Connected Learning

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

New App

Hi Everyone
I did some experimenting this afternoon and found an app called notability.  It costs about $2.99.  This is a great app to use with students who might have difficulty with writing or a hard time staying on task in general.  I plan to use it for script writing to help those friends be more successful in completing their tasks.  It is worth checking out!

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!

Cohort 7 Reflections

I am so very grateful to the CJP-TTF for this extraordinary opportunity to explore the I-pad as a powerful tool to add to my education toolbox.  The CJP-TTF fellowship has taught me how to operate the I-Pad, how to execute some apps and has offered me hands-in experience with the I-pad and some apps. In the Fellowship I was introduced to dozens of apps and I was encouraged to start thinking creatively about utilizing technology in my teaching. It helped me to understand how technology may enhance the engagement of both students and parents. I am a ‘word person.’  This training has reinforced the importance of images and often moving images (videos.) As a participating educator in the TTF workshops, I was able to meet and work with other educators and to expand my professional community.  As a participating synagogue, it facilitated our formation of a Religious School Technology committee and a discussion about future planning (funding) for technology in our religious school.

Some challenges for me in this fellowship have included the introduction of too many apps with insufficient teaching/guidance about how to use them.  It also would be helpful to be exposed to (good) apps specific to Jewish education.  I would appreciate a significant discussion about the nuts and bolts of implementation and felt that the CJP-TTF should have recommended significantly more money allocated by synagogues to both inaugurate the technology and to plan for the future (sustain and enhance technology in their schools.)  It would be very helpful to learn strategies for teaching I-Pad use and apps to students.  As an educator with an awareness of developmental realities, I would appreciate a discussion about developmentally appropriate apps:  which apps are appropriate for K-1, 2-3, 4-5, Middle School, High School and Special Needs, etc.  And specific Pedagogy regarding I-Pad use in learning skills/knowledge and in assessment. 

Blog 1. Reflections

The  technology  cohort introduced to a variety of apps that I look forward to experimenting with my second grade students during class time.  Explain everything and I Movie are the two apps I would like to begin using with small groups.  I have already used the iPads to reinforce the 14 steps of the Passover Seder, the four questions etc.  I have also downloaded learning games to challenge some of my students.

Kitah Alef Year-long Technology Based Torah Project

I am excited to integrate a few different apps into my classroom next year. I am still working on each of the individual pieces, but the goal throughout the year is to capture the Torah stories, and all of the work my students do in learning about the stories, in a cohesive video to send home and share with parents in May.

We will start the year with an update to my usual parent/student activity of drawing Bereshit. Instead of having paper drawings I will ask each child and their parent to draw their day in the creation story on the iPad and narrate it. I can then link each of the stories together to create one cohesive Bereshit video from the class. I also plan to have my students draw their own versions of stories such as Abraham and Sarah’s hospitality or Jacob and Esau on the iPad and then have them narrate their pictures using Explain Everything. We can also integrate some of the stories using iMovie – for example a “breaking news story” about the Macabees, explaining what happened in the temple, and the steps the Macabees are taking to fix it. “They put the oil in for one day and prayed. I never thought it would work, but today is the 8th day that oil is burning!” Here is an example of what I plan to do for Pesach. There are 11 separate slides in this example because there are 11 students in my class. The ideas is for each child to create one slide and then I would merge them all. The 10 Plagues

At the end of the year I will have different videos for each Bible story and holiday that we covered in Kitah Alef. I will be able to merge all of the videos together and send them home with my final monthly newsletter so that my students will be able to relive the stories and work that they have done as well as share all of it with their parents.

Lesson

I have used my iPad in quite a few lesson plans however for the final presentations for the fellowship I am going to use my Passover lesson plan.

I created a movie in iMovie with a Passover story. I had a Tellegami that was telling the story and it breaks away into a U-tube cartoon I found on Passover. I interject Tellegami in between during the movie to explain what’s what and each time will usually change the backdrop to something relevant to Passover. Or screen shot the movie they are watching and interject that as a backdrop to the Tellegami so it looks connected. As they watch the story I also have slides created in Explain everything of questions or comments that I write for them – their “food for thought” and it is on a chalkboard with my handwriting. The kids like to read this aloud as the movie plays. I usually run this through Tiltshift to enhance speed of the writing to x4 or x8.

In iMovie I add some special affects that the kids will usually find funny and as they watched they were very engaged and when they were polled at the end of class they all said this was a great way to learn about Passover and they like the movie mixed in with the other apps it kept it interesting.

Along with this in Tiny Tap – I have created games for Passover for them to work on at home and practice the 4 questions.

To round the lesson out we build a Passover plate and discuss customs of Passover and I feel the kids have Listened – Seen and Touched using all sensor’s enhancing their understanding.