How will I use I-Pads in my teaching?

How will I use I-Pads in my teaching?  I am a work in progress!  I feel as though I am still at a very primitive stage in my technology skills and integration of technology in my teaching.  Thus far, I have used the i-pad to take pictures of students in programs and on field trips to share with parents in weekly communications.  In fact, the technology has already changed the way that I teach not by implementing the I-pads (yet) but by forcing me to better organize my thinking.  I have used ExplainEverything to make an appeal for greater funding for tech in our school. I have used Popplet to create a web of ideas and to find the connections, and to differentiate between the big ideas and the examples.  I can also imagine that it could be a tool for curriculum mapping or even for making family trees. Doodle is fun way for students learning the aleph-bet to practice writing.  I have also noticed that by using apps, I am learning to better use the Internet.   Becoming familiar with the I-pad, has also given me the courage to use Internet sites that I knew about but had not used such as making source sheets on Sepharia.org (my students were very impressed!) rather than cutting and pasting from Mellel.  I have been thinking about the interface between the Torah and Technology: Becoming a Digital Mensch.  I have researched and collected materials, brainstormed ideas, talked to people and created both a Popplet and an ExplainEverything on this subject.  Is it meant to be a lesson, a course, a curriculum?  And in our final session, exploring the Animator app, it occurred to me, that students could use Animator to demonstrate some of the texts in the Digital Mensch lesson such as teachings from Pirkei Avot, "If I am not for myself, who will be for me?" or "Your friend's property should be as precious to you as your own." Indeed, I am a work in progress!

Technology Plans

In regard to my final project for the seminar, I've prepared a flipped classroom lesson.  It would be a segment in a series on Biblical cantillation aimed at an audience of grades 6+.  It is a video-lecture that was prepared by smashing the following apps:

• iMovie
• Green Screen by Do Ink
• DavkaWriter
• Explain Everything
• Garage Band
• Drawing Pad
• Tellagami
• Action Movie

After viewing the "lecture," students would be directed to an activity such as:

• Blogging observations and questions.
• Practicing skills using auditory feedback.

For this coming school year, I hope to utilize the flipped classroom approach frequently for instruction, demonstration, and modeling in a variety of subject areas.  Then, depending on the subject, the learning objective(s), and the need for accommodation and scaffolding, I have the choice of many tools for:

·      Guided Practice – helping students start practicing new skills and applying new knowledge (Google  Docs (recording/audio feedback, project based learning, webquests, Google Docs self-grading quizzes, Quizzlet, and more).

·      Independent Practice — turning them loose to work on their own and in collaboration (digital storytelling, blogging, et al.).

I also look forward to the innumerable benefits of encouraging students’ creativity and providing opportunities to publish and share their individual and collaborative work with one another and the school community.

Abraham's Family Tree Unit

4th Grade ~ Temple Isaiah

Over the year, 4th grade students will be exploring key texts of Bereshit from Abraham through Joseph. After the introduction and some scaffolding, students will be using a WebQuest to create Abraham’s Family Tree (from Terach through Jacob’s and Esau’s children). The Family Tree will require students to identify some middot/Jewish virtues from a partial list and explain how each middah connects to an individual and what source text student is using to support.

The whole exploration will be facilitated through a wiki (not yet created) and involve extensive use of project-based learning. The following is just the intro unit.

September 29 Genealogy – What is it?

Computer etiquette:
treating them with care; logging on; gmail a/c’s; saving & shutting down

Computer search and google doc definitions:
create your team definition of genealogy and begin building a Team Glossary – explore and add the following definitions:
ancestor, descendant, sibling, cousins, begot, family tree

Format and save file in the cloud:
identifying docs with file name & team member names

October 2 Finding Torah

How to navigate the Hebrew Bible:
3 sections: T, N, K: focus on T [Torah] ~ create list of a.k.a’s: chumash, 5 Books of Moses, 5 Books of Torah, Pentateuch, The Law,
List books in order in English: Gen, Ex, Lev, Num. Deut: English meanings (beginning; we’re out of here! laws; census, second law)
List books in order in Hebrew: Bereshit, Shemot, Vayikra, BeMidbar, D’varim ~ Hebrew meanings
Add all to their google doc Glossary


October 6 Invitation to Grade 4 Wiki

Review logging on, etc.
Explain the WebQuest idea: will complete project with team members – team to decide how to divide up work, discovering and using individual gifts, understand what project is, how project will be evaluated, resolving differences appropriately, collaboration, communication, where responsibility for learning lies; tools available for research, group work and presentations
Begin WebQuest!


October 9 Continue on WebQuest! The Family Tree of Abraham and His Future Family

October 13 - No School

October 16 Constructive criticism:
its purpose, how to offer it
Review other teams work
Class discussion on work

October 20 Consider classmates comments and decide whether or not to incorporate into project

Reminder that next Sunday will be a program with parents and students will share their family trees of Abraham and Future Family

October 23
Finish up loose ends
Last minute ideas on how to share work with all parents and rest of class

October 27 4th Gr. Family Program
Short story about where you come from; integrate Torah blessing into story (what kids have been doing in class)
Introducing the genealogy
Jewish Genealogy Expert & Clergy ~ brief introduction to what we can learn from genealogist and Clergy to specifically interact with students about what they learned from exploring Abraham’s Family Tree and how to take it further
Set up we are all responsible for one another and l’dor v’dor; bring cutting/peeling tools and veggie, cutting board and 1 recipe typed – collect and “publish” later
Stone Soup activity with soup being delivered to Bristol Lodge after program

Prezi on The Book of Esther and Historical Contextualization

Hannah Lindholm and I created this prezi in order to explore the historical contextualization of the book of Esther. It is meant to be a way for a teacher to guide the students in an active text study and exploration of the book. It is very much a work in progress.

Wiki for Jonah Project based learning

I am currently running this project based learning experience at Temple Israel.

Here is the lesson plan:

Essential Questions:
What are the big unanswerable questions in the book of Jonah?
How can we learn about the difficulties of leadership from exploring the our questions?
How can midrash help us delve deeply into the Torah?

Enduring understandings:
-The book of Jonah is filled with unanswerable questions that push us towards contemplating the problems of leadership, and what makes leadership difficult.
-Jonah is a difficult, real character that makes decisions that aren't easy. Through exploring his decisions, we can have a better understanding of our own decision making and what keeps us from stepping up sometimes.
- Prophets are human beings just like us. Being a prophet doesn't mean being perfect. We can be inspired by the prophets and also learn "what not to do"

Procedure in short:
1. Read the whole book of Jonah
2. Post 5 -10 questions you have after reading the book
3. Discuss the difference between an "answerable" question and a "not answerable" question
4. Review our class rubric
5. In chevrutah or alone, choose one question and post it
7. In chevrutah or alone, create a project that answers your question
8. Present your project to the class

In order to structure a project based learning experience about Jonah, I created this wiki. I am running this lesson right now and the students are all doing digital projects including iMovies, a prezi and a powerpoint.