Projecting from your Ipad (AKA: the greatest thing in the world!)

The day that I realized I could project from my iPad I swear the clouds opened, the sun shined through, and angels sung merry harmonies. This is the greatest feature in the world! (Or at least a tribute...)

Maybe it's not that big for you, but there are so many great opportunities when you project from an iPad. For instance:

-letting the kids pass the ipad and control what's going on in our reading curriculum which is very routine so kids know exactly what to do. While this is going on I can play a supporting role to students who need more one way or another. Glory!

-walking around and projecting student work straight from their desks

-snapping pictures of different examples of student work and then flipping between the images to compare (or even throwing those pictures into Pic Stitch and doing an old fashioned split screen so both images are projected for even easier comparisons!  

-putting it on a stand and allowing children to watch me demonstrate correct letter formation in an authentic way rather than on a giant marker board which is more large motor than small motor like handwriting is

-projecting from the back of the classroom. During handwriting it is amazing to stand at the BACK of the room and demonstrate letter formation through an app. You can actually see SO MUCH that you may be missing when you are at the front of the room facing forward and writing on a marker board. It's so much easier to spot directionality problems in handwriting when you can actually look at the kids as they write. 

Do you need any more convincing or are you ready to get started?

Need more convincing? Read other posts on my blog to see what you can do with ipads in your classroom. Come back. Continue on. 

Ready to take the first step? (see what I did there, stairway??) 

Read on...

To get set up:
I'll explain this the way I would to anyone assuming that you're unfamiliar with the technology. My guess is that many of you have at least a basic understanding of apple technology but I'll try to hit all of the details and make this as simple as possible.  

On your laptop download the Reflector App. It's typically $12.99 but as I write this it is on sale for 20% off ($10.39). It is worth it's weight in gold. You do NOT need to download anything to your iPad. Just download Reflector to your laptop and follow the directions for installation. 

Your mobile device and your laptop must be on the same wireless network to use your reflector app. Double check this first. In our district we have a "public" side and a "private" side to our wireless network and 90% of the time when I have a problem it's because my iPad flipped over to the public network. 

Now that your laptop and iPad are both on the same network...

All apple mobile devices are equipped with airplay. If your iOS device is current (iOS7) you can swipe up from the bottom which pulls up your command center. You'll see an icon that looks like a rectangle with an arrow. It will even say Airplay. Touch that. It will then pull up a list of devices that you could pair with. Touch the name of your laptop and flip the switch to "mirroring." It might take just a second but you should be connected now. 

To make the image of your mobile device full screen do apple F on your laptop. It will always have the mobile device frame. I tried to find a way around it because it's cheesy and I don't like it, but you can't.

Sometimes there's a bit of lag time but it's more of a sluggishness than one of the awful pinwheels of death. If you address it with your students and are patient with them the first couple of times, I've found that it becomes the "norm" and kids just know to go slowly when on an ipad that's being projected. 

Turn on the camera app and use it as a document camera too! 

Hopefully I hit the main points but please don't hesitate to ask if you have questions that I didn't clearly answer on here. 

Happy Projecting!! 

Troubleshooting:

If you need help changing your network, Apple has great support here. 

If you don't know what the name of your laptop is go to the apple (very top left of your screen) > system preferences > sharing. The name of your laptop is there. You can change it if you'd like. Be aware that if you are on a work computer, your employer may have a special way of naming computers to keep track of them. If you change it I'd at least make sure you save the name that it was given by your employer, or maybe just stick with the one it was given. You know your employer and how much you're able to bend rules at work. 

If you think you should be connected but nothing is coming up, try clicking to the home screen of your iPad and then get back into the app you wish to project. Sometimes it seems like it just needs to have some movement before it can connect. 

If you want further details on anything or just want to talk directly, email me at mrs.mosier @ gmail.com!

*I am not being compensated in any way for these reviews/tutorials. I write these because I want to share my personal experiences with my colleagues. Bottom line, teachers need to support and be supported by fellow teachers because it's what's best for kids.

Apps for Teachers

I have some apps that I use that I tell the kids are "teacher apps" meaning that they're not allowed to touch them if they're working independently on an iPad. These apps help me stay organized, or as organized as I can be with the scattered brain that I have. 

Stick Pick - Seriously, Stick Pick. Best invention in a very long time. Currently it's $2.99 but it's about the best three dollars I could spend. Did you ever have a mug (a gift from some former student, obviously...) full of sticks with the names of every student in your class? You pose a question, pull a stick and that kid answers. When all of the sticks have been pulled then you know that every child was engaged at least once. That's what this is, but wait, THERE'S MORE! You enter every student's name and then you can choose from Bloom's Taxonomy, Boom's Revised, ESL, or stick only. After you get to know the kids you know about where they usually live within Bloom's Taxonomy. You enter their current level or (as I do) the next level. When their stick is pulled then it also gives you a list of question stems based on their English learning level (ESL/ELL - or whatever you call the program in your district that serves students who are not native English speakers) or Bloom's Taxonomy level. After you use Stick Pick a bit you start kind of memorizing the question stems and it gets pretty easy to quickly create questions that are appropriate for every student. As they get good at those then you can go back in and move them to the next level which feels pretty good! I feel like it is simple but it has really kept me on point with my questioning. I love that is has helped me challenge each child in an appropriate way and helps me move them forward incrementally. It helps me to make sure I'm stepping aside and allowing them to use their problem solving skills to learn rather than me spoon feeding.
Bottom line - just get this one, ok? It's so awesome. 

Classroom Timer
This one is pretty easy but super handy. It's a classic looking alarm clock. Click the gear button to set your time 1 second to 59 minutes and 59 seconds. Hit the green button and the kids can see the timer count down. If the kids finish the task before the timer goes off you can click the purple check mark and it gives them a little "Well Done!" celebration with fanfare. If they don't finish their task by the time the timer gets to the end the timer rings and explodes and says, "TIMES UP!" (Although, shouldn't it be 'Time's Up' meaning 'time is' up?) It's a fabulous visual for children without a ton of number sense. It's nothing fancy, but it sure is helpful!
I see that there's also a pro version but I don't know anything about it. The free version fits my needs quite nicely.

Class Dojo
If you use one classroom app, it's probably Class Dojo. It's a way of keeping track of behaviors, positive AND negative. Children earn points as you assign for behaviors that you also assign. They have some preset behaviors if you prefer to go that route too. You add each student in and record behavior during the day. You can go back and look at reports and find patterns about what part of the day is the hardest for that students and what skill they're having trouble with. From there you can help develop a protective plan so they can learn to be ok during those times with those skills. There's a lot more that Dojo does (like letting parents log in and monitor their child's behavior) but I haven't used it to that extent. I just like using it as a very student friendly way to monitor student behavior. I've seen people use it during observations for time on task evaluations and several different types of formative assessment documentation. I haven't done that much with it but the possibilities seem endless. Lots of people use Dojo a lot so I'm guessing a simple google search for "Dojo review" could be pretty helpful. I just wanted to add it to this list because I think it's a great app that everyone should at least be aware of.

If you want further details on anything or just want to talk directly, email me at mrs.mosier @ gmail.com!

*I am not being compensated in any way for these reviews. I write these because I want to share my personal experiences with my colleagues. Bottom line, teachers need to support and be supported by fellow teachers because it's what's best for kids.

A Few Apps That I Enjoy (End of Kindergarten Skills)

I wrote this blog at the end of last year but I never ended up posting it. I'm going to go ahead and post it now even though it's not "timely" since it's August and school started last week.


Grammar: Mad Libs
It's the end of the year and the kids know their nouns, verbs, and adjectives really well. I project this and let the kids take turns volunteering a word. They have to know their grammar PLUS their singular and plurals. I haven't used this a lot but the few times I have used it they have LOVED laughing at the silly sentence they've made. They love listening for their word that they contributed. They also are getting a chance to say, "That doesn't make sense." I find that determining that can be hard for kindergartners so this is good practice. There are several in-app purchases but there's enough there that you don't have to buy anything for this to be a fun tool at the end of the year.



TIME: Interactive Telling Time Lite - I used this app for time practice. The children passed the iPad around. It speaks a time and the children have to move the hands to make it say that time. I felt like the graphics were slightly babyish, but the kids didn't care. I haven't seen them use this for practice on their own, but it was good for me to do a quick check to make sure all kids could match the spoken time to the time on the analog clock.


Math: Roundom: Decision Maker: I used this app during instruction when we were working on graphs. I let the kids pass the iPad around and "spin" the spinner. You can have 2 or 3 part spinners for free. The kids all had their own blank graphs. As they took turns spinning the spinner they would color in the appropriate line on the graph then we would stop and talk about the comparison between each line. This app doesn't let you personalize much so you're kind of stuck with red, blue, and orange, but they didn't seem to mind. One day I pulled up this app on my phone and let kids pass that around. While I had this projected from my phone I was also able to project the image from the iPad camera that I was using like a document camera. The graph as well as the spinner were being projected at the same time and the kids LOVED it! I let kids come up and fill in the graph while the phone was being passed around. 2 kids were actively involved in the leading of this activity. I was then able to hang out near the kids who needed a little extra help while the others just took over and keep the lesson moving.

If you want further details on anything or just want to talk directly, email me at mrs.mosier@gmail.com! I don't do these justice but it's the best I can do without having video of these lessons.

*I am not being compensated in any way for these reviews. I write these because I want to share my personal experiences with my colleagues. Bottom line, teachers need to support and be supported by fellow teachers because it's what's best for kids.

Apps I love - Too Noisy

While I don't know what will work for you in your classroom, there are a few apps that I absolutely love and use in my classroom almost religiously.

The first one is TOO NOISY.

This one is a sound meter. You are able to set it to your desired volume. They have presets for silent, quiet, group, or class. All of those have a sensitivity setting and I've found most of them to be pretty accurate for what I call reasonably silent, quiet, group, and class volumes. If you disagree you are able to adjust the sensitivity on a sliding bar as well as adjust the dampening. I'd like to tell you I understand what I'm doing when I'm adjusting those dials but it's just a big ol game of "give it a try!"

You can pay a little extra for it to have an alarm to signal when the noise level has gotten too loud. Personally, this is my favorite feature. When it gets too loud mine makes a crazy nuclear attack warning sound and it makes it look like the glass cracked and the happy face goes sad. I love this feature because it's very intrusive. It gets everyone's attention but it also puts the responsibility (I don't want to call it blame but...) on the children. It's not me deciding that they're too loud. I'm not the bad guy barking at the kids here. Too Noisy said you were too noisy. You can't argue with the ipad! At this point my students know that after the alarm they all stop everything, go silent and have one quiet rest minute before they're able to try working quietly again. I do start the 1 minute timer on my phone but since it's always beside me for a number of instructional purposes it is of minimal distraction. The little chime goes off after a minute, I hit the "ok" button on my phone and life continues. It's a good "reset" for kids during literacy centers time. It also allows me to continue teaching my guided reading groups in the most uninterrupted way possible. It's amazing how a group of 5 year olds can understand that even if there's a crazy nuclear alarm going off in the background that they CAN still work and that they SHOULD still work in their guided reading group. It's all in how you set it up and how much patience you're willing to spend on teaching them this. It's not bad and when they get to that point it's so super awesome.

You can also pay just a little extra for it to give reward stars for increments of time of your choosing. I have my stars set for every 4 minutes or so. For every 4 minutes that they go without an alarm they get a star. After they have earned 10 stars the app plays a big fanfare and my kids get some extra choice time or recess for that day. It may just be 1 or 2 minutes extra choice time, an extra book, or an extra song to sing, but it has worked very well in my class. If you're going to spend money on an app, I suggest spending it on this one to get the alarm and stars upgrades!

Good luck!

If you want further details on anything or just want to talk directly, email me at mrs.mosier @ gmail.com!

*I am not being compensated in any way for these reviews. I write these because I want to share my personal experiences with my colleagues. Bottom line, teachers need to support and be supported by fellow teachers because it's what's best for kids.

Reading Wonders + iPad

Our district uses Reading Wonders and can I just tell you how much I LOVE READING WONDERS? One of the best parts (other than kids learning more in kindergarten than I ever knew was possible) is that the online stuff is AWESOME!!  I almost exclusively use the digital materials (big surprise, right) because I find it much easier for me to keep organized. (meaning, I can't lose it like I lose everything else). I also love being able to pass the iPad around and let kids whenever possible.

Here's how I do it. I go to Safari and go to the Wonders website on your iPad. (For LPS people, the link is here). BEFORE YOU ENTER YOUR NAME AND PASSWORD, click on the little square box at the bottom that has the up arrow sticking out of it. You now see a bunch of options of how you can share that. Click on "Add to Home Screen" at the bottom. This essentially bookmarks this page and gives it a little icon on your iPad screen. You can now use it and pretend it's an app when really it's just using the regular Wonders website. It's not an app, but it plays one on tv. :-) Now enter your user name and password (same as your docushare login and password) and continue as usual. One thing I do need to say though is that it is slightly sluggish. You have to get used there being just a tiny bit of lag time. If you get an impatient kid they'll start rapid fire touching stuff and your safari will crash and you'll have to start over. Just teach them to be patient and it's amazing how quickly they learn. I only have one kiddo that still can't seem to figure that out. That's not bad!

As you read the books you can only see one page at a time. If you have an awesome book where the picture stretches across both pages you either need to use the non-mobile site (your laptop) or your old fashioned, hard copy big book! You'll also need to turn your iPad portrait to see the entire page. The rest of the site is done easily in landscape but for some reason all of the books must be in portrait for them to be fully visible. Click the speaker button and let the iPad read to you. Give the kids the iPad and let them pass it and click the button while you ask for predictions, clarification, model rereading, monitor behavior, etc.

The vocabulary is always the first thing that we do each day. I have the kids do this completely independently. I introduce the words on Monday and let the assistant hold the iPad and click through when I tell them, but I'm doing the teaching. Tuesday - Friday I have the assistant stand up front and project the vocabulary words. They say, "What's the word" and all children respond. Then the assistant asks, "What does it means" and the children raise their hand to share the definition. I am always engaged during this time because it would be easy for a kid to say the wrong definition because there's no real check on this. The recording just reads a sentence with the word in it. Oftentimes kindergartners won't question it if it doesn't make sense or not.

The high frequency words (or HFW for lazy typers like me) are fun. As you pull up the cards with the lines for practicing writing you can actually click on the pencil and write with your finger. The kids LOVE leading this one. I did get a stylus so kids can write with a "pencil" but to hold an iPad on your lap and try to write with a stylus without touching the screen somewhere else and screwing it up is pretty hard for a kindergartner. I just found that using their finger is easier. As the child writes on the iPad I have the other kids use their "magic finger" in the air and trace what he/she is writing on the iPad since they can watch it. We really focus on correct production of letters so if a kid is starting at the bottom, they get called out. They also know that we learn a lot from our mistakes so they can click the eraser button, erase and give it another go.

I'm sure there will be more stuff eventually, but for now this is a good start. I love letting kids take over while I step back and act as more of a facilitator.

As always, if you have any specific questions or suggestions for future posts, email me at mrs.mosier@gmail.com. Thanks for reading!

What apps should I use?

What apps should I get?

I get this question a lot. To be honest, I DON'T KNOW! It all depends on the skill you're working on and your own personal taste. I follow Smart Apps for Kids on facebook. Every day it pops up on my news feed I go through and decide if any of the featured free (or cheaper) apps could apply to my classroom. Then I do a few things...

1- download the app
2- play with the app for about 5 minutes just to get a general feel
3- decide if this is currently relevant in my classroom
   YES - download it and keep in on my iPad. Place in a folder of other apps for that skill
    No - delete it off of my iPad

If I delete the app off of my iPad I still own the app. I could go in to my "purchased" list in the app store at any time and download it to my iPad. Once you download it, YOU OWN IT! :-) There's no way I could have all of my apps on one iPad all at once. I only have the apps on there that are currently relevant to my class. At the beginning of the year it's letters and sounds. At the end of the year it's words and grammar.

If you keep the app on your iPad you have to decide if it's something you want to introduce or just let kids discover it. Apps with a popular character (Elmo, any PBS character) will get explored. You don't need to introduce those unless you feel like you want to show them something specific. If it's not eye-catchy to them I make sure to introduce it. I show them the new app, how to use it, and explain how it helps them learn to read. My rule is that every app on my iPad is a learning app. If it doesn't teach you how to read (or do math, or science, etc.) then you can't play it in my room. (Sorry, Plants vs. Zombies!)

The best thing about kids is that they are not intimidated by technology. If you hand then an iPad full of apps that you have found to be useful, they'll get right to work. It's amazing how children will self differentiate. Those who need letter help will play the letter games. Those who can handle the harder apps about different types of nouns will play those games! There are ways to lock the iPad into one specific app, and although I thought I'd use that feature quite a bit, I DON'T! (and I never have) I know it's there so I can use it in the future if I need to, but for now I'm golden.

Here's my "expert tip" for the day: DESIGNATE AN EXPERT. During guided reading I don't have the time to help kids with the iPad if they need it. Guided reading time is very protected in my room. The rule is: If I'm teaching kids to read at my table, you may not talk to me. Find a friend or wait until that group is over. Because I won't speak to them I designate an expert. You'll always have at least one friend who is just good at troubleshooting or is willing to play around to figure things out. Name that kid your expert early on in the year. Now, if anyone has a question they know to talk to the expert. If the expert can't figure it out then you step in. It doesn't hurt to name a couple of experts in case one is gone, but this has cut down on simple volume questions and the occasional frozen iPod. Plus, who doesn't want to be known as "the expert?"

One thing I will say is this: When downloading games, try to stay either gender neutral or gender equal. There are so many games that seem to be geared towards one gender or the other. I'm not a huge fan of that, but I understand that some kids really play into the gimmicks. Be mindful that if you have a lot of pink apps that it may not be a bad idea to find a few complimentary apps that are a little more neutral, or even a bit more geared towards boys. It's crazy how a 5 year old can get stuck on those sorts of things.

If there's something specific you want to know about please email me at: mrs.mosier@gmail.com

Future blog posts: Organizing your apps, projecting from your iPad, instructional apps

Welcome!

I am a self proclaimed nerd. I love technology. I love using it in as many ways as I possibly can. I swear, if it beeps, flashes, or has buttons of some sort, chances are I'm going to love it. It just seems natural to me to use technology in my kindergarten classroom. Although it has been a pretty slow process for me, I've learned a lot lately and have done some fun implementation in my classroom that has been working very well. In this blog I will be talking about my personal experiences with technology in the kindergarten classroom across all subject areas. My hope is to give someone the encouragement and support they need to take the next step in teaching our young people the skills they need while beginning to learn to use the technology that they'll likely be expected to use for future educational experiences as well as their future careers. I feel like it has opened up so much of the world that was previously either completely unavailable, or accessed in fairly ineffective ways. It has been a lot of fun for me and the children are enjoying it as well. I think it is important for children to see technology as a tool rather than just a consumer item, much like a video game or television. I'm excited to start this little blogging journey. Thanks for joining me. If you have questions or comments about anything I'd love to hear from you. I can also be contacted via email at mrs.mosier@gmail.com