What's Your Ideal iPad Lesson?

[Sam Gliksman]

Many of you are preparing for a new school year and others are in the middle of their year. There's a lot of collective experience in using iPads in class and it will be helpful to share some of our school success stories. 

What's the most successful iPad lesson you or your colleagues have delivered and what made it successful? Tell us:

- What class was it?

- What were the objectives?

- What apps or websites did you use?

- What were the activities?

- If possible, show some of the results.

Share your success story and learn from form the experiences of others. 

Sam Gliksman

Email: [e-mail]

Twitter: @samgliksman

[bennyp28]

I used ipads and ipods in a music lesson through garage band. We investigated how we could put styles of music together. We then developed our own ostinato verbally and physically using body percussion and then transferred this ostinato onto the ipad. We then built ostinati up in layers so children knew how music was put together. 

Objective . To understand how music is built up from different layers. 

[Sam Gliksman]

Thanks Benny. What was the age level?

bennyp28 said:

I used ipads and ipods in a music lesson through garage band. We investigated how we could put styles of music together. We then developed our own ostinato verbally and physically using body percussion and then transferred this ostinato onto the ipad. We then built ostinati up in layers so children knew how music was put together. 

Objective . To understand how music is built up from different layers. 

[bennyp28]

It was year 4, so age 9.

[Holley Stabler]

I used the iPads in my 5th grade science class.  The students, in groups, research various areas around the world where tectonic movement occurs.  Using symbaloo they used the sites provided to answer the questions that were pertinent.  Using the information they found they wrote a paragraph using pages, and then made a claymation, or stop action photography using the stop motion app. 

Objection:  How does the movement of the earth impact earth's structure?

[Leah Lacrosse]

One of my favorite iPad involved lessons actually included many apps, plus Legos and electrical wiring equipment. With my 5th grade science classes, we designed the next, great, NASA exploration vehicles. The students researched previous NASA vehicles with apps such as BrainPop, NASA, and The Solar System (by Marcus Chown). They also did web research with the Safari app. With their team, they had to design their own unique rover, moon base, or space station. So, many used an app called Blocks to design the vehicle on the iPad. Others just jumped right in with the Lego materials and wiring equipment to add lights, moving parts, and wheels. The groups had to design a mission patch (because all great NASA missions have awesome patches). For this, many students chose the DrawingPad app on the iPad. Others created their badges directly in Keynote using the drawing/shape functions on a single slide to build. The entire project was wrapped neatly in a Keynote or iMovie from which they presented their vision for NASA's next great exploratory vehicle. The students included information about the area of the solar system being studied (web research, more iPad apps), the information about the Lego vehicle, and pictures of the vehicle, mission patch, and more!

The most amazing part was how authentic the presentations were! The students projected their keynote to the large screen and presented as if the class were all NASA officials deciding on whether to adopt their ideas. VERY cool! The tangent conversations were amazing! We used Edmodo app in combination with general conversation to discuss the possibilities with each vehicle.

The lesson(s) took about a week, and this project was done after my students had been working on the ipads for several months. They were familiar with how to use the various apps because we had used them in previous lessons. My students were also very used to problem solving and "figuring it out" (which I am constantly making them do). So, they had to figure out how to transfer picture files (dropbox app was used).

The conversations during the project were the best part! It was cool hearing the science, problem solving, and tech speak merge to create a hum of productivity, ingenuity, and passion!

Our finished products can be found at...
https://sites.google.com/a/huron-city.k12.oh.us/lacrosse-science/st...
WARNING...Our site was VERY cluttered at the end of the year with so many project based activities. You would have to scroll down a bit to get to those projects. Feel free to check out our other projects. ;)
We had a blast using our ipads, edmodo, skype, and twitter to learn and share our science!

Needless to say, I have a new website generated to house the 2012/2013 awesomeness about to start in a month!
http://bit.ly/sciencelacrosse

[Leah Lacrosse]

I love, love, love the idea of using claymation and iStop motion apps for this objective!
Way to go! Such a cool way, and you KNOW they are going to remember that.
Thank you for sharing!

Holley Stabler said:

I used the iPads in my 5th grade science class.  The students, in groups, research various areas around the world where tectonic movement occurs.  Using symbaloo they used the sites provided to answer the questions that were pertinent.  Using the information they found they wrote a paragraph using pages, and then made a claymation, or stop action photography using the stop motion app. 

Objection:  How does the movement of the earth impact earth's structure?

[Deborah Dubb]

In my 5th Grade classes, students used the ScribblePress app to write and illustrate stories in Hebrew. Vocabulary and grammar rules were reinforced by using this app and every student got fully involved in the project.  Some students used the graphics and ideas from the book they use in Hebrew class, while others created their own graphics.  I uploaded the books to Scribble Press and they were printed and delivered to the school.  The finished products looked beautiful.  It took a good few weeks to complete the project (I only see them once a week) and though this time the parents were asked to pay for the books, next year the school is going to put it into the budget to pay, as it was so successful.

Here is a link to an  online version of a story:

http://ebooks.scribblepress.com/book.php?g=KLKAEVPF

and another one....

http://ebooks.scribblepress.com/book.php?g=BJDYWXPW

[Leah Lacrosse]

I love the possibilities with ScribblePress! Good call! Love the ability to print and have delivered. Great addition to posts!

Deborah Dubb said:

In my 5th Grade classes, students used the ScribblePress app to write and illustrate stories in Hebrew. Vocabulary and grammar rules were reinforced by using this app and every student got fully involved in the project.  Some students used the graphics and ideas from the book they use in Hebrew class, while others created their own graphics.  I uploaded the books to Scribble Press and they were printed and delivered to the school.  The finished products looked beautiful.  It took a good few weeks to complete the project (I only see them once a week) and though this time the parents were asked to pay for the books, next year the school is going to put it into the budget to pay, as it was so successful.

Here is a link to an  online version of a story:

http://ebooks.scribblepress.com/book.php?g=KLKAEVPF

and another one....

http://ebooks.scribblepress.com/book.php?g=BJDYWXPW

[Terice Schneider]

Our district had great success at South Belton Middle School, a 1:1 iPad campus where the device goes home with the student. Please see some of our videos and information here: www.bisd.net/technology under 1:1 Projects or go here: http://www.bisd.net/Page/4782

Terice Schneider, Belton ISD Instructional Technology Coordinator

[Derrick Willard]

I've run two classes on the devices thus far, and can't think of any one favorite or "ideal" lesson. The devices have been very handy for accomplishing things we used to have to book the computer lab for to complete. I would love to do a better job of letting kids take advantage of the creative power of the iPads. Here are a couple of examples from my blog:

Students projects completed using Wordpress app to blog while in Costa Rica (check out the BIRDS project page):

http://pdsblogs.org/costarica/major-tax-projects/

Students use Explain Everything app to create review presentations and project/present to peers:

http://pdsblogs.org/derrickwillardblog/2011/10/30/students-explain-...

Student pages projects on invasive species and work with younger students:

http://pdsblogs.org/derrickwillardblog/2012/05/08/ipad-pages-projec...

Derrick Willard

Environmental Science Teacher

Providence Day School

[Anne M Beninghof]

I observed a wonderful lesson with first graders in Douglas County School District that used QR codes. The teacher created google docs that had  a math word problem at the top and at the bottom were directions to follow to find the next QR code. She then generated a QR code for each google doc and hung them on the walls around the building. First graders worked in pairs with one iPad. They would scan the QR code, figure out the answer to the math problem and record it, then have to follow the direction to find the next QR code. 

Anne Beninghof

www.ideasforeducators.com

[Melvina Kurashige]

Students use their iPads and the free app ScreenChomp to visualize their Japanese learning experience. Students use ScreenChomp to draw and record pictures, dialogues to help them remember their Japanese characters, expressions, etc. Students draw pictures and create visual mnemonics to help them remember the sound and what the Japanese characters look like... Students loved using their Creative expression and it really helped them and motivated them..they were able to remember all their Japanese characters!

We were also very fortunate to have a Graphic facilitator Nick Payne visit our class and introduced the power of visual thinking and learning with my classes.
Please look at this website to see examples and student responses and more info on my classes...

http://bit.ly/OfwltO

Aloha from Hawaii!
Melvina Kurashige
@mkurashige
Mid-Pacific Institite
www.midpac.edu