Seesaw app

If you want online journals for your students, I encourage you to try out the Seesaw app. It is a great free app that allows students to a photo, video,  or drawing of their work to post online to their journal page. We wanted students to be able to record a video of them solving a math problem on their iPad while they explain what they are doing. Seesaw doesn't have this capability, but we decided to app smash (use more than one app for a project) and used Explain Everything ($2.99) for them to create the video. Students saved the video from Explain Everything to the camera roll, then imported that to their journal page on Seesaw. Teachers can decide if they approve each post by students.

Parents can download the app and receive an update any time their child's work is published. Parents can only see their child's work. Teachers and parent can leave comments on each post and each post has a "like" button.

I encourage you to check it out! We just set up a 2nd grade class on it today and can't wait to get started! Below is a quick 90 second video with more explanation about this fantastic app!

They have also created some teacher resources here.

Senior Kindergarten "I am Thankful" Project

Wow! It's been a while since I've blogged!

Recently, I worked with 7 SK boys on an "I am Thankful" project. We used the iPads to create pictures using the Doodle Buddy app. The boys (I work at an all boy school) drew three or four pictures and saved them to the photo album.

We then opened the Shadow Puppet EDU app. If you don't have this app, you need it! It's free! The boys selected their pictures and resized them by pinching their fingers together (how easy is that?).
Then, after I modeled how to record their voice, they went to different areas of the room (to help with sound), and recorded what they were thankful for on each picture.
I didn't have the boys write down what they were going to say...I was very impressed with their descriptions on each picture.

To say they were excited is an understatement! Once they saved their recordings, many of them figured out how to play them back while I was helping other students. Their faces lit up while they smiled and some even squealed with delight!

We have a Kindergarten blog using Kidblog, so I copied the link on each iPad, went to the website and them copied the HTML code to paste into the boys' blog posts.

The Kindergarten teachers sent emails to parents to let them know about the project. Many parents left a comment on their son's blog. Teachers and administrators also left comments.

Below is a sample of one of the finished projects. You can also use this link to view other posts. Feel free to leave a comment! Our boys love to read them!


We also used the ShadowPuppet app with 2nd graders to sequence stories. Here is a sample of that project.