This Class Rocks iPads: October 2014

Wednesday, October 29, 2014

So, Día de los Muertos...There's an app for that!!!

I played with a LOT of Día de los Muertos apps (yes, I'm a geek), but the best BY FAR are these two!

Day of the Dead Me. Free. NOTE: this is an iPhone app which won't come up on your iPad unless you switch from "iPad only" to "iPhone only" in the app store search.

You can take pics and make them into Calaveras!

There are lots of effects and free options to add to your photo. There are even more to purchase, but why?

There are two strange things about this app:
1. There is an age requirement of 21-even though I have see nothing to rate that. I just told my kids to put in a date before 1992. Problem solved.

2. This is the age of the selfie, yet this app won't let you reverse the camera...So, either get someone to take it for students, or have them take a selfie before opening the app. You can upload from the camera roll (great chance to APP SMASH!!). I have also had some students take a selfie with the back-facing camera--you would be surprised at how good they are in spite of not being able to see their shot!

This is fun way for students to personally identify with what we are learning about el Día de los Muertos. One photo takes about 15 minutes, give or take. I have students share their work on Edmodo, that way it isn't fully public, but they do have the reinforcement of others seeing their work.

iMuertos. $1.99, although if you have the opportunity to purchase apps in bulk, you can get them for half price!

I was so excited to see this app this year! We regularly create an altar and calaveritas in class but this is a great complement!

Students can design their own papel picado, calaverita and frame a pic of a person they want to memorialize...they then create their own altar using their designs! There are 'velas', 'pan de muerto', 'copal', 'mole', 'cempasuchitl', and flower petals. There is also built-in information/history of the holiday and a recipe for "pan de muertos".

Maybe the only drawback is that it is mostly in English, with some words in Spanish. But, then again, it is accessible for all my students...I would have liked the choice, however. Maybe they'll come up with a future version in Spanish...*fingers crossed*

I loved my students' creations! Some students went traditional while others went all black and white or modern! They really enjoyed it! I led them to each section and demonstrated how to complete, then turned them loose! I had them upload their final altar showing their papel picado, calaverita and photo to our class in Edmodo.

Extension activities (depending on the level) could be to respond to a classmate's post, write a description of the altar, or say if you like a photo...

Tuesday, October 7, 2014

Venn Diagram, the app

There are other ways to make one but for easy usability and clear interface, this free app is my new choice! You can label each circle, change colors and add an overall title. Further, you can add a quick description of each item you add, although that isn't visible in the actual circle...

This is brought to us by the same people whe created Word Mover.

Friday, October 3, 2014

App-solutely Smashing!

This was my presentation at the Foreign Language Association of NC Fall Conference:

Shoutout to Greg Kulowiec who is credited with coining the term "app smashing" several years ago.... http://kulowiectech.blogspot.com/

Many people already employ multiple apps

to create a product which is then shared with the world on social media

There is NO reason not to! High interest level, lowering affective filter, personalized, fun!

One teacher uses dice to select apps! Look on Instagram or Twitter with #appsmash

These are my go-to apps. All are free except PuzzleMaker. I also like Noteography, which is 1.99...

Not a super creative task, but keeps the student active and individually accountable...

Smashing adds an extra layer of understanding and personalization to a "boring" book activity.

One student makes this for another to complete.

Kind of like Tagxedo but with more options. Require students to personalize in an authentic and meaningful way so all components work together to create meaning.

~~~~

Students can either do this activity on one iPad using the created background in Make Dice Lite OR use 2 iPads, one with dice and the other with the game board. Try two dice, one with subject pronouns and the other with numbers. One person rolls and selects a square. Then conjugates for the other person to check. If guessed correctly, use the number dice to indicate the number of points won.

~~~

Students create a web with a main idea and individual related items, then add photos to illustrate the main idea.

~~~

Students create questions to ask other students. In this case, they asked about favorite types of movies, and favorite locations for watching. Then they put their data into the pie chart maker and collated both in one piccollage. They followed this up with presenting on AppleTV.

~~~

This assignment was to create a movie poster for a movie of their creation. She used several apps including camera, PicCollage and Pages.

~~~

With Elin's house, students can create their own house, design the colors, add furniture and can interact with the lights, inhabitants, and items. Then they take screenshots and open in PicCollage, where they add the name of the floor, the room and list an activity for that room. Students present their designs on AppleTV by saying "This is the living room. I dust in the living room". You could bring in questions about furniture, colors and likes/dislikes.

To practice training their listening skills we occasionally do a dictation. When we do, students use an app to write like ShowMe. This is especially important since there is no spell-check feature when students use a writing tool. If students use the PicCollage (like this one) make sure you have toggled the spell check off. Students then screenshot their writing so it cannot be changed, then open in ShowMe and correct using the pen tool. This is especially important for metacognition and reasoning skills. They get a grade for completion, since this is considered a 'formative' grade or practice.

~~~

For this assignment, students made a list of drinks they like every day, sometimes or never. We then added the verb "bebo" to make them sentences. I had them screenshot their graphic organizer and present to the class using AppleTV. The other students opened their writing in PicCollage and applied a sticker every time they heard someone present something they had in common. This is excellent to encourage active presenters but also active listeners.

Level 1

Students snapped a pic of a student in class and had to answer several questions related to their new vocab, including Is the clothing tight or loose? What color is it? What is it made out of? What is the size? They typed their answers in PicCollage (although they were given the choice) and then presented their work in AppleTV.

Level 2

After a cultural reading and seeing a clip of a documentary in Spanish about the trip, students had to find out more info and illustrate their finds. This is what oen of my students came up with. The words are her own. They then exchanged information with the other level 3 students. Next time, I'll have them take notes on each other's presentations and then add that info to the test to make them accountable.

Level 3