iPads in the Classroom
By: Ms. Boone
Dear Parents and Guardians,
In today's world I feel like our students can teach us more about iPads, smartboards, and technology than we can teach them. I'm hoping to make the transition into my classroom and all of our technology a smooth one for both you and your student. Throughout this year we will be using technology, specifically iPads, for many different projects. We will start the year off learning about proper care of iPads, and how to appropriately research topics. As the year progresses the students will use the iPads for research projects where they will present their work in a flipped classroom setting. This flyer will give you more detail, and hopefully answer any questions you have about how we will use technology in our classroom.
How I will use technology:
Remind 101
This is an app that I will use to remind you as parents/guardians about things going on in our classroom and school community. All you have to do is fill out the information sheet on the clipboards in the back of the room and make sure you add the best phone number for contact. I will send out texts for things about picture days, field trips, special snacks, etc.
Kahoot.it
I will use Kahoot to test students prior knowledge on subjects before we start new units. The students will use their devices to answer questions and then the class responses will appear on the screen. This will give us a good springboard to know where to start our learning.
How We will use technology:
BrainPop
BrainPop is full of educational and appropriate videos on topics throughout our curriculum. The school has a login and passcode that the students will be given during the first week of school. As we move into the later part of the year the students will be able to use BrainPop as a research tool for their projects.
Edmodo
Edmodo is an app the each one of our classroom devices will have on it. I will set up a class page and students can use it like FaceBook. They will post questions they might have while working on projects so classmates can help answer. They will also post links to some of their other projects to share with the class.
how students will use technology to research:
ducksters.com
Ducksters is a wonderful student friendly website that will give the students information on their grade level. It has an array of topics that cover history, social studies, geography, and science.
enchantedlearning.com
EnchantedLearning is very similar to ducksters. It is a great, student-friendly, search engine that they will use to answer questions for their research projects. For example, on their Famous Inventors research project, when they type in Thomas Edison it will bring up many links (somewhat like Google) but that are all student friendly.
how students will use technology to present in a flipped classroom:
educreation
Educreation is an app that all of our classroom devices will have. Students can type in their information, add pictures, and record themselves reading the information to present to the class.
PicCollage
PicCollage is another app students will have access to on our class iPads. This app allows students to make a collage of pictures and captions about a topic to present to the class. The different apps give each student options depending on what they find important about their research topic.
iMovie
Students will use the iMovie app to create book trailers. These will be done in small groups at the beginning of the year to present to the other groups about what they read. As the year goes on students will be given the option of creating a book trailer about books assigned to read at home.
How students with autism will use technology:
Social Stories App
Throughout our year together we will be doing many new things together, like field trips, experiments in the lab, and going to the library. This social story app allows the teacher (or anybody) to create a story for the students with ASD to read, or have read to them, to help prepare them for those new experiences.
Videos:
Why I Flipped My Classroom
iPad Expectations
Back to school apps for parents and students
FAQ's:
What are the advantages?
Gone are the days where teachers should simply stand in front of a room full of students and lecture. Studies have shown that with the assistance of technology, students are excelling in the classroom. The classroom iPads allow students the opportunity to research on their own. Driven by their own innate curiosity in the classroom the iPads give them the outlets to then, present that new knowledge to their classmates in an engaging way.
Why does it engage kids?
IT IS FUN! Our students are growing in the technology age. With apps on the iPads, students are learning new information without realizing that they are learning. The more engaged a student is while learning the more they want to know. When they begin to present information to the classroom their classmates get to ask them questions because now they've sparked interest in them. Technology is a wonderful tool for education.
Presentations?
Your students will be responsible for research projects throughout the school year. They will use the iPads to research, answer questions/wonders, create a form of presentation, and then air play their presentation to use while teaching the class about their topic. No one form of presentation will be required. As mentioned before, the students will use many different apps to help them with presenting.
What about special needs and accessibility features?
For students with special needs the iPads will be used more for help interacting in the classroom. One app will be used to help them communicate. Simply by pressing the picture of something they need/ want, the app will read it for them (in a gender and age specific voice). Another app used would be the social stories app talked about above. While a third app would be a timer app. The timer allows the student to prepare themselves for the upcoming transitions.