Ipod Touch Activities

Ipod Touches can be very beneficial to the students when used in the classroom.  Here are some activities you could do with students if you had ipod touches.
(I personally do not have ipod touches in my classroom, so I researched some ideas and found this great site that gave me these ideas:  http://www.ideastoinspire.co.uk/ipodtouch.htm)

1. Descriptions


Your ipod's would need to have at least on of the following apps. for your ipods:  martian app,  DressUpLite, PicBook, DoodleBuddy.


The students would create a picture using one of the apps above.  Then they show the picture to a classmate and that classmate has to orally describe the picture.  They could also write a description of the picture.  This activity helps ESL students especially when preparing for the ACCESS test.  It also helps your general ed. students become better at using adjectives and verbs in their speech and writing.  




2. Listening centers 


Ipod touches can be combined with a few attachments to make an ideal listening center.  There are so many downloadable books and even some reading programs come with the reading stories on CD that can easily be added to the ipods so that the students can listen to the stories. Listening to stories is an important part of improving students fluency.  

3.  Flash Card Generator

Apple has many apps that students can create their own flash cards.  One app for this is the gFlash+ app.  I would use this for students to review a subject or skill that has been taught.  This could be used as an informal evaluation.  Students could then quiz their classmates with the flash cards that they have created.

4.  Probability Experiments


For math, students could use the app iChoose which has coin tosses, dice, or cards that could be used for probability experiments.  Students would choose a coin and see how many times it lands on heads or tails.  This could help students to collect data and then they could represent their data in charts and graphs.  

Instructional Websites

My top instructional sites would have to be our Reading series site, Thinkcentral https://www-k6.thinkcentral.com/, Enchanted Learning http://www.enchantedlearning.com/Home.html, and BrianPop http://www.brainpop.com/

ThinkCentral is a site that goes with  our reading stories on line for the students to read and listen to.  It also provides many resources for the students and parents to use such as workbook pages.  We use it in whole group lessons and the students use it during centers.

Enchanted Learning is a site that I use for teacher resources, but it also provides many resources for students to use also.  Students can search many topics to find information and printables to do on the topic. They even have a wide range of dictionaries for studies to use.  One I use during my dinosaur unit is their Dinosaur Dictionary.

BrainPop is a site that you have to subscribe to, but it has many free resources for teachers and students also.  It has many animated video on Science, Social Studies, English, Math and other topics.  This videos are very cute and engage many of my students.  So many of our students are visual learners and comprehend better when things look like the video games they play all the time!

Baby News

Hey Everyone!  I just wanted to updated everyone on what we are having!  We found out Tuesday that my husband will be out numbered, because we are having a baby girl, Katherine Ryan Strickland!  :-)

We are so excited.  Since we have two nieces, 4 and 1, we will have many, many hand-me-downs!  I am not that much of a girly girl, so I am having to get used to the fact that there will be a lot of pink around!  

Just a side note on her name, we are using a "K" because both of our fathers names start with a "K" and my brother passed away in 2007 when a tornado hit our city's high school and his name was Ryan, so we decided to use Ryan as her middle name.

Web 2.0 Resources

After checking out many new Web 2.0 resources, I would recommend the following Web 2.0 resources:

Voki for Education
http://www.voki.com/

This resource allows you to create animated aviators that can speak.  You can change the character, background, and tell the character what to say by typing in a message or using a voice recording.  I think this is a great resource to have for blogs, class websites, or online social networking sites.  They are fun to get students interested in a topic or to have students create to share information.  I think that they are appropriate for all ages of students.  Lower elementary students may not be able to create their own, but teachers could use them with all ages.  Upper elementary to high school students could create their own Voki for projects.  This site could be used in all subject areas, specifically reading, social studies, science, and foreign languages.

and

Typing Web

http://www.go2web20.net/site/?a=TypingWeb

This is a new Web 2.0 resource to me.  I was impressed with the fact that it is a free typing site. I know that many of my students need help learning how to type.  I could have this site available during center time and to use at the computer lab.  I have been wanting to teach my students to type, but did not have a  program that I could put on all my computers and did not have the money to purchase such of a computer program.  I think this site is appropriate for all ages, even lower elementary.  The earlier we can teach them to type correctly, the better!  This site could be used for Reading centers, and during technology lessons.  Before long, I think that we will no longer have handwriting standards, but rather typing standards.  

What do you think about these sites?  

Multiple Intelligences

 After taking my multiple intelligences survey, I have found that my top three intelligences are body movement, social, and nature.  I am definitely a kinesthetic learner and like to do things that help my students that are also kinesthetic learners.  I am also very sociable and have always loved doing group projects.  Group projects are always fun for students.  It just can be very hard to manage for some teachers. Classroom management for these types of projects can be hard.   Also, not all students will do well with these types of projects, but I see them as being learning tools for them in many different aspects.  My last intelligence was kind of unexpected.  But thinking about it more and more, I really do like nature.   I like to do projects where I can take the kids outside and learn.  I don't personally get outside as much I would like to with my job, house work and graduate school, but when I do get out in the sunshine I feel wonderful!!!

When I think of using technology that addresses many types of intelligences, I think of the Nintendo Wii.  One game that I think that would address all three of my highest intelligences would be the game "SimAnimals: Africa".  This game is suitable for everyone and allows you to move your body to move the characters in the game, which is good for kinesthetic learners.  It involves nature which would intrigue the natural learner.  And game allows you to interact with other characters and many people can take turns playing the game which involves the social learning of children.

Another classroom idea that would involve all three of my highest intelligences would be to take a virtual field trip to locations you would not normally be able to go to.  Tramline (http://www.field-guides.com/) is a great site that has many different types of virtual field trips on all kinds of subjects!   You could also take your class on nature walk around the school, which involves the social, kinesthetic and nature learners.