To Infinity and Beyond: Student Centered Projects

Tuesday, June 25, 2013 2 comments
I am very excited to be attending and presenting at ISTE 2013 in San Antonio, Texas. I am learning lots of wonderful things and filling my toolbox with ideas.

I am presenting a session called To Infinity and Beyond: Student Centered Projects. I will be showcasing two apps called Tiny Tap and John Atkinson Photo Card. Both allow students to be creative and have fun while learning.

Check out my past blog on Photo Card: http://www.teacherplayground.com/2013/04/free-creative-writing-appyour-students.html

Photocard an app that allows students to be creative and descriptive when writing. Students create an interactive postcard in which they get to add their own pictures and stamps.


This app would be great to use for any subject and grade level, but here are a few ideas I have that will get you started:


  • Students take a picture of something in nature and they are to write as though they are that picture.
  • Students take pictures while on a field trip, use the app to tell others about their favorite part of the field trip.
  • Students choose an image within the app and are challenged to be as descriptive as they can about the image. Let them know that when you read their postcard you want to feel as though you are that image.
  • Students take pictures and write about famous people, states, countries, ancient times, key vocabulary, authors, composers, etc..
  • Students create a postcard based on Science safety rules and write about the proper ways to act in a lab setting.
  • Students use this app to help them better understand difficult vocabulary words and math problems. They take a picture of the word, what it is or looks like, and then they write about it as if they were teaching someone else.

Tiny Tap is an app that students can use to become creators. They can add their own photos or pictures, then record their own voice over the photo. Once they add sound, they become designers.  To designate the correct answer, students trace that part of the picture.


  • In the Language Arts class students can add a picture of vocabulary words. They add questions about those pictures. They can use this to test their own knowledge or the knowledge of their friends. This would be great support for ELL students as well.
  • In the Math class students can begin with the first step in a math problem. In multiple choice format, students can choose the next step in the problem. They can reach the solution of a problem in the form of a series of pictures much like a flow map. The student who creates the exercise shows their knowledge of correct procedure and the students who solve it get a review of the previously learned skill. For younger students, you can add pictures of shapes in multiple choice format and have students choose a shape that you ask them about.
  • In the Science class students can add their own pictures of s sedimentary rock and ask questions specifying if the picture is sedimentary, igneous, or metamorphic. This would work for the parts of the life cyle or the weather cycle.
  • In the Social Studies class you can put in a picture of a map and have students choose a state. Better yet, have students create the questions and test one another
  • Information courtesy of: http://www.appsinclass.com/tinytap.html
I hope you enjoy these wonderful apps as I have!!


Collaboration..A Web 2.0 Solution

Monday, June 17, 2013 No comments
Hi there everyone! Today I wanted to talk about "Wallwisher/Padlet". I have used this for awhile, but it came to light recently in a collaboration meeting. I was working with some Elementary and Secondary specialists and they were talking about how they did not have time to follow up with teachers after professional development trainings and build the connection amongst their campuses. The light bulb went off and I mentioned Wallwisher/Padlet. Imagine being able to input feedback on Wall Wisher and have teachers contribute their ideas and suggestions. You can multiple users on a time.

Here is a little information about Wall Wisher:
Wallwisher/Padlet, allows you to create a “wall” where you can place virtual sticky-notes. You can allow others to also place notes on the board, or keep it so that only you can do so (which is what I would recommend for students). The sticky-notes can include images you grab off the web, videos, or websites, and you can add text to them (you can also just include text without adding anything else). Each sticky has a 160 character limit for text.

Examples:

  • Collaboration amongst campuses (share ideas, what works/what doesn't..no need to reinvent the wheel) 
  • Collaboration after a training (share thoughts, feelings, how did the implementation go)
Once teachers feel comfortable using Wallwisher/Padlet, they can then use it with their students. Have you ever taught a Math topic and then had a student say that they have another way of doing it. This is a great way for students to share their ideas and feel vested in the learning process.

Wallwisher
A great feature I really like about Wallwisher/Padlet is that you can export the board to Excel or as a PDF.

Below are a few other sites that are similar to Wallwisher/Padlet. I like to give you options!