A Week of Reflection

This week was full of learning, reflection, collaboration, and excitement!  My class worked so well together as a team as we learned how to navigate our way through new apps.  Each student became a teacher and was always willing to lend a helping hand.  

Using an iPad to teach my class has been UNBELIEVABLE!  Being able to use reflector to teach, allows me the freedom to walk around the entire room while being able to teach at the same time.  Then, if I see a student doing something creative, outstanding, new, interesting, etc...I have them reflect and share their work.  Reflector has been very powerful in my classroom and students are constantly asking if they can reflect. 

This week I introduced Explain Everything, Popplet, Google Drive (gClassFolders), Notability, and Virtual Manipulatives.  My students creativity is starting to shine!  They are developing a sense of ownership and pride when completing their work!  Math is where I have seen the most significant change in my classroom this week.  As I taught, we used Explain Everything to create examples and then explain the process as to how to solve the problem.  They then had a friend listen to make sure it was the correct information.  As we pulled our class work  from our drive into Notability, I watched my students swipe back and forth between the assignment and their Explain Everything video.  They were actively learning and participating!   Exciting to see them working through problems and problem solving on their own!  I really have enjoyed watching my students start to take control of their learning this week. 

I had a lot of successes this week with the iPads as well as some moments that helped me realize what pieces are missing and that I need to reteach or introduce.  As my students were creating their Popplet about Wyoming, I quickly realized that I need to teach them about how to search for information.  I am in the process of putting together a lesson about how to search safely and for quality information on the internet.

New and Upcoming Projects in the Works

I am very excited about some ideas that Mr. Catlett and I discussed!  Podcasts and eduClipper are two ideas that we are very excited about.  These projects will help students better understand what they are learning, gather and share information and resources, and showcase their work.  I am really enjoying being pushed to think outside of the box and to try new things with the iPads in my classroom!