My students were very excited to see that we would be using the iPad again today. Everyone wanted to be the daily microblogger, and one of my Grade 1 students was thrilled when she found out that it was her turn. Below is a screenshot of the tweets from the @avivadunsiger account that she used to post her updates.

Just so you know, “plaster seen career” is really “plasticine creature.”:) Reading this tweet got me thinking about @dougpete‘s comment on yesterday’s blog post: how does “suggested spelling fare with inventive spelling?” I know that the iPad would have automatically corrected her spelling error for “creature” with “career,” and since this Grade 1 student doesn’t know the correct spelling for “creature” yet, she wouldn’t recognize the mistake. This makes me think about my approach to editing. I am going to have to show the students how to proofread their tweets, and not just assume that all words without a red underline are correct. Now that my LCD projector is working again, I can demonstrate this tomorrow, and then see what happens. Will this help the students with their spelling and with their editing skills too? I’m excited to see the results!

In addition to our tweeting activity, some different students used the iPad during Buddy Reading Time today to record their reading. Below are the links to two of the readings:

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When going through the recordings today, I noticed that some of the students had difficulty getting a new audio file set-up. A couple of the recordings were saved at 0 seconds. I know that the groups problem-solved this together, but with the SMART Board up and running again, I think that we need to review the Audio Memos app. Tomorrow I will have the students that know how to use Audio Memos teach the rest of the class using the Document Camera. I’m interested to see the results. Has anyone ever done this before? I would love any words of advice!

For an additional iPad activity, one student used the iPad to write about patterns for a Math Centre. @techieang recommended using Write Pad for word processing, so this student tried it out today. She was finding the writing part difficult, as the letters tended to overlap. With the LCD projector out of commission for the day, I wasn’t able to do a good job demonstrating how to write using this app, and I think that this was the reason for the problem. She problem-solved by choosing to type her pattern instead, but I would like to work more with the “printing” potential of this app. Tomorrow, I will use the document camera to demonstrate how to “print” on Write Pad, and get students involved practicing too. I think this will help. Does anyone else have some advice for what might work?

A special thank you to my amazing PLN that has taught me so much about the iPad in such a short time too! I know that these past two days have been so successful because of you. I look forward to learning even more from you in the coming weeks. Thanks for always being so willing to share!

Aviva