day and that they love them!

This was our first attempt at this app.  I have so many other ideas of how to use this app.  I have made little stickers with the Aurasma app picture.  I plan on placing the stickers on things that we have augmented.  I am going to use this for my math  and literacy stations.  I am going to create videos for the directions for the station so all the students will have to do is scan a card and a video will pop up with the directions.  I am also planning on using this for book recommendations.  Students will create a video about their favourite book and why they think you should read it.  We will use the Aurasma app, so students can scan the book and watch their peers video recommendation!  This app has so many possibilities!  I am going to let my students brainstorm different ways we can use this app in the classroom this week.  I will let you know what they come up with.

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iPad Math and Literacy Stations You Can Use Right Now!

Do you need to liven up you Math and/or Literacy Stations?  Are your students tired of doing worksheets?  Do you need some fresh ideas on how to incorporate your iPads into your daily stations/centers?  Do you want your students to create, rather than consume on the iPads?  

If you have answered yes to any of the above questions, then you are going to love this blog post.  I have done all the work for you.  I have created a Literacy Station for you to use and a Math Station you can use right now!  All you have to do is download it, print it and model it to your students.  I promise, that your students will love them, that they are engaging and that they are a great assessment tool for you to use.  

1. Fluency Literacy Station

This is the task card that is at my student's Station.  This is a great station because it doesn't matter what reading level your student is at.  In my room, we use the DRA.  My students have a folder that has what level they are currently at and what level their goal is.  Therefore, my students know that they can pick any book at their level to complete this station.

Here is the evaluation sheet your students can fill out.  I have mine saved to my student's Dropbox folders so they fill it out and save a finished copy of it.

If you are interested in using this, you can download it for free here.

Math-Money Station

For this particular station, I asked the students to use the organizer provided to show how you can make the amount of $1.00 four different ways and to take a picture of their work, explain it using the Draw and Tell App, then upload it to their blog.  Here is a finished example:

Students again have a task card with the directions that looks like this:

Here is the math organizer that is also with the directions sheet:

If you are interested in this activity, you may download it for free here.

I hope this helps with your planning or it sparks some new activities.  I would love to hear your thoughts or new ideas.  Please check back often, I will continue to share my ideas and downloads for you to use.

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My Top Picks For Content Creation iPad Apps

I recently saw a picture that was posted on twitter by George Couros.  I sent it to my principal because it sums up what we have been talking about for weeks about Apps that we are using with the iPads.  Here is the picture:

This slide is the inspiration for this blog post.  I personally, have been on a crusade to let my students create rather than spoon feed them content.  I want them to play with the information I give them, I went them to feel a sense of ownership of the knowledge and I want them to create something using the knowledge I have given them.
 
William Glasser is famous for the following information about how we learn:

How We Learn
10% of what we READ
20% of what we HEAR
30% of what we SEE
50% of what we SEE and HEAR
70% of what is DISCUSSED with OTHERS
80% of what is EXPERIENCED PERSONALLY
95% of what we TEACH TO SOMEONE ELSE
~William Glasser

An ongoing theme in my classroom is to make your learning visible.  My students are in grade 1 and 2, and they already know that they have a huge audience on their personal blogs.  We talk about who and why they are creating videos about the content we are learning in class.  My students want to teach other students and peers about what they are learning about.  It is also a great assessment piece for me, however, they don't see me as their audience anymore.  My students now feel a sense of accomplishment and purpose for what they are doing.  I'm sure they always did, however not to this magnitude.  

Here is a screen shot of the most popular content creation apps we are currently using in my classroom.

I was going to write a brief summary of each app, but then I realized that you can easily read a summary on the internet.  Instead, I will try to link a student created piece from my grade 1/2 classroom to the top 10 most used content creation apps we use.  

1.  Puppet Pals - Here is a link to one of my student's blogs using puppet pals to show adding and subtracting. Chloe's Blog (My students love comments, by the way...)

2. iMovie - Here is our "Traditions and Cultures Project" Video

3. Educreations - Here is a video of a math assessment my students did on time.  They were given a cue card with different times written on it and had to create a video on Educreations showing their learning of time. 
  
4.  Draw and Tell -  Here is a link to one of my student's blogs using Draw and Tell to show the words she has created from the "at" family. Destinee's Blog

5. Explain Everything - This is a video using the Explain Everything app from our Procedural Writing Unit.

6.  ShowMe - In this video a student is teaching others about patterning.

7.  Popplet - This is a screen shot of one of my grade 1's popplets.  He was showing his learning about spiders.

9.  Book Creator - We love using this app, however there is no embed option, so we can see the pictures on a blog but you can't hear the audio.  We are hoping for an update to make this app even more wonderful!  Here is a picture from one of our Non Fiction Insect Books .

8.  LittleBirdTales - We just completed our Personal Narratives on the LittleBirdTales App.  We will definitely be using this app again in the near future.  Here is a link to one of my students personal narratives on their blogs.

9.  Kidblog - My students are avid bloggers.  This app has opened up their world to blogging.  They are able to add pictures and videos easily and independently even at the age of six! Please visit our blogs and leave us a comment here

10. ScribblePress - Here is a book written by a couple of my students about school Scribble Press.

These are only a sample of things that we have done with these apps.  I hope that this post has ignited your creative juices and you are thinking of how you could use some of these content creation apps in your classroom.  I would love to hear what kind of things you are creating in your classroom!

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Primary Blogging Community

With the Primary Blogging Community starting this Monday, I wanted to do a little explaining on how this little project has become a bigger project.... At the end of August, I was partaking in my usual Sunday night ritual (participating in #1st chat on Twitter) when the conversation went to blogging.  Many teachers wanted to connect their classrooms with other classrooms from our 1st chat community. I volunteered to do some thinking about it and to start something.  I put out a Google Doc and asked for interested primary teachers to sign up.  The response was fantastic!  There were over 20 primary classrooms that wanted to participate.

I created an Edmodo teacher group for us where we could collaborate on ideas and I could start putting a schedule together.  We decided on the following dates and activities:

Teachers were group with 3 or 4 other classes.

October

Each week one class' blog will be the centre of attention. The other 3 or 4 classrooms will be exploring and commenting on that one particular blog.  The following week, class 2 will be the centre of attention where the other classes will comment and explore on class 2's blog and so on.

November

We are going to do some Skype and Google Hangout sessions with our blogging buddies.  This will create a "face" to the classroom blogs and will enrich the experience.

December

We will do a "snail mail" exchange that we are going to call "Winter Greetings".  Classes will send Winter Greetings to their blogging buddies.  It can be a letter, a card, a picture, or anything that can be sent in the mail. I am hopping that this will be an exciting time for our students and we will see some of their thoughts on their own personal blogs.

January

We will do the same rotation schedule and the same blogging buddies as we did in October, however, this time we will be focusing on our students' personal blogs instead of the class blog.  This will create more comments, more traffic and more enthusiasm for our students' blogs.

I am hoping if all goes well, that we will do the whole process again with different blogging buddies in February.  If you are interested in signing up for the next session, you can sign up here.

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Explain Your Thinking With Math Stations and the Explain Everything App

Math in my classroom may look a little different in my room than other classrooms.  At first Glance, it looks a bit chaotic and messy.  You may not see me at first glance, I might be playing a math game with a student, or working with a small group on the carpet,  or going over the math concept that we are currently working on with a group that needs a little extra help at the guided reading table.

I teach 75 minutes of math everyday.   My grade 2 students start with 10 minutes of an App called FlowPlus to practice their addition and subtraction facts.  They write their score on the back page of their math book each day and try to beat their score from the previous day.

I then teach a mini lesson to the whole group on the carpet.  We then do some sort of activity to reinforce the concept.  This might be on the iPads, using white boards and manipulatives,  a game, a partner activity or a worksheet.  I usually work with a group that is having difficulty with the concept at this time.

When students are finished the activity they go to a math station.  Students are partnered up with the same student each day and usually do one station that is preassigned.  All of the math stations are concepts that have already been taught in class.  The math stations reinforce the skills the students already have.

When creating a math station, I want students to be accountable, however I don't want copious amounts of paper to look at.  I also work with students to assess their knowledge of the math concepts during math stations and use this one on one or small group time to get a clearer picture of where they are and what they need assistance with.

We are working very hard this year to make our thinking visible and to talk more about our math
strategies and how we arrive at an answer.  This has led me to create many stations that incorporate the Explain Everything App.  Students use this app to explain and show their thinking.

Here are a few new math stations I have created and a few old favorites.  Feel free to download them and use them in your class if you wish.  On a side note, my students upload their Explain Everything's to their blogs. Having an authentic audience and getting feedback from others is a big engagement piece for my students.  They also like tweeting our their EE creations to our class Twitter feed.  This can be done easily with Explain Everything.

Measurement Math Challenge

Download Here

Fact Family Math Challenge

Download Here

Double Digit Dice Challenge

Download Here

Word Problem Challenge

Download Here

Area Math Challenge

Download Here

One last tidbit to think about, if you have a great student example, upload the example to your Youtube channel, create a QR code that links to the completed explain everything and attach the QR code to the back of the task card.  If your students have questions or want to check their work before submitting they can scan and watch the video.

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Geometry iPad Activities

As I am wrapping up my geometry unit, I wanted to share some of my favourite activities I created for my kids to show their thinking.  When I told them that we were starting a new unit next week they were upset because they had so much fun learning and showing their thinking during this unit.  I hope you can find some of the following activities useful and fun!

Upload this task card here.

Download here

Here is an example of one of my student's riddles:

Download the task card here

If you would like to see more student examples, check out our Padlet below:

Created with Padlet

If you are interested in more activities, download my free iTunesU course on 3D Geometry here.

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Shape Detectives - Pairing Literature, iPads and Math in the Primary Classroom

I love using literature to engage, inspire and make connections in math class. A colleague showed me the book, "The Secret Birthday Message" By Eric Carle. This wonderful book is about a boy who receives a letter written in code.  The boy decodes the secret message by following the shapes in the letter.  I thought it would be the perfect read aloud for an iPad lesson that I created this year for a kindergarten/grade 1 classroom called Shape Detectives.  Students take a photo of somewhere in their classroom that has many different shapes.  They then open an app that they can annotate on the picture like Draw and Tell, Skitch or Explain Everything to name a few.  Students then find the shapes in the picture and trace over the shapes.  Finally, have students record themselves naming the shapes.
A quick tip:  When little ones cannot read yet, task cards can be tricky.  Create a QR code with a sample of what the finished product could look like and sound like.  Glue the QR code to the back of the task card, so if your student needs a reminder, all they need to do is scan the QR code and go!  Here is the video and QR code for the above task card:

If you liked this lesson please check out my book, Innovate with iPad - Lessons to transform learning in the classroom that has many more practical lessons that will fit perfectly into your curriculum! 

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