Cheers,
Lesley
We're all trying to help our students expand their vocabularies, right? I've done the bookmarks, word walls, flashcards, quizzes, and blah, blah, blah. Some methods work better with some students than others, but I think I have found a tool that will work even better because it can be directly related to the SAT (something my students will take in the future and something the high achievers are already thinking about). ProfessorWord is a website that allows you to install the program on your toolbar (mind you, you will need to ensure your toolbar is visible) and it will highlight words that are used on the SAT and ACT exams. It will also allow you to highlight unfamiliar words and it will define them right there for you, so there's no need to open another app or tab to search for a dictionary. I've only begun using ProfessorWord, but I'm sold! I've begun encouraging my students to use it and I am looking forward to ProfessorWord's future plans to include personal vocabulary lists (which won't be as easy to lose as those bookmarks I've been assigning). Below is their YouTube video that will explain just how easy it is to use. If you teach high schoolers, this is something you and your should start using today. Cheers, Lesley
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PaperHelper is FREE for a few days! While I haven't used it before, I did create a practice document and I thought it was quite easy to use. I liked how I could be writing an essay and researching at the same time. You can even create your Works Cited page as you go along because it will save the resources you quote and the resources you use (if you ask it to, that is). It even allows you to set reminders and keep verbal notes with your work and it can interface with DropBox (something I'm sure almost all of you have by now, right?) and Pages. I still need to do some more work with this app, but I am impressed. This could make writing our research papers easier! I'll have to test it out with a class and let you know how we do. Cheers, Lesley Infographics seem to be the hot, new thing to do and this comes with good reason—they are very attractive and can deliver a lot of information in a short amount of time. Seriously, they are ALL over. I see them on Facebook, Pinterest, Twitter… It seems that everyone likes and uses infographics. However, as you know, not all infographics are created equal. Nevertheless, I think it would be a fun activity to challenge your students to create an infographic. I believe I will try to do this in conjunction with the I-Search paper (our version of the research paper); however, I have not done tried this yet, but this is what I think I will do: 1) Look at completed infographics and discuss what we like and what we think could be improved. 2) Have the students make a rubric for the infographic. 3) Have the students create infographics using http://infogr.am/ 4) Share the infographics and discuss them as a class. Then choose which infographic is the best and why (which should go back to the rubric they created. That seems to be the most fair way, right?). Finally, I may even reward the best infographic-designer with homemade banana bread or something. ;-) I think scaffolding the project like that would be an effective way to prepare learners and to make them aware of your expectations. Plus, this would employ a different kind of literacy that involves graphics and these new skills that are becoming more and more important in today’s world. When I try it, I'll let you know how it goes. If you try it before me, let us know how it went! (And share some tips, too, please!) Cheers, Lesley American association of School Librarians' (AASL) List of Best Apps for Teaching & Learning8/6/2013
Click on the image to go to the link.
As the school year is about to start, it's no surprise Mr. Makhlouf sent me this link to the AASL's Best Apps for Teaching and Learning. A few of them are already highlighted in this website, but many are new, so please do check it out. There are book apps (and I'm guessing they would be the complete books, too, because none of them are free. Prices range from $2.99 to $14.99.); Science, Technology, Engineering, and Math (STEM) apps (and most are free except Operation Math is $2.99 and Simple Physics is $1.99); organization and management apps (all are free and most should be familiar); social sciences apps (all are $4.99 except News-O-Matic and MyCongress which are FREE!); and content creation apps (and all are FREE except GarageBand which is $4.99). So before you head off for the first day of school, take a look and see if you get any more ideas for this 2013-14 school year. With two iPad carts and many teachers who have their own iPads, I believe there are many possibilities to enhance what we're already doing well. Imagine the possibilities and keep checking back here. ;-) Cheers, Lesley Hello, everyone! I know it's been a while, but what can I say? I'm enjoying my summer. :-) And I hope you are as well! However, you should still be looking for apps and playing around with them. I have made a few changes on the site, but the one that you need to know about is an app you should have gotten yesterday--Apps Gone Free. This is an app that tells you what apps are free for a day. There are usually lots of games, but I've gotten some neat PDF and camera apps using Apps Gone Free, so check it out today and see what apps you find. https://itunes.apple.com/us/app/apps-gone-free-best-daily/id470693788?mt=8 Cheers,
Lesley I've come across a few apps that I think will be wonderful for us teachers.
1. TeacherCast -- This app links you to TeacherCast.net (a great website that is actually very much like the app itself) and gives you access to their podcasts, blogs, videos, etc. about educational issues, topics and ideas. There is also links to the mobile classroom (which gives you access to materials you would want to use in a mobile classroom) and "apps" recommends apps for you (though it's not working at school well... I wonder if that's because the App Store is blocked, though). I think it's a very user-friendly interface and the ease of use continues if you look at the bottom of the screen where the navigational icons are that can give you more information about TeacherCast, link you to "educational portals" (i.e., email, calendar, Facebook, Dropbox, Gmail, YouTube, etc.), and extras which will link you to already done LiveBinders filled with great ideas and other links that aren't quite as exciting, in my opinion. Even though it's basically the same as the website, it's worth downloading the app so that you'll see it and be encouraged to use it more. 2. TeacherKit -- This app is great for classroom management. You can create seating arrangements here and you can add notes about attendance, behavior, and the grades of each student. There is even a space to add the student's email, a parent's email, and a parent phone number. The navigational tabs at the top allow you to tap on students who are present, quickly add a note or a behavioral note about a student, and keep track of grades. While I don't think I will use the grading feature, I'm excited to use it as a tool for parent meetings. It will be nice to have all of those notes in one place! You can have multiple classes, too, so this will work well for high school teachers. (And you can change the settings so that you can keep track of excused and unexcused absences! Edline may not do it, but now we can! All I will need to see is that excused absence slip...) Elementary teachers, please read about ClassDojo. 3. ClassDojo -- The app actually goes along with the website. In fact, you have to use the website to set up your class. Nevertheless, I think this app/website could work WONDERS in your classroom because you award students positive points for working hard, being on task, or participating or you could take away points for negative behaviors like being off task, talking out of turn, or being unprepared. The students are displayed as funny-looking avatars so you could display this during class to see how many points the students accumulate and then the stats are kept on the website. The website is MUCH more complete; the app seems to be just a quick way to award/take away points, but I think it would be good motivation to show students at the end of the day. And you can wipe the points daily so all students start at 0 each day, but YOU can see the daily stats or the average to see if there is a problem. You can also share this with parents. Personally, it's a little too elementary for me, but it looks like a great tool for those of you who have younger students. 4. WDWDT? -- WDWDT=What did we do today? This is actually a phone app that you can download onto your iPad and it will contact the students and parents to send reminders about homework or special events, or you can ask for volunteers (student or parent--maybe you need a chaperone or maybe you need someone to read their poem to another class or something), or you can conduct a survey, or you can arrange a meeting. If you can get parents to use this app (but really, why wouldn't they want access to that kind of info?), this would be an AMAZING tool. I'm going to require my students to use it because the Google calendar and Facebook reminders weren't enough. When in doubt, over-communicate, right? ;-) Cheers, Lesley |
About the AuthorLesley is an English teacher who is passionate about using connectivism in the classroom and preparing students and teachers for using the tools that are available to them on a regular basis. This blog will focus on iPad apps and Web 2.0 tools that can enhance and diversify learning. Leave a comment and let me know what you think or what you'd like to learn about! Archives
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