If you have been to a Lodge workshop, then you will remember the laughter, fun and learning that took place. I too did this activity with students in my school and it was a blast. So now what else can you do with Lodge songs? Did you know they were a part of DiscoveryEducation library of resources? Well they are there for all of you to be creative with your students.

Not only do you have Lodge himself singing the song, but the lyrics are in .pdf as well as some teaching resources to compliment the songs.. For example, search for Lodge and song to reveal 47 songs. I chose the Bill of Rights. The page had the song, lyrics and a teachers worksheet to use with the music. Click on the “More to Explore” tab and additional DiscoveryEd assets will be there for you to choose more resources for your lesson. I love all of the connections.

If  you are teaching the Bill of Rights, you can use this as a hook as students are entering the room, or background for reading time about the Bill of Rights. Why not create a slide show to go along with the lyrics in the song as a kick off to the unit or as a study guide video for a chapter assessment? Students could put together the slide show for a class assignment as well. The point is, explore other ways you can use these clever songs about match, science, social studies and more, in many ways in your lessons. Try a comic application like Kerpoof to illustrate the song. Try a collage of images that explain the song.

Not sure what to use to make this song into something exceptional for your class? Visit Alan Levine’s wiki site, CogDogRoo or the updated site 50+Ways. The second site is organized by type of tool to use to create your story. Looks like Alan got a new dog!

Leave a comment about how YOU have used Lodge McCammon’s songs in your classroom.

Additonal Links to Lodge McCammon’s information:

I Am Lodge: http://lodgemccammon.com/

Lodge’s Facebook:   https://www.facebook.com/fizz.education

The Friday Institute Bio:  https://www.fi.ncsu.edu/project/researchers/lmccammon

Sample of a Lodge video challenge(contest is over): http://bit.ly/18pAGHT

Lodge and FIZZ: http://fizz.fi.ncsu.edu/

Twitter: @pocketlodge

Songs and description: http://bit.ly/18pBcpf

First you must put the DE site on your home page on the iPad. Open Safari and go to the DE website. Click on the “send to” arrow right next to the URL and a new window will open. Choose ADD TO HOME SCREEN and a nice DE icon will be placed on your ipad screen. It appears like an app, but is not. This is a direct link to your DE log in page and it is a nice shortcut.

Where to you find good apps?

I read blogs and professional journals, follow teachers on Twitter, and ask everyone at workshops and seminars where they find apps. This really saves time because these are already vetted by someone else. Knowing which apps are not good is useful as well. So start asking people for their favorite app and you will get a list very quickly.

Here are some sites I consider to be some of the top critics of apps. So if you do not have a starting point yet, try these sites.

How do you integrate apps with DE Resources?

Don’t overlook the photos, images, songs and sounds in the DE library. Most people do not even search these assets but there is gold in there, but you need to mine it! There are over 7400 audio files, songs and sound effects from rainforest sounds to a snare drum. You can use these in presentations, projects and more.

Organize your classroom iPads by using some of the fantastic DE photos as the background screen. There are penguins, insects, plans, animals, or famous people you can “Save Picture (Photo Album)”. Then go to the background setting and choose from camera roll for the photo you saved. All of the backgrounds below are found in the DE images.

To download a DE video to play on the iPad, you should use an app called iCab(free). Your selection will download to your Camera roll. Once in there, when you play the clip, notice at the top of the screen there is a place you can “trim” the video if you need to make it shorter. Here are two places to visit to read more about iCab from some STAR DE educators;

1. Carolyn Stanley’s blog post – http://bit.ly/ZgMi7X
2. Mark Hammon’s YouTube video tutorial - http://bit.ly/ZgMmor

Once you use iCab, be sure to connect it to Dropbox for storage of your projects so they do not take any of the precious iPad memory.

Turn that lesson into engaging and meaningful activities.

1. Give students the assignment to find photos in the Discovery library, import them into Educreations. Students can narrate the slide show.
2. Students create a conversation between the four gentlemen in the painting with Blabberize.com or Bubblesnaps.com
3. Use photos from DiscoveryEducation image library to create a poster of the water cycle using Popplet Lite mind mapping app.
4. Try Pic Collage to create a poster of information about China. Finding photos and information in DE photos.
5. Download images from DE to create a digital, but not multimedia poster using Text on Foto. Use this app to label a photo before using it in a slideshow.
6. For a different style of writing, have students find images in the DE library and create a postcard using PhotoCard app.There is an option to actually mail it for$1.99 or send to photo library so you can print and post around your room.
7. Create a slideshow with Lodge McCammon music – first download his songs on a computer then put on iPad –  (as ipad is connected to computer, don’t sync, just select View->Show Sidebar and drag Lodge songs to the iPad device). It will put Lodge in iTunes and make it available to other apps on your iPad that use music. But first use Text on Foto to label the photos before importing to ProShow to make a musical slideshow.
8. Tech Smith has come out with a new app called Ask3. The concept “Ask 3 before me”. So when a student has questions in class they should ask 3 others first. This app allows teachers to create an assignment by video/audio from within the app and describe what students will complete. This gets posted to a “bulletin boaard”. Students do their assignment an then come back to Ask3 to record their images and message for the assignment which also gets posted to the bulletin board. The collaboration begins when others in the class make comments to their peer about the work submitted. The product is in beta, so your comments to TechSmith are appreciated. You can have an influence on how an app develops.

The sample projects are contained within the presentation attached below.

Here are the resources mentioned in my DEN GURU Webinar.

AppsGoneFree – Free – sends notification about paid apps that become free.
AppShopper – Free – Enter all of your apps into this web data collection. Also enter any apps you have on your “Wish List” and   AppShopper will notify you of any updates or drop in price.

Dropbox – Free – to move files from your computer to iPad easily
Educreations – Free – Make tutorials, slide shows and narrate them.
iCab Mobile – $1.99 – Download DE videos on the iPad.
Keynote – $9.99 – Create presentations on the iPad.
PhotoCard – Free – Make a postcard that you can print or mail using any photos or DE photos

Pic Collage – Free – Digital poster with photo, text and sticker support. No multimedia.

Popplet Lite – Free – Mindmapping app in which you can insert DE images or photos in the Popplets.

ProShow – Free – Create slideshow with music like Lodge McCammon’s songs.
Text on Foto – Free -Enter text with over 50 font styles on DE photos or images.

All in all you could spend so much time evaluating apps and creating lessons to use them in your classroom. But by visiting the sites suggested you can find some excellent resources to make going mobile more fun.

Excellent Starting points for finding apps for education

1. Great Apps by category – http://askatechteacher.wordpress.com/great-apps/

2. Interesting Ways(to use ipad in classroom) by Tom Barrett – http://edte.ch/blog/interesting-ways/

3. Review of apps by Apple Distinguished Educators – http://www.appitic.com/

4. Robin Martin’s iPad links – https://www.diigo.com/user/rmom352/iPad

5. Tony Vincent’s iPad links – http://bit.ly/YNHQBt

6. Robert Byrne’s – http://ipadapps4school.com/

7. ADE reviewed apps – http://appitic.com/

8. Teachers with apps – http://bit.ly/12SwX5A

9. TCEA matrix of apps – http://www.tcea.org/ipad

10. Real Teachers recommend apps – http://bit.ly/12SyQzd

    AppoLearning – https://www.appolearning.com/

1. Educational Technology and Mobile Learning – http://bit.ly/11UCZOO

2. 9 iPad Tutorials teachers should not miss – http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2012/12/9-ipad-tutorials-teachers-should-not.html

3. 10 iPad apps to enhance critical thinking – http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2013/02/10-ipad-apps-to-enhance-critical.html

4. 15 iPad skills every teacher and student should have – http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2013/01/15-ipad-skills-students-must-have.html

5. 20 Random iPad Math Apps – http://bit.ly/YApXl7

6. 22 Alternatives to Book Reports – http://ipadders.eu/22-ipad-alternatives-to-the-book-report/

7. 26 categories for teachers using iPads in class, from math to notetaking apps – http://www.educatorstechnology.com/p/blog-page_9.html

8. 40 Apps for SAMR model – http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2013/01/40-ipad-apps-for-samrl-model.html

9. 50 Things to do on an iPad – http://www.teachthought.com/ipad-2/50-things-to-do-on-the-ipad/

10. 50 of the Best Resources for iPads – http://bit.ly/12SwX5A

11. 62 Ways to use the iPad with your students – http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2012/10/62-ways-to-use-ipad-with-your-students.html

12. 100+ Tips on how to integrate iPad into your classroom – http://www.educatorstechnology.com/2012/09/tips-on-ipad-use-in-education.html

13. 1000 apps organized by subject and price by Texas Computer Education Assoc.- http://edudemic.com/2012/02/1000-apps/

    Appo Learning - https://www.appolearning.com/

iPad blogs:

1. TechChef4u – http://www.techchef4u.com/?p=3891

2. Palm Beach SchoolTalk (wiki) – http://palmbeachschooltalk.com/wiki/projects/ipadineducation/

3. Edudemic.com – http://edudemic.com/

4. iPad ideas – http://ipadideas.edu.sg/ipad-apps/

5. iPad AppStorm: http://ipad.appstorm.net/

6. Kathy Schrock’s – Bloomin’ Apps – http://bit.ly/1447Kpz

7. Linda Nitche’s Scoop.it – http://www.scoop.it/t/ipad-resources

Sites that review apps

1. iEar.org – http://www.iear.org/ Consume the information here or help to create a library of reviews

2. Richard Byrne – http://ipadapps4school.com/

3. Kathy Schrock’s – iPads in the Classroom – http://bit.ly/1447PJU

Kathy Schrock’s – Kathy’s Katch – post on iPads and Assessment – http://bit.ly/10wvGNv

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eBooks by Robin Martin available on iTunes bookstore.

iMovie Basics
 

 
GarageBand Podcasting
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image: http://coplancreativeconsulting.com/business-website-design/6-great-ipad-apps-for-business/

Today is testing day in Pennsylvania. Our students have been prepared and the teachers are ready. This year the DOE required each teacher to complete a 45 minute webinar and quiz about the ethics of this PSSA test. I don’t mind, I did it and it was a good review of the procedures. As a special area teacher I am assigned to a classroom to assist if needed. My duty would be to escort a student to the extended time area in our library. What concerns me is that there are still administrators and teachers who will change student answers on a test or guide them to correct selections. That is totally unethical.

Pennsylvania is changing the teacher evaluation system. At this point a large portion of a teacher’s evaluation will be based upon student test scores. My main problem with this is that teachers who have a great lesson, may not share that with their colleagues, some people may be more tempted to give student answers to the state tests so their kids score higher therefore a better evaluation and salary. Do they really think this will weed out unethical actions?

Our school has done very well over the past 15 years of testing and I am very fortunate to work here. We prep our kids just like other schools. We let them bring water, gum and snacks, so do other schools. The students here work very hard at achieving good scores. It is important to our students, teachers, administrators and even more important to parents. The parents are very active in their child’s schoolwork, the school curriculum, PTO and the community activities.

Research shows that involved parents leads to higher test scores. This is so important for a child’s education and their future. This is an upper socio-economic community and many homes only have one parent working. We have dads that volunteer in the library, moms that help build sets for our play and even grandparents come to school to help one teacher read essays and make comments to the students. (These are retired certified English teachers who live in the community)

I know this is not happening in most schools around PA and it is a shame. Some families must have both parents working to economically survive. Many grandparents are the caregiver to their grandchildren and the only rest they get is when the kids are in school. I wish our government could find a way to really help the struggling districts. They have teachers who care, parents who want to get involved, but work and and some administrators who try to create a positive atmosphere. It is a struggle for them to get new textbooks or digital equipment. My district is fine financially, academically and athletically.

Perhaps we need to adopt another school and help them, mentor them in some way to assist them to more success. I really do not know the answer, but this is so important to help ALL children to succeed, not just put it on a logo or letterhead. I am a few years away from retirement and know how blessed I have been here at Unoinville-Chadds Ford. Happy Spring!

If you have not created a cartoon animation of yourself as an elf, Santa or trekker, then here is your chance. Make a fun avatar for use on your website or send an e-card to a family member. These are fun, but check them out completely before using with students. Some sites contain partial nudity or characters in skimpy outfits. In addition, be careful of some of the ads that are used with these web sites. You too can be an avatar and be ready for the sequel.

1. Yearbook yourself
2. Create your own Marvel Comic SuperHero
3. The Hero Factory
4. Bless This Chick
5. Spud Yourself
6. Simpsonize Me
7. Elf Yourself – not available until November 1st
8. Terminate yourself – turn your face into “The Terminator”
9. Madmen Yourself – men and women
10. 12 sites to cartoon yourself – preview yourself – not sure about some of the images for school
11. Santa Yourself
12. Scrooge Yourself - available at holiday time
13. Many many create yourself and make items site – preview before using with students
14. Jib-Jab
15. Animate yourself – preview before using with students
16. Trek Yourself – make yourself a StarTrek character
17. Build your Wild self
18. Make an Anime
19. Lego Yourself - make a LEGO character
20. Create an M&M piece
21. My Avatar Editor
22. Monster Mash by JibJab
23. Make a Western Style Wanted Poster
24. Mr. Picassohead
25. Make a beast!
26. Diary of a Wimpy Kid! – wimp yourself too
27. Avatar in video using webcam

I didn’t know there was such a critter as the sea butterfly? Or that in 40 years seafood would be off the menu. How about underwater gardening? All of this and more can be viewed on the Discovery Show “Wild Pacific”. Not only is it filled with facts and critters you have never heard of, but the filming is extraordinary! It has been on for hours and to me one of the most interesting segments was the one on “How they filmed Wild Pacific”. Not only can this show be used to show science facts and study of oceans, but it can be viewed as a critique for film making. Obviously we can’t take our students to Fiji to film sharks eating the Albatross that floats on the sea, but the description of filming techniques was really moving. By the way, the underwater garden was a beautiful display of coral growing on special tables. They are replanted into areas that need a boost. This in-turn makes the reef healthier for the life-cycle of the sea. Look for this on the DiscoveryChannel. Not sure if it will make it to the streaming library, seems like it would be a great DVD for sale.

10 things you can do to become a GREENER Teacher

1. Blackle.com instead of Google.com, black background on the search page. Blackle also has games. Does Blackle really save energy?
2. Green resources from DiscoveryStreaming. There is a documentary about the tornado that hit Greensburg, Kansas narrated by Leonardo DiCaprio. This is how the town rebuilt with environmental impact being a requirement.  Also, PlanetGreen has a series by Bill Nye “Stuff Happens”.
3. Photo essays – created by animoto, photo story, PSA, comic, use DES clips to create something or Tips for a greener planet.(recycling)
4. Share materials through MediaShare – don’t use trees to print
5. Glogster – multimedia posters – BUT create it through glogster.com/edu
6. GoogleEarth – you can create a scavenger hunt for students to travel around the Earth.
7. Thinkgreen.com/classroom – A new partnership with DiscoveryEducation. This site has tremendous resources for teachers about recycling and sustainability including details about which type of glass is best recycled. This includes good lesson plans, worksheets, writing prompts and other links and resources. Be sure to get the ThinkGreen widget to show how much energy you saved. You can take the widget and put it on a website, or on a GoogleEarth placemark. How cool is that?!? Have some students count the recycled cans and/or bottles and post it on your school web page.
8. www.wecanchange.com – Siemens created a”We can change the world Challenge”. Great contest for kids/schools. There are fantastic resources for setting up the process in your school. There is a contest where the winners will be on the Discovery Show “Planet Green”.
9. donorsChoose.org - find funding sources from places you may not even know about.
10. teacherpaperless.blogspot.com – Follow this blog for ideas about how to teach without using paper. You can find all the presentations from the DENLC and DENPC on the National Blog on Monday.

Many DEN groups are using the FREE web application, Wufoo.com for event registrations, gathering information about who is coming to an event. You may use it for short contests as well, “Send the answer to this question in the next 24 hours…”

After you log in you will see a list of forms that have been created by others. You should duplicate and change name of form and you can customize it to your needs. You should delete documents when finished because the whole country of DENLCs will be using Wufoo for their events too. It will get crowded with everyone’s events here.

In the data, you can add/delete information. When creating a form, be aware of what you want to call the form because it directly relates to the URL which is created. You can embed this form into your blog to collect information/registrations. You can export the data to that it is live and other members of the LC can see the registration information. This is important because you want to tailor your PD to the attendees. If you have 11 HS Chemistry teachers registered, you don’t want to present sessions on 3rd grade language arts.

Notifications can be sent if you check and set up the information. The notifications can be sent text, email or RSS feed. Have one person as the receiver of information. You can take the code and embed it into your blog. And finally, make sure you uncheck the Enable Payment box in the upper right corner.

You can use the funnies or comics for a timeline, historical figures, instructions, dialogue punctuation, character analysis, plot analysis, storytelling, pre-writing tool, post-reading tool, and teaching concepts. After a field trip to the zoo where kids take photos of turkeys, create point of view about Thanksgiving. Also teachers have used it for creating digital citizenship, point of view of planets talking to planets, world languages, and drawing.

Verbal linguistic learner – visual images from DES and point of view, placing characters in sets and backgrounds encourages spacial learning.

Mathematical/Logical - how would you create the layout

Kinesthetic/Bodily -  using Goanimate (some questionable content) you can create action figures, use with grammar, science concepts, replay stories or book reviews in student’s point of view,

Interpersonal: Who are your characters friends? Using software called Pixton. Can have photos of people talking, animals conversing,

Musical/Rhythmic: personal stories, poetry illustrated

Comic Life now available for the PC as well as the Mac. Pixton is web based. FTC has a book of how to use Comic Life by a DEN STAR. Stop by their booth at NECC. You can export them to the web. Use for life cycle of cateillar, photo sharing, step by step process(FCS cooking or science lab example).

GoAnimate – put DES in the background by using images, photos or movies. Can grab images from flickr.com and cut part of it to your screen. You can use audacity to add voice. BE aware that this is not an education only site.

Xtranormal -Text to speech animation video. You can put it on DES images or chose the backgrounds they have in their set. You can select the voices, but it is very computer-like. Can use it as a conflict-resolution scene, can use as a book report, weather report. BE CAREFUL there are some inappropriate actions or already created videos. You should create and download yourself to YouTube. There is a pay version for about $30 per year. Teryl Magee is in contact with them to work with an educational version and she will let us know what happens. The FREE version has 2 characters and basic backgrounds.

Pixton – They have a school version and it is FREE. You can move the individual body parts by clicking on them – be careful what your kids will do with it!

Brads presentation is available on MediaShare “Learning through the Funnies!!”

Patti uses wikis with her classes and kids are paired with others from class and must complete all conversations online through the discussion boards. All rubrics are on the wiki as are the handouts for kids to print on their own after they lose the first one they are given. You can also lock the wiki editing at 11:02 so no more changes can happen. Then you can give points for their contributions. She also has “How to” on the wiki as well.

Scramble and Write: Find images in DES print, laminate and put with students on a table. Kids must put the photos in order and write about it. Example: frog life-cycle. Notes for Smartboard – put vocab on side and image in center, kids put words on right part of the image.  Can use as pre assessment or post assessment.

Teach with music: from DES next to the search box choose audio. Find songs for frog life cycle, water cycle, Mendelev, and Marsh.

Play the sounds of a biome as kids enter room and have them guess what biome and why. This can be a writing activity. Save PPT show as PPT show then they will not be able to edit or change the preso as it is online. This is good for differentation lessons or slow learners who want a LOT of time to process information. Give them a note guide to fill in as they watch the video.

Frog Glog: Create a Glogster about the frog cycle and kids can click to different activities to learn each section. You can put a voki widget into a builder. You can create a voki of yourself reading the directions for the writing prompt. You can also create an avatar get the html code and embed it into the builder assignment.

Media Share at the DiscoveryEducation will be found through the Educator Resources tab. MediaShare is a digital media management server;  a place to organize internal documents, files, forms, a publishing platform, internal memos, and/or presentations.

This would be nice for presentations and workshops so that all pieces are bundled together on one page and you don’t have to have  10 tabs open. In the description field, you can place embed code, such as VoiceThreads or Glogsters. In addition, you can publish Blabberize, Glogster or other documents here, to keep students from getting lost viewing things on a site that may not be educational (Blabberize as an example). DES has uploaded many presentations from over the years, such as the virtual conference in April. It also includes the chat window that matches the presentation.

There is a direct link to these files from outside the DEN. You can create a complete lesson and give the URL to your students and they can create a user name (anyone can get into the education resources by creating an account), and view what you wan them to see.

When searching for lessons that have already been uploaded by other DEN members,  search the DES MediaShare to find information for you such as:  8th grade/images/world languages.

Subscribe by RSS feeds as well.  Especially if you like one person’s resources and want to know when they post something new.