iPads Mania

Our calculus teacher was tutoring a student on a Friday.  He forgot to mention a crucial part of the solution. He emailed the student the critical part to the solution.  On Monday, he asked the student, "Did you get me email?"  The student replied,

     "No, I never check my school email!"

Solution: Create a trigger and action using IFTTT.  IFTTT is so simple, a teacher almost can't afford to not offer it to their students.



Great thing about this was that I created the trigger and action on my iPhone in front of the teacher.  He sent me an email and the text showed up on my iPhone.  Demonstrating how it worked so quickly was a selling point!
Video Link

Saving video to an iPad from Google Drive was not possible until I found a solution courtesy of one of our IT people, @kenwestphal.

Collaborating with multiple students on different iPads or taking video with an iPhone or iPod was a difficult task because the Google Drive app only allowed downloading of images for use in iMovie.  Using the G Drive (Green) app now allows for videos to be imported into iMovie once the video is uploaded to a student's or teacher's Google Drive account.

If students are recording video using an Android device, the video will need to be converted before G Drive will import it into iMovie on the iPad.  We use Any Video Converter.

G Drive (Green) App
Google Drive App

View how it works!  Don't forget to have students log out of the G Drive app.


Video Link

I searched for a web tool that students could write a book about Canada and would, according to a middle school teacher,

• Drag and drop pictures or easy to insert pictures from web or upload
• Easy to add text
• Embed on blogger
• Log In with Gmail or easy to create an account
• Chromebook or laptop/desktop

I learned about Printing YouTube video clips from SLATE!

The directions are easy.

The result lands in your Google Drive or on paper.

The Trading Card activity was taking to a level by Mrs. Brylski that actually had the students print the Trading Cards and trade!

Video Link



Impact On Students:
Creativity:  Students needed to decipher the information that should be placed for each question.
Collaboration:  The discussion that incurred during the trading of cards was pretty in depth.  Some great feedback was provided for each student by each student.

Today, was a classic "go slow to go fast"!

Mrs. Vertz has decided that a Google Hangout would be the best tool for an "at home" review session. Prior to today's lesson, Mrs. Vertz walked through information for setting up personal accounts.  We spent an entire class period dedicated to setting up personal Gmail accounts.  We needed personal Gmail accounts so that Google Plus and Google Hangouts could handle more than one person.  Our district has decided that Google Plus will be enabled for teachers only.

The best way to connect students was for the teacher to search Google Plus for the exact email address that students created for their Google Personal Gmail.

The mobile devices connected for a number of students as well as personal computers on our network.  We did run into a few error messages for students when connecting to Google Hangouts.  This could be for a number of reasons which we are investigating.

Tonight, we have planned a practice Google Hangout.

Video Link



Impact On Students:
Collaboration: A review session is a perfect time for staff and students to pool their resources together to master a topic.  With Google Hangouts, many people can review together in the comforts of their own home or on the go!
Critical Thinking: Students will have questions and both students and staff will determine the best answer. With Google Hangouts, screens can be shared and therefore, resources can be shared!
Citizenship:  Students needed to create personal Google accounts.  Connecting with the proper students from the class was a lesson that forced students to choose the correct contact.