Wednesday, May 21, 2014

Earth Day In The Art Room

On Earth day I asked my Kindergarten students where they thought paper came from.
 "That's easy!" came the reply from a lively little boy. "It comes from the printer. You click on the app on your computer and ask for paper and it comes out of the printer."
And so, yet again, evidence that our children are growing up in a world where computers are the answer to their questions.

Imagine their surprise when I showed them this short film about how paper is made along with Curious Cat who has a pair of learners exploring a paper making factory. We continued to explore ways in which we could "Help The Trees" by using less of the paper they made. They came up with some solutions as to how we could draw without using paper.  Using the iPad we photographed their ideas to remind us of these actions in future lessons.

I then uploaded the photographs they took to Showbie where my Grade 4 students accessed the pictures. Their task was to turn the pictures into an educational poster which represents ways to save paper.
Leen (Grade 4) made use of Pic Colage.



Grade 5 students were assigned the task of creating a decorative "nature" poster.
We wanted to save paper for this project so it had to be a digital piece of art.
They had to use a drawing app of their choice. Once their picture was complete they opened it in a photo manipulation app to add effects and a third app to add text in the form of a slogan referring to an action which could be taken to aid the Earth. They enjoyed this app mash up. We discussed their progress on Showbie where they uploaded their final product.


Ayah (Grade 5) was innovative by creating an app mash up of Doodle Buddy, Repix and Educreations .

We are working hard at being "Green" in the Artroom.

Monday, May 19, 2014

Secondary Financial Market - Scavenger Hunt

Our Finance class at AAM traveled to the Dubai Financial Market, Emirates Islamic Bank, and Emirates NBD. The girls learned about Sharia Laws, ladies banking, and banking and investment options for college students. These were topics previously examined in class. They also traveled to Festival City and took part in a marketing scavenger hunt that brought to life concepts that they had learned in class. iPads and phones were used to capture each piece of evidence as the girls traveled around the mall. - Ms Melissa
 

Thursday, May 15, 2014

Focus on Secondary Language Arts - Future Animators

ENGLISH 12 iPAD PROJECT:

Students in groups of 2-3, created a presentation of the summary of ACT 1 of HAMLET using an iPad or Macbook application.
Possible apps they could use:

Flipboard
Animoto
Garageband
iPhoto
iMovie
ShowMe
Educreations
StopMotion
ComicLife
iBrainstorm
Puppet Pals
Toontastic
Popplet
etc...
 
View this sample of their creative, collaborative work.
by Ms Raheela

Wednesday, May 14, 2014

Becoming Published Authors - Students create learning resources





Grade 4 students have been working alongside their teachers, Ms Laura and Ms Heather, along with their Writers workshop coach, Ms Jenette, to create their own books about influential woman in the Gulf Region.

"First we had to choose our topic, do research, write our non-fiction piece and edit it before we were able to use the publishing software. " - Jenin 4B

We are eagerly awaiting the arrival of our printed books which we will share with the library for future use in Social Studies.

Sunday, May 11, 2014

Focus on Secondary Science

Learning about the parts of the atom can be really dull and boring, but with this simulation - the students were saying "this is fun"..... by Ms Monique

This is a free website of science/math simulations. There is also a professional learning community complete with lessons submitted by teachers and approved by the developers. You can expect some high quality materials.
I selected a lesson plan that included a pre-test, activity and post-test. The students were shocked by their improvement from pre to post test. There is also a game that goes along with this simulation.

Since it is free, no subscription is needed. Simply go to the phet.colorado.edu website and browse the simulations. It takes time to look at the activities and suggested plans, but it is well worth it. I cannot think of a better way to teach about protons, electrons and neutrons.

Thursday, May 8, 2014

New Beginnings For Grade 3

WEEK 1
Grade 3 students are allowed to bring in their own devices to use in class only when requested by the teacher to do so.  Next year 2014-15 we hope to include them in our full BYOD program.

This week I requested that they bring their iPads along to art so that I could introduce them to the joys of Showbie.

This is what we did so far.



We will continue to use Showbie in our Stitching class so that students can document their progress by photographing their work, receive feedback from the teacher, ask questions and access further resources for their course.

Learners can show their progress to their parents as their Showbie app is on their device and accessible at any time.

WEEK 2
Learners photographed their work at the end of the first stitching lesson and uploaded it to Showbie. It was effortless for me to view their picture and give them suggestions and goals for the following lesson.  They are able to view tutorials which remind them of their task.



Tuesday, May 6, 2014

Focus On Science - Collaborative Learning & Presentations

Gr. 2 students were guided by their class teacher to use Explain Everything to create presentations of their research on water bodies. The class could rotate between groups and learn from each other's presentations while on a fact finding mission.
Gr. 2 Science, Language and Tech Integration from Nadene Jennings on Vimeo.

Focus On Art




10 Tech Activities in the TRENDY Art Room
Learners have the opportunity to make use of their own devices in the art room. There are two class iPads which are used by students who do not have their own device during that lesson. Students reflect and share their work via Apple TV.
Here are some activities learners have been engaged in while using their devices in art:
1:  Searching images for ideas and inspiration – Safari; My 3-D Gallery
2: Researching specific artists or art related topics – Safari
3: Making use of drawing tutorials during a self-study unit
4: Accessing artsonia.com via QR Codes to create their online gallery and add their artist statements-
5: Creating “how to” videos – iMovie
6: Creating art for entertainment – “Puppet Pals” – Puppet Making unit
7: Picture manipulation apps – Percolator
8: Comic book creation with art images – Comic Touch
9: Drawing apps which allow voice recording for audio comments on their work – Draw & Tell
10:  Mind Mapping apps for reflections at end of units or discussing planning and resource lists –Popplet


How Does The Use Of Tech Help Students Learn?


Student Centered Learning from Nadene Jennings on Vimeo.

The Journey Has Begun!



Welcome to AAM's Learning With Technology blog. Check in with us regularly for updates on how learning is changing in our school. Come and see how our students develop independence in their learning and how they use tech integration to perform tasks previously never imagined in an everyday classroom.