1st Graders Create Their First Caldecott iMovie

As a followup to reading this year's Caldecott award winning books, each of the 1st graders put together their own iMovie!  It gave them an opportunity to learn how to create a video in iMovie.  For their movies, they learned how to add images of the books and reorder them based on their preferences. They recorded their voices, took "selfies", added background music and even learned how to manage the Ken Burn scrolling effect.  It was a great learning adventure!!

Screencasting in Quicktime - Who Knew!!!

Here are the step-by-step instructions for screencasting in Quicktime!  Check it out!

And The Winner Is....Green...at Least at OHE!

Every year, the nation's childrens' librarians wait for the announcement of the year's Caldecott award winning books. These books are considered by some to be the year's best children's picture books.  This year, when the nominees where announced, I quickly ordered each of them on Amazon.  While I awaited their arrival, I created a YouTube playlist of the book trailers for each book. Once the1st graders viewed the trailers, they joined my enthusiasm!

We decided to take our own class vote to determine who we wanted to win.  I created a simple survey in Google Forms to gather our votes.  First graders gave the first place award to the book Green. On January 28, the Caldecott winner was announced and the winner was This Is Not My Hat.  Oh well...we like that one too!

Google Blogger

When I began asking students to respond to questions on a blog I created using Blogger - a Google free application, I was excited to try something new with students. Along the way, I found that it was an excellent way to publish students writing.  The students immediately "bought in" to the thought of having their words online.  I found that they didn't want to stop writing!!  They were keenly aware that their audience just grew.  It just doesn't get better than that!  Next I would like to have each student have their own blog with posts reflecting their learning from a variety of subjects. 

Presidental Election Comes to Oak Hills - November 2012

The 2012 Presidential Election Comes to Oak Hills! by Slidely - Slideshow maker

MEMO Conference - October 2012

My friend and colleague, Paula Hansen and I were given the opportunity to speak at the annual MEMO conference in St. Cloud, Minnesota.  We spoke to a packed house of educators who seemed genuinely interested to hear about our experiences teaching with iPads.  We were able to talk about what we had tried and what we had learned, our successes and failures.  As our presentation neared an end, we opened it up to questions.  The questions led to wonderful conversations with everyone in the audience contributing.  This was my favorite part!

Library Scavenger Hunt With QR Codes

 

It is a new school year and we have iPads in the library!!!  I traditionally start each new school year by reintroducing (introducing to new students!) the library to returning students.  What a great opportunity to try out our new technology.  I introduced the app Red Laser to students.  This app allows the user to create QR codes that once scanned, will connect to followup websites or messages, often advertisements.  It is not uncommon to see QR codes in stores and magazines. For this lesson, I created the QR codes before students arrived.  I placed the QR codes in areas and on items that I wanted student to see around the library.  Once I demonstrated how easy it was to scan QR codes with Red Laser, I sent students on a scavenger hunt to find the QR codes. As student located and scanned each QR code, I asked them to record what they found in a Google form.  This way we could have a followup conversation about what they learned from each QR code.