(u05a1) The Seven Day Social Immersion Challenge

Day 4
Work/life balance is something I have been struggling with this week. I am hoping to take some time away from it all this weekend and just be in the moment with my family. With conferences next week there is plenty going on in my media center and with our PBIS team. I will make it through, I just hope I am spending enough time with my family and on my work to be successful at both.

(u05a1) The Seven Day Social Immersion Challenge

Day 3
Doesn't this look delicious? The local country club my husband and I are members of typically hosts a weekly meal for it's members. Tonight, our good friends made these amazingly good ribs. When asked if we wanted to take some of the extras home, I did not hesitate to reply with a yes! We were also privileged to take home some of the extra desert as well! Yum!

(u05a1) The Seven Day Social Immersion Challenge

Day 2:
Today is Valentine's Day! My boys had parties at both their daycare center and preschool thus resulting in a lot of candy in the DeWall household. We just finally ate the last of our Halloween candy and now we have Valentine's Day candy taking over the cabinet space.

(u05a1) The Seven Day Social Immersion Challenge

Day 1:
Today I piggybacked off a 1st grade classroom lesson on visualizing. Teachers in the 1st grade are having students visualizing during their reading lessons. Today in my Media class, we worked on this as well. First graders are just beginning a unit on David Shannon and his hilarious books. First, I had students lay on the floor and listen to me read Alice the Fairy without looking at the pictures. While I was reading, students visualized the story. Next, they went back to their desk to draw something they "saw" while I read. Lastly, we came back to read Alice the Fairy one more time to see if what they visualized was what actually happened in the book. This is a fun book to use this strategy with because without looking at the pictures, David Shannon really makes the reader think the story is about a real fairy.

Digital Story Created With a Cell Phone

In this assignment I had to think about when I decided to become a teacher. Growing up, my Mom was a teacher, so teaching was already a part of my life from middle school on. It wasn't until high school that I really decided that I, too, would enjoy being a teacher. Working with younger students and helping others always interested me and made me happy, but it wasn't until I had the opportunity to actually experience the classroom from an adult perspective that I knew I would end up in the classroom.

To create this project, I pulled out artifacts from my high school experience and put them together to create a video. I shot the pictures using the Photo app and curated all the pictures in iMovie. I also used the voice-over feature in iMovie to include audio. The Ken Burns affects aren't my favorite, but they do give a little interesting twist here and there.

I originally thought I would record my voice in the audioboom app, then upload this audio file and the pictures to my computer so that I could use MovieMaker to put it all together. In doing so, I had to also use Audacity to convert the .mp3 video files to .wav files so Movie Maker could read it. Also I had to log onto Audioboom from my computer to download the audio files. This was becoming too much work. Instead, I opened iMovie on my phone and got to work curating the pieces through the app. This was much less time consuming as I didn't need to send the files to myself via email.

In the end I learned that if I use my cell phone to create parts of a project, I should also finish the project on my cell phone. It's much easier then dealing with uploading, downloading, and converting the files. The viewer will need to turn their volume up because of how I recorded the voice over.

(u04a1) Mobiles in the Classroom Interview

For this assignment I reached out to a fellow technology teacher in a different district who is 1:1 with iPads. This teacher, Katie, works at the middle school level with 5th-8th graders. This is the 5th year her middle school has supplied iPads to the students.

What are the biggest challenges you face on a daily basis?
Katie says keeping students on task during down times in the classroom can be the biggest challenge. Though many of the social apps are blocked, students can still access YouTube.

How do you deal with these challenges?
Students in this middle school sign an AUP, as does the parents of the students. This means there is a step-by-step process in place for any student who is misusing the iPad, taking off profiles, or damaging the device. At the beginning of the year, the district hosts an informational session that parents must attend regarding their student's device. Here, they explain how teachers monitor the iPads, what happens if the iPad is broken, and what we do with infractions due to misuse. For example, she takes away iPads for a week if students are misusing their iPad or removing profiles. They want parents to understand the expectations ahead of time. They also have students take an iPad class before receiving their iPad. They explain the same information that she did to the parents and also teach students how to use their iPads.
To keep students on task, Katie's district employs a student profile management system that does not allow students to add apps or update them. If an app is deleted, Katie knows because certain profile-related issues pop up.

When it comes to financing a 1:1 environment, what have needed to spend money on that you didn't necessarily need to before going 1:1?
Katie explained the district now spends money on apps, broken iPads, extra iPads for borrowing when an iPad is broken, iPad covers, wages for summer work to prepare the iPads and a student profile management system. There is money needed to run the 1:1 environment, something some districts do not consider when implementing 1:1 devices.

What kind of parent involvement have you seen?
As was stated earlier, the district has parents take a class at the beginning of the year, especially for any parents of incoming 5th graders, to attend. This aids parents in understanding how the iPads will be used for and the expectations the district has for the students. She tells the parents up-front that when an iPad breaks, it is the family's responsibility to pay the bill. The district will send  the iPad in for repair and provide a student with a loaner, but the parent must foot the bill. Because of this, parents do emphasize to their children that taking care of the iPad is extremely important.

What advice would you give district looking into going 1:1?
At Katie's district, they have had various other districts visit during the day to see the iPads in action. Teachers ask questions of students and teachers as well as administrators. So, Katie says, do your homework. She states found out how many money it takes to not only start-up the 1:1, but also how much money it takes to maintain the environment. Think about how you will provide teachers with professional development opportunities that increase use of the device is another thought Katie had. Lastly, make sure that not only students, but parents, are also on board. Without their agreement there will be lots of uphill battles, she explains.

(u03a2) Discovering Something New

Seesaw
Richard Byrne and Kathy Schrock is my go-to people when I'm looking for new ideas or if a teacher has come to me with a need but I'm unable to come up with a solution on my own. I decided to dig into SeeSaw, as I presented Kidblog to my teachers a few months ago, but they would rather have a site that is free. This assignment provided me the time to see what features SeeSaw provides students and teachers.

Pros:
1. As soon as you log in, you can see a feed of recent activity.

2. You can share a SeeSaw link with parents and they will only be able to see their student's work.

3. Students can log in using a QR code or class code.

4. The website can be password protected so student work isn't available for anyone on the internet to see.

5. When a teacher posts a note to the news feed, she can also record her voice. This would be great for the lower readers I have in my third grade classes

6. Everything posted from the students will have to be approved by the teacher first.

7. Seesaw can be accessed on any device, allowing me to use iPads if the laptop cart is checked out.

8. There are various items you can post; videos, pictures, notes and even a drawing!

9. The site contains is a built-in grade book to easily keep track of student scores.

Cons:

1. To post to the blog, you first have to publish to the news feed, then click a button on the bottom of your post which says "Publish this item to the blog". It took me a while to figure this out. This is due to SeeSaw being a digital portfolio platform first and foremost.

2. The site seemed a little glitchy when I was using it. It seemed to not stay at one size.

3. Everything the student posts needs to be approved by the teacher.

Overall Experience:

It is a terrific platform for housing a digital portfolio, just a little tricky when trying to utilize the blog page. The interface is very children friendly, with few buttons to confuse young learners. Everything is posted onto the news feed, which a student can scroll through. This would help keep frustrations on knowing where to look for instructions. The teacher and student platform is user friendly and with a straightforward layout.

Draw and Tell

For my next choice from Richard Byrne's directory I decided to try out an iPad app. I've been looking to spice up my unit on David Shannon and am hoping to find an app that students can use after listening to one of David Shannon's funny stories. I was immediately excited to see it was another Duck, Duck, Moose creation as I already love their ChatterPix app! I was also pleasantly surprised to see the app was made in conjunction with Khan Academy.

Pros:

1. There are only 3 options available when you open the app - blank paper, coloring and view your drawings. Not only are there only 3 choices, but each is a different color. This will aid my students in knowing which to pick just by me telling them the color. Lastly, the app will speak to the child telling them of their options as well.

2. After choosing a paper, students have the opportunity to not only draw and put in stickers, but also record their voice.

3. The choosing of colors, stickers, and utensils is very straightforward. There is no clicking between screens - everything is laid out for the student. To maximize space, there are options on the bottom and top as well as the side. This actually doesn't get confusing because the placement of the items makes sense.

4. The app has many stickers, including numbers, letters, animals, and shapes. When retelling the story, it will be nice for students to have options. During the recording phase, the stickers can be moved to enhance the retelling.

Cons:

1. Music is consistently being played in the background. Even though it's soft music and from classic  nursery rhymes, it can get a little nosy with 20+ iPads. Thankfully, there is an option to turn off the music with just one click, but this will take time.

2. I had a hard time figuring out there were stencils. I of course didn't take the time to read that it said "stencil" but I also know my students would not have read the word either. It is good to have a stencil option, it will just be something extra I will need to explain.

Overall Experience:

It's a robust app for lower elementary students for retelling a story, creating a new part of an old story, or for designing their own page of a book. It's simple to navigate and easy to show how to create a page. I also think my students will enjoy the coloring pages for when there is down time while we wait for everyone to finish their work.

uJam

When my students complete a project about online safety, one of the options is to use an online tool that creates beats to record a poem about staying safe online. I decided to test out uJam to see if this could also be employed for this project.

Pros:

1. Easy to create an account.

2. What you have created cannot only be saved on the website, but also in Google Drive.

3. Students do not need a lot of musical background to turn their ideas into music. The site does a lot of the work for the student.

4. There are lots of options available, but none seem to have an overwhelming amount.

5. You can speak directly into the mic or upload a file that you've already created.

6. If you are really musically talented, you can change chords and and melody.

Cons:

1. You must be 13 or older or have parent permission to use the website.

2. To add space to your uJam account, you must complete certain steps.

3. When I went to replay my song after saving it to my account, I was unable to hear it. Not sure what I was doing wrong.

4. There are no teacher controls over student accounts and no way to control what songs students can access from other users. I'm concerned about lyrics on other songs.

Overall Experience:

A fantastic choice for adding music to the classroom at the middle and high school level. The user doesn't need a lot of music background to create a song that relates to education. It is fairly user friendly, but would be confusing for elementary students without a lot of walk-through guidance before hand.