iPads and Professional Development

Why in the world did it take me until my third year of teaching to figure out what grant writing is and what you can do with it? Not only was I totally out of the loop with grant writing, but I also had ZERO idea that our school system had a foundation that had fall and spring grant rounds every single school year! I am sure this is something that was mentioned during my first year of teaching, but honestly, I was just focused on surviving and figuring out how to use the copy and fax machine at that point! After my first year of teaching, our school got a set of iPods that could be checked out into the classrooms. Where did they come from? Someone wrote a grant! I was amazed that you could write a grant, get picked, and they give you money for exactly what you want! So when this year began, I had a goal: Write a grant for something that will empower and serve as a resource for my students. Kinda vague huh? Gotta start somewhere! I tossed around the idea of Kindles, Nooks, and iPads. I really wanted something that could serve as a tool for my students, especially those struggling readers. After much research, I settled on the iPad. I am getting an Apple TV in my room next school year, so it only made sense to go this route. I ended up writing a grant for 3 iPads and was awarded funding for not 3, but 4 iPads. Luckily, I wrote my grant before the iPad2 came out, making the original iPad $100 cheaper and thus, giving me the funding for 4 iPads! My iPads arrived with two weeks left before the end of the year but I really wanted to wait until next school year to introduce them to the students. I wanted to have time to figure out how I wanted to use them and I wanted to educate the students on how to use them. Ha yeah right....When four iPads show up in your room, it is every bit of IMPOSSIBLE not to get them out. Especially when my little kiddos were freaking out that "WE HAVE IPADS!" They lasted every bit of two minutes in the box before I got them out and began sharing them with the kids. We used them pretty much everyday until the end of the year. I am beyond excited to implement these full force in the resource program at my school next year! I have been using a good amount of my summer setting up the iPads and learning about the possibilities they bring to the classroom!

Here are some of my students doing a word work activity using the app Bluster (McGraw Hill Companies). It has levels for second, third and fourth grade. It has a single player setting, a versus setting, and a team setting. Above my students are using the versus setting to race each other. They have to find groups of words that go together. It has skills such as prefixes/suffixes, root words, rhyming words, homophones, adjectives and synonyms. I love this app because it was FREE and because more than one student can play at a time! They loved it too :)

On Monday, I attended an iPossibilities conference at Center Grove High School. Center Grove Schools were awarded a $200,000 grant from DOE to implement iPads into their kindergarten, special education and ENL classrooms. Their kindergarten classrooms had 1:1 iPads for their students. Ahhh how awesome that would be :) All the kindergarten, special education, and ENL teachers received a personal iPad as well. The catch...at the end of the year, they had to present at the iPossibilities conference this summer! Woo hoo! The conference was completely FREE and they even served a FREE breakfast and lunch. Of course people were going to go, free food! Aside from the fact that everything was free, the conference was very informing and got me even more motivated and excited to begin implementing the iPads with my students next year. There were many different sessions you could sign up for when you registered for the conference. They had sessions pertaining to special education, ENL, administration, digital content, ASD, parents, etc. I signed up for things that pertained to special education, obviously. I downloaded an unreal amount of apps that are AMAZING! My favorite app was a FREE app called Scribble Press. If you have an iPad and are a teacher, then you need to download this app ASAP. It is great for all types of students! It is literally a digital book. Students can create and write their own stories and publish them! Once they are complete, they can be printed or emailed.

Here is what a finished page looks like. You can add stickers, TAKE A REAL PICTURE, or draw a picture! I love the fact that there is a camera right on the page you are working on and you can zap a quick pic, right there!

This is what the blank page looks like before you start creating!

This feature is one that I think will be HUGE for my special education students and reluctant writers. It gives you several pre-made, fill in the blank stories. If a student is struggling, they can pick a topic to write about and then use the template to create their story. Once they fill in the blanks, their text is created and they begin illustrating! There is so much that could be down with these templates! It would be a great way to model and introduce writing and would be a great way to teach adding details! LOVE IT!

The app also gives a whole database of stories that have been created by people all over the world. The books could be used to also help students get ideas for writing or could be used as just another book to read! Either way...the app is awesome and is at the top of my list right now. Certainly will be something I will use often!

It wouldn't be summer without country concerts! Last Friday night, some friends and I attended the Miranda Lambert concert. It was a gorgeous, perfect summer night and Miranda was fabulous. I love her and her pink microphone. Most importantly, I got to wear my cowboy boots I got for Christmas. I complained that I REALLY needed these boots for a good two months and because he knew it would never end until I had a pair,  my ever so wonderful boyfriend pulled through and bought them for me (only for my mom to ask to buy them from him to give to me). Gotta love that woman, she's equally as awesome! I am looking forward to June 24th when I can wear them again to Lady Antebellum! Nothing makes summer more complete than country concerts, with great friends :)

Enjoy the sunshine today! Hopefully it is as nice where you are, as it is here in Indiana today! Sunny and 82 degrees :)