Spring Break – 21st Century Educator

The class was excited to get their Spring Break Gamis done today. They used the writing I had them do earlier in the week about their Spring Break, and then the new app I showed them called Tellegami (see previous post for more about Tellegami). They had a lot of fun customizing their Gamis and typing in their stories. It was interesting to observe them taking a closer look at their writing as they typed it into the app. They were correcting previously unnoticed mistakes (their writing had already been peer edited), and noticing when their typing wasn’t right as they listened to their Gamis read their work. We talked about the importance of punctuation and spacing when we are typing as we listened to Gamis that spoke too quickly (poor punctuation) and Gamis that whose pacing was nearly perfect (correct use of punctuation and spacing in their typing). Some of the students had drawn their own backgrounds and were excited to have their Gamis stand in front of their work. Unfortunately we did not get everyone to finish today due to limited technology and time, but those who did not have a chance today are encouraged to finish at home and email me (ruizmy@fusd.net) their Gami. I will also be giving time on Monday to those who could not finish today. The Gamis are shareable for parents that wish to share them with family as no private student information is revealed apart from their first names.

SPRING BREAK GAMI PLAYLIST

Enjoy!

Just before Spring Break I went to the CUE conference (CUE = Computer Using Educators). I have been to this conference before, but had taken some time off. I was so glad to be back. At CUE you learn a lot about what other teachers and schools are doing with technology in their classrooms.

Part of my time at CUE experience was spent in an iPad Academy, where we learned about some great apps to use with students. I introduced the class to two of those today.

One of the apps I shared was Tellegami. It has free and paid ($4.99) versions. The paid version gets you the full app with a few more backgrounds to choose from. Tellegami is a fun way to share stories and messages. Essentially the user customizes an avatar, selects a background (or uses one of their own) and can record their own voice or use one of the voices included in the app. I am having the class share their Spring Break stories this way and will share some of them when they are done. I encouraged the class to try this app at home if they have a tablet. Tellegami works on both Apple and Android tablets.

The other app I shared was Word Clouds (Apple only, though if you search “Word Cloud” in the Google Play store, the first app that comes up is very much like Word Clouds). With Word Clouds, students can make word art out of their writing. I will be having students type their stories into Word Cloud and creating word art to display in the classroom. I will share some of their work here as well as soon as they are done. Word Cloud is a free app.

The class was VERY excited to try these new apps and I did encourage them to try them at home if possible, as well as to email me what they create. As a reminder my email is ruizmy@fusd.net.

Enjoy!

Tag: Spring Break

Spring Break Gamis

New Apps!