2nd Post---How I Plan to Use the Technology

I will be teaching students in the 4th and 6th grades who are struggling with Hebrew next year.
I know from previous experience that this frequently means that even letter recognition is a problem for these students.

Since reviewing lines of Hebrew letter with vowel markings under them, REPEATEDLY, is less exciting than watching paint dry,😴 I thought that maybe using the iPads to review letter sight and sound recognition would make it more engaging and interactive.

Here's the plan:

10 min. Physical Learning, or "Aleph-bet" Zen. Using a more developed presentation, (such as 'Lameds are Lazy' w/ the Explain Everything app), the students will try to make the focus letters, (there will be two), with their bodies. A partner will try to represent the focus vowels, (there will also be two of these). When they feel they have achieved the form, they will hum the sound. This serves a few functions.
1) It gets them productively moving
2) It combines two modalities---movement (gross motor) and auditory
3) Novelty

10 min. Traditional reading practice-now hopefully they will have excess energy worked off a bit---while they are doing this, I could have music playing (Jewish) music playing softly in the background from the iPad.

3) 10 minutes of an interactive game, which gives immediate feedback in Hebrew decoding----such as can be used via Tiny Tap.
4) The remaining 10 minutes would be spent with a limited written practice.

I see this as being the Tuesday plan, since attendance will be better, generally, and this method, ( I think), will have the largest impact with the widest reach.

The Sunday plan would entail 20 minutes of creating an aleph-bet journal, or lines of prayer journal, in which the students will have an artistic component using traditional materials----paper, crayons, markers, colored pencils, cut-outs from magazines, stencils, etc.  📒  This would be done by half the class.  The other half would be shown how to use one of the drawing/doodling apps to create a digital presentation. (Actually, I'd probably have to take one whole class period, to introduce a couple of these apps, and have the kids play with it). Eventually, the vision would be that the other half would be working on their digital presentations.  After 20 min., the groups flip.

I also see that Sunday's could alternatively be used to have the kids record their reading, and listen to it, and try to re read to improve, and re-record.

Of course, logistics would need to be worked out. I'd probably have to allot for the use of 4 iPads at a time---so that colleague(s) would also have access to iPads, but I think the technology could give that 'shot in the arm' to what has traditionally been a very dry exercise.

One can only try!👍

iMovie on Project Based Learning

The thing that I most appreciated about this project was that it was a perfect example of Project Based Learning. Tayech, Judy and I worked together to create a trailer for a "movie" about Project Based Learning. It was truly collaborative and we each relied on the other's strengths. It was truly the most fun I've had in this class, and thanks to Judy and Tayech, the technology was made to actualize this Luddite's artistic vision!

It also made the practice of exploring the app myself, so much more accessible to me---thanks to Judy's and Tayech's magic, flying, techie fingers! This is probably the ultimate goal of, and finest outcome of Project Based Learning----the inspiration and safety among one's peers to explore beyond one's comfort zones. When it works, it REALLY works!

Connected Learning

Today, Melissa and I used iMovie to make a movie trailer explaining connected learning.