Amazing CUE

I'm at the two day CUE conference in Napa, and am getting so many amazing ideas. I can't wait to implement them! Tomorrow I'll be speaking! Can't wait. My presentation will include two movies with ideas for using iPads in the classroom, trailers using the iMovie app, my audience joining my Edmodo page, following my PlanBook.com plan, making an iMovie and making an iMovie trailer.

At the end of the conference I know I'll be making a summary movie of what I've learned. Just when I think I know it all, I see there is so much more to learn!

Today I was in Nepal

Today my students and I were between Lobuche and Gorak Shep taking in the 360 degree gorgeous view of snow covered mountain tops. This was a surprise, since we had been in the middle of a lesson about tundra ecosystems using the Nearpod app: reading information about tundras, taking polls, quizzes, viewing tundra videos and slideshows. Suddenly, on one of the slides, there was a link to 360cities, and we were transferred to another place.  Students stood holding their iPads slowly at first, looking in all directions, walking in all directions. Moving the iPads helped them see the full view of the breathtaking views of the mountains of Nepal. It was amazing!

It Seems Like Wonderful Luck

It seems wonderful and magical to receive a movie made by a student, about an educational topic, using the Educreations app. When the instruction starts to resemble my own instruction, I know that someone has been listening to me. It's a happy day when you realize someone, a student, really hears you, really listens over time, internalizes that kind of dialogue, and uses it themselves to formulate lessons.

It just seems like the most wonderful luck to be a teacher in these times!  

A Movie a Week

Every week I'm making a movie for the parents of my students. I pick up the iPad to film when I get the thought in my head, "Oh my, this really looks good!  This is really working!" 

Students are engaged, working hard, and highly motivated using their iPads. In the movies I describe the activities in math, writing, social studies, science, and reading that 4th and 5th graders are working on. Parents get a sneak peek of being inside our classroom. I know if I had a child in a pilot BYOD iPad classroom, I'd want to know what was going on. 

I have had tremendous support and positive feedback from parents. Like them, I am so proud of how responsible their children are behaving, showing good digital citizenship. Learning is enhanced using these devices. So cool!

Geoboard and Educreations!

Oh, I'm liking this! Geoboard app combined with using Educreations app for teaching geometric shapes! Nice!

http://classtechtips.com/2013/10/02/app-combo-educreations-and-geoboard/

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!