Publishing and a New Man in my Life

I love new stuff and I love technology. It was natural that I added technology as soon as I possibly could. The problem is that I've settled in and haven't tried many new things lately because there's nobody pushing me to do so. This class has really forced me to think a bit harder about how I can use technology more without making it another thing to do. Technology has to be seamless for me to like it. I knew that writing was one place where I was horribly lacking in my technology but I haven't been very good about getting it going. Because I knew this I made publishing writing a goal of mine for class. This week I finally got in gear and gave it a try. I have one child who is a very good writer. Each day she is writing more than everyone else and is ready for more. I did a quick (2-3 minute) instructional session and sent her on her way. She wrote her story and we spent a few minutes stretching it out to three pages. Once we had the story laid out I had her illustrate. She chose to draw the pictures on paper and the next thing I knew she had taken it upon herself to take the picture of her illustration and had added it to her story. It was fun seeing her figure out the app on her own. The app I chose to used was Book Creator. It came recommended and I was pleased at how easy it was to use. I did end up paying a few dollar for it, but that's what I needed to push myself to add something new. I plan to get this app on a couple more iPads and let kids take turns publishing their work using book creator. I can see it being highly motivating for kids who may not be very enthusiastic writers. I can also see myself using it with the voice to text feature for my pre-writers. I could see them seeing their ideas on paper as very motivating as well as encouraging that they can be writers and that they're not far away.
When I told the first little girl that if she did a great story that I could put her story on youtube and send it to her mom her face lit up. She's a very sweet and hard working girl to begin with, but she's also very calm and even tempered. Seeing a child that usually needs no encouragement to be her best get excited about something new was motivating to me as well.

Here is her current progress. The plan for tomorrow is for her to record her voice reading her story and then upload it for her family to see and share. I love the invented spelling and approximated sounds. It's one of my favorite parts of kindergarten!

As soon as we get a final draft I'll take down these screen shots and replace it with the final product. 

I loved seeing Zaria get excited and dive in. I started with a child who was already hooked. I'm excited to try it with a child who is a reluctant writer next. I might try StoryBird next since the pictures are already there and they can write based on that. It doesn't exactly align with my curriculum but I'll find a way to match them up. It's worth it to get a kid feeling like a real author!



And friends, I have an announcement. I have a new man in my life and his name is OSMO!

 

Isn't he handsome?  ;-) 

Is that a group of kids happily working together to solve puzzles? Are those kids who are supporting others making connections between the tiles and the image to achieve a task? YES IT IS! Osmo is so awesome. Besides the fact that the kids think it's absolute magic that the iPad knows what's going on on the table, it has been a very good addition to my classroom. I've been the most impressed at the collaboration among the kids. There were actually only 2 kids who were assigned to the Osmo at the time this picture was taken but they were all working so well together that I just let it happen. (Don't worry, their work was done!) I've loaded their pictures and names into the Osmo Words app. Once I can make some reference cards with their names and pictures they'll get to work on building their names as well as their high frequency words and vocabulary words with the Osmo. I'm so excited to see what we can do with the Osmo. I'll have to post some video once I get it fully up and running. 

I still have a lot of things that I want to try this semester pertaining to technology. I'm hoping I can get them all squeezed in. If I do so, I'll write about it here. Thanks for reading!