Storyjumper

Hi girls!

Today I would like to share with you a web application that we learnt with Yolanda at the beginning of the subject. This is www.storyjumper.com and it’s a web page that allows you to create illustrated books with very easy tools.

Storyjumper is a tool for developing writing stories and creativity and it also allows you to publish the stories that you have created. For creating a book we have an easy menu where there are text tools, images (props), a set of templates to create the first pages of the stories and a tab that lets you upload images from your computer.

This web application has even the option of creating a book cover and a dedication for the story so it gives you the opportunity to personalize totally your creation. 

This activity can be used for children of primary and by using this web application, children would be working more on HOTS (High order thinking skills) activities since they can create a new story and evaluate and analyze the final product.  

This kind of activities promotes children to use some skills such as reading and writing. Moreover, students could also work on other skills like speaking and listening if the stories are represented afterwards. 

TinyTap! The old ones and the yougest all engaged

Hello girls!

Laura and Ariadna are writing the entrance this time! Today at class we’ve been discovering some new apps to use on our iPads: TinyTap, Toontastic, amongst others.

We’ve decided to create an activity with the first one; this is Tiny Tap, which is an app that allows you to create and customize different sort of games for kids using your iPad.

In this case we’ve created a simple game to work on vocabulary related to farm animals, find the explanation below ;)

In the screenshot you can see on the left, the students will hear three different questions: 

Where’s the pig?

Where’s the yellow animal? 

Which animals says BAAH? 

Once they will have listened to these questions, they will need to point the correct answer.

The second activity consists of putting all the geometrical shapes in the right place to create an animal (in that case a rooster ;))

Once all these shapes will have been put in the right place; the students will hear a question: 

Which animal can you see? 

As you can see in the following picture they will have different options: Pig, Rooster, Horse and Cow.

This game has been thought to be designed by the old students (4th or 5th grade) for the youngest ones. In this case the ones creating the game are developing their HOTS (Creating) while at the same time they will be working with all the language features as this exercise will imply reading, speaking/producing, listening and writing. On the other hand, the youngest ones are working on LOTS skills such as understanding and identifying, and developing some language features, specially listening. In this way there will be also a cooperative work in which the older students will have to take the responsability to create quality exercices adapted to the youngest ones.

Finally, take into consideration that this activity can be applied in different ways. Taking the essence of making the old students create a game for the youngest pupils in the school; we can also ask them to work on other topics (the school, the street, our town, there’s an infinity of aspects we can work on). The important here is to give them the chance to discover this app, providing the proper basis to start using it of course, but allowing them to work autonomously and in cooperation with their classmates.

Hope you find it interesting!

All our best,

xxx

The use of iPads as an educational tool. María and Laura posting and learning

The use of iPads and tablets as an educational tool is nowadays one of the emerging trends in society. Therefore, in the last Master’s Degree ICT class we were introduced to the use of this very sophisticated technology in schools. Maribel Benito, one of our ICT teachers, was the one leading this task.

First, she lectured us about the proper use of this resource and showed us how they use iPads in Jesuïtes Bellvitge, the school where she works. From what she showed, it looks like her school has a very carefully developed approach towards the use of technologies in the class. For instance, to deal with iPads and technologies, the school has created within its ICT program the role of technology leaders. These leaders are chosen and trained to help their classmates and teachers. They are several in each class and they are chosen among the students that are good with technologies. In regard to iPads, she told us that the real potential of this tool lies in the fact that children can easily create and share their own personalize learning materials and projects.

After this short lecture, we had the chance to explore the iPads and use them as if we were children. To do so, we used two apps, Book Creator and Bitsboard. 

With BookCreator we created a short story with photos, video, and audio. We must say that when we run out of time it was hard to stop working. It was then when we realized how powerful, engaging and motivating this tool and apps are. If you wish you can check out our creation.

With Bitsboard, we first created a series of flashcards and then some games. We found this app amazingly useful because the teacher and the students can easily create personalized flashcards with image, audio and written word. Then, ones you have the flashcards the app creates a wide range of games to work on this language.

Charter of Games

Unscramble

Wordsearch

Odd one out

Related to the application of these tool in the school, we thought that Book Creator could be used to create all sorts of stories. For instance, students could create stories for different moments of the year, like Christmas, Halloween, and Easter. Or could they do short narrations around different topics like, for example, "the story of their lives", "their holidays", "an innovative cooking recipe", or the "step by step documentation of a class project". We also thought that this tool could be used to work on the stories presented in the class. For instances, taken the story of The very hungry Caterpillar students could create their own version or make their own summary with pictures, screenshots, videos and audios of themselves while performing or even drawing the story. In this way, the story will be worked in depth and the students will have a repertory of personalize materials related to the story.

Moreover, Bitsboard could be used in the classroom, as mentioned above, to create personalized flashcards and work on language in a more meaningful way. We would do this by encouraging the class to take pictures and create their own flashcards. We also thought that we could use the games generated by this app to work in different Study Areas or to deal with fast finishers (those children that always finish earlier than the others).

Therefore, Book Creator easily prompts HOTS (High Order Thinking Skills) activities in which students can create, evaluate and analyze. And Bitsboard is an amazing tool for working on LOTS (Low Order Thinking Skills) like remembering, understanding and applying.

IWB - Interactive whiteboards

Currently most of the classes in the schools have Interactive whiteboards and it is actually a very good tool to use in the teaching-learning process.

The proper use of this tool helps to develop more dynamic and showy lessons and it helps to increase children’s participation. Moreover it can be used with students of all ages and in all the different subjects.

Regarding to my experience I used IWB several times in different schools but my experience was rather poor because I used it as a computer. Therefore I did not use it at all as an interactive tool.

I created two different activities to be used with IWB. The first one is developed with the Lesson Activity Toolkit 2.0 and it is a memory related to the Trafalgar Square from London.  

It is a LOTS (Lower Order Thinking Skills) activity and it is based on remembering and understanding.

The second one is more complex and it is a HOTS (Higher Order Thinking Skills) activity. It is a creating and analyzing activity and it consists in creating a new Trafalgar Square. There are different images of objects and parts of the real Trafalgar Square and children can make up a new Trafalgar Square putting the images in the white spaces.  

The different pictures are locked and children can move them but not modify them. The pictures have also a recording and every time a person touches the picture there is a sound of the name of the object touched.      

Both activities are created for P5 and it is important to make a previous knowledge and to work on the different vocabulary.  

Myself

Hello everybody!!!

My name is Laura García and I am from Rubí a city near Barcelona. I am 23 years old and I am an Early Childhood Education teacher.

I finished the degree almost two years ago in the Faculty Blanquerna, in Ramon Llull University and last year I was working in Dublin as au pair. It was a really good experience that I would recommend to live at least once in a life. This experience allowed me to put into practice the knowledge I learned in my degree with the children that I was looking after and to improve my knowledge of the English language. I also did an online course at the Faculty of Administration and Information (CMIT) in Ireland on Child Psychology FETAC Level 6.

Currently I am working in Departament d’Ensanyament as English teacher and I am studying the Masters in Teaching and Learning of English in Primary Education and Childhood Education which I believe will complement my knowledge and my experience, providing great value to my career.

Regarding to ICT I should say I am not very good at it but I am pushing myself in order to improve in this area. Using new technologies in schools is a reality and because of that I decided to do this optional subject.

Since two weeks ago I am using Symbaloo and I think it is a very clear and easy tool to use on day-to-day. Using social bookmarking lets you share internet links with other people and also the possibility of discovering new internet pages. In this way as teachers it becomes a great tool to be used in the class since it allows you keep interesting internet addresses and the chance to access to them from any device with internet. Nowadays I am also using Flipboard and I have to admit that I am hooked, I have it on my phone and it lets me to be kept up with all the latest news.

Well girls now it is your time, looking forward to know more about you.

Laura