Edgaged

Last week, I had the opportunity to work in a second grade classroom (Mrs. Miller's) at South Side Elementary School. When I first worked with these kids about a month or so ago, they struggled with knowing how to navigate through the iPad. Following directions was difficult because they were just plain excited about using the devices. What a change I have seen in this group of students since the beginning of the year! Now that the novelty has worn off a little, they listened carefully. It was almost so quiet that you could hear a pin drop. It was so quiet that they actually laughed at my jokes! They also have no problem moving throughout their iPad. The students were working on a bat project where they would share pictures and report facts that they had learned about the animal. They used an app called Photo Farm (new to me) to find pictures so that they could import them into Videolicious. It is a pretty good, simple app that pulls picture from Google pictures without using a web...

Thursday is a very big day. The peer coaches of East Noble School Corporation have been working hard to provide opportunities for teachers to learn or gather ideas for ways to incorporate technology into the classroom. Zack and I have had the unique challenge of trying to provide sessions that are applicable to lower Elementary as well as grades two through four. It has been good for Zack and I as well because it has forced us to look for more materials or even just to become more oriented with materials that have previously been discovered. My wife, Michelle Yoder, is even helping with this endeavor as she is sharing her experience with first graders as she has tried to use the iPods for more than just skill and drill. This is exciting for me as I have been an active part in her classroom and have been able to watch the kids use the iPods as learning tools. Here are some things we will be presenting: Big Universe - Big Universe is a collection of online books for grade levels k-8. ...