Technology Tuesday - Guided Access

Let me start this post out by saying I am amazed how kids take to the iPad like a duck takes to water. My 24 month old granddaughter can turn the thing on, open up a folder and select the app she wants.  She even uses Siri in the YouTube app to find the video she wants.  By the time she gets to kindergarten, she is going to be flying through the technology that the schools have to offer.  We may have been in a technological revolution for a while, but it is this coming generation that is going to challenge us to stay one step ahead.

With the good comes the bad and that wonderful pioneering spirit also is a pain when little fingers decide to switch apps mid stream or play around with settings.  For me, it often happens when I am working with some of my kiddos on their communication apps.  One little guy is continually switching screens, moving things and generally playing around.  We were constantly moving the iPad out of his reach which doesn't exactly lend itself to spontaneous communication.  Now when we are directly working on an app or specific communication topic, we put the iPad into Guided Access.

Guided Access locks the iPad into one app.  It also allows you to disable certain buttons or features within that app.

Here is how you use Guided Access.  First click on your settings and click on General on the left hand side.  Scroll down until you see Accessibility. Click on Accessibility and scroll down to Guided Access.

Click on Guided Access and on the next screen turn it to on.

Click on Set PassCode and select a pass code to turn guided access on and off.

Now you are ready to use Guided Access.  Open up the app you want to use and triple click the home button.  This bring up the Guided Access controls.

Use your finger to draw a circle around any buttons or features you want disabled.

When you are done, click on start and the app will be back in functioning mode.  You can see which controls are inactive.

To take it out off Guided Access, triple click on the home button and the PassCode screen will appear.

Type in your PassCode and the Guided Access control screen will appear.

Click on End in the upper left hand corner and your iPad is fully functional again.  Guided Access is a great feature for those students who tend roam all over the iPad and not stay on task.  You can put it in Guided Access before working one to one with a student, before placing an iPad in a center or really anytime the desire to explore is greater than the desire to stay on task.

Thumbnail Thursday

Today's thumbnails are a bit random.  Princess always accuses me of taking a theme too far.  Well, today I am all over the place.  As I was planning this post, I started thinking about sites that tend to be my "go to" sites.  Today's thumbnails are from sites that are chock full of useful ideas, images and resources.

Kizclub Story Props

KizClub is a wonderful site with resources for beginning readers.  They have a whole section of story props for all your favorite picture books.  The free printables come in color and black and white.  I use them for story retelling activities and whenever I am making centers with a theme.

Florida Reading Research Center Student Activities

If you only visit one website this year, you need to go here.  FRRC has developed literacy activities by grade level for each of the five pillars of reading.  They didn't just create one or two per pillar or per grade level.  They have pages and pages of activities for each element at each grade level.  Each activity has an instruction page as well as all the printables you need.  They are great for centers.  Print, laminate and get those wonderful mom volunteers to start cutting.

 Technology Integration Matrix

This year I was in charge in a special ed innovation grant involving iPad technology.  What I found out was that our teachers really did not have a lot of ideas for their use beyond drill and practice apps.  Princess piloted 1:1 with iPads in her classroom for a portion of the day.  She was determined to integrate the tablets rather than just use apps for drill and kill.  Both of us did a huge amount of research.  This site has an interactive matrix that identifies the levels of true integration.  It has great resources, suggestions and tools for each level and activity.

Random....maybe.  Useful....definitely.

Technology Tuesday - QR Codes

Today's technology is the easiest way to jump into technology in your classroom and your kids will love it.  All you need is some device that will scan (ipad, ipod, smart phone etc) and regular computer and a printer.  Basically you are going to create a marker (or QR code ) that when scanned will either take your kids to a website, a video or will show them text or an image.

The first thing you do is download a QR scanner on your device.  There are many choices for a scanner.  We use this free app and you can get it here.  Then you go to a computer attached to a printer and create your code.  Princess and I like QR Stuff because it gives tons of choices of what your QR code is linking to and it gives a shortened URL all in one step.  Create your code and print it.  Put where you want to your kids to scan and watch them become enthralled.

There are a ton of uses.  Princess had her class use them on their Young Author's Books.

After they wrote and illustrated their books, she had them record themselves reading the book at Vocaroo.   This site stores the recording online at its own web address.  She created a QR code that linked to the recording.  The codes were placed inside the covers of the students' books.  When the code was scanned, a recording of the book was started and a person could follow along as the author read the book.

In the speech room we use them to make our centers independent.  Lady A created codes for each one of our verb photo cards for past tense practice.

 

She created a QR code for each card that answered the question: What happened in the picture?  Because we have nonreaders, we needed our QR codes to talk.  She used QR Voice which lets you type 100 characters to create a talking QR code.

 

Scan the above to see what I mean 

There are so many uses for codes.  Here are a few:

Class Website Direction: Create a code that that when scanned opens up your classroom website. Place the code at the bottom of your class newsletters.

Safe Navigation: Instead of your students typing in a web address, have them scan a code that takes them directly where you want them.

Answer Key: Code your answers and have students self-check their answers.

Announcements: Record announcements and have students scan them to hear them. Keep an ongoing interactive bulletin board.

Real World Application: Create a scavenger hunt throughout the school that demonstrates concepts in everyday use.When the student scans the code, the concept explanation/definition would show.

Create a Class Tree:  For back to school night, create a tree that has QR codes as leaves. Parents can scan the codes to learn about the various aspects of your class. Better yet, have each student do a video introducing themselves and create a code for each student.

Differentiating Instruction: Use codes to direct students to different resources that are based on their levels.

Word Wall:  Create a video, an audio recording or a text definition of the words on your word wall. Create a code for each word and students can scan to get more information about the word.

There are many, many more uses.  Check this handout that gives the how-tos and tons of ideas for uses.

Princess says her kids loved QR codes.  They felt like scientists in the future.  Our speech kids were definitely more engaged.  They tend to whip through centers as if there was some great prize for getting finished first (even though I just tell them to do it again!)  With the codes they got a real kick out of checking their answers.

Happy coding!

Technology Tuesday- Padlet

Happy Tuesday everyone! It's Princess Kay here...Queen Pea is on a much needed vacation.  Today for technology Tuesday I want to share one of the websites my third grade class loved to use this past year....Padlet.

Basically, this web based program allows you to make an interactive, collaborative wall.  There are endless possibilities for how to use this in a classroom. It is super easy for students to use.  I would set up a wall and then Padlet gives you a QR code that links to the wall's URL.  I would print off the QR code and my students could just scan it and add their response to the question at the top of the wall.  It was in real time so the students could see each others' responses and I could even put it up on the smartboard.

I used it to informally assess what they were reading during read to self.  The kids loved doing this because they got to see what others were reading.

  

 

I also used it as a way to have them assess their own literature circles.  M kids are very honest when assessing themselves as you can tell.  I have had them record their lit circles as well and those are also every enlightening!

 Check out just a few resources on padlet....or google it like I do! (my third graders would tell you that google is my best friend!):

This website is full of awesome tech ideas and is worth checking out for more than his ideas on how to use padlet!

 Here is a handout that Queen Pea came up with for our school's Technology Show and Share:

NWCS Tech Show and Share-Padlet

There are endless ways to use Padlet in the classroom and I am excited to come up with more ways to use it in the upcoming school year.  The possibilities are endless!

We would love for you to share ideas of how you use Padlet in your room or get a chance to see how it works! Head on over to the Padlet we set up to share your ideas!

Thumbnail Thursday

   Hasn't Pinterest and teaching blogs just completely changed your life?!  I began teaching back in the days when a copy machine was simply high tech.  I hand drew verb cards when I was back in college and painstakingly colored each one.  Newbies like the princess have no idea how good they have it.
   Thursdays are the day I share others' wonderful ideas with you.  There are so many great ideas out there.  Once you start clicking, hours will fly by.

InTech Insights Blog

 
 I came across this blog when I was looking for ideas for our teachers to move beyond using technology just for practice and drill.  She has a ton of great ideas for real teachers and they range from tablet to web based technology.  She hasn't posted since March, but what she has on there will get your brain humming.

Picture of the Day - Science Notebooking Blog

 I saw this idea and loved it.  On the blog, she describes a science class where a teacher warms up with a picture such as this.  He has the students make five observations. Then he makes the students make five inferences. Finally he has the students make five predictions.  We turned it into a bulletin board outside the speech room.  We did a weekly picture.  Our students made five observation, five inferences and five connections.  It was great fun...although Lady A (my trusty assistant said finding the pictures to fit all grades was sometimes a challenge.  Since she is my lifeline most of the time, I let her whine now and then.)

Rockabye Butterfly Blog

 
    Rockabye Butterfly is an awesome blog that has great workbox ideas.  In the summer with my wee special ones, I do work baskets (TEACCH style.)  I made the pre-writing practice books like seen above.  I laminated them and had my kids dry erase markers with them.  They were wonderful.

  I know these are three somewhat unrelated thumbnails, but that is what's great about the digital age...there is something for everyone!

Technology Tuesday - Perfect Captions

       The other thing that kept me so busy this year was a special education innovation grant that I authored.  It allowed us to purchase 63 iPads that I was in charge of.  Our school district is still investigating the concept of 1:1, so this was a trial run.  And "trial" it was at times.  However what fun we had learning.  The princess piloted 1:1 in her classroom for part of the day and the speech room went high tech this year.  There are so many awesome blogs and ideas out there.  Each Tuesday, I am going to share something we have learned.

     

    Today's app is Perfect Captions. 

 This free little app is designed to add fun captions to your photos.  It is super easy to use.  Open the app and either take a picture or use a picture from your camera roll.  Use your fingers to open a text box.  Type in your caption and add an arrow.  Super simple!  

     A first grader showed me this app.  He was taking a book and looking for nouns.  He snapped a picture ("See, I don't even have to open the book because the cover has nouns!" Such a cutie.). He made a text box and wrote out the nouns. He then selected send and emailed it to his teacher.  Our teachers took it a step further and used it for literary responses.

This from a second grade classroom.

  This is from Princess's third grade class.  Don't you just love the spelling.

This is also from Princess's class.  She had to have a little meeting about just what makes a good response.  Technology does not mean immediate improvement in skills.

 Then she got this...overachiever or just maybe if  "I write more, I get to keep the iPad longer!"

I love the questions about words in this one.  I hope to introduce this app to our speech centers next year.  

If you would like more information and ideas for this app, here is the handout created for our teachers.  If you have other ideas for ways to use this app, we would love to hear them!