"Creativity is contagious, pass it on." ~Albert Einstein

Monday, October 27, 2014

It's a simple app smash that we complete in Kindergarten.  It might look like there are several steps, but it's really quite easy for students. Our teachers are extremely busy so I take care of uploading all of our smashes once in 30Hands to YouTube.  I then take each URL from YouTube, place them in QR Explore, download them and toss them into a Google Folder that I share with each teacher.

Completing this app smash at the start of the school year gives me the chance to teach the basics of some apps that students will frequently use throughout the rest of the school year.


Here is the recipe:

We use this particular app smash recipe to demonstrate some of the things our Kindergartners learned about apples.  Students create a Pic Collage of the different kinds of apples and then label it. Students learn how to insert images and and labels in Pic Collage during this step.  I have student then create another Pic Collage with the ingredients they need to make applesauce.  The students actually make applesauce, so this is really easy for them. They just need some help spelling the ingredients (water, cinnamon, sugar, apples) for their labels.  We add an image of each ingredient as well.  

Next, I have students use Doodlebuddy.  Students have to draw an apple and two foods that we can make using apples (apple cider, apple pie, etc.).  This is one of my favorite apps to teach because students love to draw!  Once the students are done with their Doodlebuddy, we save it to the photo library like we did when done with our products in Pic Collage. 

We are finally to 30Hands!  I have the students place the products they created in Pic Collage and Doodlebuddy into the 30Hands app.  I show them how to add their voice with each image and we now have a short summary of all that we learned about apples!  I can't wait to hand our students a QR code to their finished product!  They love it!

It's a pretty basic app smash, and I think that you could use it in a variety of ways in your classroom. I would love to see some examples of how you used this recipe!

Happy App Smashing!



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Tuesday, October 14, 2014

I heard that question a lot growing up at my house.  I don't know how she did it, but my mother raised four pretty mischievous boys all by herself, and it seemed like that question popped up at least a couple of times a week.

In my last blog post, I wrote about how Bob Dillon got me to thinking after his Keynote address at our Fall NETA Conference.  Yes, scary thought I know!

One of Bob's breakout sessions was about "Making Thinking Visible" in our classrooms and this was on my mind because of a school wide initiative called the Adolescent Literacy Project that my school district just instituted this year.   One of the key components of that project is to make thinking visible in our classrooms!  Imagine that.

Needless to say, my mind has been spinning with ideas, thoughts, questions, etc.

Now what if we took that same question, and asked more often to the students in our classrooms?  I know you might already do that with some of the students that misbehave, but what if we asked this question in an educational context?  Would learning become more relevant in our classrooms?

How often do we ask our students the following:

"What were you thinking when...

         You worked through that problem?"

         You created this project?"

         You diagrammed that sentence?"

         You solved that equation?"

         You composed this essay?"

         You wrote this blog post?"

I often wonder why we don't ask more questions like this in our classrooms?  I know I didn't ask these questions enough in my classroom.  Why didn't I let my students learn out loud? Why didn't I give my students more of a voice?

Imagine some of the conversations, discussions and learning that WOULD happen in our classrooms if we simply asked, "What were you thinking?" 






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Sunday, October 12, 2014

I recently had the opportunity to listen to Bob Dillon's Keynote address at the Nebraska Fall EdTech Conference in Kearney, Nebraska.   I have been following Bob on Twitter and Instagram for quite awhile, and it seems like I learn a new thing from him everyday.  I enjoyed the opportunity to finally meet him in person and listen to him tell his story.

During Bob's Keynote address he said something that really made me think.  I can't recall it verbatim, but it went something like this,  "I challenge you to think of 10 people that have the same job as you, but do it better than you."

Whoah...

We aren't supposed to think about things like that are we?  Aren't we supposed to be the best in our field?  Yes, I strive for that, but find that there are some amazing tweeps in my network doing awesome things in their school districts.  I am continually learning from awesome educators in my professional learning network!

Bob mentioned that when he does this activity in a workshop, most teachers struggle to get past the first name that they write down.  I thought for a bit and immediately started jotting down names in the Notes app on my phone (I also wondered how a teacher that's not connected would answer this question, but that's a whole new blog post).

Here is what I came up with.  I'm actually cheating and listing twelve people instead of ten.  A simple "thank you" to those on this list.  You continually challenge me to become a better educator.  You continually raise the bar higher and higher.   You drive me to be the best that I can be in my profession.

Devon Schoening
Silvia Rosenthal Tolisano
Josh Allen
Jennifer Scheffer
Jenny Grabiec
Lisa Johnson
Jeremy Macdonald
Holly Clark
Susan Bearden
Clay Reisler
Brent Catlett
Mickie Mueller

Well, can you come up with ten people?  If so, I challenge you to reply with your own blog post!

Let's see what ya got!


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