Transferring Photos

If you are a photo fanatic like me, here is what you need to get your photos from your dslr camera to your ipad, the camera connector kit.  I've had the connector for some time now, but have never bothered putting extra pictures on my Ipad.  Since tomorrow's lesson plan includes using a photo of each child as they talk into audioboo about being bucket fillers, I thought we might as well use the beautiful photos I just took of each of them today.  No offence to the Ipad camera, it does it job, but seriously the photos just don't compare.  The adapter was quick and simple, in under a minute I had all the pictures I wanted loaded into a folder ready for tomorrows lesson.

Tumblebooks for Ipad

On my quest to plan for Munsch a Good Book (our school I Love To Read Month theme), I remembered Tumblebooks has lots of Robert Munsch stories!

With great excitement I made a plan for computer buddies and then stumbled across a graphic novel I thought my son would like.  After bookmarking tumblebooks on his home screen of his ipod and teaching him the school's username and password, I discovered the graphic novel would not work on safari on his Ipod.  Why??????  Well only some books work on the Ipad/Ipod.  There is a link in green at the top of the page that says Ipad Books.  When we searched through that selection of books, they quickly began to play on his Ipod.

http://www.tumblebooks.com/library/asp/book_details.asp?category=iPad+Books&offset=0

McIsaac's username: mcisaac  password: books

Bookmark this link on your home screen and make use of these great "free" books!  Happy Reading.

Oh and to my teaching delight....... the Robert Munsch books are for the Ipad!

My Next Project

I have been procrastinating about audioboo for a long time now, mostly because I did not have a project idea and maybe just a little bit because of all the troubles we had with audioboo and our pc's last school year.  However, I have found the inspiration I need for my next project!

Check out this link:  http://teachinghappilyeverafter.blogspot.com/2012/01/podcasting-in-classroom-audio-boo.html

If it works as easy as she claims it does then I plan to use audioboo for 100 day (not the same idea - more likely something about the best thing about the first 100 days) and then to use storyrobe for our I Love TO Read events!  I am just so excited about trying it out:)

I'll keep you "posted"!

Keeping it organized

So how are we going to keep the iPad organized and not distracting for an impulsive 7 year old? My thought is to have it ALL organized in folders. Then to only pull out 2 or 3 apps that are part of the lesson for that day or that week. Everything else will remain in folders hidden away until needed. This will take away from wanting the really fun apps instead of the "work" apps.

In App purchases

With many of the free apps I have for my children I am bombarded with in app purchases.."that only cost 99 cents mom!".  Well here is a link to an article to make sure those 99cent purchases are not being made.

Byte conference

I am so excited to be attending the Byte Conference this year in Portage la
Prairie!  I am taking 4 sessions - 3 of them focused on Ipads.

1.  My School Got An Ipad - Now what?
2.  Ipads and Children With Special Needs
3.  My  iclassroom

What do I hope to learn?????

I have been using this Ipad in the classroom for 6 months now.  It has been very exciting but has also posed many challenges.  How do we share 1 Ipad with 18 children?

How can I set up a special needs child's program using an Ipad to meet the goals we have set on his IEP and to help him learn social and organizational skills to promote independence?

What kind of project can I do in my classroom involving great apps, but will work with access to only 1 possibly 2 Ipads?

Songify your spelling

So today we took spelling to a whole new level (thanks Mrs. Malchow again for another great idea!)  We each got a turn to spell 3 words aloud speaking into the free Ipad app -  songify.  The app then took our words and turned them into a song.  The kids enjoyed hearing their own voices back, they had a little laugh at the robotic sounding one and were excited for their independent turn.

I had a special guest helper today (my son) who was the leader who sat with each student to teach them how to use the app.  A few students were very excited to go home and download it onto their Ipods!!!  Now there is a sneaky way to spell!

ipad lesson plans

This looks like a very worthwhile site to give teachers an idea of what to do with the ipad. There's so much information out there and it can be overwhelming. It's important to pick one --get comfortable with that and then go forward with something new. Ahhh-good advice I should listen too!!! Check these out and I'll let you know which one I'm going to explore.

http://pinterest.com/techchef4u/ipad-lessons/

Pinterest

I have recently taken an interest in pinterest!  I have my own page of pins and am pinning a few things, but have not yet figured out how the whole thing works.  How on earth people find little old me to follow on pinterest is beyond me, yet they do.  I have pinned very little and am still unsure how to pin a whole site that I like, not just one thing.  Nevertheless, I had this http://pinterest.com/ktbailin/ipad/ recommended to me by a friend.  At quick glance it looks like it could be great.  Thought it was worth sharing with all of you!

Good Night Ipad

Here's a cute parody of Good Night Moon!