Inspiring Lesson Plans

Posted on July 9, 2015 by bwcallah under Lesson Plans, Reflections

The above pictures represent some of the lesson plan ideas set down by the Apple Educators. My impression was that these lesson plans are a great jumping platform that can help educators form lesson plans. The ones I took a look at were centered around Africa and then also leadership. One was very specific touching only one part of the world, Africa, the other touched on a more abstract issue which got my gears turning. Being The Change looked at specific people such as former United States President Jimmy Carter. The lessons in this section breakdown these people and what makes them a good leader and a force of change. Its the breakdown that has captured my attention. The traits of a good leader vary and it is important to teach students that point. As I said these lesson jumping points are put down by some of the best educators. Here is an article describing these educators.

Using Apps in the Classroom: Aurasma

Posted on July 9, 2015 by bwcallah under App Reviews

For this post I took a good look at Aurasma, which is a augmented reality app. So here is the thing this app is awesome, no question about it. Augmented reality! How cool? Its free to download on both Apple and Android. What it does is you can set an image to be ‘interactive’ in a way. Once the teacher has their image they can set up a little video to play when the student scans the image with the Aurasma app. How cool is that?! This app would be perfect for a station based classroom activity or if you flip it a very cool way for a student to present a project. For myself I see it as a very cool way to set up a assignment. I would set up Aurasma stations around the room each station would be a historic figure(Gilgamesh, the Ceasers, JFK ect.). The students would use the Aurasma app to learn about a set of important historic figures. After using the app they would then build a project around that particular figure. Thats just one idea but I wanted to write it down. The app has several uses of course but I leave that up to you. Check out the Aurasma website I liked above and see it for yourself. As you can probably tell Aurasma gets my seal of approval!

One Best Thing: Feedback

Posted on July 9, 2015 by bwcallah under Review

This week I had the opportunity to read one of many books put out by One Best Thing. One Best Thing is dedicated to improving the classroom with technology, more specifically Apple technology. So, all books put out by One Best Thing are free on the iBook store and I chose the book on Feedback. I love feedback about my work and I think feedback is a great motivator especially if you have the gift to make any feedback sound positive but not patronizing. This book, Feedback, talks about three apps called Showbie, Explain Everything and Notability. Each app is built a completely different way but they all can serve the same purpose, give feedback. Showbie(linked above) is by far the coolest, it allows you to take assignments and grade them either by students sending your the work electronically or you can take a picture of written work! What a great tool for providing feedback to students asap.Along with all that Showbie can take the assignments and then you can open them up in the next two apps through Showbie. Next is Explain Everything(linked above) this app gives you the ability to give students verbal feedback electronically. You record your voice whilst also correcting a assignment or a test. So, your voice goes along with the corrections you have put on the paper. Awesome!! This is great if a student or parent likes to know why a grade was given rather than making a phone call or having to do a face to face meeting you can provide a great explanation for the corrections. The name makes sense now huh!? Lastly, Notability(again the link mate) which is less notable than the rest(get it?!). Not that its bad but it just less impressive. You can mark up a paper just like Showbie except in finer detail. Also, it has amazing organization tools! YAY! You can organize by class or category or whatever.

THE BOOK

The book is short and sweet getting right to the meat of apps it wants to show you. The book about Feedback just opened my eyes to three great apps. If you get a chance check out the books by One Best Thing and get on them apps. Now if you will excuse me I have three apps to download but before I forget One Best Thing gets my seal of approval.

254 pins! By the gods!

Posted on July 9, 2015 by bwcallah under App Reviews

I hit a mile stone with 254 pins on Pinterest! I will admit I did not enjoy it but alas I did it . I have a hatred towards social media and I did not see the true point of Pinterest until I encountered it. I see its use now and it led me to see some interesting blogs. So sadly I will give Pinterest my seal of approval.

Week 7 Blog Reflection: The Tutor House

Posted on July 9, 2015 by bwcallah under Reflections

Behold, a blog dedicated to the trade of working one-on-one with a student, its called The Tutor House. Now, this isn’t a site about a teacher or apps in the class room but it has some insight into working with individual needs of a student. So, the reason I picked this blog is because as a teacher we will need to be able to work with a students unique needs. Also, it is good for a teacher to have these tricks up their sleeves because a teacher will have para-professionals working with them who could benefit from these skills. A trade mark of a good educator is not just improving the students but those around them including their peers. I came across this blog on Pinterest under a post titled ‘6ways to teach Distracted students‘. This blog has earned my seal of approval.

Apps For Story Telling

Posted on July 8, 2015 by bwcallah under Reflections, Uncategorized

I am very excited to talk about this app, the app is called Adobe Slate (link). I found this app to be a joy to use and also its free. Like a lot of people I tried it out and made a little presentation about the Roman general Belisarius . The app is really easy to figure out pick a subject and some images then your on your way to a very cool presentation. I can see this as a great class room tool. This app was tested and it has earned my seal of approval twice over.

Interactive Whiteboard & Screencasting, My First Screencast

Posted on July 7, 2015 by bwcallah under Uncategorized

Week 10 Reflection, Tech Edge in the Classroom

Posted on June 24, 2015 by bwcallah under Reflections, Uncategorized

For this reflection I chose three apps that were highlighted in the Education podcast Tech Edge. I chose to look at three videos that highlighted history, science and reading. Each video displayed at least four apps that could be used in the classroom. First, I watched the history Tech video and the app I selected unoriginally was the History Channel app. The app is free and is just another way to access the History Channel shows like Vikings but it has a cool little feature that shows you various shows or just general info about times in history. The app has several episodes that cover everything from the Neolithic era to the war in Iraq. Be on your toes if you just turn the app over to your students you may look over their shoulders and find them watching the newest episode of Swamp People rather that your chosen video. Next up is science, the reason I chose science is simply because science is AWESOME. I was also pumped to see that Tech Edge highlighted the Cosmos (free) app. The app features episode guides and tidbits of info either not covered by the show or these tidbits condense the info the show covers. I think this app would be great to use if a teacher showed his/her students episodes of the show and work right along with the show by using the app.

Last but not least is the Tech Edge video on reading. I chose reading do to the fact that I think becoming a skilled reader is one of the most important attributes we can give students. The app I want to highlight can be used by any teach for any subject not just a reading class. After all its a CORE skill that must be displayed in all content areas and this app is a great way to do that. The app is called icardsort (free)and as the image above shows its a matching/sorting game that puts ‘flash cards’ on field that need to be sorted. The Tech Edge video linked above shows how the cards can be matched up if the rhyme. How cool is that!!! So for this week Tech Edge and the apps that I chose to highlight get my seal of approval.

Week 4 Blog reflection: Apps in Education

Posted on June 16, 2015 by bwcallah under Uncategorized

Apps in Education is a great template for any up and coming blogger. The lay out is clean and simple making it very easy to navigate. Other than its appearance this blog contains some very cool features like a easy to click Google plus members section. This gives it easy connectivity which is key in today’s world.

Also, this blog features easy navigation with all the available tabs just across the top making it simple to get around to what you want. Some of these tabs are things I have seen on other sites but this blog has some more detailed subsections. My only problem with this blog is that it only features sections revolving around ipads. All in all Apps in Education has earned my seal of approval.

Reflection: comics in the classroom

Posted on June 9, 2015 by bwcallah under Reflections

Comics in the Classroom is a free app that allows the user to travel through a historical event/time. I love a lot of things and two of those things are history and comics. The above comic took me through the Barons Rebellion and discuss Henry II reaction. The reason I chose this particular app is the fact that the comics it has in stock captured my attention right away. As you can see the comics are short and sweet and I can see them being a great way to start a unit. Rather than a starting point the comics could just be used to emphasize a particular event. All in all Comics in the Classroom gets my seal of approval!

BC teach

if it bleeds, we can teach it.