My first screencast!

www.educreations.com/lesson/view/packaged-play/32430204/?ref=link

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https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/educreations-interactive-whiteboard/id478617061?mt=8

Price: free (upgraded version for $11/month)

The Educreations app was the screencasting app that I chose for this assignment.  I have done language arts themes for every assignment so far; and while I enjoy doing language arts projects, I haven’t gotten to do anything relating to coaching over the last couple of years.  In the app description, it says that it would be a great app for diagramming sports plays; so that’s what I did!  I used a scenario where our football team would be adding in a new wrinkle to attack this week’s opponent.   I could see a lot of ways to do language arts lessons with this app.  For in-class assigned novels, you can use the videos as outlines for what happens in chapters or certain sections.  You can do grammar lessons by voicing over and correcting words/sentences with the red pen feature.

It was easy to use and had enough features even for the lite version.The upgraded version is $11 per month.  From what I can see, the only feature that really makes me want the upgraded version is the ability to save videos to your camera roll. With the lite version you can still join groups, share assignments with others, and save drafts.  The only real problem was that for the life of me I could not embed the actual video into my blog post.  The link takes you right to my profile, though.

Tech Edge: iPads in the Classroom

The first episode I viewed covered mainly language arts related apps, but also some history related things at the end. The first one mentioned was the Word Mover app. In the app, you can take a series of words from a famous passage, speech, or poem and move them around as you please. For instance, you can take the Gettysburg Address, shuffle the words up, and move them back into the original order; or in a twist, you can create something new using the original words. While this was certainly my favorite of the apps mentioned, it still doesn’t resonate for me as a future middle level or secondary language arts teacher. I have a hard time seeing 13-18 year old students getting any real use out of class time by playing around on any of the mentioned apps. For the middle level I can see something good coming out using Word Mover by creating new texts with the original, but not much outside of that.

Word Mover App: https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/word-mover/id572997152?mt=8

The reading fluency episode had some ideas that I thought could stretch across several grade levels. The scholastic app that he explains at the beginning can be used for all ages and grades of students; it just depends on how you use it. He demonstrates how it can be used to time and log reading minutes for young readers; however, it could be easily used for high school aged students to help log study and reading time. Say a student wants to get in two hours of biology studying during the week. If he uses the timer, it will automatically help them keep up with their progress.

Scholastic Apps: http://www.scholastic.com/apps/#/src

This was my favorite of the episodes because it gave me a lot of ideas for my future classroom. As a student, I always look for ways to do projects and presentations in ways that are new and not overly done. The young ladies in this video showed a lot of apps that provide many formats for teachers and students both to use. The inspiration app had a lot of good charts and graphs for students to use for assignments, and for teachers to use when instructing. I feel that using different formats and modes of presentation are important in presenting material in interesting ways. There are two versions of the app, with the lite version costing $.99

https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/inspiration-maps-vpp/id510173686?mt=8

Comics in the Classroom

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App: Make Beliefs Comix
Price: Free ($4.99 version available)

Especially for the younger grades, comics can be a fun way to transition into a new lesson. For instance, the comic I made could be used as an intro to a speech class, or to introduce a unit on speeches for an English class. This app has quite a few fun characters to choose from. From a teacher standpoint, it seems a little bit cheesy to use. However, it can be a really fun way for students to spice up PowerPoint presentations and other projects.

It only offers 3 square comics, but you can obviously make more than one if needed.

My first Tellagami

App: Tellagami
Link to app: Tellagami https://appsto.re/us/nK0iI.i
Price: Free ($4.99 for education version)

Tellagami is a mobile app that lets you create and share a quick animated video called a Gami.

My favorite way to apply this to my classroom would be as a mix up from the usual reading lecture notes off of the podium. For things like a poem or a famous speech, this would be a fun way to take the boredom out of just saying it aloud.

On my Tellagami, I explained the basics of an English sonnet, which is something I learned about when I was a junior in high school. I would ideally use it on a PowerPoint where I can introduce the lesson in a fun way. With the extended version of the app, I could make him narrate the poem, too.

The free app has some limits. For instance, it allows you to record your voice for it, but the paid version lets you type in what you want it to say. I think it might be weird to have this animated character have your own voice.

Word Clouds in the Classroom

To show how world clouds can be used in the classroom, I used a poem I read in high school called “Rime of the Ancient Mariner” by Samuel Taylor Coleridge. I remember that when we studied the poem, our teacher instructed us to go from stanza to stanza and choose words that were important, appeared frequently, or both. For this, I used the first stanza of the poem and punched it into the app.

tagcloudlogo

TagCloud was only 99 cents and I chose the app for a couple of reasons:
1) It was the first one that popped up.
2) It had more than a few good reviews.

There are many options that make this easy to use. For the poem, I just copied the first stanza and pasted it into the text box. It then gives you some options to filter what words and how many of them appear. It automatically excludes common English words like and, it, and the so that they don’t get featured as common words. You can, however, change that feature if you do want to see those words. It also automatically excludes numbers, even if they are written out such as “seven.” You can change this, too.

Once you are done, it allows you to just save it to your camera roll for easy sharing, messaging, or embedding.

I can really see this being used for English classes. For example, they can punch their essays into it to see which words they are overusing or underusing. I think poetry and other literature is a great use for this app. A lot of times, the words that pop up the most can show what kind of message authors want to get across.

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Week 2 Blog Reflection: ditchthattextbook.com

www.DitchThatTextbook.com

Considering that DED 318 is all about technology in the classroom, a blog titled “Ditch That Textbook” would seem to be relevant.  This blog covers a multitude of ideas, apps, and tips concerning the way we teach our young men and women in today’s classroom; and for a future teacher concerned with how to incorporate technology into my classroom, blogs and sites like this one are a life saver.

One blog post covers ways that technology in our classrooms revolutionizes education.  Tablets, smartphones, and clouds aren’t just fancy bells and whistles: they’re ways to make the classroom more efficient and help the students learn as much as they can.  For example, I had never thought about using Google Docs to collaborate on an essay or make flashcards.

http://ditchthattextbook.com/2015/05/04/8-ways-technology-is-revolutionizing-education-with-examples/

The blog doesn’t only cover devices, apps, and/or websites to use.  It also talks about theories, ideas, and attitudes about how to approach technology in the classroom.  One post that stood out to me is titled “12 Mindsets for Creative Innovative Classrooms.”  It was refreshing to see some of the things that I hold as important for teachers being listed.  One of those ideas was realizing that the real innovation will come from the butts in the seats, not the devices held in the hands.

http://ditchthattextbook.com/2015/04/20/12-mindsets-for-creating-innovative-classrooms/

ipads in class