Ms. Carter in Sixth: Utilizing Your iPad in the Classroom

In addition to the many fabulous resources I gathered up at Arizona K12 Center's week long retreat (Camp Plug and Play), I was most blown away with how I AM NOT properly utilizing my iPad in my sixth-grade classroom! I was so thankful to have my 'eyes' opened to what I could do within the classroom (even if I only have the singular iPad). First and foremost, most teachers were interested in how to 'mirror' their iPads (or other mobile devices) to their computer so that the contents could be shown through a projector, but yet kept the iPad mobile and not 'tethered' with a 'dongle'...most would say that Apple TV does this quite nicely, and it does, but there are other options out there as well! Let me introduce you to Air Server. This download is marketed at as gaming mirroring device, but I assure you, that for the price, it is a great resource to mirror your mobile devices to a 'projectified' computer! Try the seven-day trial and see what you think!

We started off the first day of 'camp' with introductions using 'Educreations'. This is a recording 'whiteboard' app in which you can drop pictures, sound (your recorded voice), and written explanations onto a class website or simply view as written material completed (or better yet, have a student share how to solve a math problem to the whole class using Air Server!). Educreations is an app for the iPad and is also available as a computer application/web site.

As we moved through our retreat week, we (the teachers) completed many activities as we were able to experiment with many 'fun' apps. (Did I mention that all the apps we used were free? Of course many had the option to upgrade!). Here are some apps that stood out...Just tap on the icon to get a description of the app!

Towards the end of the week, we took a QR Code 'Scan'venger Hunt and one of the tasks was to order a food item at the cafe using a foreign language...crazy right?!? Well, Google has an app to help you translate languages - that was the easy part! I then used the 'Comic Touch Lite' app and the 'Splice' app to create my mini-movie...