Favorite App Linky Party

The Techie Teacher, Julie is hosting a Favorite App Linky Party! Since I am obsessed with downloading apps choosing just one seems IMPOSSIBLE! So here it goes...! I am sharing an old favorite that has been my go to app of the year!

Show Me is definitely my favorite free app. I have used it with students in grades first through eighth in every subject so I love the versatility. Show Me turns your iPad into a mini SMART Board and is a great app for creation. It records your screen and any marks you make as well as your voice which is great for explaining how to do something, sharing a story, solving a problem, assessing student's understanding, etc. Saving and sharing is easy which makes this app outstanding in my eyes! With just one click your Show Me is uploaded to the website and you can view it on your iPad or online! Once your Show Me is saved you can share it with a link or easily embed it into your blog or class page! Check out a few of our Show Mes. I selected a few from over 500 in my account.

1st Grade Science

 3rd Grade Social Studies

5th Grade Math

6th Grade Language Arts

ShowMe

The more I work with middle schoolers the more I fall in love with them. OK, maybe I'm not completely in love with them but I am loving working with them and engaging them with technology!

Last week the 7th grade math teacher came to me with a question which is how every conversation we have begins., "Jones, I have a question." He wanted to visit the lab to use an interactive virtual manipulative site. He showed me the site and we scheduled two days. The whole day I kept thinking, "This site is really valuable but  REALLY? The whole class is going to come and do this at the same time? How will you differentiate? How will you make sure everyone is understanding? Why do I have to be here for this and how is this using my expertise with technology?"

The elementary teacher in me, the collaborator in me, the modeler in me couldn't be a second adult in the room while students used virtual manipulatives to solve equations SO I went to him with a question! I asked if he would be OK with doing "centers" rather than just one activity. He was willing to give it a shot and was open to ideas and that is exactly what we did! I suggested that he work with one group at the SMART Board teaching a new concept (solving an equation with a negative variable), one group work with the virtual manipulatives to reinforce what they had been learning and one group work with me to use the app Show Me (read more here and here) to assess what they had been learning (solving an equation with a variable)!

One thing I adore about elementary students is that they light up when they see you and are just happy to be at school! 7th graders, not so much! As I explained what they were going to do which took maybe 5 minutes tops they sat quietly, yawned and stared off into space. I sat in the hallway with these twelve 7th graders thinking, "It's going to be a L-O-N-G day." I allowed them to pick partners (because I bored them with directions) which I thought would be disastrous and turned them loose.

I have seen technology do this a million times so I should have known better but they blew me away. Each pair got their iPad, stylus and equation and quickly became engrossed in creating a Show Me. When it was time to switch groups they were asking to do another problem, listening to their Show Me, listening to another group's Show Me, trying to figure out how to share their Show Me with their parents, asking if they could download the app at home and they were not moving. Kids that normally "misbehave" I didn't have to speak to once.

Today kids came with their own equations and scripts and wanted to record an extra Show Me.
Several groups asked for "harder" problems. Here are just a few examples.






This child asked to do a second one on his own today. I love his commentary and pronunciation of neg-a-tive so I had to share it.
 

 Here are two girls who wanted to solve an "extra hard" problem.  

 Love their Show Me Credits haha!

Show Me

Last week the 6th and 7th grade social studies teacher asked if I could  be one of his centers today. He wanted students to create a podcast of a letter they wrote about the three ancient African Empires. He wanted me to use VoiceThread which is an app I have had downloaded on my iPads but haven't really explored. I did some research, created an account and was excited to use it today...

Not so fast, do you ever have a lesson that goes GREAT in your head but as soon as you begin to execute it crumbles...

First, the iPods were not connecting to our wireless network. As soon as they would agree to the acceptable use policy they were booted. Then, I finally got 4 kids logged in and started and VoiceThread informed me that I needed to upgrade to add more comments.

Since these two things were out of my control I had to quickly come up with a back up plan because sometimes things just don't go how we planned. AND sometimes Plan B ends up working out even better than you could have imagined Plan A going (actually that happens in real life too;)).

While quickly flipping through pages of apps I realized that Show Me would be a good substitute! I grabbed the iPads and we got to work! We ran into a few snags BUT they were able to take a picture of their letter, add photos and record their voice. One problem we had was with the photos, we couldn't figure out how to easily edit and move the photos once you had got out of the add screen. Another problem we had was the inability to "start over" with the recording. The third problem was that we didn't have enough iPads with cameras available so students had to work in pairs. We worked through all of these issues and figured out simple solutions.

Here are a few examples....