Apple Distinguished Program Award

On Tuesday, March 20, representatives from Apple "officially" presented our Apple Distinguished Program Award for Project iAchieve at the Creighton School District Governing Board meeting. Five representatives from Apple were in attendance, including Apple Education Consultant, Dr. Dan McCormack. Dr. McCormack nominated Creighton's Project iAchieve for the award. We proudly join the 49 programs that have been given this award over the past 5 years.

Dr. McCormack presented the award to our district superintendent, Dr. Boyle. We were honored to have Dr. McCormack attend the meeting to present the award but even more honored as we listened to his presentation documenting the success of our project.

Three of our iAchieve classroom teachers were in attendance also and shared the posiitive influence iPods have had on students academic achievement and technology literacy. Several students wrote letters about how much they love having iPods. One of the students attended the meeting and read her letter to the governing board. It was really impressive to have them all in attendance with us.

We are looking forward to continuing and expanding Project iAchieve over the coming years. Thanks Apple!

Comments

Digital Science Fair Projects

At the end of the year, many of our schools hold school wide science fairs. Students plan Science fair project tri-fold display board and implement projects and then present the process and resulting data on tri-fold display boards much like this. One class decided to go green and do away with using display boards. They conducted their experiments and recorded the data but rather than create paper reports they used their iPads. Project Data Graphs The students took pictures and video and created graphs and other visual representations and imported those into the Explain Everything app. During the science fair, students brought their iPads to the school's multipurpose room and presented their projects to attendees right from the iPads. In addition to using digital tools, these students are also developing their listening, speaking, and presentation skills - all vital to college and career readiness.

Holt Interactive Graphic Organizers

Check out these online graphic organizers from Holt: Holt Interactive Graphic Organizers The site has over 30 graphic organizers for a variety of tasks. Each graphic organizer is interactive and can be downloaded onto a computer with Adobe Reader and be filled out right on the computer. There are also Teaching Notes available with tips and lesson ideas for each organizer What we really appreciate is that they also work on the iPads! Using the "Open In" feature in an IOS web browser such as Safari or Chrome, you can import the graphic organizer into the Adobe Reader app and easily fill in the fields. Students can then take a screenshot of the completed graphic organizer to share with their teacher or import into another iPad project.

T. A. G. Strategy

We want our students to reflect on their own work but also to be able to give effective feedback to each other. This is true for writing, conversations, or digital work. It's tough for us as adults and even more difficult for our students - no matter the grade level. As we have started using Seesaw ( https://web.seesaw.me/ ) and its student Comment feature, I've seen lots of "I like ..." and "That's cool" comments. Not very meaningful. I recently came across this simple strategy called T.A.G: Tell, Ask, Give. An easy to remember acronym and a good way to get students started in making effective comments. I've seen several variations but like these descriptors for the acronym: Tell - something you learned or was meaningful ("like" if they are specific about what they like) Ask - a question Give - a compliment or recommendation (depending upon the purpose for the comment) Download a pdf here . Here are some additional

Suzanne's Ed Tech Reflections

Search This Blog