GAIN Performance Record - Sites

My Classroom site is: https://sites.google.com/site/andersonclass2014/

I updated the classroom announcements with a few fake entries and included a calendar that displays these events. I also worked a bit on the reading list. Both can be found under the corresponding links.

Using Sites was definitely interesting and somewhat hard to understand at times. The instructions for changing the calendar were very difficult to understand and at one point I deleted the calendar all together with no idea how to get it back. Fortunately, after a bit of work I was able to bring in the calendar I had created.

Overall, it would take a good bit of work to get the website up and running, but once you do, it seems as though it has pretty easy maintenance and would be a great way to interact with parents and students, and have them interact with you. I'm sure it would be well worth the time.

GAIN Performance Spreadsheet - Forms

Quiz: http://dft.ba/-SarasQuiz
Answers Spreadsheet: http://dft.ba/-AnswersSpreadsheet

It's easy to see how Forms can be used to quiz students on any subject from the Common Core. You can easily make a quiz and see exactly which students did understand the lesson and which parts may need to be reviewed.

However, I hadn't considered how teachers could use this to obtain parent's contact information or survey other teachers. It's interesting all the ways teachers could use Forms to help aid their classrooms.

TECH Performance Record - Disciplines in Education

ESOL
Spellboard - This app was very interesting to me. Not only will the student see the word, but they will hear it (and hear it used in a sentence), practice writing it and can practice saying back. I like the use of the quizzes to see how each child is doing and what words they may need help with and the option of emailing the results to parents keeps them involved in their child's learning.

Mathematics
MathBoard - I liked that the app provided a quiz like game that not only included simple equations like addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division but also included square roots and squares, and lets you intermix all of them together. I also like the timed feature. Students could be challenged to take their time (f they rush through) or beat their time as needed. You could even do a challenge to see who can answer the most amount of questions correctly in a certain amount of time. Again it gives teachers a way to see what their students are struggling with.

Sketchpad Explorer - I didn't get to interact with this app as much as I had liked. However, the video showed a lot of good uses of the app. The ability to plot graphs and slopes right before you instead of on a whiteboard or in a text book is a great way to keep students interacting with the lesson. The ability to see the 3D images plotted on the graph is definitely great as that can be extremely confusing on a 2D piece of paper. Also there is a definite plus in that students would not have to purchase a graphing calculator.

Music
Beatwave - This app does a good job of having students interact with music. Students could interact with this and come up with their own beats and songs very easily. It teaches about timing, beats, instruments, tempo and pitch in a fun and interactive way. I could definitely see this being a great teaching tool.

Piano Free - I have a similar app to this on my phone and I love it. I had never considered using it in a classroom but I could definitely see the benefits. Students could simply interact with a standard piano (like many other piano apps) and get to know the keyboard, or they could play some of their favorite songs with the other side of the app. This app does a great job of teaching students timing and getting a general feel for a piano with a fun game that I, myself enjoy playing. The only downside is that there are limited amounts of free songs and other, more popular songs would have to be purchased.

GAIN Performance Record - Spreadsheets

The link to my Grade Book: http://dft.ba/-sarasgradebook

I found the experiences of using Google Spreadsheets to be very similar, if not more simple, than using Microsoft Excel. I know that my familiarity with Excel tremendously helped me with knowing how to use Spreadsheets, but they do not seem to differ from one another, other than the general Cloud and shared editing of other Google apps.

I agree with what Graham says, Spreadsheets can be used in Common Core, especially in Mathematics. I had never considered that Spreadsheets use of graphs, tablets, and charts could help students understand history, science, and behavior lessons.

Spreadsheets is a good way to show students not only how math works but how it can be done proficiently. Students can easily use spreadsheets to make bars & graphs instead of spending hours hand-drawing them.

Through the use of Spreadsheets, students can learn how to read and create graphs, tables, charts, and make them easily, as well as learning how math functions work and how to do them efficiently.

TECH Performance Record - iPad Basics

1. Of the 3 iWorks Applications I chose to take a look at Numbers.
Similarities:

• Main Functions - adding cells, assigning formulas to cells, changing cells
• Graphs and charts can be added to both.
• In the end the two spreadsheets would look basically the same and would have the same results. 

Differences:

• Inputting information & overall function seems to go a bit smoother with Numbers.  
• Numbers seems to be a bit less visually cluttered than Excel. 

iPad's influence: The use of touch screen severely benefits the use of Numbers. Instead of having to point & click and add information, the functions are literally at your fingertip.

3. iBooks vs. Kindle Apps
Similarities:

• Cloud feature
• Many similar features: Bookcase, zooming, reading, bookmarking
  
• General Usage - If you were familiar with one, navigation on the other should not be difficult. 

Differences:

•  The Collections on the iBooks App - I like this feature in that you could easily sort the iBooks by subject, age group, or user in different collections.
• Sample must be downloaded on iBooks. Kindle provides a look inside the cover in addition to downloading a sample.

 Preference: My preference would lie with Kindle simply because I own an Android phone and a Windows laptop & tablet, which do not lend themselves to downloading iBooks. However, if given the option to download either, I may prefer iBooks for it's Collections and books with more features, because of these features, iBooks would probably be better for a school setting, especially if they had iPads.

4. Safari vs. Rover
Similarities:

• Cloud capabilities
• General functions: searching, web browsing

Differences:

• Use of Flash & Java, Rover allows the use of Flash whereas Safari is not capable
• Rover is specifically designed to be used in Education, and has safe browsing features

Preference: I particularly liked the "Reader" & "Reading List" options on Safari and could see them being useful in a school setting. Rover, however, because all searches go through it, uses a lot of data, which can be quite costly. I would suggest using Chrome, as shown in the video, if at all possible.

TECH Performance Record - Tablets in Education

Uses of iPad in Education

What Will It Take for iPads to Upend Teaching & Learning?

• By using technology students will have the opportunity to take ownership of their own learning. This seems as a definite positive, however, what about students that are not self-motivated. How will we ensure that they will succeed just as much as the self-motivators?

• I liked Schwartz's explanation "for the most part, students aren’t doing anything on the iPad that they can’t do with pen and paper, although admittedly it’s much faster and more efficient to use the iPad. Instead of working on a paper worksheet, they’re filling out a digital one and emailing it to their teacher." Some of my struggle for understanding the "great need" for tablets is that it seems that generally a lot of the school apps seem to be the same things we've done for decades simply with technology instead of pen & paper, but with a much higher cost. However, it is good to know that it is indeed more efficient. Schwartz also speaks of how the use of iPads affects the kinesthetic learner in a positive way. 

Interesting Ways to Use an iPad in the Classroom

• SoundNote - a good way for students of different learning styles to take notes.
• Sliceit - I've played this game for fun and hadn't considered using it to teach math.
• Globe - I liked the idea of using a globe app so that all students can see what you are trying to point out at once. 
• I was kind of confused with this article because it claimed 55 ideas but the slide show only had 17 slides.

School Sees Rising Scores with iPads

• I appreciated that this article had quotes from students that showed how they felt about using iPads in the classroom. 
• About students who don't understand a video lesson, this was said, “They could watch the video 15 times, and no one has to know, and it takes away the stigma of not getting it,” he said. “This is a move toward personalized and individualized instruction so the students take more of a role in their learning.” This quote makes a lot of sense and shows me a little more what "taking hold of their education" means. 

Why Use iPads for Learning

• I always assumed that iPads would take more interaction with IT. However, many articles like this one seem to state a definite opposite opinion. 
• I had never considered the importance of the "auto-save" feature, which would definitely be useful for forgetful children. 

Comparative Use Factors in Education for Tablets

Gilber School Embracing eReader Technology with Nook Club

• This article seems to show a trial run of sorts with 6th graders and the use of Nooks as an eReader. 
• Although the Nook (at least the version spoken of this article) does well as an eReader, it would not be good as a tablet for classes other than literature as it does not have as many functions as an iPad.
• The article does illustrate how books are much cheaper electronically than physical copies.

Will the Kindle Change Education?

• Text-to-Speech capability seems as though it is of growing importance. It benefits students who learn better from hearing, students who are at lower reading levels, and students who have vision problems. 

How the Amazon Kindle Fire Fits Into Education

• This article seemed to reiterate most of what I have read in other articles on both the Kindle Fire an many other tablets. 
• The Kindle Fire saves money by offering electronic Textbooks at a fraction of the cost and allows users to save to a cloud storage.

GAIN Performance Record - Drawing

Google Drawing seems to be a pretty standard drawing program that has the benefits of any other Google program (editing by multiple people, online account storage, easy access, easy sharing). It seems as though it is easy to make simple drawings and charts & graphs in Drawing and more complex drawings (such as the Goofy drawing) may be made by skilled artists.

The Tangram Square lesson plan seems to be a really interesting way to keep students interested in learning. It provides video and hands-on learning activities and allows students to use their creativity to increase writing, speaking & listening, presenting, and mathematical skills. The on-going use of tangrams in different core subjects shows students how something as fun and creative as tangrams can be educational on multiple levels.

Personally, I would be excited to teach these lessons. However, I do think that this would be best for 5th & 6th grade students and less effective for 7th & 8th grade students.