How iPads Have Transformed Our Classroom in 3 short days!

This has been an exciting week in 6th grade!  Our iPads arrived on Wednesday afternoon!  We have been learning and exploring with them since that time.  We want to share with you what we have done so far, and what our hopes are for the upcoming week.  Here's a quick recap:

Wednesday afternoon:

"Coach Cat" (our fearless leader) came in and covered the basics and introduced us to some useful apps.  We learned how to use various hand gestures on the iPads, and covered safety and responsibility.  We set up Google Drive and our Gmail accounts on the iPads, which will be useful when sending and receiving work.  We learned about the Skitch app which is useful for making illustrations and story maps.  (That is the app Miss Heine used for the picture of Coach Cat on Wednesday.)  Then we explored Popplet.  Popplet is great for making graphic organizers.  Notability is an app that is great for making notes on our papers.  We will use this frequently to notate on notes and papers that were typically handed out to students, to work towards a paperless classroom.  All of these apps can be shared via e-mail.  They can e-mail it to themselves, and then open their e-mail at home to show parents. (Their e-mail accounts won't allow them to send or receive e-mail to addresses outside of Bellevue Public Schools.)

Thursday:

We had students open Notability to work on their Math morning work. Next they had to create a Popplet that went along with our Reading story (about women inventors) for this week.  This activity required some research on a famous product invented by a woman.  We showed them RAZ kids (Reading A to Z), which is a great Reading tool some students will be using to read books digitally.   We had them organize their Google Drive so we can send and receive work efficiently.  They again worked in Notability for Social Studies to notate on their notes while reading the text.  For Math we accessed Khan Academy and began getting accustomed to working on the iPad for utilizing that site.  (They can also access this site at home on any computer or iPad.)  

Friday (Today):

We used Notability and Popplet for Science.  Students notated on their Science journals using Notability.  They created a Popplet for the Main Idea and Supporting Details of our Science story on the Greek Physicist, Archamedes.  

We accessed the MAP testing site and did a "practice" run with testing on the iPads.  The students did great and were able to complete the tests on the iPad.  This will be great for collecting instructional data on our 6th graders as well as preparing us for the MAP testing that will be done late April or early May.  

Our Goals for next week are to introduce and use the apps iMovie, Tellagami, Pages & Keynote.  iMovie and Tellagami will be great in having students demonstrate their comprehension on various passages and texts.  It will also be useful in showing us their knowledge in various subject areas.  Pages is great for organizing and graphing data, which will be useful for their Science presentations.  Keynote is very similar to "Powerpoint" or "Prezi" but is an Apple product.  

While it has been a great 3 days with much learning, we still have a lot to learn about the iPads and the students are excited to do so!  (As are we!)