Using Keynote to Present

I had a little time on an airplane this weekend to start planning what I'm going to say at the CUE conference in Napa this fall. I'm speaking for an hour.  There are about a hundred speakers a day. I want my one hour to be spectacular! What would that look like? 

It's going to take a great deal of planning. 

So, I opened an app I frankly have never used before: Keynote.

It's PowerPoint with flare and variety. If I'm there in person, at the CUE, asked to speak in person, I can't exactly make a movie and just push play (as much as I want to do that!)

When I applied to be a speaker there, I included a lot about iMovie making in the outline of my application. I said I'd make a movie and a trailer, in front of the audience. My example movie will be called "CUE in Napa" and I'll include the audience in the movie! Before that though, I'll have to cover as much info as I can, as much as I know, about the ways I've used iPads in the classroom. 

It's a mighty task! I'm pretty thankful to have Keynote to organize my thoughts!

A Movie for Sub Plans

Well, today I had a substitute so that I could attend school meetings all day, and yesterday while making lesson plans for my sub, I included an iMovie. Rather than go into written detail about where a hidden key is, and where homework plans are posted and where teacher's editions are, and where iPads are, I put all of that information on film. It's only 2 minutes long, but I feel it was necessary and informative. I emailed the movie and plans ahead of time, and I just think it was so much easier then the way I used to make the plans!

Homework Print Out Only

Oh, so convenient; modern technology is really helping me out today!

Homework can be printed and sent separately using the PlanBook.com site, without retyping? I was just getting ready to rewrite the whole homework plan for the week, but now I don't need to!

Ahhhh! And it's so pretty too. :)

CCSS and Learning Targets

I'm attending training about learning targets and common core state standards and the shift in education. It's a good year for me to push myself toward these changes, as I am challenged teaching a combo, all iPad classroom.

My response to training is to make films on the iMovie app, synthesizing and making sense of what I'm being taught.

As we are asked to write targets, now there are levels for those targets required. Making these clear with our students should help them with focus on our lessons!

BYOD is cool!

BYOD is cool! I'm piloting an all iPad (4-5 Combo) classroom with BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) as an option. I studied all summer preparing myself to run such a program. I have various apps being utilized for all subjects. As much as I prepared, I couldn't know really what it would be like, until I was in it! It's awesome! Why? Because the device itself, the iPad, is so motivating to students.

I'm only three weeks in, but I can see there's no going back for me. I will always want to have an all iPad, all device, classroom.  If I can, I will; if they'll have me.

Some highlights so far have been:

1. Noteability app- Students define vocabulary for social studies and science, can highlight and annotate on their definitions, and can voice over, reading their own definitions to themselves, play back their recordings as a way to study for their weekly quizzes on those words!

2. Subtext app- I can use my library card to check out ebooks and push those out to student iPads. I use audio books in conjunction so that students listen to the recording as we are reading The Secret Garden, currently. So cool!

3. KidBlog- specifically using this to blog about science! Wonderful!

4. Edmodo- so far I'm using Edmodo to push out my lesson plans to students so they can click on links to my instruction lessons. I've created quizzes they are taking on Edmodo that are immediately graded for me. 

And that is just the start of it. I'm like Alice in Wonderland, peeking through the looking glass. This is a super cool place to be!

Keep Calm App

Never heard of it until today, when a girl in my class emailed me this! Yes it needs an apostrophe but I just love it!

Converting YouTube Videos

A sudden change for me was the realization that the 350 or so instructional videos I've made using the iMovie app and saved to YouTube on "unlisted", can not be see on student iPads (in my 1:1 iPad, BYOD 4th/5th grade classroom). I can show them in a presentation format on a projector, but students have YouTube blocked.  This new discovery has allowed me to feel a gamut of emotions, with the final one being a relaxed calm after learning how to convert the lessons to mp4 format.

Soon I'll be making a movie called "How to Convert YouTube Videos to mp4 (so that students can watch them!)" or some title like that.  I am thankful for learning how to do this, from a technology district office person, who walked me through the 12-step process by phone, as I moaned and complained. Now I sigh, knowing the movies weren't lost, and that they will be seen by my students!

PlanBook.com vs. PlanBook App

PlanBook.com and PlanBook app are two completely different entities. I started the school year using the app, thinking it was the same as the website. After contacting the app owner because I had questions about why I can't register on the app so my plans can be saved to different devices, I realized there are enough disadvantages on the app to make a switch over (this means starting all over). Even though the answer given was to save the plans in Dropbox, after attempting to do so, there wasn't enough space in Dropbox to accommodate the app plans (even after dumping old photos and files out of Dropbox).

PlanBook.com takes different formats for links and saves the plans by letting the user register. Lesson plans can be emailed and printed.

I need to organize my lesson plans this year because I'm teaching two grade levels, all subjects, at the same time. It's a 4th and 5th grade combo class. The advantage of organizing the plans is just that, to be ready and organized, but also doing the hard work now will help me in years to come!

Subtext- Push Books to Student iPads

Wow! Subtext is a great free app! With a library card I can check out a book from the library online, create a class, and push out that same book to student iPads. No need to purchase class sets of novels any more!