March 2012 Blog Posts (9)

Beyond the changes in the educational  experience  South Kent School has seen due to eTextbooks and digital, paperless classrooms, the shift has helped the school move further into the sustainability movement.

When South Kent made the transition to eTextbooks in Fall 2011, the faculty had planned a slow transition to paperless homework, but instead was forced into it overnight.

"Under the guise of a software glitch,…

There’s no doubt that digital classrooms are the future, so when schools spend tens or hundreds of thousands of dollars on necessary technology, they want it to be an investment.

It’s comes as little surprise, then, that many schools see iPads above other tablets as the key to their digital curriculum’s success.

Evidence of the iPad’s power can be found in the number of sales. Between October and December 2011, Apple sold 15.4 million iPads, according…

One of the benefits of getting older is that you can reflect back on a time when things were done differently. Similarly, you can also clearly see when other things are essentially the same. Although the world around our schools is dramatically different, many of the pillars of our educational systems remain unchanged. Given the dramatic and accelerating transformation in the…

“Most of the basic material a writer works with is acquired before the age of fifteen.”-Willa Cather

This week, I stepped into the world of blogging on the iPads with my kindergartners. Through KidBlog students can blog in a safe and secure way. The website states “Kidblog’s simple, yet powerful tools…

Sorry, this isn't a blog post about boating in the beautiful Charleston area. The anchors I'm referring to are anchor charts.  

Anchor charts are valuable visual support tools to assist students in learning new concepts.  Teachers and students may refer to them all throughout the year.  When we are working on new content in our Reading and Writing Workshop mini lessons, anchor…

“The more you read, the more things you will know. The more that you learn, the more places you’ll go.” Dr. Seuss

I thought it was appropriate to start this post with a quote from Dr. Seuss as it is his birthday month.  There is nothing better than getting lost in a good book.  In fact, I’m often sad when I finish a book.  I miss the story and the characters.  As a teacher, I want to instill that love of reading into my students.

I’ve spent most of this school…

After completing an iPad trial with a year 10 Science class I came to the conclusion that while there are a number of reasonable subject specific apps (particularly for the primary school years), the greatest benefit of the iPad is in the management and organisation of educational life as a teacher or a student. The simple ability to have all of your textbooks on one device is just the beginning. There are many amazing apps such as Goodreader, Evernote, Audio Note, Noterize, Dropbox,…

Important update: May 6, 2012 - Mirror to your Windows PC as well

Shortly after the release of Relection a second mirroring solution called AirPlay was released - available at http://www.airserverapp.com/

Reflection and Airplay both allow mirroring of an iOS device to a Mac. Many site members had asked about a solution that would allow mirroring to a Windows PC. In its latest update, Airplay has now…