Love this and just wanted to share...

Bro moves home to VT! Behind on iPad challenges...:o(

So it has been one heck of a busy week for me! I am behind on iPad 'homework' for this week but I did teach my first iPad app lesson...kinda. My brother and his wife are moving home to VT next week (yay!) from California and I taught my sister to use the pic collage app to make a fun collage for them. We found their neighborhood in Laguna Niguel, CA in Stuck On Earth, took a picture of it and then did the same for their new home in Swanton, VT. Then used Photoshop to draw the heart and 'borrowed' a picture from Mark's Facebook page to finish it off. Cute, huh!? Quite different neighborhoods, wouldn't you say? We sent the final result to both of their Facebook walls and they were thrilled with it. My sis doesn't have an iPad yet and fears that she'll become as addicted to it as I am! Heehee. She is a reading specialist also and would love to use in her work with students and teachers.

Storyrobe Digital Story/My Trip to Naples, Florida

I am attempting to email my story robe video to my blog. I hope it works. I found this tool to be user friendly. I tried using it without reading the tutorial. I wanted to see how a student might feel if he/she attempted to navigate story robe without help. The only real issue that I had was figuring out how to edit my voice recording without having to record the entire thing over again. I'm sure there are other issues I will run into as I play with it but this first experience was a pretty good one.

Hey, check out this video I created using Storyrobe, a digital storytelling application now available on your iPhone or iPod Touch.

http://app.storyrobe.com/tmp/phpls55mv-7_20_12.mp4

Visit iTunes and buy it today http://itunes.com/apps/storyrobe


Sent from my iPad

Sharing a story with you

Wow! This a terrific tool for composing a story!  Authors compose, illustrate and read using their own language and ideas to create authentic texts that are easily shared with whomever they wish.  Now this what I'm talking' about!  Our students will love this, and so will we.  The sky is the limit with this app for learning and monitoring that learning.  Genre structure/feature studies, story grammar, concepts about print, vocabulary, g.u.m, sequencing, character development, spelling application,... You name it, we can cover it using this tool. 

This is a story shared with you by the StoryKit iPhone application.

Click here to read the story.

Sent from my iPad

Check out my Scribble Press book: The Craziest Dream

This was fun! And VERY timely (take a looking at my reflection from last week). The only thing that concerns me is the ability to erase over and over again. Perfectionists may have a difficult time leaving a drawing/page a move on. I could have spent hours on this story. .....I want to make one with photos next.

Check out my Scribble Press book: The Craziest Dream:

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


Sent from my iPad

Dictation w/PS Express & Pic Collage

Here is a shot of my dictation experiment. I love combining the apps that we are becoming familiar with. I am finding that creating takes very little time, especially the more fluent I become. There is huge potential here for our students to move quickly from project to project...discovery to discovery. We can cover a whole lot more in a short amount of time due to the efficiency of these apps!

Talking Pictures Challenge

This first week of challenges was great fun. I was very excited to use my own photos, things that are meaningful to me, to create visual texts/stories. As I began reading through the material on visual literacy I immediately began to realize that my 'old school' definitions for terms like 'text' are in need of a face-lift. My gutt response to the definition of visual text as "anything from diagram to documentary" sent me on a google search for the definition of text. This is what I found...http://www.answers.com/topic/text. The gist of this is that my reading teacher understanding of what text is (the printed word) needs augmenting to fit into 21st century education. I'm very glad to know this! In regard to the challenges this week, I am VERY excited to use all of these visual tools with students. My reading students have always created hand-made books using their own language, drawings, stickers, and handwriting. These original books are meaningful and motivating for my early and struggling readers. This past school year my students used digital cameras to take photos for illustrating their books...I thought this was a big step into the 21st century! Well now, it seems that there are LOTS more tools out there for my kids to use in text creation and I can't wait to give them access to them! Pictures With Text and Pic Collage are two tools that I believe are very easy to use, will foster independence and empower students. I look forward to discovering more!

Try this video preview quiz! :o)

Created using Pic Collage. http://pic-collage.com

I'm in the process of using photo shop, pics with words and animoto to show you one of my summer projects.  Can you guess what it is?!  Stay tuned for the story...

Sent from my iPad

Digging deeper...

Created using Pic Collage. http://pic-collage.com

I began this collage just by choosing a picture from our first day of class (our picture/video treasure hunt). Then I started playing with the color on photo shop.  The result is this study in color.  I'm not much of an artist but pic collage and photo shop makes me feel more like one!

Sent from my iPad

Challenge Part 2a. :o)

Check out this video I made with Animoto: Smile

Sent from my iPad

Challenge Part 1c...last one for now!

Challenge Part 1b

Challenge Part 1a

Cutie Pututie!

Video email attempt

This is Frank demonstrating 'movement' during our treasure hunt on our first day of class. Heehee. Hope this works. First try emailing video.

Project Pam

This week my exploration with my iPad has turned inward. I won't bore you with all of the details but...at the end of this school year I promised myself that I would work on improving my health. This year especially I noticed my energy level & stamina were low and I felt 'yucky' ( for lack of a better term). It was harder than ever to keep up with my students! So 'Project Pam' had to begin this summer. Well, lucky for me this iPad is exactly what I needed to get started. I spent last weekend exploring various websites with tools for tracking health goals. After hours of browsing, I decided on Livestrong.com. It is affiliated with the Lance Armstrong Foundation (minus the performance enhancing "supplements"). It is a phenomenal site with too many features to include in this blog. I have tracked my activity, water & food intake for 5 days successfully AND easily due to the portability and friendliness of my iPad. I bring it to the grocery store, on day trips,...basically anywhere. I record everything and don't miss a beat! Now, my next experiment is to compare the Livestrong website to the Livestrong app for iPad. I have downloaded the free Livestrong 'Lite' app and used it for a day or 2. It is less extensive and pretty but very functional. There is an upgrade for $2.99 that I may try if I can tear myself away from the website! Oh-ps- a friend of mine is doing this with me and we are communicating our triumphs and challenges using our iPads. So cool. I hope everyone has had a great July 4th week!