Sabin Library Media Center Students Love Their iPads!! by Meghan Gabler, Librarian,Sabin Dual Language Magnet School

Students sharing comparisons of
"Three Little Pigs" via iDraw app

All students that visit the Sabin Library Media Center are thrilled for the arrival of our iPads!! I have to say the excitement was as hard for me to contain as it was for the students! As soon as they arrived I got to work organizing them, assigning them barcodes, configuring them as per the awesome Power Point we received via KC Boyd! I introduced the iPads slowly to the different grade levels. We have had discussions about respectful use of the iPads and respectful use of other people’s saved work on the iPads. We have cloths that we use to wipe down the iPads when we are finished using them. We have discussed making sure all iPads are back in their designated spots before one class leaves and another class enters the library. I am proud to say there have been many successes and no failures with the students use of the iPads.

Students select Chicken Big
during Monarch voting.

Our 5th and 6th graders are the most eager to work with the iPads. We are busy creating Prezi accounts and familiarizing ourselves with iMovie. It has been a group, student and teacher, effort. We have decided on a continuing theme throughout our school to create projects with. In groups of two or individually the students are going to choose a college or university of interest and create a Prezi or an iMovie. As a school we had colleges and universities promoted in various ways throughout the building and the students agreed this project is a great way to keep that momentum moving forward.

Luckily for the students and for myself, our iPads arrived just in time for the Monarch and Bluestem award voting. I was in the classroom most of that week due to testing. Regardless, it was the perfect time to bring out the iPads and have the Kindergartners, 1st, 2nd and 3rd graders use them for voting. We read a book about voting and how serious we should take it. We talked about how our votes are our own personal choices. I set up a Google Drive form for each book and set up the iPads in front of the books so the students could walk along, browse, and then select their final vote! They loved it!

Students browsing their
Monarch Award choices.

Lastly, the third graders have been practicing taking screen shots and emailing their work to me. I am proud to say that have done a fabulous job and they are loving taking responsibility of their work. We read “The Three Little Pigs and the Somewhat Bad Wolf” given to us to boost excitement for the book fair. We created a Venn Diagram comparing the original tale and this tale. Students then worked with partners in the (free) iDraw HD app to split the screen and draw some of the differences between the two stories. They then took screen shots, emailed the drawing to me and included their names in the subject.


I cannot wait to see what else my amazing students create with these new tools. Thank you for the opportunity and I look forward to reading more about the other schools and their great creations as well as sharing more of ours!

Character Mock Interviews Using iMovie by KC Boyd, Librarian, Phillips High School

This was a really nice project.

My co-worker Ms Henderson recently completed an interesting projects where the students conducted character mock interviews.  During the three day class period, students took on the persona of a biographical character in history.  They composed questions and answers based on what they read in their biographies and for recording a mock interview as if they were the character.

Here are two excellent projects that I would like to share.  The students used the iMovie 11 app to complete their assignments.   To add a little flavor, one of my students Cameron provided the voice over at the beginning of the video introducing the projects.  I think we have a new James Earl Jones!


The WP2 Collaboration Writing Project - Nelson Mandela from WPAHS Video Page on Vimeo.
Nelson Mandela - https://vimeo.com/89641929

The WP2 Collaboration Writing Project - Chris Gardner from WPAHS Video Page on Vimeo.
Chris Gardner - https://vimeo.com/89673996

Pickard Elementary Library Gets iPads by Juan Fernandez-Saines, Librarian

Getting these ten iPads has been a blessing.  To prepare the students, one week before the iPads were delivered, they saw a video tutorial on how to use the iPads and what would be the rules for their use.  At the start of each day, from each classroom I select a group of ten students out of the thirty or so to work on academic lessons in conjunction with their classroom work.  Two online services we currently have are Compass Learning and  MyON.

MyOn started working from the get-go.  The students love to log in and read their choice of digital books available to them.  I provide the students with headsets that are stored in sandwich bags so the students can listen to the audio without disturbing the other students.

We did run into glitches, so to speak, when we tried to use Flash driven websites.  We were stuck for awhile to figure out a way until one of our teachers recommended we use the Puffin app.  After downloading Puffin, our kindergarten students can now use Starfall and our older students can study using Compass Learning Odyssey.

As a display stand I use the same corrugated supports the iPads were delivered in.  It is a temporary solution but students can see the ipads which are numbered with labels and can put them right back at the end of their session.  Students have been much more enthusiastic about their time in the library and have high anticipation to use them when it is their turn as I rotate groups for their use.

Third & Fourth Graders Create Books Using Book Creator, by Caryn Mikkelsen, Volta Elementary School Librarian

My students were very excited to get the iPads into their hands!  Still, I wanted to make sure all the students understood how to properly use the iPads. I spent one class period going over iPad usage rules and modeling how to use the Book Creator App.  With the iPad connected to the LCD projector we created a “practice” page so students would be familiar with the functions of the Book Creator app.  As part of the modeling I took a picture of the students and inserted into our practice page, the students loved that!

The fourth graders are learning about Chicago and simple machines in their classrooms. They were instructed to create an informational book on one of these topics using the resources in the library. Students were put into pairs and assigned an iPad.  A quick review and they were ready to go!  

   

Student pairs were immediately engaged and working collaboratively.

When the books are completed I will be saving them to iBooks and emailing them to myself to put on my library web page.  The books can also be printed out if you send them to your email and print from your laptop.  

 

Nightingale Revital Module #1 Experience by Erin McDonald, Nightingale Elementary Librarian

My students and I have been overjoyed and overwhelmed these past few weeks getting to know our new ipads. My techco, Erik Cuevas, has been a huge help to me.  He has taught me about the VPP program and the syncing process through the MacBook.  I would still be taking baby steps if it weren’t for him but instead I am ready to share the ipads with the students.  

On the first day everyone got a predetermined iPad “partner” and iPad #.  I asked them to work with their  partner to take pictures and videos of each other.  I asked them to take one “for fun” video and one video in which they would discuss some of the recent books we have been reading.  

The excitement was so great.  Once all the ipads were distributed, the students forgot I was in the room.   They quickly learned how to open the app, take the photo or video, view it and delete it.  No problem, other than my class looked like utter chaos.  I could not keep the noise level down, but I just ran with it, after all, I had planned on this being the “experimenting” day.  They practiced on each other, on text, and even moving around the library to get different angles.  The students were quickly troubleshooting their own problems and reviewing their work.

We viewed some of the photos and videos they made as a group and had a great time laughing at ourselves on video.  I loved that some were painfully shy about it while others embraced the camera like an old friend.  I would highly recommend this sort of experimenting before jumping into a project.  The kids needed the time to get comfortable and I learned the skills I needed to teach them as a group right away.  I also could pick out the “experts” in the class who will become my ipad helpers.

I have included a video of one boy because he was so thrilled to video himself, you would think it was the first time he looked in a mirror. So thankful for this grant and all the opportunities it has opened for my school library!

http://bit.ly/OnvKgP

Creating Books with Explain Everything by Connie Amon, Galileo Elementary School Librarian

Explain Everything is a versatile app that I use for multiple purposes. According to the iTunes store, it is “an easy-to-use design, screencasting, and interactive whiteboard tool that lets you annotate, animate, narrate, import, and export almost anything to and from almost anywhere.” I agree!, even though I still have lots to learn.

My fourth grade students have been using Explain Everything to create “books” based on a picture book biography they have read. Using a storyboarding template, they plan their pages. After the storyboard has been reviewed by me, they create their pages in Explain Everything. After the pages have been created, the recording begins! Explain Everything allows students to explore drawing, writing, and recording with the iPad, as well as presenting a final product.

Some lessons we have learned, or maybe, rather, things I have yet to figure out:

• A page will not export unless it has been “recorded”/audio has been added.
• Audio is not easily erased, rather, you need to back up to zero and record again.
• Don’t record until the page is EXACTLY the way you want it. If you move things around after the recording, the page reverts back to what it was during the recording.

Why create a “book” with a presentation app instead of a book app? The answer depends on the desired outcome. If the objective is that students create a “book”, with text, pictures, and audio (audio is the key here) that can be shared widely (sharing is also key), and you can continue to edit, then Explain Everything will allow for that. Explain Everything presentations can be exported to the camera roll, Dropbox or Evernote for easy viewing and sharing.

Revital Grant Experience by Jean Scheda, Librarian, Westinghouse High School

When I received the email about my Revital Grant winning, I was so excited. I have always wanted to equip my library with iPads and other mobile devices so that students have more options in choosing their learning technologies and applications. A dream comes true!

After I received the VPP account and teachers’ redemption accounts, it took a while for me to learn and understand how it works. This is where I have experienced the most frustrations due to a password verification issue. It will be helpful if a webinar was provided at the beginning going over the VPP program and Redemption accounts.  It may help avoid errors.

When the MacBook,10 iPads and the covers arrived, I could not wait to get them ready for students. After a few days’ work, all iPads are numbered, labeled, cataloged and set up.  This process was smooth and easy.  With the support of the school administrator, I have purchased a 10 iPads Sync/charging/storage station. It is perfect and I love it. I understand this is just a beginning and I have a lot to learn from this experience.  

I have already had conversations with my teachers about using certain iPad applications for class projects. While I am still waiting for my teachers’ redemption accounts to be reset, I am looking forward to working with my teachers and students using iPads.