Sawyer Elementary Explores Illinois History, Rosalie Buenrostro, Librarian, Sawyer Elementary School

Sawyer Elementary Library continues to use the REVITAL Grant iPads at all grade levels.  This time I have been collaborating with the fourth grade teachers.  We have been instructing the students on the history of Illinois.  

First, I had the students browse the databases and e-books in order to familiarize themselves with Illinois history on their own.  They discovered the state of Illinois has a lot more to it than just Chicago.  Next, the students researched the state bird, tree, flag, motto and capital.  They were so excited about their discoveries they asked if they could continue researching our state.  I, of course, was happy to oblige. They researched the Cahokian Indians and their mysterious earth mounds.  They were very interested in this new found information and were eager to share it with each other. 

The iPad app, “Story Creator” was our next adventure.  Students were divided into groups of four and each group created a story using the keypad, pictures, drawings, and the voice recorder.This project was the perfect ending to an exciting school year using our new REVITAL Grant iPads.
The students and I are looking forward to the next school year and our new adventures with technology and the Chromebooks

Toontastic Fables by Peggy Rux, Pasteur Elementary

My third graders love stories! They love listening to stories, reading stories, writing stories and acting out stories. Toontastic is a wonderful storytelling tool that allows students stories to “come to life”.

The unit is titled “Toontastic Fables”. After spending several lessons listening to and discussing the genre of fables, students are asked to pick a favorite fable and put their own spin on it. We chose fables from the website storyit.com. I liked using this site because it provided a very brief version of some classic fables and included the moral at the end of each one. This allowed the students to be creative with the story. They were allowed to change characters, settings and even add some dialogue. The only rule was that the moral or lesson must remain the same. Once they had their fable they were ready to storyboard. Students were reminded that a storyboard is a written plan of how they want their publication to look.

With their storyboard in hand they are ready to create. That’s one of the best features about this app, it allows children the ability to create. They can draw their own scenes and characters, which I prefer them to do. A few scenes and characters come with the free version and for a small fee additional scenes and characters can be added. I however, prefer letting students create their own scenes and characters and so do they! Another great feature of this App is that it follows the story arc and explains each element of plot; the set-up, conflict, challenge, climax and resolution. The app also allows for music to be added to the scenes, which helps set the tone of their story.

All this hard work culminates in a film festival where students are given the opportunity to share their work. You can see the pride in their faces as we watch their cartoons. Of all the Apps that I have incorporated into my lessons, this is by far my favorite. I would recommend this app to anyone who woks with students in the primary grades.

Finding iPad Workarounds, Eric Currie, Librarian, Hitch Elementary School

I’d like to focus this post on how I’ve solved some of the problems I’ve come across with using the iPads in an attempt to transform how I teach and the mindset that I needed to have in order to come to those solutions.  Many of the problems I’ve come across with the iPad has been related to lack of desired functionality in certain apps.  Only being able to access Camera Roll Pictures in iMovie, not being able to create a presentation in Google Drive, limited outputs for products.  I’ve found workarounds for some of my issues by being knowledgeable about the system and being flexible.

Being knowledgeable about the system doesn’t mean you have to know the ins and outs of every app, or be able a guru with the device.  I think it’s helpful to have a general understanding of how an app or service works.  I wanted to be able to give a student an iPad, and have them work on a presentation.  I know that Google Drive does not offer Presentation in mobile/iOS.  I do have Keynote on the iPad, but everyone knows that Apple files tend to not work well with others.  In looking at my sharing options, I was able to find out that I could convert my Keynote Presentation into a Powerpoint.  Because I have a good understanding of Google Apps, I know that Google Drive can convert a Powerpoint into a Google Presentation file.  Now my student can work somewhat seamlessly between a laptop and an iPad.

Being flexible helps in finding iPad solutions because you may have to think outside your app to find a solution.  In my Astronomy Unit, students were creating an iMovie project about a planet.  I have a limited number of iPads, and I wanted to make sure every student was working toward a goal.  One student became the “director” while the other students sought out pictures and additional information.  The non-director students utilized Chromebooks.  My problem was that I wanted to make their work available to the director.  Our solution was to create a shared folder on the drive which all students had access.  Students who were finding pictures, uploaded them to the drive folder.  The director then logged into Google Drive on the iPad, then accessed the photo.  The director then saved the picture to the Camera Roll so that iMovie could access it.  A variation of this solution also worked for accessing the movies to present.  Once students uploaded their movie to Google Drive, we could download it elsewhere for the presentation.  

Overall, I’d like to think that the iPads have changed the way I teach.  I feel that though I’m guiding students we help each other out in finding solutions.  I was unaware that our Third Grade had their own gmail account that they knew the login for.  Working with the students, we were able to get everyone using the class email to upload pictures and download them onto the iPad.  

See the "iMovie Work-Around" presentation | See the "Presentation Work-Around" presentation

"Our America" Book Trailers, Lindsey Mangurten, Librarian, Lincoln Park High School

For the next three days I will be working with an English class. The students are creating book trailers for the book “Our America”. We will be using the iPads and the app iMovie book trailers to complete this assignment.

Day One

Today the students spent the day finding photos to use for their trailer. With the help of their teachers most of the students were able to find 15-20 images. I demonstrated to the students how to search and save an image to the camera roll. Both teachers helped guide the students with what images to look for based on the class book. The plan for tomorrow is to demonstrate iMovie trailers. We had one or two glitches today. Some of the photos from Google images would not allow the students to save image to the camera roll. I’m not sure why that was happening but I suspect the iPad didn’t like the format the picture was in. Other than that the students had an easy time finding relevant photos and saving them to the camera roll.

Day Two

Today I demonstrated how to start a new iMovie trailer and the timeline. Two of the students excelled in today's task and finished their movies completely. It was amazing to see the students pick up the technology so quickly. I felt like such a proud librarian watching our self-contained students thrive creating a book trailer using the iPads. Today was one of those days that I am so proud to be a school librarian.

Day Three

Today two of the students finished their projects and ran around the school to show off their finished product to all of their other teachers. The students and teacher enjoyed this project so much. The teacher told me she is going to work this into the curriculum for all of their class novels for next year as well as spread  the word to other teachers. Hopefully, we will have a high demand for similar projects.

The book trailer template on iMovie seems to be very intuitive and easy to use. Some of the students have asked about changing the music or editing the photos differently which seem to not be an option. Overall, I would say this was a success.

Perfecting our Speech in the Smyser Library using iPads by Emily Porter, Librarian, Smyser Elementary School

I wanted to pilot some ideas I had about the students’ prior knowledge using smartphones and taking selfies, with an educational twist. I thought about all the times I saw a parent ask a child to take a photo with the smart phone and then share it on Facebook or YouTube.  I started thinking that they could flip the task on themselves to improve speaking and writing. With all of that technological expertise, I figured 4th graders would be able to handle the tech part - all I would have to do with them is work on the writing task. Voila! the Sixty Second Speech unit was born.

Using topics the students would be able to write about abundantly, I asked them to answer writing stems. I put the stems on the elmo and distributed index cards. I put the timer on for 60 seconds and told the kids to write - using the stems as the springboard. We did this 3 or 4 times before I distributed the iPads. I wanted the kids to be exposed to the pacing before they tried to actually film for 60 seconds.

 Students took turns filming each other. They were frustrated at first because many did not have a speech that lasted sixty seconds - even though they had written for 60 seconds. They struggled with the concept - that writing takes longer than speaking.  It would have been a cool realization if they had recognized the metacognition - but they are only 4th graders after all :)

Once they got the iPads and saw their speeches were too short  for themselves, they would go back and write more about the topic. While someone else was being filmed, kids would be furiously writing.

Each student watched the timer. As it ticked, the student recording could not believe how long a minute of talking could take. I heard a lot of, “keep going, talk slower,” and reactions of, “That’s it??!! But I wrote on both sides of the card!” The activity helped with pacing and timing. Students would go back and continue the drafting process without prompting. They wanted to make that 60 second goal. I didn’t have to force anyone to participate - they coached each other to success.

EL students wanted to use the iPads, so the most timid students gave speeches so that they could film the partners. There is something about being “behind the camera” that was alluring to the students.  Going back to my original thought, I do believe it was the students’ level of comfort with smartphones that lent itself to the activity. Never had I been able to get kids who spoke little or no English or those self-conscious of their speech to talk to a large audience. In front of the iPad, however, the dynamic changed. This activity has made me rethink how I  teach EL students, for sure. Maybe it is due to all the practice kids have talking on Skype and video chatting with friends and family away from Chicago. Whatever the reason, I will continue to use the iPads to encourage writing and speaking with my 4th graders.

iMovie--Take One!, Janice Wellborn, Hernandez Middle School

Let me just say that Hollywood will not be waiting to get my next movie!  This was my first attempt at making an iMovie after watching a youtube on how to use this.  Overall it went pretty well, but my knowledge was probably not the thing that made it successful.

I decided to give my class the assignment of making an iMovie in groups of 2-4 kids since the classes I used this on were pretty small.  I had mixed results with this as I saw in many groups that one kid would opt out, or be forced out by the more capable or interested kids.  Probably in the future I will try to assign more concrete roles that can be accomplished at the same time so that no one child is ever left out.  

Each group of students selected a contemporary topic to make a PSA on.  I provided a list of possible topics and the kids chose one of them or came up with their own.  They did their research with each student providing at least two facts about the topic.  One or two students together then created scripts and determined how they would present the information.  Some groups had one person be a spokesman while other groups acted out scenes to display what their topics were about.

Looking around the library while the kids were working, it was a very engaging scene.  I did not provide very much direct instruction as far as how to work iMovie or even in terms of telling them what the final product should look like. On their own, many groups decided that they could and should incorporate pictures from the internet which really added to their movies.  Pictures of smoking, unhealthy lungs, drugs, etc. all added to the overall effect of a movie rather than a just a video of a person talking.

I will definitely be incorporating this technology into my future lesson plans as it allows for a lot of creativity, independence, and knowledge building.

OnScreen Science, Regina Berg, Librarian, Gwendolyn Brooks High School

Not long ago I worked with Ms. Kennedy, a biology teacher, with a simple project on DNA Replication and Transcription. She wanted the students to use interactive models to explain the processes in their own words. We looked at a number of apps before deciding to use OnScreen Science – Transcription and have the students find online Replication models.

 

Students took screen shots of the models at different stages, imported the images into PaperPort Notes (another app I used with an English class), which they then used to annotate the images. Though the app had good clear images, she would have liked it to be more interactive and include a model-building component. She really liked PaperPort Notes which made importing the screenshots really easy and the final work simple to share.

I saw how I can scaffold general purpose apps with subject specific ones to create unique lessons while building some basic skills for my students.