Cabin Fever

Snow days in Alabama are rare.  Unexpected snow days are even more rare.  Three snow days in a row are unheard of around these parts. So, what do you do with extra time on your hands when you are stuck in the house?  I looked for apps that cure my cabin fever.

1.                      Old Fart Booth: (I apologize for the title, but the app served the purpose for what I needed.) Tuesday morning, before the snow of 2014 hit Alabama, we celebrated the 100^th day of school.  Students took each other’s pictures in this app and mad themselves older…a lot older.  They were so funny looking at themselves.  They put their side-by-side pictures in picstitch.  Their pictures were printed and wrote about what they would be doing when they were 100.  Even though the writing was hurried, the content was hilarious.  One student wrote that when they were 100, they would be sitting in a rocking chair eating a banana.  Here is a sample of the two apps used that I did with my son. 

2.                      Card Creator:  This is a high tech version of Charades made for kids.  It is similar the game Heads Up that you may have seen being played while waiting in line everywhere. What’s unique about this free version is that you can add your own deck of cards for students to act out. It also videos the student who is acting out the words.  I have a deck for my science vocabulary ready for next week.  Students hold the iPad/ iPhone on their forehead.  The other students act out the word.  Get it correct, tilt it forward. Incorrect, tilt it backwards.  I can’t wait to teach this and get it center ready next week.

3.                      Waterlogue:  Here is where the boredom took over.  I was looking at the top paid and free apps.  I love photography apps.  When I saw this one in the top ten, I paid the $2.99 to check it out.  It takes your pictures and turns them into watercolor paintings.  It has several options for depth of color and turns ordinary photos into some pretty amazing pieces.  There was a lot of trial and error finding the best pictures to have painted.  

4.                      Flappy Bird:  This is the number one free app. It is addictive and a waste of time, but I can’t put it down.  Educationally, it is a stretch but it does involve some problem solving.  You could set a timer and have them take a screen shot of their best score.  This picture could be a writing prompt.  I will probably just put it in my Friday Reward app folder.

5.                      Don’t forget Digital learning day is February 5.  Have you taken the pledge?  Check out the digital learning website for tools, tips, and lessons.

Have a great, warm weekend! 

Random Ramblings

No theme…No connection…Just random thoughts.

This week I’m sharing some of the favorite apps and tools I’ve used recently in my classroom.

1.    Moby Max:  How have I not heard about this before?  This site is amazing.  It is an adaptive curriculum.  It has reading, vocabulary, math, facts, writing, language, and test prep areas.  It has placement tests, adaptive lessons, and IEP reporting.  Students login to the program and complete lessons.  Students are rewarded with game time for correct answers.  You can also set up weighted contests in your room.  It identifies missing skills and provides practice for those skills.  The Fact Master portion is very similar to FASTT Math.  You can click on the questions they’ve mastered and it tells you the correlated Common Core Standard.  Between the real time data and the fun the students have with the games, it is a Win-Win for everyone.  Oh, did I mention the basic Moby Max is free.  Some of the modules and reports are in the paid version.  It is $79.00 per year.  If you have an android device or a Kindle Fire, there is an app.  Moby Max recommends that you create a home page icon for apple products.  It is fully functional on an iPad.

2.    Boom Writer:  This is a site for collaborative writing.  Boom writer gives story start. A story Start is the first chapter of a book.  It can be written by anyone, even a celebrity.  Students continue with chapter 2 and write.  At the same time other Boom writers will be writing their version of chapter 2. Once the chapters are submitted, students vote on their favorites.  Then the names of the writers are revealed and they’ve created a book.  This book can be viewed online or purchased.

3.     Animoby:  This is a free app that turns your tablet into an interactive whiteboard.  Animations and videos can be created.  I tallows students or teachers record themselves as they create a screencast of a picture or a pdf.  With a completed project you can generate a URL to embed in blogs or share in other ways, such as edmodo.

4.    Story Me:  This app lets you turn pictures into comic strips.  Students create a collage, add speech bubbles, and add a fun comic effect.  Individual images can become s story in seconds. Here is one of my 2^nd grade student’s Story Me created about Martin Luther King, Jr.

Story Me app Project

5.    Be a Part of Digital Learning Day on February 5, 2014:  Let’s celebrate innovative teaching and highlight practices that personalize learning and engage students, exploring how digital learning can provide all students with the opportunities they deserve—to build the skills needed to succeed in college, a career, and life. In other words, show the world what Talladega County does everyday!

Have a Great weekend!

A Picture is Worth a Thousand Words

 I use Instagram in my personal life all of the time.  Recently, I began thinking about how the quick sharing of pictures and videos could be used to enhance the educational experience of my kids.  My classroom Instagram is a private site where I approve the followers. I’m also very careful about posting the faces of my students.  If a face slips in the frame, I use apps like Touch Blur to cover their faces.

1.  Document the Day:  Have a photographer of the day to snap a photo and write a caption.  This is a great way for the little ones to practice writing expanded sentences and descriptive writing.  It would make a great Year in the Life book at the end of the year.  Prinstagram is a fairly cheap service that prints Instagram photos in a variety of ways.

 2.  Keeping Parents informed:  Instagram is a fun way to showcase class projects and field trips for parents to see. Snap a series of pictures to show the steps in a science experiment or have kids take pictures of their favorite book and write a book recommendation caption.

 3.  Keep it moving:  With the addition of video to Instagram, students can create short videos to showcase their learning.  One of my favorite mini moviemakers is PicGrid.  Just choose a template, add pictures and choose the music.  When you save it to your camera roll, you can add it to your Instagram account. It is very easy to make an animated collage with this free app. Some other Instagram video apps are Flipagram, Video Star, and Action Movie FX. (I have not tested the last two in Instagram but I do enjoy using them in class.)

 4.  Let your Photo Talk:  Let students take a stock photo or a photo they take and make it talk.  Let a picture of a rock speak or draw a tornado and make it come to life.  Drawing a character and let it tell its story in a concise speech. Some of my favorite apps to do this are Chatter Pix, Chatter  Pix Kid and Yakit.  All of these let you save the video to your camera roll.  As long as it is less than 15 seconds you can import it to Instagram.

 5.  Just Take Pictures:  Let students explore their creative side and just let them take pictures.  You might be surprised what they will come with to share. There are several apps that let you add cool effects to pictures.  Some of my favorites are PicStich, A Beautiful Mess, Superimpose, and Overgram.

Have fun with Instagram.  Whether you use it personally, as writing prompts for your students, or as a tool where students are the photgraphers, it can be an education- enhancing tool! I’m an Instagram fan.  I hope you become one, too!

Have a great weekend!