Thursday, September 13, 2012

Ipad Buddy Project

Our class pairs with a grade seven class once a cycle in the computer lab.  Our buddies normally teach us things like logging on to the network, opening our wiki, and using wordle or word documents.  They also teach us how to use Spelling City and Mathletics.  Our computer buddies are VERY helpful!

This year I decided to use some of that computer time for our buddies to do an ipad project with us.  Since we have 5 ipads, 5 groups under the supervision of Mrs. Fisher are participating in the first project.

The project is called THE IMPORTANT PEOPLE AT ECOLE MCISAAC SCHOOL.

Prior Knowledge:  Our grade one class composed a list of all the important people that work with us in the school.  We also identified their job title.  This was part of our Social Studies unit.

Students were first taught how to use the camera and how to reflect on the pictures they took.  They were allowed to delete and retake pictures that they felt were not good.  Students then headed out to take pictures of the people from the list.  This is all that was completed during the first class.  

Our next steps include using the Pictello App to insert the pictures and create text to identify the people and their positions.  The completed stories will be viewed by the rest of the class as a Social Studies presentation.

Once the first group have their projects completed, another group of 5 will begin a new project.  The criteria for the project will be the same, but the project will likely have a different theme.  I am allotting 3 classes for each project.



 

Classroom Organization

How do you share a pod of ipads with another classroom, but always have the apps where you can find them and easy for primary kiddos to locate independently?

This is what we came up with and so far............ it's working for me!!!!!!!

I introduced 7 apps to my class in the first few days of school.  We previewed each one on the lcd and I showed them that they could all be found in the folder called September on the ipad.  These are the ONLY apps my kids are allowed to use during center time. The teacher I am sharing the pod with agreed that those are my apps for the month.

We also set the rule that if you are found in the other folders on the ipad during center time, you will lose the ipad privilege.

I have successfully used the ipads all week in my classroom with and without parent volunteer supervision and so far, so good!

This is how my home screen looks on my ipad.  Notice the September file at the bottom.  I also have Pictello down there (we are using it for a class project right now).


When you open my September folder, these are the apps you will find.  All students in my class also have a profile on either Teach Me Grade One or Teach Me Kindergarten.  They use that app during guided reading time when they are not reading.



All of the ipads in the pod are not set up identical, which is fine with me BUT they all have my September folder in the same place!