Tuesday 9 December 2014

Getting started with Scratch Jr on the iPad

Recently MIT released Scratch Jr for the iPad, which is a great platform to introduce younger students to the ideas behind Scratch, which is widely used in upper elementary and middle school for game creation and so much more.

For the week of Code, I am using Scratch Jr in our lower elementary classes and created this presentation that you can use in your classroom to get started with the program.

Here are some links to presentations that will help get you started:

Teacher presentation to introduce Scratch Jr

Video presentation that you can simply play for students

Here are the challenge sheets that I used with the kids


Saturday 27 September 2014

Sharing Student Made iBooks from the iPad

Using apps like Book Creator is a great way to get kids creating their own content, but it is not always easy to share these home to parents.

To help out with this I am sharing the method I use with my classes, incorporating Google Drive and a simple link sent home to parents. The following two videos go through the steps for a teacher to set up the process, and the second tells parents what they need to do when they receive the link in their email.





Tuesday 2 September 2014

Starting out with Digital Citizenship in the early years

As we come back to school and start out with our respective technology programs, a very important part of that program is to ensure that we cover digital citizenship.

My school has a 1:1 iPad program from 1st grade onwards, so our first lessons with the students are really focused on that digital citizenship piece. To start out we keep it very simple, but stress the importance of some simple rules that will help keep students safe online, our equipment in one piece and forms the basis of our acceptable use agreement.

Below are the 5 simple rules that we have adopted in first and second grade with all classes. It's a simple set of rules, but has enough flexibility to cover almost any situation that may come up in class. This poster was originally by Kelli Buxton in my team and has been well received by teachers and students alike. 

We have put a copy of this poster on the cupboard or trolley where the iPads are stored so it can be referred to if necessary.