Last Monday I lead a training in Hollywood for how to use your iPad to teach math. The assumption was that the teacher had an iPad and the students did not. This has been my reality ever since the iPad came out, I got the iPad 1 the first day it came out. Just yesterday all the students at my new school were issued iPads so now I am in a 1-1 situation. I’m excited for the change in dynamics in my classroom. I’ve decided to do a blogging series on using the iPad to teach, drawing from my experiences.
Here are some of the suggestions I gave at the Hollywood training
Use the free graphing calculator app to create graphs. Hold down the home button and the power button at the top to create a screen shot. This gets you images of graphs easily.
Set up a wordpress blog on www.wordpress.com and use it as an FAQ for your class. Download the WordPress app to your iPad. The app makes it easy to post to your blog from your iPad. Use the camera on your iPad to take pictures of your notes from the board, from paper, from the book, student work samples, etc… In the wordpress app tap on the picture icon and insert the pictures into a blog post. This gets your notes onto the web super quick. (note, I want to encourage you to use categories and tags with all your blog posts to keep it organized)
Use the sundry notes app to create notes. These notes can be exported as a PDF and shared with students. What is nice about sundry notes is that it allows for you to insert clips from the web, insert math symbols, insert graphs, have a shared drawing space with another iPad user, to draw, to insert text. Trick for this app is to hold your finger down on the paper and to not lift your finger but to drag to what action you want to execute.
Create google forms for your students to fill out. Pass around the iPad for students to fill out the form. I use this just to gather information from my students, but I can use this as a station also. Set up the form where the students will enter their first and last name, their period, SID, and their email (or whatever info you want to collect) and then have a field for them to fill out the answer to the questions at the station. Then you do not have papers to grade. All the answers go to a single spreadsheet for you to easily grade. Use the flubaroo script in google spreadsheet to grade it for you if you want.
If you are using a Google site for your classroom website, create an announcement style page to list what you are doing everyday. For the daily post use a 2 column layout. On the left side insert instructions, questions, YouTube video, etc… And then on the right column insert the Google form for the student to answer questions based on what information you gave them on the left side. This does have to be done on your computer. However this is how you can set up your station with the students using the iPad as a station.
Use a website such as www.quia.com to create practice activities. I like to create a question bank of questions to reinforce a key concept and then have a quia quiz choose a random 3-5 questions that the student has to get 100% on. If you have a student who is struggling with a concept, especially pre-requisites, they can use the iPad to practice that concept until they master it. Quia also lets you make games such as jeopardy style, who wants to be a millionaire, etc… So you can easily make fun practice activities that students can use as a station or reinforcement. (I have a group subscription for discount pricing, email me mrskeeler@gmail.com if you want in on it)
Set up your email in the iPad, use this to keep you from needing to be at your desk.
If you’re going to let students use your iPad (I recommend) think about creating a gmail account where you do not receive confidential emails. You still want to be able to email from iPad. I like to take pictures of student work and email it to parents to show how good they are doing (or possibly the converse). It is also a good way to capture work samples for IEP meetings. Create a photo folder on your computer for student work samples. Name the photo by the kids name so you can find work samples easily if you have a parent meeting. Walk around the class with your iPad taking pictures of student work samples frequently.
Use iPad as a QR code reader. You can create a bulletin board of QR codes that link to websites, Quia activities, Khan Academy, etc… For support activities. When you realize a student needs help with…. Snap the QR code with your iPad and hand the kid the site with the info or practice they need. See my QR information site at alicekeeler.com/qr
Use the PresenTimer app to time your activities in class. It creates a large timer that will ring a bell at 3 different time intervals to help keep you and your class on track. I’ve had it sit on my desk and as kids bring up their activity they see how long it took them to complete the task. It was a good motivator for students to keep moving.
I like to do my lesson plans on Google Docs, but even if you do them on Pages on your iPad this keeps your lesson plans close at hand. I have them near me as an outline as I go through my lesson to make sure I am on track and cover everything I want to cover.
Look up YouTube videos on the spot to share with students when off topics arise.
If you email yourself a PowerPoint it opens up very nicely in the keynote app. This is great as it allows you to go through a presentation in a small group setting.
iBooks: Download free books to your phone. You can highlight key passages from the text and a list of your highlights are created. This can create a great resource for you and also for your students.
ePub: Many books are available in an ePub format, this downloads the book to your iBooks so you do not need an internet connection to access the book.
CK-12 Flexbooks: www.ck12.org has free textbooks (mostly for Science, Engineering and Math) that can download to your iPad. You can also edit your own flexbook to customize the chapter order and even go in and edit all of the content to fully make it your own.
Create QR codes that link to additional information outside of the textbook. A website, YouTube video… yourself (that you recorded with iPad camera), etc… that will give the student more information than what is listed in book. Use the iPad to help students access the now interactive book.
Go to http://images.google.com on your iPad and search for almost anything you’re teaching. You’ll be able to come up with images that pertain to your topic. Hold your finger on the image and it will allow you to save that image to the photo library. You can then import that image as a background into apps such as Doodle Buddy, Show Me, Sundry Notes, and more. This allows you to annotate over the image and quickly make resources.
By the way, I created this blog post on my iPad using the wordpress app.
This weekend I was honored to be in the Iron CUE competition at Fall CUE in Napa. It was a fun experience that I would do again in a heartbeat. If anyone has seen the TV show Iron Chef this competition is based on that concept. Two edtech competitors meet at the opening keynote to the conference and each choose 2 volunteer “sous chefs” from the audience. A mystery technology ingredient is revealed and each team has 22 hours to create a lesson on a given topic that integrates the technology.
This year the lesson topic was sustainable living, conservation and green technology. The mystery “ingredient” was revealed to be the iPevo document camera.
The iPevo document camera is pretty nifty. It is light weight, I can put it in my purse easily, the picture quality is good and it was easy to use. My team decided to use the zoom feature with the iPevo and take close up pictures of items that would likely end up in a landfill. Students would then be given a QR code linking to a close up picture of the item and guess what the item is. The student would use the iPevo camera to scan the QR code. This item is then what the student would integrate into their project on sustainable living.
I had an amazing team. Ali and Jon. I think we spent most of our time looking at different tech things that had nothing to do with the project! “What, you’re not on twitter?” So we ended up having a little mini CUE conference in out little room we took over. Amazingly fun. Ali had the primary idea for the project, she is fantastic. Ali even brought a printer from home!! Both worked hard learning new Google techniques, QR codes, and how to use a document camera to pull this project together. Jon whipped up a sample Google Site to demonstrate the student project in no time.
At the closing keynote each team gets 5 minutes to present the lesson and the audience votes. Unfortunately no tech conference would be complete without technical difficulties. The internet of course was not working just as Team Van Dyke went up to present. We both had prepared websites so that is no bueno. Brian recovered like a champ, very impressive that even with his project not loading he and his team kept on presenting.
Of course when it came time to vote again more technical glitches … the CUE website went down and online voting was not working. Had to go with non techie standby of voting by applause. The vote was really close, as it should have been. Team Van Dyke did a great job on their project. Chairman, and reigning champ, Jim Sill declared Team Alice the winner.
While I only win bragging rights, the 4 volunteers each got to take home an iPevo camera (hey, I want one!) and they hopefully got to have a great time learning from both Brian and myself.
I know you’re thinking why in the world would I want to do this…
Have you ever wanted to email each student in your class individual feedback? But then realized how overwhelming that task is. You’re 20 emails into it and you don’t have the strength to message the other 180…
Here is what you want to do. Create a Google Form so students can submit their assignment, this is extra awesome because then all of your grading is in one spreadsheet. No loose papers to grade, nothing to collect.
Now that you have all the student answers in a spreadsheet (go ahead, use flubaroo to grade it if you want) you can make a column for score and a column for feedback. Go down the rows and while you’re watching TV on your couch make comments for each student and give them a score.
Not required but I suggest you duplicate the sheet with the data and rename all the column headings to one word. (Change “what is your email?” to “email”). Rename the sheets to one word also.
Then in the spreadsheet insert->script->ValMerge (search for mail merge, it comes up). Say yes to the red dire warnings about installing a script.
I like to rename my sheet 1 to something short like “grade”
You will need to add a tab to your spreadsheet, I call mine “mail” but you can call whatever you want.
You will need to copy and paste the field key from the ValMerge help page
Change the values in that sheet to match what you want.
Anything that refers to a cell in your spreadsheet of data you want to put the title of the column header in brackets.
Once you have all your data and you have your mail merge letter set up, just click on the ValMerge button that came up in the toolbar after you installed the script. Choose Mail Merge.
Type the name of the sheet that has the ValMerge key (remember I called mine “mail”)
If you did everything right you should get a confirmation screen asking if you really want to send the email…
Then each kid gets an email addressed to them personally (assuming you had a name field in your mail merge) with personalized data about their score on the assignment and the specific individual feedback.
I don’t know if you watched the Mole TV show… I think I watched half an episode. Premise is that you have 2 teams and on each team there is someone from the network who is sabotaging your team. The team that loses votes for the person who they think is the mole. The person with the most votes who is NOT the Mole gets kicked off the show.
I found this powerpoint on line and made up my own rules for how to make a review game. Students love it. If you play it make sure you install the whole folder and run your PowerPoints from the folder, the files link to a sound file. The sound is probably the best part of the activity. The creepy Mole music really kicks it up 10,000 knotches.
If I teach summer school or have only one class I am doing the activity with I will type the students actual names into the PowerPoint. When I use it with my classes where I have multiple classes I use playing cards.
I have a deck of cards and I go around the room and assign each kid a card. “Mary, you are the Ace of Spades.” I’ll give them a post it note to write that down on. This is a great way to do it because it allows me to make generic Mole Games that are reusable since they won’t remember which cards were eliminated in previous games (and they get assigned a different card each time).
Downside to the cards is that the kids don’t identify with the cards. So when I call out “Ace of Spades” there is sometimes some staring and non movement until some kid goes “oh oh that is me.” So I’ve learned to have a roster and write down what card each kid is so that when I say “Ace of Spades” I know it is Mary.
Other problem is that I don’t have 52 students in my class (I hope you don’t either). So either you have extra cards in your game or you play with a smaller deck. I usually go for the smaller deck but inevitably I lose the deck and don’t remember which cards are referenced in the game. So I get a new deck and have to redo my PowerPoint game slides…
You might want to try using animal names instead of cards and writing the animal names on an index card and use that to choose students at random… Kids remember what animal they are a lot easier than what card number they are.
Here is how I play. I put problems on the board or say them verbally. Students work out their answers on individual whiteboards at their seat. I randomly call on someone (you need a system to be random, hence the cards). I am ridiculously picky, it is much more fun if they get it wrong. So if the comma is not big enough or the handwriting is kinda sloppy and it might be a B instead of a 6…. “someone is getting eliminated.”
I then switch to the PowerPoint with the Mole game. Make sure the sound works! I begin the execution and then the card titles start coming up on the screen. I like to make the kids stand up if it is their card, much more nerve wracking. If there is a green thumbprint they are safe and can sit down. If it is a red thumbprint they are eliminated…. but here is the kicker, they STILL HAVE TO PARTICIPATE. At the end of the game I give a small piece of candy or maybe a tiny bit of extra credit to whoever is still alive… kids who were eliminated don’t get the prize. I’m of course an evil math teacher without feelings so I don’t have qualms about some kids not getting candy, you can work out your own system
Here is how I set up the PowerPoint
If I am using names I will print out the roster and cut out their names and draw randomly. Although being an EdTech nerd I actually put the names into an excel spreadsheet with a column next to their name that has the function =rand() which generates a random number. I then sort the sheet by the random number column.
I will type the first name picked into the first slide where I can put a name.
If that person is safe I go to the next name on the list, etc… until someone is eliminated (a red thumbprint slide follows their name).
With the paper slips I take the eliminated kids name out of the pile and shuffle back in the slips I just used. I think it is great when the same kid gets “picked on,” I let randomness choose who gets picked next. That way kids don’t sit back thinking they are safe because their name came up last time.
On the Excel spreadsheet I replace the random number with an x. Then when I sort the spreadsheet by the random column the kids who were eliminated sink to the bottom.
If I am doing a deck of cards I basically do the same thing, I shuffle the deck, pick a card off the top and type that card into the first slide with a name. I then take the 2nd card and type that into the next name spot until a card is eliminated. I remove that card from the deck and shuffle the remaining cards. I keep doing this until everyone has been eliminated.
One of my favorite things to teach in an advanced Excel class is the concept of Concatenate, but who can remember that word or how to spell it? Luckily there is an easier way to join together data from one cell and another.
Here is a tutorial on how to create an email list from a list of names.
I copied and pasted a bunch of names off of the internet, some early colonists.
I am using Google Spreadsheet
Now if you are typing this list yourself and can put first and last name into different columns that is best. If you are using EXCEL you can use data to columns in the ribbon to separate the names into separate columns.
In Google Spreadsheet I need to use the function =Split(cell,” “) where I put a space in between quotations to tell the spreadsheet to split the cells up at the space. If you have commas it would look like =split(cell,”, “)
Note the space after the comma since likely you have last name comma SPACE first name.
Drag that formula down the list
There are a couple of functions you may want to know. =LEFT(cell,#) will give you the number of characters from the left side of the string that you designate. For example if you have keeler in cell A1 and in cell B1 you type =LEFT(A1,3) it will return kee… the left 3 characters.
=RIGHT(Cell,#) will do the same thing but from the right side. So if in cell A1 you have keeler and in cell B1 you type =RIGHT(A1,3) you would get ler.
If you want your text from the middle of a text string you can use =mid(cell,starting character number, ending character number).
So if I have the word complementary in cell A1 and then in cell B1 type =mid(A1,7,10) I would get ment returned.
To join two cells together you use the ampersand symbol. (&)
So lets say for my email list the pattern is the first letter of the first name, joined with the last name joined with @mydistrict.k12.ca.us
Then my formula is
=left(cell with first name,1)&cell with last name&”@mydistrict.k12.ca.us”
Remember all text strings need to be in quotations.
Drag that formula down the sheet and you have a list of email addresses you can now copy and paste into your TO field of your email.
I have been pondering how to use QR codes in the classroom. My favorite use being to tape QR codes into old textbooks to make them relevant. The code pictured below goes to a YouTube video with directions on how to do those math problems.
Note: I used a super sticky post it label so I wouldn’t damage my book and then taped the QR code on top of that.
While brainstorming ways QR codes can be used in the classroom I started making posters. I was thinking I can make some sort of visual that would make a nice info poster for any subject… which is when I thought it would be fun to make samples.
Here is one for an English class, keep in mind these are just samples made by a math teacher
Here is one I made for a historical timeline
The timeline took me significantly longer than I anticipated, but it did get me to thinking that both of these would make great student projects!
To create them I used Google Drawings. I had side by side windows where I used Google Search to find websites with information that I wanted students to be able to access, then copied and pasted the URL into http://goo.gl and got the QR code URL link. In Google Drawing I inserted-image-by URL.
When I am drawing in PowerPoint or Google Presentation sometimes I need to nudge a shape over, but the arrow keys nudge it over too much.
Hold down the shift key while using arrow keys and your object you are trying to move will move one pixel at a time to help you get precise placement.
Another drawing trick is when resizing pictures by grabbing the corner, hold down the shift key and it will constrain your proportions. This helps keep your picture square and your circles round.
When using a MAC I love to use command spacebar to find my files and applications on my computer. (This initiates spotlight search).
When I am looking for a particular file, sometimes I want to know WHERE the file is instead of opening the file.
Before clicking on the file name, hold down the command button. This will launch a window showing you the location of the file instead of executing the file.
