Stick Around, Tellagami, and Google Hangouts

WOW. Where do I begin.....ignore the random order of things :)

Google Hangouts-We had our first "NON PRACTICE" Google Hangout with a class in Atlanta, Georgia. They had some technical difficulties on their end with Google Hangout, so we problem-solved and tried Skype. It was blurry and not as clear as GHO, but it got the job done. The students did a great job introducing our class giving stats of our class, our school, and our town. We traded questions back and forth and their class was able to guess us about 3-4 questions before we were able to pinpoint them. It was a great experience for both classes! After we ended our GHO we found the distance between the two cities, found out how long it would take to drive there, and also used Google Earth to pinpoint their school. The kids were engaged and excited the entire time. My class, especially this year, is VERY competitive....so this is RIGHT up their alley. [shout out to Khan Academy as well-my competitive kids LOVE seeing me update the "Top 3" for energy points]

Tellagami-LOVE LOVE LOVE this app. In Grammar the students have been discussing and practicing the skill of SUMMARIZING. So, I had the kids write out a summary of a book they have read recently. Once they had their summary written, they quickly created an avatar, background, etc in Tellagami. They typed in their summary, chose their voice, and saved it to their camera roll. Today we had a gallery walk where students went around the room listening [with the headphones] to all of their peers' summaries. I asked them to be ready to nominate the best summary [based on the things we had talked about that make a strong summary] and at the end of the switch [I teach this three times to differentiated groups] I had the kids nominate the top ones and they reflected their summary to show to all. This app has so many uses, I am just starting to scratch the surface!

Stick Around-AMAZING app! I am so glad the district was able to purchase the licenses for this app [thank you again!]. I started playing with the app and got the creative juices flowing on Friday With the 3rd quarter reading tests right around the corner and as the teacher responsible for getting all of the 6th graders extra practice for that, I created several puzzles: synonyms, antonyms, nonfiction story web, Maniac Magee Venn Diagram, Root Words, and sequencing skill over the story Alexander and the Terrible, Horrible, No Good, Very Bad Day [one of my FAVORITE children's books!]. With the help of Brent Catlett, we all will now be able to dump our puzzles into a shared folder. What a GREAT way to collaborate and literally place tools into EVERYONE's toolbox! I look forward to having students create their own and get them started on exploring and doing the puzzles I have created for them as well. The possibilities for this app are ENDLESS.

Conferences-as conferences approach, I am excited to have the students create items and projects to show their parents at conferences. I had the students create a "Conferences" folder in their Google Drive so they can copy and move things to that folder. Today we put our iMovies/Book Talks that we created for our novel Maniac Magee. Thank you to Sharae Geldes for the Book Talk idea! The kids have had a BLAST creating and exploring. I can't wait to see what else the future will bring! Our principal just asked us to present at the upcoming PTA Meeting to explain and demonstrate the joys and perks of having a 1:1 iPad room. We are brainstorming ideas on what would be best to present to the PTA members on March 10th. We were thinking of having students create an iMovie discussing the advantages, things they are learning, etc. IDEAS? THOUGHTS?

Days at school just seem to FLY by...even more so now that we have the iPads. Has anyone else noticed this? Or is it just me? Thanks again to everyone who is continually supporting and helping make this such an amazing experience.