iPad iDiot

3 thoughts on “iPad iDiot”

1. Angie Dodd

   August 23, 2015 at 5:53 pm

   Can you say more about Notability? Is that the main way that you are using the iPads? I’m loving all your posts, Ben! Guess I needn’t have worried that the blog would shut down when you moved to India!!

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2. skip

   August 23, 2015 at 7:47 pm

   One of my favorite activities last year was when i hooked our class artist (one of the best artists I have had in 25 years of teaching) to the ipad. There were a few versions
   1. I read the story and she drew as I read
   2. Students would retell and she would draw
   3. She would draw something and the class would try to say what she was drawing
   it was a lot of fun!
   Not often do I have an artist with her confidence and ability. I have found it takes a special artist for it to work really well.

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3. Ben Slavic

   August 24, 2015 at 4:44 am

   When all the kids have iPads – and I know that few schools have that – things change. Or at least they have with me. Fairly dramatically. The sense is that the parents and administrators and the kids themselves expect everything to be done through their iPads. Like…everything. So that has brought some changes (all of them good!) to the way I organize things in my CI classes:
   Changes:
   1. Much more expanded use of the class artist. And Angie I have found a better app than Notability for the art work as explained below so read on and no I won’t stop blogging because I have never met a group of people like y’all, and our conversations and growth together here in our safe space over the years has infused into my teaching and into my life a degree of happiness which I thought I would never know back in the old traditional days of pure shabby darkness. And that happiness is not just professional but personal, in that I can say I have through our group met some of the finest souls on the planet. Anyway, back to how iPads are changing my instruction:
   2. If I want to share something a student may have created (parallel story with drawing, etc.) on their own iPad, the student can have it projected on the screen in seconds. Today a precocious eighth grader who had spent some of her weekend creating a parallel story from a story we did last week in class was able to project it from her seat in the classroom. It rocked the house. We totally enjoyed talking about it for at least a half hour and only stopped because the kids wanted to start a new story. (The change here, the feeling in all of this, is that the kids are more empowered with their iPads, more free to create because they want to, more interested in the class story because of the images they know are going to emerge from it, less emphasis on the quiz because it’s just not needed because they are all visibly involved, and I myself feel much more like a director of a play than an asker of stories, because of the high energy in the room – we kind of forget it’s in French as we work to create our “play”.)
   4. I can post class syllabi, class stories, class art work, etc. on the blog and the kids can do homework much more easily and effectively by going to my blog on their iPads. They know what is expected of them and everything (written stories, drawings, etc. are there. Imagine me giving homework! But I do now because it means something and (see below) it is homework as a happy thing, as a celebration that they want to do because it’s fun. I know, it sounds crazy, but it’s true.
   So now Angie I use an app called “Little Story Creator” instead of Notability – see point (3) below:
   This text is from my homework guidelines:
   As stories and drawings are completed they will be posted here on the blog. Look in the categories on the left of this page to quickly find the story and drawing for your class.
   Note that 1, 2 and 4 below are required for Foundational classes; 1, 2 and 4 are required for Intermediate classes and 3 is optional; 1, 2, 3 and 4 are required for Advanced classes. (In rare cases a student in Foundational may want to attempt option 3.)
   Written Stories: Translate/point out the grammar in the written stories to your parents. This is done using your first language. (Foundational, Intermediate, Advanced)
   Story Drawings: Drawings by the class artist will also be available on the blog as the stories are completed. The students are required to retell the stories to their parents while looking at the panels drawn by the class artist. Only use words that you already know from class. (Foundational, Intermediate)
   Create a New Story: (1) Using the same structures as those used in the story, on a sheet of paper or writing directly into the Little Story Creator app, write either (1) a parallel story to the original or (2) an original story. Do not use Google Translator – only write words that you already know. Refer to the Free Write Rules posted on the website for clues to help you complete this task. (2) Download and open “Little Story Creator” and draw 4 to 6 pages depicting the story. Pulling sentences from your written story, add a caption to each panel. (3) Record your voice to retell the story. With Story Creator, you can import pictures and put videos in (up to five seconds) and you can even add stickers and draw other things. By adding a story or two per week into that app, we can look forward at the end of the year to sharing our new collection of stories with others, including future French students at AES, our relatives, friends, etc. Note: [Technical note: If you want to delete a story, it’s a bit complicated: 1. disable the zoom in settings, 2. click on settings and tap three fingers at once to unlock the parental gate, 3. click on “customized stories”, then on “delete” 4. select your story and click on “delete” again.] This homework task is optional for Intermediate, required for Advanced classes.
   Two Free Writes: In addition, students in Foundational French are required to do at least two out-of-class five minute free writes per week. This shifts to ten minutes on November 1st. Intermediate and Advanced students must do two ten minute free writes all year. Both are to be submitted to the proper folder at the end of each week. (In-class free writes will be put into the composition books.) Free write guidelines can be found on the blog – look for that category.
   Parents please initial each box on the homework log when your child completes each of the four tasks for each story. This homework will not be placed on the calendar because the student has a period of 3-4 days per story to complete each task, with no specific due dates.
   Posted on August 21, 2015Categories Homework GuidelinesLeave a comment on French Homework GuidelinesEdit

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