Photo Editing just got more difficult on my PC

This is totally not iPad related since I don't do a lot of photo editing and uploading on my iPad.

I LOVE, LOVE, LOVE picnik (the photo editting site).  I used it to create my blog header.  I edited and created collages there.  I posted directly to facebook and emailed to friends right from picnik and now it is CLOSING!  April 19th!!!  I have known this for a couple months now but the realization is just setting in.

I have been on a quest for a new site with not a lot of luck.  Today I tried PicMonkey.   Here is my review.......
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Thumbs up:
1.  It's easy!
2.  It edits a single photo very well, with nearly as many options as picnik.

Thumbs down:
1.  There is no collage option (yet)!
2.  There is no direct sharing via email, blog, or facebook that I could find.
3.  It would only load 1 picture at a time.  It was EASY, but not my way of operating if you know what I    mean!

Here are a few of my trial edits......

It will do....... for now.  But I would LOVE to know what program do you use to do these things?

 

iTips and Tricks

So guess what I did today?????  Yup, played with my iPhone!  I bought an app called iPhone Secrets Tips and Tricks.  I have almost read all the tips and have learned MANY new things that work with all our idevices!  I'll share a few..............

Emoti keyboard - So if you go into your settings and choose general, scroll down til you see keyboard.  Then choose international keyboards.  Here you will find a list of many languages for the keyboard.  You will find a list of many languages and one called emoti, which is how you get those fun emoticons.  When you want to use them click the little globe that will now appear on your keyboard!


Maps - So this is cool yet somehow a little disturbing.  If you click the maps button  on the main page of your device and type in an address it will pin it on a map.  If there happens to be a little person next to the pin, you can click the person and it will show you a picture of that exact location!  It works, I found all my houses I have ever lived in.  The pictures are about 3 years old... I know this because my house was just in the building stage and that is when we built.  Cool but freaky!  You can swipe the picture for a panaramic view.  This would be wonderful for Social Studies!


Saving your Battery - There are a few things you can do to save your battery.  Do not leave your device in push mode for your email and notifications.  Turn it off so that you actually have to hit your email button for your email to update itself.  Also set the brightness of your screen to a lower lighting level to save your battery and make sure you turn off any apps that run using your location. When your device is constantly updating your location it is wasting battery.  Remember any apps you use are constantly running in the background.  Double press your home button and a list of all running items appears across the bottom.  Touch the minus sign to completely turn them off, this DOES NOT delete the app.

Siri - I am very excited to read the section about Siri (my personal assistant that "lives" in my phone!!!!)  I see that I can train her to know who my contacts are so I can say things like "Calll my husband" and it will find his number in my phone.  I can also set my profile so I can say things like "Remember to check the mail when I get home." and when my location registers me at home, Siri will remind me!  Cool huh!

Iphone users.... for 99 cents I am pretty sure you will learn something with this app!



 

It's An iWorld After All!

Tomorrow is my 10th wedding anniversary.  There is no shiny diamond 10th anniversary ring (I actually got that ring for my first anniversary) instead I got an iPhone because it is an iWorld after all!!!!!!  

I did not explore apps today or do anything educational instead we took our children on a fishing adventure filled with mishaps and then spent the rest of the day learning about icloud, syncing my devices, talking to Siri (yes it's the 4S and she talks to me!) and running updates on all of our iDevices.  When I say "all" I mean my house is complete with 2 iPhones, an iPad2 and a 4th generation iPod........ we are the iWorld...and I'm still contemplating the MacBook!   lol!

This time I was determined to do it right, but yet again I did not.  I synced my iPhone before updating my itunes account with the apps I have purchased on the iPad in the last 3 months and now there are a bunch of apps on it that I am not sure how to get to my iPhone without doing the sync again... after I sync the iPad!

I THINK I have set up the sharing so any new apps I buy will automatically download to my  phone, they already do to my son's iPod, yet for some reason the iPad will not let me turn that sharing on so it can get our new purchases.  The idea of iCloud is genius, I just need a tutorial!

I am a little overwhelmed in this iWorld but am completely thrilled about it at the same time.

 

Follow Up to My Story

My daughter and I sat down to see if she could create a story on her own.  She is 5, pretty wise with an iPad and with very little help from me, she created a 4 page story.  She inserted a photo, designed a title page, added text and added voice.  Her finished product was alright, she was proud of it and that's what really matters!

The glitch is the publishing.  You have 2 options: send to ibooks or email it.

So we sent it to ibooks.  It created a lovely little book to sit on my ibook shelf for her to read whenever she chooses.  The books plays great from there which she found very exciting.

Then we decided to email it.  We emailed it to her dad's iPhone, he was not able to open it on the iPhone.  We emailed it to her grandma.  She was able to open it with her ePub that she uses when she downloads library books, but the audio would not play.  Finally we emailed it to Mrs. Fisher.  She was able to open it on her iPad and it played perfectly from her ibooks.

So before you create, decide on your purpose and who you want to share with.  I could not find a way to embed it to our class wiki or to upload it to You Tube.  I generally want to be able to share with all students and their families and if they need to own an iPad to see our product, this is not the program I want to use.
 

My Story App

Well Spring Break is upon us and on this VERY SNOWY Saturday morning I am at my computer, coffee in hand, doing all my favorite things!


1.  Listening to my daughter sing and dance (she is so good at entertaining herself)
2.  Enjoying my caramel coffee
3.  Surfing the net checking out all the blogs I follow, the new pins on pinterest and of course reading the facebook updates:)


Oh how I love Saturday mornings!


Last night I had so much fun playing with my iMovie (yes techie work on a Friday night is fun for me).  As I worked away I thought about other ways to use technology in my classroom.  My own children are my guinea pigs and I plan to try some stuff out over spring break.  Here is one app I have had for awhile, have never explored but found this inspirational video and now think I will put it to good use:  My Story.  This app is $1.99 in the itunes store.  

Check back to see how "My" stories turn out, I wonder if they can be embedded?  Happy "Spring " Break, looks a lot more like Winter!!!!
 

What Does technology Look Like In Grade One?

Here it is... the techie vision I have had for months!!!!!!  Enjoy!

The process:
1.  I asked what technology meant.  Guess what I got the right answer on the first attempt!
2.  We brainstormed and webbed using kidspiration all the things we do that are considered to be technology.
3.  I interviewed each child about technology.
4.  I gathered pictures and the video interviews and added them to iMovie.
5.  I procrastinated!!!!!!!!
6.  I discovered how easy iMovie really is and finalized the product.
7.  I chose upload to You Tube as my publishing option and then embedded it here and on my class wiki.


What's next?
I think the video will be emailed to or presented to a few of the people who manage the budget and do the goal planning when it comes to technology for our school division.  Who knew 6 year old kids were so immersed in technology?

 

iMovie

So I have had a project in the works for a few weeks now, it just took me a while to get around to learning to edit using iMovie.  Thanks to a fellow colleague for finding and sharing this YouTube tutorial with me.  It walked me step by step through the features of iMovie.  I sat with my laptop playing the video and my iPad right beside me so I could pause the video and work along with the tutorial.  In under an hour I created the product I had been visualizing for months!  

The process was "easy peasy mac and cheesy" as the kids in my class would say.  And I think I might just be making another one in the very near future ( I already have the footage prepared)!   


The tutorial also walks you through how to share your finished product.  I decided to upload mine to You Tube.  As I prepare this blog post my iMovie is uploading - although I must confess, it seems to be a LONG process to upload a 4 minute video.... so much for high speed internet!


 

"Pod" trial

Outside was a miserable, icy, freezing rain kind of day. Not a typical northern Manitoba kind of day by all means! So while the weather had us all down, Lois and I tried using our iPads as a pod. We were able to round up 3 iPods for my trial and 4 for Lois's trial. We used it as a center during our reading time and both cLasses used the word bingo app I have talked about in other posts. They LOVED it! I had 6 kids at the center so they had to share. I briefly explained how to use the bingo part of the app. They enthusiastically played for a good 10 minutes before a few of them experimented on their own with the fling games and the falling brick words. Some of them even switched to harder word lists! That is always a bonus when they choose to challenge themselves! They had 15 minutes with the iPad which was enough time to have some fun but not get bored with the new app. A few were rushing home to purchase it for themselves!

So we can see how successful a small pod can be! I look forward to this last week before spring break where I have the opportunity to try this pod every day! Who knows where our icreativity will take us!
...

App reviews..... and more

Word Bingo... love it!  We are using this in my classroom Monday morning!


You can set up to 30 player profiles or play as a guest.  There are 5 words levels to play from pre-primer to 3rd grade.  There is also an option for nouns or just all the words mixed together.  Players can create a simple avatar, there are not a lot of options which I prefer....less time wasted on changing it!!!  The game can be played in 2 modes:  spelling practice (dragging letters to spell a word) or in bingo format, where you listen carefully and choose the word on your bingo card.  In the bingo option there is also a game called fling it, where you find the word said and then sling shot it to hit a bug... kind of fun!  Finally there is a report card option.  It gives details of progress and levels played!

I played this last night with my 5 year old daughter, some of the words were definitely not words she could read, but she was able to be successful using the initial letter for many words, and she shocked me with the words she did know!  For 99 cents this game is a steal!

Snakes and Ladders



We also played the lite version of this game last night.  It is exactly like the board game except pieces were not falling over and it was counting for us, so there was no "miscounting"!   The lite version is free, the full version is 3.99, I have not been able to figure out the difference between the versions.  The lite version allows you to play a full game so it was good in my books!

Fishdom - my new addiction!


This app is mostly just for fun.  You need to think critically to get the objects into rows of 3 and make them disappear.  The object of each level is to get all the brown background squares "unlocked" by getting 3 in a row and turning the backgrounds blue.  I can waste hours here, but my son and daughter sit with me and we all line things up together.  This game is expensive.  I know we never would have paid 6.99 for it, so it must have been an app shopper deal at one time.

Preposition Remix by Smarty Ears

This game is perfect for teaching all those positional words.  You can go into the settings and turn on or off 20 different positional words such as to the left of, near, furthest, between etc.  A sentence is read aloud and 3 pictures are shown.  Your job is to tap the picture that matches what was said.  A summary report is generated at the end of the session. Apparently you can set profiles for multiple children, I have not looked into this yet.  Great app to teach this difficult concept!  The voice is very calm too, there are no exciting noises or treasures popping up so it makes the time a bit relaxing!  This app is 9.99  and I see there are many more smarty ear apps to check out as well!


And finally on a side note........ my family is addicted to watching movies on our idevices.  We have been renting from itunes on the ipad and my husbands iphone and hooking up with our hdmi adapter to our tv!  The picture is beautiful and NO MORE LATE FEES!  The downfall..... it takes  a LONG time for movies to download so it can not be a spur of the moment decision!  Last nights purchase was Hugo..... and we are anxiously awaiting these guys.

 

It's my lucky day!

My wishes were granted.....every item on my wish list was purchased for the one ipad I have in my classroom!  YAY!

We tried one today - Junior Bingo!  It was a hit!  The perfect app for learning the alphabet!  It also works awesome for shapes and numbers!  This app will be perfect in September of Grade One (yep - I am already thinking of next year).  It is also perfect for those kids who just need the extra support or are on IEP's!  Well worth the .99 cents!

Happy St. Pat's!  Here's hoping you are as lucky as I!

App Wish List

So I've been previewing some apps lately and of course one thing always leads to another and I now have a small list of apps on my "to buy list".  

They are:

Find and Match 1-100


Phonics Made Easy Flash Action



Build a Word Easy Spelling



Letter School - I have this app on an ipad for a student on an IEP in my classroom (he LOVES it), but would like it on my ipad for all the student to use.  Unfortunately we have different itune accounts so we can not share it.



Word Bingo



Junior Bingo




Keep in mind, I have not tried most of these, they are my wish list!  I bet when you check them out, they will be on your wish list too!
H"appy" Monday!
 

A Technology Wish List

$500........ depending on what you want to buy, it could be a lot of money. 


An Ipad2 (since they are down to $419 now:))
A part payment on a macbook
A new laptop
All the accessories needed for the technology I already have.... cases, styluses, better sound system, cords and adapters.
2 Ipod touches
A whole load of money to spend at the Itunes store


Those are just some of the ideas swimming through my head.  


What would you buy?

 

Previewing Free Apps

So when I attended BYTE, I was given an enormous list of recommended apps by a variety of teachers and education professionals.  I downloaded ALL the freebies (a lot of the recommended ones were pricey) and I have finally got around to checking some out.


Jumbline 2


    

This game has you twisting your brain to make words from jumbled lists of letters.  Very addicting I must say. There are 3 ways to play.  Two I have posted pictures about, the 3rd I have not  even tried yet.  I love the 2nd way where you race the clock to make words with the letters you have while the yellow time climbs up.  When the line gets to the top, time is up.   You earn more time by making longer words.

Definitely not a classroom app for my first graders, but good word work practice for older kiddos.  My 8 year old son was playing a long with me.

The lite version is free (that is what I have - it has ads on the bottom of the screen)

Greater Than


  

I am going to use this app to introduce greater than and less than, such a tricky concept for kiddos.  I always use the analogy that the symbol is a lion's big chopping mouth.  Lion's always want to eat the biggest thing so the chomp needs to gobble the bigger number, seems to work.

I got this app for free, it will be fine to introduce the concept, but there is nothing exciting about it and I would not recommend spending money on it as I am sure there is something better for free out there but hooked to my lcd, it will be a great intro to the concept (I really need that adapter/cord I last blogged about).

Build A Word


What a great app for spelling words.  The Ipad very clearly stretches out a word so you can hear all the sounds and you choose the letters to spell the word.    It even puts double letters on the same car for example ll or ck.

I have the free version of this app as well, but seriously want to purchase the full version for my classroom.

That's all for now, more previews coming soon.

A Seusstastic Day

So I finally have some pictures to post of my PixelWorks creations.  Our Seuss faces turned out FANTASTIC!  The grade ones used the sketch edit on the Ipad in PixelWorks, then they colored with pencil crayons, and added a Seuss hat.

And since I am sharing all things Seuss, I have to share our Things!  We used our painted hand prints to create Thing One or Thing Two.  We then decorated them to look like the Things and wrote about what would happen if the Things showed up at our house!  Such fun to see what these crazy Things would do!  No technology was involved here but we sure did have fun!

And if you are studying Seuss, you can not forget The Lorax.  Such a wonderful message made even more exciting with a movie release in theatres!  I purchased the Lorax book app on sale for .99 cents (I believe) from the itunes store.  Then for the first time I borrowed cords to connect my Ipad to my NEW lcd short throw BenQ LCD projector!  We were excited to hear the sound coming from the projector instead of the quiet computer speakers!  We let the story Autoplay and for nearly 20 minutes, yes 20 minutes we listened to The Once-ler explain to the boy about the Lorax and the truffala trees.  We then followed up with some comprehension questions about the story, which I must say we answered VERY well.  LOVED IT!!!!!

So on a techie note I need an Apple Digital AV adapter and an HDMI cord so I can use this system on a regular basis in my iclassroom.  

Adding a signature - Just a test

So I was trying out the add a signature tutorial from this site, since I did say I wanted to learn how to fancy it up a bit!  Now this is my trial... looks like it's going to work.


Now I went back and did the remove the shadow too..... let's see if that works on my edit.


Okay... so all that fun worked and I am editing one more time because if anyone knows why my header is now all small and how I can fix it... please post a comment!
 

An Award for L'il Old Me!

So I awoke this morning to an exciting surprise... in my inbox was a comment about my blog and an award presented to me:)  Now I have been blogging for about 7 months or so, and have not yet figured out a whole lot of things such as:
1.  How to put awards on the page:)
2.  How to link to Pinterest and Facebook and my wikispace.
3.  The whole gadget thing really throws me for a loop.
4.  How to get the fancy signature!

Now I have wanted to learn a whole lot more to fancy up my blog and make it a place more people would want to come to, I am just not so sure where to go to learn how?!

So here is my first real attempt at some of this stuff (because I really want my award!)


Here's the award!!!!!!

Now I'm supposed to:

1  .Link back to the blogger that gave it to me - Tickled to Teach (I'll be checking your blog out soon - thx!)
2  .Pass the award on to 15 other bloggers - YIKES!  Can I find 15 who have not received the award yet... I'll try!
3.  Follow the person you nominated you - check!

Here are my blog pics:

1.  Reflections on Technology
2.  Technology Rocks Seriously
3.  Deep Space Sparkle
4.  Hand Print and Foot Print Art
5.  Mrs. Dent Scarcello's Class

Okay... I've done all I need to do.  All that is left is to let these bloggers know I nominated them!  And then figure out how to put the award on my side bar of my blog!  Tee hee!

My bucket is just a little bit fuller today!

World Math Day

Just in time for tomorrow..... World Math Day has it's own free app so you can play it on the go!  Kids can log in with their Mathletics username and password.  The first time you log in you have to set your level.  World Math Day is March 6 and 7 (due to various times around the world).  Log on and test your mental math skills against kids your age around the world!



Get the World Math Day app link here!