Voice Thread

I created a blog last spring and have continued to use it to share my thoughts on technology and teaching. Check out this post about Voice Thread to find out how to use it and why it could be useful in your classroom!

Setting Up Email

Here at Roland Story Elementary, the 3rd and 4th graders have the opportunity to have an email address. They use this privilege to turn in assignments, participate in google forms to document their work, and learn to communicate digitally. I have had some great conversations with 3rd graders about digital citizenship and how to appropriately use this privilege. 

For our teachers, we have broken down the steps to setting up students' emails on the iPads. 

Step 1: In settings, find 'mail, contacts, calendars on the left side'. Click on this and the options will appear on the right side. Click 'add account'.

Step 2: Select 'exchange'.

Step 3: For students, email section = firstname_lastname / password = their student ID #. For teachers, email section = your full email / password = your email password. The description can be left blank. Click next when this section is finished.

Step 4: Type "m.google.com" into the server. Leave domain blank. In the username section, the students need to type their full email = firstname_lastname@roland-story.k12.ia.us. For teachers, type your full email as well. Click 'next' when all the information is entered. 

Step 5: Click 'save' and you now have an email account set up on your iPad!

Step 6: To be sure the set up worked, open up your mail app and see if you can send/receive emails. 

Share with Parents

As the end of the school year approaches, many parents want to see their student's work and progress. Showbie is a great way to document this growth over time. A simple way to share with parents the information, assignments, and projects that have been submitted on Showbie, is by sharing the login information with them.

Since Showbie is accessible on a computer, as well as an iPad, it is very easy for parents to find their student's work. As a teacher, our job would be to provide the parents with their student's username and password. Personally, I have a ton of usernames, passwords, numbers, addresses, and email addresses stored in my brain so there is no way I am going to remember all 20-something of my students. Luckily, Showbie has a solution to his problem.

As a teacher, if you login to Showbie on the computer, a list of your classes will appear. As an example, I will shown my Showbie. Since I am not yet a teacher, I only have fake students, so you'll have to use your imagination a bit!

"Jenny test" is the name of my one and only class. Underneath the title, in gray, it tells you how many students and teachers are enrolled in the class. If you put your mouse over those words, a small icon will appear to the right of the word 'teacher'. Click this icon.

Once you click the icon, a white box will appear, as shown below. This will list all your students and their username. I only have one fake student, Johny Jones, and his username is rsjohny. 

When creating Showbie accounts for your students, I would highly recommend using the same password for all the students. This will reduce the amount of confusion and forgotten passwords. If for some reason your student changed or forgot their password, you can reset it. On the right side of each student's line, there is a drop down arrow. If Johny Jones forgot his password, I would click the drop down arrow and two options would appear, as shown below.

Once you select, 'reset password', a temporary password code will be given to you, the teacher. You will have to provide this code to your student and help them change it back to the desired password. This is why a common password is useful, to avoid this step :)

Once you have all your students login information, create a personal letter or email for each student to take home to their parents. They can login on showbie.com together to see the student's work. In the letter, I would include directions to download the work so the parents can save it, if they wish.

What a great and simple way to share information!

Doodle Buddy

Doodle Buddy - the application that allows students to draw, scribble, annotate, and create. There are many things you could do with this app in your classroom and it is very easy to use; even better, it's free! Whiteboards are a common form of quick assessment in elementary classrooms, and Doodle Buddy could serve as a digital whiteboard to avoid an extra material needed in your classroom.

With Doodle Buddy comes some features that I will explain. As I stated before, it's really easy to use and you will pick up quickly once you start playing around with it! First of all, there are buttons across the bottom of the screen. Beginning on the left, we have the undo button. By selecting this it will undo your last action. Moving to the right, we have the trash can button. This will clear your entire drawing and leave only the background. The next button is the drawing tool. It allows students to select a color and type of writing utensil. The size of the pencil or brush can be changed by moving the white dot across the link at the bottom of the gray screen. Then they can begin drawing, annotating, or scribbling.

The next button is for stamps, or stickers. You can select small or large based on the size you need. There are many different types of stamps/stickers. I added this cute smiley face!

Next are the stencils. Pretty self explanatory - they work like regular stencils!

The next button is labeled "Tt". This allows you to add text. By selecting the button, a text box will appear and you can type your desired text. The choices across the top are the font options (helv, type, felt, times).

Then we have the option of selecting a background. There are some included within the app, but you can also use a photo you've already taken or take another.

I chose an existing picture on my iPad of the beach.

When you're all finished, select the wrench button on the right side of the screen. This will give you some options. Saving to the camera roll is the easiest for students! They could upload the finished product to Showbie so the teacher has access.

There are many ways you could use Doodle Buddy in your classroom. As you can see below, you could ask students questions and they could use the app to record their answers. Spelling tests could also be given using this app. 

Share with us how you use Doodle Buddy in your classroom!

Write About This

How many times have you heard your students complain about not knowing what to write about? I'm sure a lot! Elementary students have a huge imagination, yet when it comes to writing, it seems to disappear. Write About This is an application that erases this problem! It provides writing prompts for students to spark some ideas for their writing. There is a free version and a paid version for $3.99. The free version has a lot of limitations, but there are ways to getting around those if you aren't willing to pay $3.99.

I will go through how to navigate these 6 icons and the basics of the app. 

First, the search icon! This can be used to search for a specific topic or idea a student might have.

Next, the categories icon. This is where students can search for a topic by category. Unfortunately, with the free version, only one topic per category is available.

I chose animals as an example category. This lion picture is the only topic that was available since I have the free version. It provides a question at the bottom of the screen. Students can click the 'voice' button to have the question(s) read to them. When they are ready to write, they click the pencil, 'write' button.

Once they select 'write', this screen will appear. There is a space to provide a title and begin writing. If they wish, students can also record and audio about the writing prompt. It also includes the date, which is a great way to monitor students' progress over the course of the year.

To record an audio, click the 'record audio' button. The screen below will appear. When you are ready, click the 'record' button and begin speaking. Once finished and satisfied, click 'save audio'.

To begin writing, click on the notebook paper and your keyboard will appear. When you are finished, click the very bottom right button (icon of a keyboard) to make the keyboard disappear.

Before saving, you must create an author profile for yourself! Choose a existing picture or take one.

Then your picture will appear to show that you wrote this piece. When you're completely finished, click 'save to camera roll'. This will export the write about to your iPad's camera roll. However, with the free version, you can only save 1 write about at a time. If you don't have the paid version and still want to save it, you can take a screenshot by holding the home button and power button at the same time. This won't save the audio, but it will save the writing! The screens hotted photo could be uploaded through Showbie so the teacher has access.

The next icon on the home screen is 'random'. By selecting this, a random writing prompt will be chosen for the student. Once the screen below is shown, the same process as stated above is used to begin writing.

The 'My Write Abouts' icon will take you to all the saved Write Abouts.

The 'Create a Prompt' icon allows you or the students to create a writing prompt. The screen below will appear and you can create your own: adding a picture, text, and audio. 

For example, I took a picture of the ocean and added a question as a prompt. I added an audio clip to read the question aloud.

To save these prompts, click the 'Save to Category' button. The prompts made will appear in a 'Custom' category, found on the categories page.

The 'Quick Write' icon allows students to begin writing right away, without a prompt. By selecting this icon, the screen below will appear. Students can add photos, record, and begin writing immediately.

Next time you hear your students complain that they have nothing to write about, refer them to this app!

Kid's Journal

Kid's Journal is a free iPad application that allows students to keep a digital journal ongoing. It is very student-friendly and easy to begin using. No account is required. 

Upon opening the app, you will see this screen. Tap the box to add a new journal.

Now you can begin personalizing your journal. Tap on the 'Name' and type yours! Click the camera at the bottom of the screen or the camera in the middle of the journal to add a photo.

You can add a photo from your camera roll on the iPad or take a photo.

Next, select the paint bucket at the bottom of the screen to change the color of your journal.

Once you're finished personalizing, click the purple mouse holding the checkmark to begin writing! The journal will open up to today's date. There are 4 boxes on each page. The first is a spot to choose an emotion to express how you feel. Use your finger to scroll through the options, there are more than just the first ones you will see!

Next, there is a picture box to select where you are on this day: home, school, or away. 

Another text box that is available is a weather choice. Select what the weather is like on the day! If you select the 'Photo of the Day' box, you will be asked if you want to take a photo (camera icon) or import a photo from your iPad's camera roll (pile of pictures icon). Select a photo to represent yourself, your classroom, or even the weather outside to document the day.

The calendar feature at the bottom of the screen allows you to quickly jump from day to day to see your journal entries.

There is an option to export journal entries by selecting the paper airplane icon at the bottom of the screen. The choices are the entry you have open, all entries, or entries between a certain date. Select one of these and click the blue 'export' button. 

Once you select one of those options, you will now have to decide how you want to export it. I chose Showbie, because this would allow students to virtually turn in their journal entries so the teacher can view and comment on them.

Once you select Showbie, it will open up the application. I was logged into Showbie as a fictional student.  This student is logged into 3 classes, so I had to select a class. 

After I selected a class, I had to choose an assignment. The only assignment 'Johny Jones' has right now is a journal assignment. I selected that.

Then it will ask you to add the file. Click the 'add file' blue button.

Now you can see the PDF file named 'Jenny' is uploaded to showbie and available for viewing.

You can click on the file in Showbie and see it, annotate on it, etc.

This is a great way for students to document their writing over the entire year. It gives teachers the ability to have record of their progress. By combining this app with Showbie, teachers have easy access to students' journals. It is a very developmentally appropriate app for elementary students - especially K-2! 

Try it out in your classroom!