Using Shadow Puppet in Pre-K and K: Turning Off the Image Seach Feature

I've been working with a group of AMAZING pre-k through 2nd grade teachers to design technology integrated lessons that are aligned with core curriculum.  Shadow Puppet EDU has been one of my favorite apps since the day I discovered it.  It's an app that can be used for any content. 

Here is an example of what a 4 year old can create with Shadow Puppet. This student illustrated the parts of a plant with another app and used Shadow Puppet to share what he learned.

 

One of the key pieces of our meetings is to really evaluate all of the apps we will be recommending.  We want to answer the questions we know every teacher will ask us. It's important to do this before the pre-k and kinder teachers on our title elementary schools become part of a beautiful iPad roll out.  We want them to be just as excited as we are about the learning that will take place.

"Can we turn off the web image search in Shadow Puppet?" asked a teacher in our meeting. Since we are planning on creating with Pre-K students, I don't know why I've never asked that question myself.  She looked into the settings and there it was! Beautiful, the answer to all of our pre-k and kindergarten worries.  A teacher can turn off the web search when students are working independently to share what they have learned.   A teacher can enable the web search for guided or modeled searches as early learners are introduced to digital citizenship and searching on-line. 

 I love that the creators of Shadow Puppet EDU have thought of everything.  You can undo a recording per page, re-record the whole thing, you can share easily, and even share with parents using their SeeSaw Class and SeeSaw Parent App.

How To-
1. Go to the settings app on your iPad
2. Scroll down till you find the Shadow Puppet App Icon and click on it.
3. Disable the web image search and/or the Edu image search if needed.

Hello Crayon + Chatter Pix Kids

HELLO Crayon + Chatter Pix Kids

I have been enjoying app smashing for some time now.  When you combine apps, educational fireworks fly in the classroom. If you haven't already, you've got to try HELLO Crayon and Chatter Pix Kids together.

I usually recommend HELLO Crayon when teachers are looking for a free drawing app in the elementary classroom. It has a few great features to make life easy when working with lower grades, there's undo and a fill can.  Trust me, that saves a lot of time when illustrating. ;)

Drawing a character from a book or an example of what you have learned in class is something that can be accomplished with paper and pencil.  When sharing this, I like to share Chatter Pix to allow students the opportunity to add their voice to their drawing.  Chatter Pix records 30 seconds of audio and will make it appear like the picture is talking. You can also download the creation to the camera roll for FREE! This is a great way to give voice to our Pre-K students. Imagine them drawing a circle in HELLO Crayon, they turn it into something they have seen that is an example of that shape.  Now they can explain how they know a whole pizza is a circle.

Check out the how-to my buddy Joe and I created and hear a few ideas for using HELLO Crayon in the classroom here.

Here is an example of something created by a 1st grader when she used Hello Crayon and Chatter Pix Kids.  She explains the problem in the story Chrysanthemum from the point of view of the character, Victoria.




Check out our how-to video for Chatter Pix Kids and learn a few ideas for classroom use here.

AR Flashcard Work Stations

Beginning Letter Sounds Work Station with AR Flashcards

AR Flashcards
Using AR Flashcards app can bring in  a new spin on identifying things that begin with a letter sound.  AR Flashcards are augmented reality flashcards.  When you use the AR Flashcard App to view the card, something magical happens!  An animal appears before your eyes.

This app also includes a “camera” button.  This gives the user the ability to take a photo of the Augmented Reality animal that pops out of the flashcard.  If you place items, words, or yourself with the card, you can capture a nice entertaining photo or a photo that shows understanding.

Beginning Letter Sounds Work Station
Set up a work station with a basket of items that include examples and non-examples of things that start with the letter ____.  Allow students to work together to sound out the names of the items.  Students should place items that begin with the given letter around the AR Flash Card.  Students use the camera button in the app to take a photo of their work.  Have students include a name tag in the picture to identify who completed the work.  The photo will be saved to the camera roll.  Consider having students help to build the work station by searching for an example and a non-example at home for homework and brining it to school.  The item should fit into the palm of their hand. In the video below, Joe Meza and I share how to use AR Flashcards in a Beginning Letter Sound Work Station.




Phonogram Workstation

Set up a work station with words for students to read and recognize phonograms. Allow students to work together to read words and identify words that follow rules of the phonogram they are learning.  Students should place words that include the phonogram sound with the given phonogram that is built using the AR Flash Cards.  I share the example of using the -er sound of her in the video below. Students should use the camera button in the app to take a photo of their work.  Have students include a name tag in the picture to identify who completed the work.  The photo will be saved to the camera roll.  Consider challenging students to write other examples they think about on paper and include them when they take the picture.

Educreations + Background Eraser= ∞ Digital Storytelling Ideas

One of my favorite apps to share is Educreations.  It is app that students can use to explain their understanding, present what they have researched, or even tell a digital story.  I like to pair a few apps to allow students to use their own drawings from an external drawing app to create their stories.

Step 1- Draw a character
Use a drawing app to create a character that you would like to manipulate or move in Educreations and save it to your camera roll.

In the "What's Appening" tutorial below, I used the Hello Crayon App to draw a frog character.  It's easy to use and it's FREE.




Step 2- Erase the White Background
Use the Background Eraser App to erase the background your illustration and create a .PNG image file.  It's very easy to use if the background is one color.  With this trick, you can bring in a nice, full screen picture to use as a setting in Educreations, then use your own drawing as a "puppet."Check out the "What's Appening" tutorial on Background Eraser below.




Step 3- Create a Digital Story in Educreations
Create a digital story in Educrations by bringing in your own characters and moving them as you record. Check the "What's Appening" tutorial below.  My buddy shares his genius as we bring all three apps together.

My Day at EdCamp Dallas

My Day EdCamp Dallas 2013

This was the first EdCamp I attended outside of El Paso, TX.  An EdCamp is a free, unconference.  The educators in the room determine what the sessions will be and what they would like to share.  If you walk into a session and the conversation doesn’t feed you, it is understood that it is not an insult to leave and find a session that is right for you.  YAY!  You get to be in charge of what you want to learn.

The Meeting Room

Each participant received a blue and a yellow post it note.  You could write down a topic that you felt confident facilitating on the blue note, or a topic you wanted to learn more about on the yellow note.  

For those who wanted a digital version of a schedule, Guidebook, sponsored the event by providing access for free. We just downloaded the app and scanned a QR to get the schedule.

Tweep Board

Flipped Classroom with Shea Regian Forney ISD

Homework has never been the same.  With a flipped classroom, students learn the basics and mechanics at home by watching a video and do the work/practice/projects in class.  Shea shared her experience and how the flipped classroom works in her 8th grade math classes. Read more about this session here. 

Build your Own App 

Yapp Box is a free app that can be used to create your own app for the classroom.  It could be an app for a tech tips.  You can add buttons on the bottom for pages to twitter feed or a photo gallery.  It’s definately an app I will explore.

Hacking the Classroom

I snuck into this session so I missed the beginning.  Aimee Bartis was sharing how her class is hacking the tech apps classroom.  You can read her student’s blog and experiences at http://hackingtechapps.blogspot.com.  They love comments.  If you have time, leave one for her students.

Genius Hour

Martha Lacy shared what Genius Hour looks like in her classroom.  She said it’s important to decide when and how often genius hour would be.  To me, genius hour in her classroom seemed like a time to for students to create and integrate technology.  I loved Martha’s student examples, how well her elementary students collaborated with Google Docs and how excited she was about the students progress.  My favorite take away was the keynote story her students created.

Leadership and 1:1  with Greg Gardener

Greg facilitated a discussion to see where everyone was with 1:1.  I decided to attend this session because I work with a campus that will be going 1:1 iPads next school year.  I feel that not enough conversation is happening and not enough planning and preparation is in place. Read more here.

Teaching with AR

Todd Nesloney and Matt Gomez shared the Augmented Reality (AR) Apps they use in their classrooms.  He had Drew Minock and Erin Klein Google Hangout in to share their ideas.

Two Guys and Some iPads Blog

Kleinspiration Blog
Todd Nesloney's Blog 
Matt B Gomez' Blog

Apps Todd Shared

There were a lot of "ooooohs" and "ahhhhhs" during this session.  

AR Flashcards

ColAR

Daqri Elements (they haven't been release yet)

Aurasma

App Smash or Smack Down
Click on the link to view the list of things shared during the Smack Down.  It was awesome!  Tellagami is one of the free apps that were shared.  I created one very quickly.

EdCampDallas-Leadership and 1:1

Leadership and 1:1  with Greg Garner

I went to EdCampDallas this weekend and enjoyed the conversation in this session.  I work with a campus that will be going 1:1 iPads next school year.  I feel that not enough conversation is happening and not enough planning or preparation is in place.

Greg facilitated a discussion to see where everyone was with 1:1 and said,“You cannot over plan a 1:1 roll out.” He recommended having an iPad Oath, a moral document for students in addition to the legal acceptable use policy.  If it is not on file, they take the iPad from the student and the signed document magically appears.  You will find other resources that might be helpful on the West Ridge Middle School Website. 

WestRidge Middle School in Austin, TX began their roll out by assigning each teacher an iPad.  Teachers were to learn how to use them, because it was coming and each student would have one.  It became very clear that it was not an option.

What you should know before the roll out

8th graders will do whatever it takes to break the restrictions. Campuses handled this differently.  One treated it as a disciplinary problem. One treated it as an instructional problem.  If you don’t have the apps you need to learn, there is a problem.  There was  “juice bar” that students could visit and have the apps and restrictions placed back onto the iPad.  It's probably a good idea to think about how you will handle it before it happens.  You can not over plan a 1:1 roll out.

As the group added input, one participant said they researched before 1:1 deployment.  He mention that research says to have a successful roll out, you must educate the teachers and the parents.

Educate, Educate, Educate 

Parents and Teachers need to know that they are in charge.  They need to take the responsibility of being the teacher or parent and think about things that will happen and how to handle situations that arise.

If a teacher has difficulty with classroom management, the teacher probably had trouble with it before the 1 to 1 roll out.  If a parent had trouble being an authoritative parent before a technology device was introduced, they will still have trouble after. 

Greg says that he reminds the teacher that they are still the teacher and reminds the parent that they are the parent. He also said, "If a teacher is ineffective before a 1:1 roll out, they will still be ineffective with the 1:1.  The technology just puts a big spotlight on it."   

It was said, "you can’t over communicate with parents."  Talk with them about the options.  Share what an 8th grader will be doing with technology in their bedroom, door closed till 1 in the morning. Talk with them about how to avoid that.  Talk with them about changing wifi codes, unplugging the wireless router at bed time, a place to leave the device after a set time, how to be a parent that monitors their child on the internet. Be the parent and stand your ground.  

Leadership

Greg also talked about the leadership role. If you are in a leadership position, you must remember that you are the leader.  You will need to have tough conversations. It must be understood that the 1:1 roll out is not an option.  If a parent wants to opt out, it’s a cop out.  He mentioned that one parent, bought a safe and had his child lock the iPad in it at when they got home.  The parent would unlock the safe in the morning and allow his child to take it to school.  

Option

The school district Greg works with allowed students, grades 6-12 to take the iPad home over the summer if they paid the insurance. Insurance was outsourced for the district. K-5 students didn’t have the option to take it home over the summer.

My Thoughts

This session was worth it for me.  Hearing what others experienced as they began a 1:1 roll out share was valuable.  It’s never to early to plan for it.  Thanks for sharing, Greg!

Teaching the Teachers

Last week, teachers at TMECHS had a day of technology training.  After my session, I heard that a student from TMECHS would be presenting and teaching teachers how to use Prezi.

I was very impressed with the student's confidence and introduction.  She had teachers create their own free account and guided them as she created a "How to be a Cool Teacher" Prezi. This was a nice role reversal.  I think we should give the power to our students more often.  This could open the door to learning about more tools to make us cool.