Classroom+Usage

=Classroom Usage Stories=

Please use this page to update everyone on the exciting things you are doing with your iPads in the classroom.

iPad usage in Grade 5 [[image:http://www.wikispaces.com/i/c.gif]]
Hello Everyone, We have used the iPads quite a bit in the last 4 days. We have used an app called Fractions Basics. It is a movie app that demonstrates various operations using fractions. We found that it would be best to use ear buds for this app because the sounds from other iPads are distracting to the students.

We have used Google to research locations of various geographical features in the South U.S.

By far the coolest project we have done so far is using an app called PicCollage. We took a field trip in December to the historic Westtown School. There we toured their art collection and tapestry collection. Did you know the Slinky was invented by two men who attended there??? Just a tidbit of information for you to tuck away in the corner of your brain for Trivial Pursuit!!! Anyway, we used my iPad and took photos of some of the artwork and samplers. I put the pictures onto Edmodo. The students then took the pictures from Edmodo, took a snapshot of the pictures into their camera roll. Once in the camera roll, they were able to load the pictures onto the PicCollage app. We adjusted the backgrounds, the effects and cropped pictures. We also added one or two sentences for each picture. Today we emailed them to previously set up gmail accounts. Over the weekend, we are going to print the PicCollages from our gmail accounts. It should be interesting. I will keep you posted as to how successful we are in printing.

Sue Truitt St. Maximilian Kolbe

Using Dragon Dictation
Good Day Everyone, We have tried using the Dragon Dictation app, I see this as a two edged sword. This is a great app for those students who struggle with their typing skills. However, there are a few snags that we found in using this app. It is user friendly, but not very accurate. There were many typos and miscues. So to combat that I had the students email their essays. At home, they had to print 2 copies. One copy was the one that Dragon had read. The second copy, the students dropped into a word doc and correct any grammar, punctuation and spelling. Then save the corrected document. Print a copy of that corrected document. Some students have many corrections to make, others not so many. While using the Dragon Dictation, we found there was a time limit on the recording time. So we had to email many of our essays in parts. It was also difficult to find a place that was quiet enough to record and still connect to the router for our internet access. So what we thought was going to be a simple project and process, panned out to be more work than we originally thought. But in the end, I think it was worth the effort.

Hope you are all enjoying the iPads as much as we are here at St. Max. Sue Truitt Grade 5 St. Maximilian Kolbe