Screenleap and iPads

Today I had the opportunity to turn a technology failure into a success using ScreenLeap in my 1:1 iPad middle school Spanish classroom.

My lesson plan was based on projecting an interactive presentation on an interactive whiteboard (IWB). The students would add to their notes from a previous class. However, the VGA port on my MacBook has become very temperamental, and the laptop did not detect the projector once it was connected.

My students were prepared for class with their iPads, and I directed them to ScreenLeap while I quickly logged into the site frommy MacBook and shared my entire screen (which was displaying the interactive presentation). Once I was sharing, ScreenLeap provided me with a code which I wrote on the board. The students keyed the code into the space provided on ScreenLeap and were amazed to be viewing my computer screen on their iPad!

TodaysMeet for Twitter Basics

There are some amazing resources online for teachers who would like to get started using Twitter, but aren't quite sure how. When I first started using Twitter,  I would begin to read these blogs and get completely overwhelmed. How would I have time to tweet if I couldn't find the time to finish reading an article about tweeting?

Here I will put together some Twitter basics then explain how I have used todaysmeet to teach twitter basics to middle school students..

Create an Account

As always, create your account. Go to twitter - the link brings you directly to a page on which you can create an account. If you are trying to brand yourself, you will want to use a name that is recognizable and consistent with your brand. Same goes with your profile picture. Think before you create: This is how you are building your digital footprint. What footprint do you want to have?

Hashtags

Hashtags are user generated shortcuts so you can get right to the types of tweets (twitter posts) that you want to read. Including them in your tweets means that like-minded tweeps (Twitter + peeps = tweeps, your people on twitter!) can find your tweets easily as well. They look like #edchat (which is a great hashtag for teachers to search for).

The Not-Quite-Flapped Classroom Part 2

Perhaps you have already read about my first steps with The Not-Quite-Flipped Classroom and are wondering about my progress. I have continued my exploration of a hybrid classroom with mixed results.

Classroom Atmosphere

When my students know in advance that we are using personal iPads and video tutorials in class, they arrive and get right to work. Most students work alone, but others choose to share an iPad and are quick to borrow my headphone splitter. I allow students to pick their own partners for the most part.  Sometimes I step in and redirect students to more productive partnerships. Class begins quickly and efficiently.

Work Ethics

Students are able to concentrate without distractions on the video tutorials that I have created using educreations. They can really focus because they have blocked out external distractions by using earbuds or headphones.  Each student is able to get into the written work that is both the class assignment and the homework. This allows students to have less written work to do at home.

Managing 3 Middle School Classroom Interruptions

Working in a middle school classroom is a unique experience. Students are not quite little and not quite big ... although sometimes they are impressively either - or both!

I have a few strategies for managing a classroom for this age group. They are listed below under the type of situation in which I use them.

However, before I get into how I manage these amazing and unpredictable creatures, I have to share an important piece of information: I have worked very hard to nurture a classroom culture in which every person in the room is assumed to be doing their best at every given moment. The best a student (or a teacher) can do today may not be the same as tomorrow. Whatever the best may be, that is what we expect from ourselves and from each other.