App of the Week

Plickers 

Plickers is a wonderfully easy app to use, in and out of the class. What I love about this app is that you can use it with any age group and only one iPad is required. Plickers is an iPhone app, so when going to the app store enter 'Plickers', iPad Only and choose the iPhone option and you should see it appear.

The app can be used to check if your students have understood the concepts you have taught. Plickers gives students anonymity to participate and engage in learning without feeling self-conscious. Its a quick and easy way to collect formative assessment data.

The class and sample questions I have based this tutorial on is for a KG1 class. 

Preparation:

1. Create an account by going to this website link  Plickers
2. Go to the Cards tab and print out the type of cards you want (I just went for standard) I would recommend that you have them laminated.

For a tutorial on how to set up a class and use Plickers in the classroom, please refer to the movie below;

Below are some of the questions I created for this KG1 class. You have the choice of either multiple choice or true or false questions, with or without images.

The report feature allows you to see how many students answered correctly or incorrectly in graphical form.

Students names have been blanked out, but you can see from the report below that you are able to identify students who took part and who didn't. 

Each question can be analysed too, so that you are able to see which students answered the question correctly or incorrectly.

For more further support and guidance on using on Plickers please go to:plickers.com/help

Top Tips!

Stick the cards onto/into students books, so that you don't need to hand the cards out each lesson. the students can merely turn and raise their textbooks, to answer the questions.

Inform Planning - another way to see if your students have made any progress in lesson is to duplicate the questions and ask students questions at the start of the lesson and then at the end of the lesson, you can then check the report and analyse the data to inform planning by identifying which student you need to focus on. 

App of the Week

Tellagami

What a COOL app! Tellagami is a wonderful way for students to introduce an animated character into their work.

The animated character created within the app, can be used to present the information a student has been asked to research. This makes presenting information more exciting and fun for students, especially the ones who are too shy to record themselves or their voices.

Take a look at the tutorial below to help you create your own Tellagami. You will have to install the app first.

Do note that the free version has limited features and you will only be able to create 30 sec gami's.

Teachers, you can also use the app yourself to create resources or tutorials for students to work on. Here's an example of a gami explaining what a "Sonnet' is. 

So go on.......... give it ago........ be creative! 

App of the Week

Lightbot 

I recently stumbled upon this app and thought it a great tool for teaching code in the PYP. 

Programming, or Coding, is simply the way people tell a computer what to do using instructions that the computer understands.

Lightbot offers an easy way for kids to learn coding concepts such as Loops, If then statements, and the like without typing or coding.

In Lightbot players program a robot using icons to move round a grid and light up colored squares within the grid.

It doesnt matter whether instructions are icons or words, students are actually programming when they are playing Lightbot.

The game is additive and becomes more challenging as you move onto the next puzzle. I trialed it out with a few students and they seemed to love it.

Lightbot teaches a few specific coding constructs as well, common to many programming languages. The technical terms for those are: 

Sequential Control Flow: Commands get executed one after the other. 

Procedures: Blocks of code for taking advantage of re-usable patterns. 

Loops: Blocks of code specifically used for patterns that repeat, or 'loop'. 

Debugging: Running and re-running a program, testing solutions, fixing mistakes. 

Have a go and see what you think.

Teacher Tools

Canva

I discovered Canva quite recently when I was trying to create my own infographics on Digital Citizenship and Cyberbullying, Canva allowed me liven up my content and make it look professional.

Watch this movie to give you more ideas on how simple and useful Canva is. 

Once again this app and software is absolutely free!

I also like the fact that;

• You can choose form a variety of editable canvas templates which you can customise to suit your own purposes.  
• It has a simple drag and drop feature that allows you to layout the premade images and text
• Images can be resized and cropped  
• There are numerous images, text, layouts, lines, frames, canvases to choose from.

You will need to create yourself an account to get started. 

You can create your account by going to the website, Canva or alternatively you can install the app on your iPad and create your account from there.

Good luck making your posters!

App of the Week

ChatterPix Kids 

ChatterPix Kids is a Free App that can make anything talk. It's a very easy app to use. You simply take a photo, draw a line to make a mouth, and record your voice. 

Watch this short movie, that shows you just how simple it is to use.

I'm sure you guys can think of lots of educational uses for this app, but here are a few I would like to suggest.

In science when students have to investigate paper and its properties.  One of the investigations is to write on two different types of paper and then talk about which was easier/harder to write on and why. The students could take photos of the paper and add voices to the photos explaining their observations.

To extend this activity, the movie created in ChatterPix can be used as an overlay in the Aurasma App and be attached to a trigger image, that when scanned the paper will come to life explaining its own properties.

The app has its uses in MFL and in Arabic, where objects can come to life and say what they are, it makes learning about objects fun and exciting.

I usually test apps out on my son, to see if their user friendly enough? so this is what he produced when I let him have a go. 

Please comment and perhaps share your ideas on the blog of how this app could be used as a teaching and learning tool, I would love to hear more ideas.

App of the Week

Elements 4D 

I love investigating and hearing about new apps so here's one that a colleague introduced me to recently.

This app empowers student learning by SUPERCHARGING the chemistry classroom!

Elements 4D is basically a set of interactive blocks that help students learn the periodic table by showing how elements combine into new chemical substances, what the reaction looks like and the resulting chemical equation.

Take a look at the movie to see how these simple blocks use augmented reality to come to life. 

Instructions:

1. Go to the this link and print off the paper blocks, cut them out and glue them together to make the boxes.Paper Blocks
2. Install the "Elements 4D" App on your iPad, open the app and point your device at one of the blocks.
3. To combine two elements introduce a second element, move the two blocks together until they touch.
4. See the reaction - if nothing happens, those elements don't combine, try another combination.

The website also offers some really creative lesson plans for you to use.

Lesson Plans_Grades 3-5
Lesson Plans_Grades 6-8
Lesson Plans_Grades 9-12

For further information about Elements 4D click on the link below to check out their website

http://elements4d.daqri.com/#intro 

QR Code

Here we are once again using QR Codes to engage student's in their own learning journey.

Student prior knowledge was recorded by asking if them if they knew what the composition of the Earth meant. Their responses were captured on post-it notes as well as with iMovie and uploaded to YouTube.

http://youtu.be/E-Q0xSvEDwY

Next, using http://qrcode.kaywa.com/

a code was made and then printed using a word processor.

Students scanned the code using Qrafter and then by clicking on the cc for sound on YouTube after pressing play.

There you are, one more way of empowering and scaffolding student understanding!

App of the Week

Padlet

Is a great tool for collaborating, its basically a virtual wall that allows people (students) to express their thoughts on a common topic.

Teachers can use this tool in myriad of ways, for instance to pose open-ended questions to students, brainstorming, reflective purposes and more.....

It works like an online bulletin board where content (e.g. images, videos, documents, text) can be put up on the page, by anyone who has been given access to the page.

If you want to know how to use it refer to the YouTube tutorial below.

An example of how Padlet is being used at GCS can be found in the PYP page.

App of the Week

Classkick App

This app allows you to create assignments and tasks for your students very easily and quickly. You are able to see your students' work in real-time, and give them feedback. 

Watch the movie below;

Hi Everyone,

Welcome to the new Academic Year.

Here's an App that was shown to you during Taaleem Day, I hope you get to be really creative with it.

Aurasma App

Here is quick intro into what Aurasma can do!