Welcome to day 19 of #28daysofwriting. It is hard to believe there is only just over a week left. I hope everyone who is taking part has been enjoying the process.
So after a busy couple of weeks I have finally pulled the iPads out and started to set them up. iTunes isn’t my friend. Maybe it is because I became best mates with Google and it is taking a bit of time to come to terms with the new technological garden I have to play in.
So I thought today I would write about some of the apps I will use. This will not be an exhaustive list, or by any means the best list out there but it is my list and I will explain why I have chosen to use them.
Comic Life:
This great little app is really good as an all-in-one writing and publishing tool. Students enjoy using it but it can be a bit fiddly to change some of the settings and to find many of the customisation options. But for younger students, choosing a template and just going for it is a great way to help motivate writing and their own comics can be used as reading texts in independent reading time.
Storybird:
This is not so much an app as a web tool. But it has been one of the most motivating and promising writing tools I have used. It works well on the iPad and the fantastic artworks students can use as prompts in their stories mean they really want to write well. Some of the highest quality pieces of writing students produced last year were while they used StoryBird.
Garageband:
This is a great creative programme. Students get hands on experience with musical sounds and instruments that primary schools simply can’t afford. Students can create soundtracks for their own films or they can use it to record themselves reading - and then make it hilarious by altering their voices.
iMovie: I have written about this one before too. It is a great way for students to share their learning. They can make full length videos or use the trailer option which is a great way for students to learn about camera shot types.
Explain Everything:
This is a fantastic tool. It can be used in a huge number of ways. This tool allows you to add video or images and then add voice and annotations over the top of them. This can be used to make videos for your class explaining a new concepts or students can use it to explain their own thinking. I have even see new entrant teachers use it as a way to record how students are forming letters to help identify next steps.
Slide Maths:
These set of maths games a great for basic facts practice and recall. It is especially good because up to four players can play on a single iPad. This is fantastic for a class with limited numbers of iPads or when other iPads are needed for other tasks.
Poptropica:
This is an interesting one. After visiting a few high performing schools and seeing them use minecraft as a motivational tool for writing I thought about whether or not this was the best tool. I saw my young boy playing Poptropica and realised that it is a really good reading activity as students have to read the speech. The I realised that using this tool to motivate writers encourages them to use spoken words in their writing, so exposing them to speech marks and other interesting punctuation.
Minecraft:
This is one i'm going to have to sell pretty hard to get the money to buy it. But Minecraft is a great tool for teaching students about geometry, area, volume and basic number skills. It puts studen’s into a deep and engaging problem solving environment where they can explore many mathematical ideas in a practical way.
Some speech to text software:
This will be important for some of my struggling writers. There are times where I need them to record ideas but it is not writing time and the quality of their ideas is more important than the writing component. This is where this software helps break down any barriers to the students showing their learning.
I am out of time now. I hope that my post give you some useful ideas that you can use and some insight into why and how I use them.
This post relates to the following Registered Teacher Criteria:
4. demonstrate commitment to ongoing professional learning and development of personal professional practice
6. conceptualise, plan and implement an appropriate learning programme
7. promote a collaborative, inclusive and supportive learning environment
12. use critical inquiry and problem-solving effectively in their professional practice
No comments:
Post a Comment