We welcomed 53 iPads to Pine Meadow last week and hope to get them out into our classroom rotations on Tuesday. Last week they were used for some projects in grade 3 with the Sock Puppet app. Students were thrilled to do their storytelling with an iPad app!
As you begin using iPads one app you will really want to take a good look at right away is iTalk. iTalk turns your iPad into a recording device. Just one click of the big easy button begins recording, and it stops with another touch. Use a simple download of iTalk onto your laptop and you can transfer the recordings wirelessly, in just seconds.
So what good is it to be able to record your students? The possibilities are endless! Here are just a few:
- Record yourself reading a story. Share it with your students as an MP3.
- Record your students doing their timed readings. Keep a copy to play back for parents and show progress throughout the school year.
- Add to a "read to self" center. Have students record themselves reading and then listen back and evaluate their own reading.
- Allow a student to record themselves answering questions on a test or worksheet rather than writing it down. This could be a reward, an incentive, or an intervention - and could be especially helpful for those students with broken arms!
- Have students record an explanation of the process they used to solve a math problem.
- Record a recap of your school day with students giving a few highlights of the day. Email this recording to your families or post it on your webpage.
- Tell a story, passing the iPad back and forth between a small group of students, each child recording one sentence. One to try: Fortunately, Unfortunately stories.
- Create a center where 3rd or 4th grade students are allowed to record themselves reading picture books expressively for their buddy classrooms.
In any event I think this is a tool you will enjoy using, and one that you will appreciate having in your classroom. Give it a try!
No comments:
Post a Comment