Everyone Can Create

"That the powerful play goes on, and you may contribute a verse."

I am very excited about Apple's recently released Everyone Can Create series.
What is great about the books is that it guides students and teachers step by step through the process of using iPads to create music, videos, drawings and photos. It has tons and tons of resources.
The guide also includes curriculum ideas as well as rubrics. It has never been easier to discover the power of iPads. I was reminded of the iPad commercial from 2014 that quotes Walt Whitman

Check out the ibook guide here.

Treat of the Week: Speaking Up

Congratulations to LKDSB Core French Teacher Joanne Badder on releasing a book on the iBooks store!  This great resource shares how Joanne uses a variety of open-ended apps to help students become more confident with oral communication. While Joanne focuses on the use in the French classroom, her ideas could be easily applied to other languages or even simply to increase student confidence in oral communication in their first language.  Download it for free on iBooks!

Treat of the Week: Community Connections

Congratulations to Holly Vaughan for publishing her classroom story of making connections with the broader community including a local retirement home!  Holly shares the story of how her primary classes have reached out beyond the walls of the school.  You can download the book for free on the iBooks Store:

Treat of the Week: Creating "Choose Your Own Adventure" Stories

Congratulations to LKDSB's own Allie Kelly who recently published her first multitouch book to the iBooks store!  Allie's book shares how her students created Choose Your Own Adventure stories using Popplet and Book Creator for their narrative writing unit.  Her book does a wonderful job of laying out the entire writing process and takes you through the technical steps needed to turn your Book Creator book into an interactive text.  Download it out for free on iBooks!

Treat of the Week: Math Before Bed

LKDSB's own Jon Orr has written a book that brings the wonderful experience of reading a bedtime story with children into the math world.

"Math Before Bed is a collection of prompts that can inspire mathematical discussions that you and your children can have before bed, at dinner, or anytime. Each page in this book shows you and your child a perplexing problem. Sometimes there is one right answer and sometimes there are many right answers The purpose of each question is to generate a discussion about HOW you determined an answer."

Head over to the website to see daily prompts or buy a print or iBooks copy of the book.  You can also get the daily prompts by following Math Before Bed on Twitter, Instagram, and Facebook. 

Innovate with iPad Book

Innovate with iPad gives a selection of clearly laid out, engaging, open-ended lessons to change the way you use iPad in the classroom.

What's So Great About It? 

• Easy to use, specific lesson ideas for K-3 students that can be modified for older students
• Ideas for numeracy, literacy, science, and social studies
• Uses only five key apps so the focus is on the learning rather than the tool
• Use the ideas whether you have one iPad or one for every student
• The book includes access to online task cards 

What Are Others Saying About it?

"In this thoughtful book, Kristin and Karen, two masterful educators, provide practical and approachable ideas for using open-ended tools to help students demonstrate understanding and reveal their learning processes. This is an invaluable resource for anyone teaching students in early elementary school with any kind of technology access. The ideas shared in this book unlock the power of technology to transfer agency to learners, meet them where they are, and lead them where they need to be." 

-Dr. Reshan Richards, co-Author, Blending Leadership, Department of Math, Science & Technology, Teachers College, Columbia University, Chief Learning Officer and co-Founder, Explain Everything