Notes on From Notepad to iPad

Notes on From Notepad to iPad

Page	Quote	Notes
3	“Unfortunately, as much as the teachers and administrators in my school knew the importance of technology, we had to make do with what we had.”	I definitely could see some districts dealing with a lack of current technology or little access.  Utilizing students’ personal devices would be a decent alternative, though not every student will have the same level of tech access.
5	“As an English and public speaking teacher, part of my job is to teach students communication skills… However, I fail to regularly teach this important skill mainly due to the fact that it is not assessed on standardized tests.”	It’s a shame that communication skills are given less importance in schools, especially considering that they are necessary in nearly every job and career path.  The move towards collaboration addresses this somewhat, but mostly indirectly.
10	“If my lesson focuses too much on technology, and I am not able to formatively assess whether or not students learned the lesson’s target with regard to the Common Core, I need to adjust my lesson to do so.”	This reasserts the notion that using technology for the sake of technology adds little to a lesson and can even be a detriment.  Staying flexible and using the “monitor and adjust” mantra will be important when designing lessons that use new technologies.
14	“I also made the mistake that teachers often make in their first year of teaching.  I dwelled on the two students who broke the rules.  I did not celebrate the fact that 128 other students followed my directions.”	I liked this anecdote on keeping perspective on discipline issues.  Blowing your top at an entire class for the misdoings of two students does little to build rapport with those same students or their 128 peers.
26	“Then, a colleague introduced Schoology to me.  Schoology is a learning management system that allows for true collaboration within the classroom.  Think of it as Facebook for the classroom.”	Sounds pretty similar to Edmodo and Ning.  I wonder how Schoology matches up to those sites.  From what I can gather from the website, the class page seems more isolated than Edmodo, which has communities available for instructors and students outside of the class group.
34	“All in all, Schoology allows students to take tests on the iPad that can then be submitted to the teacher and submitted to the teacher and automatically graded depending on the types of questions.”	The ease of assigning tests through 3rd party website is tempting, but I worry about the temptation for student collusion.  I would steer clear of multiple choice or one answer questions unless the grade was weighted as participation or homework.
40	“More importantly, Storybird is a safe place to publish writing.  The Storybird staff constantly monitors comments by users.  Negative comments can’t be published; in fact, users can’t even publish books with words such as “shut up.”	This level of censorship seems a bit over the top for me as a perspective high school teacher, however, I can see the merits for younger grades.  It takes a great deal of thick skin to weather some of the comments posted by less considerate Internet denizens.
53	“Whenever I bring up the subject of poetry during public speaking engagements, I usually express my disdain for teaching it.”	I can relate to this as I have mixed feelings about poetry.  I could not care less about Chaucer, but I love Bukowski.  As a writer of self-labeled “bad poetry,” I feel that poetry is something that needs easing into before being bashed over the head with Shakespeare or Canterbury Tales.
62	“To make this paperless (poll anticipation guides), I use Poll Everywhere.  With it, I can create up to 10 free polls with an account.	Using SurveyMonkey may be a better option.  Their accounts are free and I am not aware of limits.  Graphic representations might limited however.
72	“I asked students on the first day of class, for them to log in to Animoto and create a 30-second “About Me” music video that would encapsulate who they are as a person.”	I like the idea of using this activity as an icebreaker.  It allows students to become acquainted with their class tech device, provided there is one available, and gives students a chance to express themselves more creatively than most icebreakers.
81	“To help, students can show their understanding of figurative language through whiteboard apps.  Explain Everything, ShowMe, and ScreenChomp are all whiteboard apps available in the App Store.”	Having students create resources on specific types of figurative language then compiling these resources together on a site like Schoology seems like a good way to interweave different technologies into the core class website.
84	“The app (iPoe/iPoe 2) is, without a doubt one of the most interactive apps that I know of when it comes to reading.  If you turn up the volume, you can hear creep music as you read.  Some pages are dimly lit and you must use light to read certain sections of the page.  There are different figures on some pages that you can manipulate as well… …This has revolutionaized the way in which I teach tone and mood.”	This app sounds amazing and exactly what I envisioned the future of reading to become with the advent of reading devices.  I love reading Poe, but his poems and short stories already go over well with many students so I can only imagine the immersion potential similar apps could have with works like The Scarlet Letter or Shakespeare’s plays.
86	“Students pinpoint specific language from the short stories to determine Poe’s attitude and how he sets the mood in each piece.  All in all, the app truly helps in the instruction of these difficult literacy techniques.”	Analyzing the app creator’s craft alongside Poe’s craft of the poems could also lead to a project where a class works to create their own interactive poem or short story, with students adding in their own images, sound effects, and music.
91	“If you want specific student data, socrative.com and the app is a fantastic tool to use in the classroom.  I have used Socrative when I needed to obtain all sorts of data.  In essence, Socrative is an app and a website that allows teachers to quiz students or obtain feedback after a particular lesson.”	I doubt use this app or other polling apps for anything more than a short quiz for participation, as I am not a huge fan of multiple choice questions, but I do like the idea of getting student feedback after a lesson.  This gives students active participation in their own education and allows them to direct the course of the class.
106	“To give an example, while reading The Crucible, I wanted to quickly review theme with my students.  We had discussed it quite a few times throughout the course of the school year; thus, I simply wanted to review the definition and have students post a theme onto a Padlet page.”	This use of Padlet is perfect for teaching theme as it assesses whether students understand the concept of theme and also nails home the point that most literary works have multiple themes.  The opportunity for collaborative learning and later discussion of these themes is really cool.
114	“…I go to answergarden.ch, create an AnswerGarden, and from there, type in a topic or question.  I then give students access to the room like any other chat room, through the use of a QR code.  From there, students answer the question.  As I refresh the page, new answers appear. The more students that type in the same response, the larger the text appears on my screen.”	I like the visual representation of student responses with this web site.  It certainly is more presentable and easier to immediately read responses than a graph or chart, while achieving similar results.  Gauging students’ problem areas anonymously alleviates the pressure of publically announcing you do not get something.
132	“With the iPad’s FaceTime and Skype apps, the potential to broaden the audience in Speech class definitely makes the future of public speaking truly exciting.”	Utilizing Skype or other VOIP programs to have students give speeches to or debate with other English classes would be a way to tap into the different audiences that these technologies make available.