Photo Gift idea for Parents of my Students

An idea came to me for creating a gift for parents of my students. I wanted the gift to fit with the tech theme we have going on, in my BYOD, 1:1 iPad, 4th & 5th grade combo classroom.

I had students email me photos of themselves, in black-and-white. Then students made iMovie trailers with content all about themselves: what they like at school and outside of school, what they are thankful for, what they look forward to at the holidays. The student-made iMovie trailers were then saved on their iPads (iMovie Theater), and students reinserted the saved trailers into a new iMovie project, creating a voice-over on their trailers.

The final trailers were emailed to me. I saved them on my camera roll. I inserted the movies, individually, in a new iMovie project, and saved each one on YouTube under "unlisted". Then with the links to the movies, I created QR codes. The QR codes were saved on the camera roll as photos.

The student black-and-white photo and matching QR code for the individual student iMovie trailer, were placed together using the piccollage app. The pictures were printed, using my printer in my classroom, on photo paper. The 5 x 7 photos were each placed in a picture frame.

I tested if the QR codes worked, using my iPhone to scan the QR codes inserted in the student photos. The codes worked!

The end products were amazing!

Programming (Hour of Code)

My students went to the computer lab this week, and for the first time tried Hour of Code. 

We all tried to program the moves that the angry bird would make to get to the piggy in a maze.

It was thought provoking and fun for the students.

Then students showed me, later in the week, about computer programming for Minecraft through Khanacademy. 

Parents are asking me about good programming software to purchase at home for their children who are very interested in the activity. For now my answer is those two programs. I'm sure I'll have more discoveries just around the corner, but for now Hour of Code and Khanacademy are pretty good sites to explore!

iMovie Trailer Voice-overs

A reason to go back to the CUE conference every time, is that even one good idea gained (and there never is just one) is so worth it! This week I implemented an idea from CUE, about student-made iMovie trailers with voice-overs. I told students to make an iMovie trailer about something they have learned in Social Studies, from the first trimester of school. It could be any portion we have covered; their choice.

First I showed the students how to make a trailer, beginning with choosing the template theme. Then I showed them how to fill in the outline and storyboard for their Social Studies trailer. Next was plopping photos and videos into the storyboard, then watching their trailer, and saving the trailer on their camera roll.  This was the first half of the process.

Now students opened a new project in the iMovie app, and instead of clicking on trailer, this time they clicked on making an iMovie. The first video clip to chose from, was the trailer they had just saved to their camera roll. They plop that into their new project, and now can do a voice-over explaining their Social Studies topic. 

The results are professional, and limited to a minute long since all of the trailer templates in the app are about a minute.

My idea then was to have students save their voice-over projects to the camera roll and email from the camera roll to me. A huge surprise came when a student told me, "Look, you can email it from the app itself!" Ah...kids...they teach me something everyday!

Apparently a new feature on the upgraded iMovie app is the ability to email the project straight from the app, to who you want to send it to. I still will save all my movies to unlisted YouTube, but since students don't have YouTube (it's blocked) this IS a way to share their creations using the iMovie app.

To top it all off, you get a couple of students who catch on with one explanation, and they become my helpers, instructing other students about the steps described above. When it all comes together, and projects are presented, it's a beautiful thing!

Not Paperless Yet

When I was planning for a BYOD 1:1 iPad classroom, I was looking forward to the concept of going paperless! Three months in to the school year, my big surprise is how much paper is in my room. My classroom printer is in use constantly. Maybe it's all in my head, the idea that I need to print out student work that is turned in online. I'll monitor my progress this year. I want to stive for less paper!

Loving utilizing the iPads for academic tasks! Motivation is high, learning is enriched, quality of schoolwork is enhanced!

How to Convert My Instructional YouTube Math Videos

I find humor in the fact that I made a video today about how to convert YouTube videos to mp4 format. I'm in the thick of the time when I was exclusively making iMovies for instruction a year ago about math for my fourth graders. As I attach links of instructional movies to my PlanBook.com lesson plans for my combo class(4th and 5th graders), it is clear that my students won't be able to open the movies on their student iPads.

To remake 227 instructional videos would be too time consuming, so the solution is to convert the movies I have to a format my students can watch.

Luckily I got some help with learning how to convert the movies, from a district office technology person, or I would have been stuck with figuring out how, or searching for the answer, or remaking the movies.  Thank goodness I got her help!  I'm sharing the movie here, in case someone else finds themself in the same boat. I feel like I'm in a boat with a paddle now. :) http://youtu.be/9Qpk2qNKYsU

http://youtu.be/9Qpk2qNKYsU

Minecraft and Other Apps Suggested by my Students

It's a beautiful thing to have a fourth grader plug her iPad into the projector and instruct the class about various apps she is suggesting.  I feel like I'm back at the CUE conference, taking notes about what she is saying!

The current super high interest app of my combo 4th and 5th graders in my all-iPad class, is Minecraft. Students are creating worlds(on their own time at home) incorporating science and social studies worlds, including vocabulary concepts learned in class. I am just blown away when a child asks to plug into the projector to share. I'm asked if I want this app (Minecraft) purchased for the school iPads. My first response is no, because the app appears to not be academic. However, my students are creating and presenting worlds that are academic.

In addition to Minecraft, there are other student suggested apps that I am thrilled to learn about. Here are some. We ran out of time today, sharing apps. "Can I go next? Can I go next?" is the cry I hear from my students wanting to share what they know!

How is it going with BYOD?

I guess I'm being asked to tell another school how it's going with BYOD in the 4-5 combo classroom so far. What are the advantages and drawbacks? It took some doing, but I've written a summary to prepare what I'd say. The attached photo is just the intro of that summary. Highlights include some amazing creativity and initiative on the part of the students as a result of being able to utilize the devices and apps. A disadvantage could be that the screens can crack if you run with an iPad in your hand, and fall on the ground on top of it (on the way home from school)!

Overall, a BYOD/1:1 iPad program I'd recommend; a real way to motivate students, and an excellent tool as we switch to the common core and 21st century learning.