Odds and Ends

Originally Posted: Feb.5/14

I wanted to spend a little time going through a few work management routines.

Showbie- the digital in and out box. This app is proving to be a favourite with several teachers. After setting up the class and reminding the kids to always send their work as a pdf file, when returning it to the teacher, things look really good. The paperless classroom is becoming more of a reality. The in-app annotation feature is a big hit, since marking, and student responses are all in one place.

TeacherKit- this app allows for a digital record of marks, anecdotal notes and student contact information. This app manages communications, like quick notes to one kid, or parent, or sending out a class newsletter to all parents and students by the press of a button.

Air Server- this program can be found at http://www.airserver.com. It it downloaded onto your MacBook or PC by buying a licence ($12 for teachers, $3.99 each if you buy 10). Make sure you get the Mac one if you are using a Mac. Then, when using a MacBook to run your Smartboard you need to be using a connector (which may or may not come from the board….don’t know yet…and is worth $35). Once the computer with airserver is connected to your Smartboard, just have each kid engage airplay and it will find your computer.

Then, everyone, including you, can display your ipad screen on the smartboard. Cool!

SyncPad – This app allows up to four students to collaborate together using their iPads. One person sets up a whiteboard and the others just join. What is done on one is done on all. So far, I have only seen a few happy faces and squiggles – but, with some imagination I think the collaboration will become much richer.

NearPod and an online site called Padlet are my next experiments.

FYI- if your school can give me a day of the week or a day in the cycle that works best for a regular visit (morning or afternoon or whatever), it would be much appreciated.

Thanks

Rick
TTC