Apps and the Ways RJ Teachers are Using Them, Pt. 1

Sharing the way others at Jesuit schools throughout North America have incorporated Apps into their instruction leaves an impression that they (these other professionals at other schools) have it all figured out. Maybe you feel, "I don't," or "Regis Jesuit doesn't." As mentioned in the Technology Vision post, as well as the "Where are you on the Education Continuum?" post, our colleagues at RJ are doing amazing things ALREADY with their iPads in instruction.  And, if we are to succeed, we have to help one another in a spirit of risk and humor tied to a professional drive to increase learning.  To foster this, I will occasionally, as I hear about them, post ways our teachers are using their iPads in the classroom.  Here are a few:

Candace Busselmeier

"I use Explain Everything (click here to open in the AppStore) for my video lessons.  I track all classroom participation with Class Dojo (click here to open in the AppStore).  When kids are working in class, I use Talkboard (click here to open in the AppStore) to demonstrate problems.  I have also used Nearpod (click here to open in the AppStore) for assessments.  I love that one because I can have kids actually write on it on the ipad and submit it to me, then I can review it and grade it."

Dustin Dvorak

"For my classes I use Explain Everything (click here to open in the AppStore) quite a bit to create either mini lesson or review lessons for before the test that use to study.  I use NameSelector (will open in the AppStore) to do short reviews before we start class (I ask questions to the student whose name is chosen at random.  If they get it wrong I immediately ask the same question to the next student whose name is chosen). I use Class Dojo (click here to open in the AppStore) to keep track of a participation grade when they are working individually and in groups.  I've also used Ubersense (click here to open in the AppStore) and Video Physics (click here to open in the AppStore) to do some slow motion analysis of things in motion but that is more science specific stuff."

Andrew Carroll

"I have been using EduCreations (click here to open in the AppStore) to create videos about noun and verb endings, but got a great idea to use it also for sentence diagraming this weekend."

Personal Note
If you would like to share lesson plans or other ideas you have, please let me know.  You can become a guest blogger on the site, or just send me your idea in an email and I'll post it like I did above.

Note on Two of the Apps Mentioned Above
Explain Everything allows you to create presentations on your iPad.  You create slides (if you have presentations in PDF format, you can import them) and then record your presentation slide by slide. After you have recorded all of them, it will compile all the slides and your recording together into a single video file that you can upload to YouTube or other sharing platforms.  The advantage over EduCreations (basically the same thing but free) is 1. with single slide recording mistakes in recordings are limited to a slide vs. the whole presentation; and 2. you can upload to YouTube or others whereas Educreations posts it on their site and you direct students to their link.

I personally use Class Dojo and find it to be the first time I've understood how participation can be documented and a valid aspect of the grade.  For instance, I can actually bring up a report on any student and state by date which accuracy examples and instances of when a student has been a positive or negative influence in the class.  Further, it is free!