Brown

iPad Evaluation – Lindsey Brown 1. I think the iPad would be a great new piece of technology for our school. I really enjoyed looking through the different apps last week, and if given the opportunity I can’t even imagine how excited my students would be. There are endless opportunities for iPad use in the classroom. 2. The students could use the iPad to review their spelling words. Two activities that would help the students review their spelling words are hangman and a word search.

3. Lesson Plan - Literature Circles – Novel Units
This lesson provides a basic introduction to literature circles, a collaborative and student-centered reading strategy. Students begin by selecting a book together then are introduced to the four jobs in the Literature Circles: Discussion Director, Literary Luminary, Vocabulary Enricher, and Checker. The teacher and student volunteers model the task for each of the four roles, and then students practice the strategies. The process demonstrates the different roles and allows students to practice the techniques before they are responsible for completing the tasks on their own. After this introduction, students are ready to use the strategy independently, rotating the roles through four-person groups as they read the books they have chosen. The lesson can then be followed with a more extensive literature circle project. Literature circles are a strong classroom strategy because of the way that they couple collaborative learning with student-centered inquiry. Students will use the ibook app from the iPad to read the novels.

4. 1) Mad Libs App – The students will need to be able to identify the parts of speech in order to use the app. Mad Libs is now available in a fun, new interactive and digital platform! In this sample version of Vacation Mad Libs you can test your fill-in the-blank skills on your iPad. Then, get all the silly stories and crazy word game play in the complete version with the Goofy Mad Libs iPad App. 2)  Scrabble App - With iPad technology, SCRABBLE becomes a whole new game. Shake to shuffle tiles. Drag and drop to play letters. With customized game rules and multiple difficulty levels, you can play with up to four friends. 5. Yes, I think the iPad would be a great investment for our school. It would solve our lack of technology and allow multiple students access.

_________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________________ Lindsey Brown 2/28/11

Skype Reaction

1. Skype is a new, exciting way for people to communicate all over the world. I think one advantage of using Skype in your classroom is that it would keep the student's attention. Not only would students be able to hear the person they would be communicating with, but they would be able to see them. With Skype, students could have the possibility of learning from other students, connecting with other cultures, and expanding their knowledge in so many amazing ways.

2. To avoid problems, before using Skype in my classroom I would need to familiarize myself with how to log in to Skype and how to use the webcam. The two parties involved in the Skyping session would need to set up a time that works for both of them. If they were not online at the same time, it would not be possible. Another problem you could encounter would be getting disconnected. We did run into this problem last week, but it only took a minute or two to reconnect. Overall, I feel as though the advantages greatly outweigh the problems you could encounter.

<span style="background: white; font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 18.4pt; margin: 0in 0in 20.95pt;">3. **Interview -** When thinking about how I could use Skype in my classroom I came up with several ideas. We read books as part of a novel unit in the spring about the Civil War. The social studies teacher and I work together to plan this interdisciplinary unit about the Civil War. As part of the culminating activity, I think it would be neat for the students to interview a historian who has studied the Civil War. The students would be able to prepare questions about slavery, life during the time period, specific battles, life after the war, etc. The Skype session would hopefully give students a greater understanding of the War Between the States.


 * <span style="background: white; font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 18.4pt; margin: 0in 0in 20.95pt;">See Me, Hear Me: Skype in the Classroom - **<span style="background: white; font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 18.4pt; margin: 0in 0in 20.95pt;">This lesson provides teachers with a way to connect authors, books, and young readers through virtual visits. Another way to use Skype in my classroom would be to interview the author of the book we are reading in class. We have read several books about the Civil War including: Johnny Tremain - Esther Forbes, Soldiers Heart - Gary Paulsen, Shades of Gray - Carolyn Reeder, The Red Badge of Courage - Stephen Crane. Obviously, if some of these authors have passed away and this would not be possible.

<span style="background: white; font-family: 'Cambria','serif'; font-size: 11.5pt; line-height: 18.4pt; margin: 0in 0in 20.95pt;">4. I really enjoyed the Skype session with Dr. Onken. He is a very knowledgeable man who did a great job of answering our questions about his field of study. He broke down the informationto a level that everyone could understand. I think it was a great idea to have the questions prepared beforehand for Dr. Onken, so he had an idea of what we wanted to know. It also gave him a chance to prepare himself for the Skype session. My students would be very impressesd with this experience. It gives students an opportunity to learn from an expert. The expert will be able to give students more information about a subject than their teacher. I am hoping that I can try this in my classroom very soon!