Summer Teacher iPad/iPod Maintenence

Is your teacher iPad reaching it's limit of app space?  You have many photos of what's happened in your class this past year and you want to save those photos.  This post will walk you through some summer maintenance you can consider tending to on your teacher iPad.

Recover memory and clear off your photos.  We suggest transferring all your photos you want saved off the iPad onto your computer.  I put them in a folder by the year, so I can always go back and find a picture taken during a particular year.  Once all your photos are safe on your computer, delete them off the iPad.  Except maybe the few favorites you use to share with others or as you background.  Key word there is few.

I would delete all apps that are classroom curriculum related, then put back (apps store purchased area) the ones you know you'll use in the fall.  How many apps on the teacher iPad are in the "I'm trying it out mode" but you really don't use them often?  Don't put those apps back. This actually might be a better task to complete in mid-August after you've inundated your iPad with additional trial apps throughout June and July.

You may be thinking "but then I have to jump through all the hoops to start apps I use often again and I have it just the way I want".  I find that is a good thing, because most of your kids will be jumping through those hoops in the fall, so this keeps your experiences sharp and ready to share with your class.

Next, clear out browsing data that has accumulated over the year.  To do this go into Settings - Safari - and Clear History along with Cookies and Data.  Note, if you clear cookies your passwords will need to be re-entered.  Which as a good thing will cause you to revisit and remember them.

A tip to speed up your iPad is spotlight searching.  Go into Settings - General - Spotlight Search and turn off all items you don't want to search through when using Spotlight Search.  Since I typically use spotlight search to find an app, I have all other searches turned off so finding an app becomes much quicker.


Finally, don't forget to take an iPad with you as a teacher for the summer.  Keep connected with your PLN finding new ideas from Pinterest, Twitter, or Flipboard.  Is there a better way to familiarize yourself with story telling apps on an iPad than to take photos of your vacation experiences and create digital stories? 

Summer iPad/iPod Center Maintenence

In our region school is dismissing for summer break leaving teachers with about 7-8 weeks of time to relax then re-energize. What does this mean for iDevice centers?

After using an iPod or iPad center for a year, many apps have retained data you will want to clear out and begin anew for next fall.  Examples include math practice apps which keep a record of which level you have reached as you play, apps associated with student logins to cloud services, or digital story telling apps with dozens of student authored experiences.

Larger districts have mobile device management (MDM) systems that work well, but if you are a small rural district with one or two centers, using the iPad reset and rebuild doesn't take up that much additional time and effort.

Here is how we go about our summer maintenance of iDevice centers.

1. We back up any stories and photos we want saved off an iDevice to a cloud service, like Dropbox or Google Drive.
2. Reset the iPad to "new" by going into Settings - General - Reset - Erase All Content and Settings
3. If you have a base restore image, you can restore to that image, other wise just restore as a brand new iDevice.  
4. Enable auto download of apps and the use of Find my iPad/iPhone; along with other settings you find necessary for your iDevice Center
5. From the Apps purchased, select apps you want back on the iDevice.

As you put apps back on the iDevice for the fall, remember a great strategy is to NOT put on all the apps to start the year.  We recommend creating a list of must have apps, then a list of apps to gradually bring back throughout the year aligned with your curriculum.  Every so often students will notice a new app, and instinctively begin exploring the ins and outs of this new find.

If you enjoy working with digital storytelling, there are so many great apps to support that activity that you can begin the fall with 1-3 apps, then bring back a couple of new ones throughout the year.  This mixed in with new apps you find will always provide motivating learning experiences for your kids.

McLoughlin High School iPad Training - Creating Lock Screen Photo

Objective: To use a photo editing app and create a lock screen wallpaper

Apps to use - Phonto




Question to ponder: How can you incorporate text on photos in your lessons?





Steps to take

Sharing button

• Obtain an image into your photo library
• Import image into Phonto
• Add text, format text
• Save the image to your camera roll by using the Share Button
• Inside camera roll, find saved photo, share it as wallpaper

Code Squad : A Multiplayer Math App for Basic Skills Review

iPad's are becoming a great tool for the classroom though very few classrooms have the luxury of being able to sustain a 1-1 program.  Thus teachers are often asking if there are multiplayer apps available.


Code Squad ($0.99) is a great multiplayer app available to practice math computational facts.  The app focuses on the team's success to move from level to level, while keeping track of individual progress.



When you begin playing the game, you are asked what operations to practice; addition, subtraction, multiplication, division, or a combination of the four.  The next question is to select the level; easy, medium, or difficult. Then the practice begins.  Below is an example of the easy level for mixed multiplication and division.

 

If a player knows the answer, they key it in and hit enter.  As you can see Agent 4 has 3 errors in the image, thus once agent 4 makes his 5th error the keyboard will be disabled and no longer can they answer any more questions.  As a team all the problems must be answered correctly in a given time limit to move on.  Currently this group has many more red problems to answer.

When complete, the app will reveal how many each agent answered correctly, and if you are successful you will move onto the next level.

Math Manga High is now iPad Compatible

Often times teachers comment, "iPads are wonderful, but they can't do ..." and usually referring to a flash based online resource.  Math Manga High, an online math teaching resource, recently completed an overhaul so that their entire website can now be viewed on an iPad.

If you have not peered into Math Manga High, you need to check it out and give it a try.  This is a math resource offering practice to students in a gaming environment, thus students are highly motivated to continue playing.


There are two types of games available from Math Manga High. The first type are called Prodigi's, which allow students to work through a series of questions aligned with a particular selected Common Core Standard.  Math Manga High has started adding curriculum aligned to High School CCSS.

 

 

These questions are adaptive and progress through the material based on how a student answers.

 

Once the game is completed, points are awarded.  Teachers can set a goal for students to achieve Bronze, Silver, or Gold medal status. Students keep playing the game (answering additional questions) to earn more points.  Also,  as the student plays a second, third, ..., tenth time the questions continue to adapt, with the objective to reach Hard and Extreme level of questions.

There are also several themed games available for practice.  Such as Ice Ice Maybe, where a student practices estimation skills with the objective to get Penguins from one island to another.

Teachers should assign student logins for all their kids, so Math Manga High can assist in data collection for the teacher.  Individual game stats are recorded, as well as student growth data.

Try Math Manga High, your students will be so motivated that they will continue playing math games at home.

Educreations Update

Educreations, a great screen casting app, came out with an update earlier this week.  This update includes an eraser, with the nice option of erasing various items.  For instance, you can use the eraser for annotations, clear the page, clear all annotations, and even clear recording.

In the past, a person would set their pages the way they wanted for the screencast with images and annotations.  If the recording contained too many glitches, the entire project had to be a re-do, including all the graphics. 

Now the question, when will educreations allow us to work on multiple screen casts at the same time?

McLoughlin High School iPad Training

Objective: To explore various categories of implementing an iPad into a High School Classroom/Curriculum.


URL:  http://ideviceinthemtns.blogspot.com/
After you get to the website, click the Share It button and "Add to Homescreen"

Screen Casting / Video Libraries

• Baiboard - A screen casting app that allows you to share via IP address with browser
• Educreations - A screen casting app that allows you to record a lesson as a video
• Khan  Academy - A video resource using screen casting as the medium for videos.  Note there is an app
• MathTV - A video resource on people showing how to solve particular math problems
• Hippocampus - A video resource supporting Math, Science, and Social Science
• Knowmia - A collection of screen casting videos by teachers.  Note there is an app.

 Finding More Information

• iDeviceinthemtns  - Our blog covering iPad resources
• Flipboard - A social media magazine, you can create your own
• Twitter Feeds #ipaded, #edtech 

 Apps as tools - these apps do not include feedback

• My Script Calculator - A calculator that interprets your handwritten expressions
• GeometryPad - A Geometry exploration tool
• Edmodo - A classroom management tool
• Total Recall - A concept mapping tool
• Class DoJo - A classroom behavior management tool
• Chrome - An alternative browser to Safari

Apps as practice/intervention activities - these apps do provide feedback

• 5 Dice - Roll 5 dice and use operations to equal a target numbers
• Adventure Ball - Different physics based games, level based
• Quizlet  - Create your own flashcards

 Story Telling

• 30 Hands - Use pictures and annotate to create your story
• Loopster - A high end movie making app, free
• HaikuDeck - Create a slide show like powerpoint, and encourages images versus words