Friday, December 6, 2019
teachthought
  • Teaching
  • Learning
  • Critical Thinking
  • Literacy
  • Technology
  • More Topics
        • A-D

          • Admin
          • Apple
          • Apps
          • Assessment
          • Augmented & Virtual Reality
          • Blended Learning
          • Books
          • Brain-Based Learning Resources
          • BYOD
          • Critical Literacy
          • Curricula
          • Definitions
          • Digital Citizenship
        • D-G

          • Disruption & Innovation
          • ECE
          • Effective Learning Environments
          • English-Language Arts
          • Elementary School
          • English Second Language
          • Essential
          • Everything Else
          • Financial Literacy
          • Google Classroom
          • More Google Tools For The Classroom
          • Grant Wiggins
          • Growth Mindset
        • H-P

          • Hip-Hop
          • How-To
          • Ideas
          • Inquiry Learning
          • Inspirational!
          • Learning Models
          • Maker Education
          • Math
          • Middle & High School
          • Mobile Learning
          • Networking & Collaboration
          • New Teacher
          • Parents
        • P-W

          • Personalized Learning
          • Project-Based Learning
          • Questioning
          • Resources
          • Bloom’s Taxonomy
          • Social Media In The Classroom
          • STEM
          • Teaching & Learning Strategies
          • Student Engagement
          • Team-Building
          • Terry Heick
          • Tools
          • Whole Child
  • PD
        • Workshops

          • PBL Workshops
          • Inquiry Workshops
          • Growth Mindset Workshops
          • Differentiation Workshops
          • Assessment Workshops
          • Literacy Workshops
          • Leadership Workshops
          • More Workshops
        • More Info

          • Open Registration Workshops
          • Grow 20 Conference
          • School Partnerships
          • Request More Info
          • TeachThought Podcast
          • PD Newsletter
          • TeachThought PD FAQ
          • Read More
        • TeachThought PD Events

No Result
View All Result
Home Technology

10 Tips For A Smarter iPad-Based Classroom

by TeachThought Staff
March 13, 2016
in Technology
8 min read
180
VIEWS
SharePinTweet

10-tips-for-ipad-based-classroom10 Tips For A Smarter iPad-Based Classroom

by Heather Wolpert-Gawron, author of Writing Behind Every Door: Teaching Common Core Writing in the Subject Areas 

When I first raised my hand to pilot my middle school’s first 1:1 classroom, I knew it was going to be bumpy.  

After all, I am a practitioner of content, not a tech guru. But the way I see it, I work to not only help guide students to unveil the subject matter (consume), I also work to be up on the most current ways to communicate that content (create). Hence, my willingness to jump out of my wheelhouse, the shallow end of the ed tech pool, and into the deep end of total tech immersion.

The only way to learn was to jump in and jump in early, so I raised my hand.

We’ve Got iPads: Now What?

There are some pluses and minuses in offering to be in the early curve of total tech immersion. My calls for troubleshooting tend to get answered, but I am left to my own learning, and that’s a mixed bag. I get to be more autonomous, and as a new paperless classroom I don’t have to care about our copy allotment, but then again, I don’t get the benefit of having a mentor on campus.  

Nevertheless, I’ve learned a lot on this journey. For one thing, when using iPads you need an impeccable network, and believe me, my district’s is not ideal. Growl.

25 Simple Google Search Tips For Teachers

25 Of The Best Pinterest Boards In Education [Updated]

But success isn’t only about the device. You still need solid classroom strategies to make any device meaningful. Therefore, rather than watch you flounder through your own trial and error, I’d like to share some of what I’ve learned. After all, I know what’s it like to open up that pretty Apple packaging and ask, “Now what?”

So here are 10 recommendations to help you utilize your new tool in the most efficient way possible. The goal is to support your content so that the iPad itself doesn’t become your content.

flickeringbrad-ipad-finger10 Tips For A Smarter iPad-Based Classroom

1. Find a Virtual Learning Community or resources that can consistently provide you with advice

I have found a cool resource, for instance, in Class Tech Tips. Subscribe, and you get daily descriptions of Common Core aligned iPad apps from across the curriculum. (TeachThought also provides a steady diet of educational apps for teaching and learning.)

2. Create a “Tech Experts” chart

These are the tech savvy kids who should be put to work troubleshooting in the classroom while you teach. Post the chart prominently in the room. Let students know that before they come to you for aid, they must go to at least two of the students on the list.

3. Keep a log of what’s going wrong and the strategies used to solve each of the problems

From this log, create a cheat sheet for the students to use.  I have even designed a quiz from my handout that asked students to problem solve different tech scenarios.  Allow them to use their sheet as a resource to answer the questions.

4. Set up a Google Drive account for you and your students

We are a Google Drive classroom. It allows us to write and collaborate using the cloud, and I have fewer problems with it than with individual iPad apps that claim the same. Remember with Drive, you should go through the Drive app for the smoothest experience possible. Google and Apple sometimes don’t play nicely together.

5. Find a way to monitor the iPads while the students work

Encourage your school to get something like Reflection so you can see thumbnails of everyone’s screens on the projected computer in the front of the room.  It’s not about distrust.  It’s about human nature. The transparency also allows for quick modeling and feedback.  The one drawback for Reflection is that you need that impeccable network.

6. Tweak what already works

Think about your best lessons and how they can be supported and supplemented by using the iPad:

  • If you are already using the print version of TimeforKids in your classroom, get access to their digital resources instead.
  • If you already ask your students to create a brochure, why not study the persuasiveness in movie trailers and use iMovie to create one themselves?
  • If you want students to work in small groups, why not use Google Drive to share documents between groups of students? This also allows you to break down walls between your periods by forming collaborative documents for groups of students across your classes.
  • If you already teach informational reading comprehension, why not guide students to the federal government website on copyright laws and assess students using a surveymonkey poll to find out what they understand about policy and consequences?
  • If you use passages from classic literature to use as model texts, why not download the classics for free onto their eBooks app?

7. Design a paperless exit card

Have students solve a quick equation as an informal assessment using Paperport Notes. They draw using their finger/stylus, then export right to your own Google Drive or email.

8. Get keyboards

Don’t let the Apple rep fool you–you absolutely need keyboards. The iPads, at this point, while being great at some things, simply aren’t as convenient to type on, cut and paste, and manipulate a document without a keyboard synced. Oh, yeah, and while you’re at it, sync keyboards and iPads one at a time. It will go a lot smoother if the keyboard knows exactly which tablet to sync to. It’s funny when kids inadvertently type on each other’s document from across a table, but the chuckle isn’t worth the trouble.

9. Keep a routine structure

If you always started with an introduction activity, then mini-lesson, then modeled, then released them to do small group work and/or an individual activity, you can still maintain that kind of structure. It’s how and what they consume and how and what they create that changes somewhat.  Assuming the tech lives in the classroom, and you can’t count on a true flipped model, you could…

  • Start with a homemade screencast on a topic that ends with the students opening a shared document.  (5 min.)
  • Perhaps that document is a scavenger hunt that guides them to find a resource online.  (10 min.)
  • Then, they can explore that resource themselves (10 min.)
  • Then return to the document for a link to a related activity constructed in Google Form (10 min.).
  • Finally, students shoot a quick summary of the lesson and email it to you using the iPad’s camera app (5 min.)

10. Establish procedures quickly

Rehearse often, and assess their progress. They enter. They each retrieve the same iPad as the day before. That way, when someone downloads Bloody Zombies vs. Gross Aliens, you’ll know the culprit. Have them trained to log in to your LMS (like Google Drive or Haiku or Kidblog or whatever.) Have a student per table group retrieve specific equipment for that day (headphones, styluses, etc…)

Have a signal established that let’s them tell you that they are logged in and ready for action. Use the good ole standby, the room job chart, to rotate those with tech responsibilities in the classroom.

Start small with what you ask of your students and yourself. You’ll find that you all tend to move forward together, and by learning together, you’ll form a tighter community of learners. Do what you’re comfortable with and I promise your momentum will increase with every successful lesson that has students using the device in their hands.

Heather Wolpert-Gawron is an award-winning middle school teacher and a popular blogger through Tweenteacher.com and Edutopia.org. Her latest book, Writing Behind Every Door: Teaching Common Core Writing in the Subject Areas (Routledge Eye On Education), will be out on April 3, 2014. She is also the author of ’Tween Crayons and Curfews: Tips for Middle School Teachers (Eye On Education, 2011); Image attribution wikimediacommons and flickeringbrad; 10 Tips For A Smarter iPad-Based Classroom

Previous Post

Alphablocks: 26 Strategies For Always-On Learning

Next Post

Making Professional Development A Habit

Related Posts

25 Simple Google Search Tips For Teachers

25 Simple Google Search Tips For Teachers

by TeachThought Staff
November 30, 2019
0
1.4k

Before getting too specific or complex, start with a simple search like "What is transfer?" or "Define project-based learning."

25 Of The Best Pinterest Boards In Education [Updated]

25 Of The Best Pinterest Boards In Education [Updated]

by TeachThought Staff
November 26, 2019
5
3.1k

Websites, facebook, and twitter aren’t the only digital tools that can help you keep up with the latest trends, ideas,...

Please Login to comment
3 Comment authors
  Subscribe  
newest oldest most voted
Notify of
saralynn24

One of the things that I love about my ipad is that I don’t need a keyboard. It may be beneficial to have keyboards available for those who would prefer one.

Vote Up0Vote Down 
5 years ago
| View Replies (1)
Kathleen Diver

Thanks so much for the sage advice. I will be passing this along to our tech guys for when we eventually get class sets of devices.

Vote Up0Vote Down 
5 years ago




Trending

What Is Bloom’s Taxonomy? A Definition For Teachers

What Is Bloom’s Taxonomy? A Definition For Teachers

November 22, 2019
479k

20 Ways To Provide Effective Feedback For Learning

November 25, 2019
264.2k

50 Ways To Use Bloom’s Taxonomy In The Classroom

November 3, 2019
143.1k

100+ Bloom’s Taxonomy Verbs For Critical Thinking

December 6, 2019
199.8k
Load More




Grow

  • Podcast
  • Curricula
  • Newsletter
  • Books For Teachers
  • PD Events

PD

  • PBL
  • Technology
  • Assessment
  • Inquiry Learning
  • Differentiation
  • Request Info

More

  • About
  • Terms
  • Contact
  • Feedback
  • Privacy Policy
  • Cookie Policy

Follow

  • Facebook
  • Twitter
  • YouTube
  • Instagram
  • Pinterest
  • LinkedIn
No Result
View All Result
  • Critical Thinking
  • Teaching
  • Technology
  • Learning
  • Literacy
  • Podcast
  • Newsletter
  • Professional Development

Copyright © 2019 TeachThought, LLC | Kentucky | United States | Global

wpDiscuz