Launch Grant 2012-2013: Using iPads to enhance 2nd grade music class

Below are comments about a variety of apps I found on iPad.  Some I used in 2nd grade classes.  Others I might like to use next year, and some are better for younger children.  There are many fun ones, and some very sophisticated.  My goal was to try to help the 2nd graders do something they couldn’t do without an iPad.  I think that goal was achieved when the children played music on iPad instruments.  I plan to continue using iPads next year - there is more to do!

Apps used in class:

Learning about instruments:

MSO Learn from the Melbourne Symphony Orchestra

Kids can hear an entire orchestra play, and then listen to each section of the orchestra playing the same piece. Also has bits played by each instrument solo, and recommendations for further listening available on iTunes.

Super Flash Musical allows kids to identify musical instruments by sound, as well as through pictures.  Free, or can upgrade for more instruments.

Learning Music History

Classical Kids Student's Edition.  Stories about famous composers.  2nd Graders  listened to "Vivaldi's Ring of Mystery", a story set in 17th century Venice, and told from a child's point of view.  This had been part of the 2nd grade curriculum for several years using a CD.  It was helpful to the children to have still pictures to enhance their ideas of the period, and the vocabulary they heard.  Several other composers’ stories are available as apps, but the amount of time it takes to listen makes it prohibitive to do more than one story a year.

Making music:

Toca Band - experiment with different characters in different “jobs” in a band.  In each level the character’s sound becomes more complicated until, at the top level, the character is the soloist. Lower levels include bass line, harmony, rhythm. The children who tried this loved it.  They suggested sharing their “bands” with the class by plugging in to the interactive whiteboard.  The board does not have an interface with the app, but it does project so that the whole class can see what the individual student does on the iPad.

(Dr) Seuss Band.  Learn to play songs by touching colored dots that float in the rhythm of the song.  Change the sound of instruments at will.  Earn more levels of difficulty and more songs.

The kids who are taking piano lessons like this one a lot.  The song that the app plays is introduced at various levels of difficulty.  Fun!

Music Sparkles allows kids to create songs on a variety of instruments. Choose other instruments to accompany. Try to play with the beat of the accompaniment.  Find and remember a sound combination you like.  The second graders loved this app, but it would have been great if they could have jammed.  The only approach I found was to have them work with a partner, listen to what that partner did, and try to add something to it.

Apps not used by the children this year:

Smule - this is an amazing app, but needs more support than our present iPads offer.  There are several different “instruments” available.  The piano is played by tapping colored dots that float rhythmically down the screen (similar to Seuss Band).  An ocarina can be created using an iPhone.  By blowing into the top of the phone the sound is produced.  The fingering is on the screen held between the two hands with 2 or 3 holes on each side.  The app offers several different popular songs, and individuals can join the band.  As with Garage Band, the person playing along has to be quite competent on the instrument in order to play at the proper tempo, with the proper pitches and rhythm.  Smule is another way to “Jam”.  

Garage Band (see apps used by the teacher)  The instruments available in garage band are incredible. They can be set up and played in ways that would not be possible on a non-digital version of the instrument.  Given more time, 2nd graders could play endlessly with the sounds on Garage Band.  Similar to Music Sparkles in the creative arena, but with the sounds of real instruments.  

I watched the entire instruction series of youtube videos to get a grasp on how to Jam using Garage Band.  It would require more equipment than we have at this point in time, and would be difficult to do with most second grade children.  Better for middle or upper school students - or their teachers!

Monkey Drum have the monkey copy your rhythm.  When my 9 yr old grandson got hold of it he had the monkey spinning it’s head around.  This app is ready for any age!

Singing Fingers - finger painting with sound.  As you make a sound you also draw on the screen.  The sound is saved, linked to the drawing.  Playback occurs when you touch the picture drawn - can be reversed, scratched.  The sound follows your finger.

Piano Pad - records songs on a keyboard labelled with letters for each key.  Shows the notes being played on a staff simultaneously.  Lots of options for playing with the song recorded.

Pitch Painter - by Morton Subotnick  Draw a melody with your finger.  Then play with it - invert, play backwards. Global music component allows choosing instruments from different parts of the world.  Change one “painting” to instruments from different continents.

Go Go Xylo - choose a prerecorded song.  The app shows how to play the song on a colorful xylophone.  The notes for the song are highlighted in music notation.  With or without singing the words and/or accompaniment.

I Can Xylo - leads you through playing a song by highlighting the note to press on a xylophone. Good for younger kids, or anyone inexperienced on a xylophone.

Apps used by the teacher:

Garage Band - this is a handy recording device for live recording of children’s performances, using the microphone option. The file can be sent via e-mail to a computer where editing can happen.  I haven’t determined whether there is a music editing app for iPad, so I edit the files on my computer using Audacity, a free download.  Little children love to hear themselves singing, so I recorded various different class throughout the year, and they enjoyed listening.  Sometimes the recordings are used for performances in the gym where it’s nice to have the security of the students being able to sing with a recording of themselves.

-Ada Park Snider

Launch Grant 2012-2013: Interactive Online Program for Elementary Spanish

For the launch grant, I worked with Sparkito, an interactive program for exploring languages. While the program worked fine when I used it in the classroom, I also wanted to use the other feature of the program, which is to allow students who need support to work with the program at home. It ended up being a frustration for many students since the program had too much vocabulary, which was presented at too challenging a pace. The songs also had too much vocabulary that sometimes made it hard for students to understand. The program was mostly used in first grade, but I gave home access to students from different grades. The illustrations in the program were too juvenile for students in second grade and up, which was also a limitation.

I do have to say that I was frustrated myself with the program and happy that I had time to explore it before purchasing a big license for the school.

During the process, in one of our school meetings, Mrs. Lavenberg did a presentation using an app called “Explain Everything.” I got very excited about it, and with the remaining money available from the grant I purchased USB drives. I am currently creating material that children can take home to practice the content we explored in class, and I will also use it in the 2013-14 school year.

-Carolina Gomez-Kramer

5th Grade Update- April and May in Review

5th graders have spent the last two months programming in a LOGO environment.  LOGO is an oldie but a goodie.  I used it myself as a 5th grader.  It is a great piece of software for the students to use in the spring because it aligns perfectly with the math unit on geometry.  Students programmed a turtle to move around the screen, drawing pictures, and they used their math knowledge to calculate the interior angles of polygons to draw shapes.  Every class they built on their previous knowledge to learn LOGO commands, write their own commands, introduce variables into their commands, and combine commands to create more complicated commands.  For example, each student taught their turtle how to draw a square by writing their own square command and how to draw a triangle by writing their own triangle command using the following commands that the turtle already knew: repeat, forward, and right.  They then combined their square and triangle commands to teach the turtle how to draw a house.  The final culminating project was getting the turtle to draw a scene related to their science "Project O" field trip.

iPads in Math Classroom

With my wonderful, 7-student, 7^th grade class, we set off to explore Explain Everything on the iPad.  We were motivated to try this because there are often more students who want to present their work and their thinking than are able to do so, within our time constraints.  We thought that by using Explain Everything, all students would have the opportunity to articulate their thinking in addition to presenting their written work.  Their first assignment was to explain how they would graph a quadratic equation without making a table.  The example below demonstrates both areas of the student’s understanding as well as some misunderstandings that we could then address.

The night after this homework, class began with a litany of concerns/complaints.  We wrote them on the board and then a student snapped a picture on his iPad and mailed them to me.

As can be seen, students had numerous technical concerns with Explain Everything.  Feeling a bit down on technology, I then asked if there had been any advantages to working on the iPad, and the students jumped in with appreciation! 

While the “fun” component of the work might eventually wear off, students found that voicing their thinking helped them to better understand the material.  This was a key finding.  And, students wanted more Ipad work and were brimming with ideas!  Based on their input, we decided that for the next homework, rather than completing a hard copy of a worksheet with quadratic tables, they would complete a PDF of the worksheet in Explain Everything or Notability.  After numerous challenges with sending the files, we concluded that Notability was the preferred program when not recording voice and that it was best to save the image to a photo roll and then save it to a Google drive folder.  Great progress – much more exploration to be done! 

Randi Currier

MS Math 

iPads in English Classroom

This past fall I experimented with expanding the use of iPads with my 7^th grade English class.  We used the iPads in a number of ways: as a communication tool within the class, as a reading/annotating tool, as a tool to share ideas during class, and as a tool for creating projects.  The students each borrowed a school iPad and during our study of Before We Were Free and our Myth/eReader project.  Students borrowed a single iPad, which they used in school and at home.

Communication tool:

            I posted class assignments, handouts, and other resources on our class website.  Having the iPad at their fingertips allowed students to access these materials at anytime at home, in class, study hall, etc.  Aside from saving trees, the iPads proved to be a great way for seventh graders to keep these materials on hand and organized. 

                       

Reading/ annotating/classroom sharing tool:

            Active reading and annotating are skills central to our English teaching in the Middle School.  Students had always practiced these skills in their traditional paper texts.  With this novel, however, students had both the paper copy and eReader on the iPad. I asked the students to read at least the first two assignments in the novel, complete with their active reading, before they chose which form of text to use for the unit.  They did their active reading using the tools available on the eReader itself.  Without exception, students chose to read and take notes on the iPad.  After the initial “Cool” phase, followed by the “Wait, this takes more steps than on paper” phase, they saw real benefit to notating on the iPad.  The active reading “sticky notes” could be as long and detailed as they chose, and they invariably wrote much more; they could easily highlight in a range of colors, thereby color-coding the topics (yellow is characterization, pink is foreshadowing, etc.), and the page remained neat and easily readable.  In addition, the iPad allows them to list and search their notes for easy reference later.  Perhaps the best benefit, from my point of view, was that the students could project their annotations on the Smartboard, and we could discuss their note-taking strategies and ideas as a class.

            We used Notability as their tool for taking notes in class.  Again, students loved the easy organization.  And again, we could project their class notes on the Smartboard to discuss note-taking skills as a class.  During one particular lesson, students used Notability to make a character chart illustrating the complex relationships between characters.  They were creative with the app and projecting their work on the Smartboard made sharing and refinement of ideas much easier.

Projects: 

            We did three projects using the iPad:  Trujillo research/Timeline using Timeline Maker), Flyers using Infographics, and illustrated myths using Book Creator.  The students conducted research online and illustrated with Drawing Pad, Scratch, and other online tools.  With few exceptions in converting online illustrations onto Book Creator, students found the process for these projects pretty easy to master.  

Betsy Canaday

English, Department Head

Launch Grant 2012-2013: Kindergarten iPads

This year’s iPad Launch Project in Kindergarten North has been a huge success.  When we originally agreed to implement the use of six new iPads in our classroom, we were hopeful that they would assist with our documentation of student work (through photos, videos, and note-taking) and help to reinforce our students’ academic learning (through math and literacy apps).  What we did not expect is how well the iPads would help us in addressing and assessing students’ individual academic needs.  After almost a full school year with these devices, we have found that the iPads have been an invaluable addition to our lessons and daily routines.   

The benefit of having iPads for teacher-use was immediately apparent.  From the very first day of school, we were able to take photos and videos of our students and their work with the ability to see the footage instantly and on a large screen.  Notes, observations, and dictation of the students’ descriptions of their artwork, block structures, and more could be taken immediately and easily saved on these devices.  If the children wanted to see what a certain African animal or building in Boston looked like, it could be pulled up quickly on the iPad and displayed for the entire class to see.  Additionally, we have downloaded a terrific selection of children’s audiobooks for the students to listen to during Literacy Stations and Rest Time.

The impact of the iPads on our students’ academic learning has actually surpassed our expectations.  We spent the summer researching various math and literacy apps on our own and through professional development – searching for activities that would reinforce the content that we covered throughout the school year.  We found numerous apps that focused on important Kindergarten skills, such as hearing beginning sounds in words (Sound Sorting: Beginning Sounds app), matching letters with their appropriate sounds (Super WHY app), letter and number formation (Letter School app), and how to sequence numbers (Mathlandia app).  An unexpected benefit of having the iPads was how well these devices allowed us to differentiate instruction based on specific students’ needs.  One child could use a particular app to practice his/her sight words, while another student could work on identifying teen numbers.  Certain apps, such as Smarty Pants School, even have built-in assessments that identify areas that an individual student needs to work on and then provide activities and games that strengthen those particular skills.  We have had a positive experience using these iPads in the classroom, and we are excited to discover additional ways to incorporate them next year.   

iPads in English Classroom

This past fall I experimented with expanding the use of iPads with my 7^th grade English class.  We used the iPads in a number of ways: as a communication tool within the class, as a reading/annotating tool, as a tool to share ideas during class, and as a tool for creating projects.  The students each borrowed a school iPad and during our study of Before We Were Free and our Myth/eReader project.  Students borrowed a single iPad, which they used in school and at home.

Communication tool:

            I posted class assignments, handouts, and other resources on our class website.  Having the iPad at their fingertips allowed students to access these materials at anytime at home, in class, study hall, etc.  Aside from saving trees, the iPads proved to be a great way for seventh graders to keep these materials on hand and organized. 

                       

Reading/ annotating/classroom sharing tool:

            Active reading and annotating are skills central to our English teaching in the Middle School.  Students had always practiced these skills in their traditional paper texts.  With this novel, however, students had both the paper copy and eReader on the iPad. I asked the students to read at least the first two assignments in the novel, complete with their active reading, before they chose which form of text to use for the unit.  They did their active reading using the tools available on the eReader itself.  Without exception, students chose to read and take notes on the iPad.  After the initial “Cool” phase, followed by the “Wait, this takes more steps than on paper” phase, they saw real benefit to notating on the iPad.  The active reading “sticky notes” could be as long and detailed as they chose, and they invariably wrote much more; they could easily highlight in a range of colors, thereby color-coding the topics (yellow is characterization, pink is foreshadowing, etc.), and the page remained neat and easily readable.  In addition, the iPad allows them to list and search their notes for easy reference later.  Perhaps the best benefit, from my point of view, was that the students could project their annotations on the Smartboard, and we could discuss their note-taking strategies and ideas as a class.

            We used Notability as their tool for taking notes in class.  Again, students loved the easy organization.  And again, we could project their class notes on the Smartboard to discuss note-taking skills as a class.  During one particular lesson, students used Notability to make a character chart illustrating the complex relationships between characters.  They were creative with the app and projecting their work on the Smartboard made sharing and refinement of ideas much easier.

Projects: 

            We did three projects using the iPad:  Trujillo research/Timeline using Timeline Maker), Flyers using Infographics, and illustrated myths using Book Creator.  The students conducted research online and illustrated with Drawing Pad, Scratch, and other online tools.  With few exceptions in converting online illustrations onto Book Creator, students found the process for these projects pretty easy to master.  

Betsy Canaday

English, Department Head

4th Grade Update- April in Review

4th graders have been particularly excited to come to technology class over the last couple of weeks because we have started using Scratch.  Scratch is a programming environment created by the MIT Media Lab's Lifelong Kindergarten group about 6 years ago.  If your child is really interested in Scratch, it is available for download FREE from the scratch website.  A new beta version of Scratch 2.0 is also available if students want to explore it.

Students have been learning how to use Scratch by completing the Scratch cards provided by MIT.  This week students are also starting to learn how to use the LEGO WeDo kits with Scratch by completing the "Scratch and WeDo Getting Started" activities with partners.  Pretty soon they'll be building LEGO models that can interact with the Scratch programming environment with motors and sensors.

Tufts CEEO STEM Lecture series

After school on Monday, April 22nd, we attended the Tufts Center for Engineering Education and Outreach STEM Education lecture series talk given by Jim Slotta from the University of Toronto.  His talk presented "a recent theoretical model of collective inquiry called Knowledge Community and Inquiry, developed by Jim Slotta to guide the designs of complex collaborative inquiry curriculum for secondary science. Typical KCI designs are several months in duration, with students engaged in developing a shared knowledge base that serves as a resource for carefully scripted inquiry projects. In the past several years, Slotta and his team have advanced a sophisticated technology architecture called SAIL (Scalable Architecture for Interactive Learning) to provide scaffolding and real time analytic support for the sequencing of interactions amongst people, materials, tools and activities."  His talk explained KCI and SAIL, as well as a framework for smart classroom research called SAIL Smart Space.  He then presented three curriculum designs from current research projects.  One thing we connected with was the 5th and 6th grade science unit on life cycles using wallcology.

-Megan Haddadi and Jen Lavenberg

Middle School Students Study Biomimetics

Nice to see our middle school students having an experience like this...
" About ten seventh and eighth grade students from Buckingham, Browne, & Nichols School in Cambridge piled in a van and made their way up to Nahant on one of the rainiest, windiest days imaginable... Yep, that’s right — biomimetic robots... the neurological systems of animals like lobsters and bees, ... robotic systems whose mechanical circuitry mimics the animal’s neurological circuitry. This allows the robots to behave more like real animals capable of dealing with unforeseen circumstances."

Check it out on Northeastern's blog:

http://www.northeastern.edu/insolution/other/2013/04/biomimetics-for-middle-schoolers/

MS Belize Blog

Middle School teachers Ms. Schulteis and Ms. Tarshis are traveling to Belize with a group of students during spring break. You can follow their adventures on their blog at http://bbandn-belize-2013.blogspot.com/

4th Grade Update- March in Review

For the past couple of weeks, 4th graders have returned to Excel to create their second set of graphs.  Earlier this year in P.E. class students collected data on how many times they could dribble a basketball with their left hand, their right hand, and both hands both at the beginning and the end of their basketball unit.  In technology class students entered the data in Excel spreadsheets and created graphs which are now on display on the walls of the Lower School gym.

5th Grade Update- March in Review

5th graders spend their time in the technology lab in March reviewing Microsoft Excel by creating graphs for their state fair posters.  They also had a little bit of free time playing 50 states games online.  As is the case every year, State the Plate was the class favorite.

5th Grade Update- February in Review

5th graders spent the month of February finishing their Colonial textbooks.  New this year- the students turned them into online flipbooks, which is a very exciting new element of the project!  Final projects can be viewed here.

4th Grade Internet Safety- Digital passport Summaries

In January and February, 4th graders completed the following Internet Safety lessons:
Communication: Twalkers- Students learn why it's important to avoid multitasking with a cell phone. They consider the benefits of focusing on one task at a time.

Family Tips

Privacy: Share Jumper- Students evaluate examples of online messages. They decide what information is appropriate to share and when. Students are also reminded that nothing is truly "private" or "erasable" online.

Family Tips

Cyberbullying: E-Volve- Students make choices about what to do if they or their friends are cyberbullied. They are encouraged to "evolve" into an “Upstander” – someone who takes action to stop cyberbullying, rather than standing by.

Family Tips

Search: Search Shark- Students learn how to choose effective keywords for searching online. They practice selecting keywords that are most relevant to a search prompt. Along the way, students discover hints for narrowing their search results.

Family Tips

Creative Credit: Mix-n-Mach- Students remix media content to create a new creative piece. Along the way, they give proper credit to the artists whose images and sound clips they use.

Family Tips

6th Grade Internet Safety

This week 6th graders are starting their Internet Safety unit in technology class.  We are going to use CommonSense Media's Internet Safety lessons on safety and security as well as privacy and digital footprints, in addition to using their "Digital Passport" program.  The lessons will take us all the way until March break.  Helpful resources for parents are linked to below.


Safety and Security

• Safe Talk Online
• Safe Talk Online- Family Tip Sheet (Middle School version)  
• What's the Big Deal About Internet Privacy?
• Family Tip Sheet on Online Security (Middle and High School version)
• Strong Passwords
• Private and Personal Information
• Family Tip Sheet for Online Security (Elementary School version)

Privacy and Digital Footprints

• Trillion Dollar Footprint
• Family Tip Sheet on Protecting and Respecting Privacy Online
• Oops! I Broadcast it on the Internet!
• Family Tip Sheet on Privacy and Digital Footprints (High School version)

Digital Passport

• Communication "Twalkers"
• Family Tips on Cell Phones
• Privacy "Share Jumper"
• Family Tips on Privacy
• Cyberbullying "E-Volve"
• Family Tips on Cyberbullying
• Search "Search Shark"
• Family Tips on Search
• Creative Credit "Mix-N-Mash"
• Family Tips on Respecting Creative Work