Middle School Math Apps (Chicken Coop, Thinking Blocks) Installed Today

The following FREE math apps were installed on our seventh grade iPads today.  Below are some reflections of each math app.

Chicken Coop Fraction Estimation Game

• Be aware of the music.  Fortunately, there is a button that can mute the music.
• Three easy, three hard levels
• Proper Fractions, Proper Fractions of Numbers, Improper Fractions, Improper Fractions of Numbers
• Middle school students may find it humorous that the chickens raise their backsides an "pop" an egg out
• Chickens will "fire" an egg toward the correct answer
• Get the answer wrong and things will get messy
• The "hard" problems are challenging
• No method for pausing and calculating while still looking at the problem
• If a student does pause to work on the problem, the answer is given immediately upon "continuing" of the game.
• Can adjust "time per question", can create a "no time" game
• Can adjust "accuracy"

Thinking Blocks Fractions, Addition, Multiplication, Ratios

View All Screen Shots

• Word problem based
• Diagrams & labeling first, numbers added to the model next
• Can't proceed to next step without "checking" first
• Built in calculator 
• Writing on iPad capabilities
• Instructions for students (should they choose to read them)
• Checks along the way provide "new" mathematical manipulatives
• CONFUSING: Number pad to enter answer, "Calculator On" button to obtain calculator for work

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High School Creative Learning Environment

Mr. Rodal decided that over Christmas break he was going to remove 19 desks.  Not all the desks, just some of them.  Group, collaborative work happens every day in his classroom.  The desks were taking up a great deal of space and required constant arranging and rearranging.

He fixed this.

He removed 19 desks from his classroom.

We are documenting his classroom experiences with candid responses from both students and teachers.  Let's hear from the teacher, first!

Video Link


Impact On Students:
Creativity:  Students are able to create their own learning spaces.  They are not confined to a desk.  They must also decide how to utilize the large white boards that are now in the room.
Collaboration: Removing INDIVIDUAL desks has eliminated INDIVIDUAL borders.  Gathering in learning groups is efficient.

More to follow...

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2013 App Smash Challenge Winner!

Congratulations to Tina Mills, PCMS communication arts teacher, for winning the 2013 App Smash Challenge!

Mrs. Mills had students combine the PicCollage app and the iMovie trailer app.  As Mrs. Mills states,
     
"In the past, students have used the iMovie trailer and had a blast with it.  The only problem is that sometimes they want to include more than one word or image (in a spot in the trailer) and can't change the templates.  I have had them use PicCollage to add multiple texts and images into one image.  They then can insert the PicCollage picture into the iMovie trailer."

Thank you, Mrs. Mills, for accepting the first App Smash Challenge!

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iVisual Touch Infographic of 2103 Lunch N' Learns

Today, I learned about the iVisual info Touch iPad Infographic App through Richard Byrne @ iPad Apps For School.  We have implemented infographics in our high school Human Geography last year so I was intrigued to see if an iPad app could be used with students.

I created an infographic for Lunch N' Learn statistics.  This is the first full year of volunteer learning opportunities for our high school staff.

Positives of iVisual Touch 

• Free Form Writing Lines
• Multiple Backgrounds
• Four Pages of Icons
• Colorful World Flags
• Color Palette
• Seven Fonts
• Add Pictures (Great to use with other apps such as Skitch or PicCollage)
• Grid Lines for Creating
• Save To Camera Roll (Great for uploading to Google Drive)

Negatives of iVisual Touch

• No Locking Options of Objects
• No Undo Button
• No Automatic Save
• Free app great to try, but limited options (I purchased the full app)

Impact On Students:

Creativity: Students can continue to use their imagination to create graphics that express their summary skills.

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IFTTT-Trigger: Email From Teacher; Action: SMS To Student

Our calculus teacher was tutoring a student on a Friday.  He forgot to mention a crucial part of the solution. He emailed the student the critical part to the solution.  On Monday, he asked the student, "Did you get me email?"  The student replied,

     "No, I never check my school email!"

Solution: Create a trigger and action using IFTTT.  IFTTT is so simple, a teacher almost can't afford to not offer it to their students.



Great thing about this was that I created the trigger and action on my iPhone in front of the teacher.  He sent me an email and the text showed up on my iPhone.  Demonstrating how it worked so quickly was a selling point!
Video Link

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SKYWARD: Cloning An Assignment

Video Link



Written Directions

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G Drive (Green) App For Downloading Video From Google Drive To iMovie

Saving video to an iPad from Google Drive was not possible until I found a solution courtesy of one of our IT people, @kenwestphal.

Collaborating with multiple students on different iPads or taking video with an iPhone or iPod was a difficult task because the Google Drive app only allowed downloading of images for use in iMovie.  Using the G Drive (Green) app now allows for videos to be imported into iMovie once the video is uploaded to a student's or teacher's Google Drive account.

If students are recording video using an Android device, the video will need to be converted before G Drive will import it into iMovie on the iPad.  We use Any Video Converter.

G Drive (Green) App
Google Drive App

View how it works!  Don't forget to have students log out of the G Drive app.


Video Link

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