Sunday, May 17, 2015

Collins Big Cat Books- Free Book Apps

I have been so excited about the free interactive books for the iPad that Collins Big Cat provides for our early readers.  These are more than just books that read out loud.  Students will enjoy the activities.  There is even a story creator with the ability to record audio to tell your story.


Collins Big Cat: The Steam Train Story Creator
Collins Big Cat: The Farmer's Lunch Story    
Collins Big Cat: Playing Story Creator
Collins Big Cat: My Bike Ride Story Creator
Collins Big Cat: It Was a Cold, Dark Night Story Creator
Collins Big Cat: In the Garden Story Creator
Collins Big Cat: At the Dump Story Creator
Collins Big Cat: Around the World Story Creator

SAMR for PreK and K

I teamed up with PreK and Kinder teachers and facilitators in our district to collaborate on an iPad roll out for early elementary.  I was asked to introduce SAMR to all of the PreK and K teachers in our district.  I thought back to every time I had seen a SAMR presentation or taught teachers about it in the past.  I felt like I needed to create something that would apply to my early elementary teachers.   I collected examples of real student work and looked at some old ways I had seen Pre-K and K teachers using technology and added a few other ideas that I didn't see happening often in classrooms.

The most important part of our presentation was talking about good quality lessons that teachers use to check for understanding and relating SAMR to what prek and kinder teachers do in the classroom.

The teachers on our team challenged me to create the presentation in Nearpod to teach teachers about this awesome tool without directly teaching them about the tool. It worked out really well, teachers enjoyed interacting during our session. The slide show was our Plan B.

We used apps in our SAMR presentation that teachers would use in hands-on workshops taught by teachers on our curriculum writing team during the afternoon sessions.  I made sure to share the lesson ideas as we talked about where they fit in SAMR.

What's even more awesome is, teachers decided they'd like to help me develop our own Pre-K and Kinder Padagogy Wheel similar to the one created by Allan Carrington, because we couldn't find one that would relate to early elementary. I can't wait to collaborate with teachers in our district to do this.

My SlideShare minus the video examples.


SAMR for PreK and K from klwrightbalbier


My NearPod presentation on SAMR for PreK and K