We've Started!

The last week has been crazy! The iPod touch devices were delivered on Friday, Sept. 11th. That Saturday, Valarie, Jennifer, and I attended a workshop about Macs and iPod touches. We were really eager to use our new technology in the classroom A.S.A.P. (and so were our students), so we put a top priority on figuring that out this past week. Jen had already been hard at work on a PowerPoint on Figurative Language so after we got the Mac, she successfully converted it to Keynote (on the Mac). Our hero!

The workshop we attended on Saturday suggested we use Garage Band for podcasts, so Valarie, Jen, and I had our first recording session last Wednesday after school. The recording went pretty smoothly, but when we were done, that's when the problems began. When we tried to put the images from Keynote into Garage Band, it took Jen some time to match them up with the proper narration, but she persevered! Then, when she put it into iTunes, only the voices were available, not the images. By this point, it was late. She had been working on this way too long, already, and really needed to get home. (The problem with our Mac is that right now, we are unable to get it to open at home, so we've had to do everything up at school). I thought I'd look at it one more time after she left, and I realized that you can narrate on Keynote and that it appears in iTunes with no problem. It's so easy (but from what we were able to tell, if you mess up, you have to start all the way over). I checked to see that it would open in iTunes, and it worked there, too.

The next day during our planning period, the three of us recorded our narration, AGAIN, in Keynote. We got it into iTunes with ease, and we were ready to roll. I also had some movie clips from WingClips (Inspirational Hollywood movie clip downloads licensed for church or non-profit viewing) that I wanted to get into iTunes for a lesson on Conflict. I had them saved in RealPlayer on my Dell, but could not figure out how to get them on my Mac. I was going to just download them again on the Mac, but the internet wasn't working. Finally, by Thursday afternoon, the internet worked on the Mac, so I was able to get those downloaded on the Mac. They were saved in QuickTime, and I figured out a way to convert them to put them into iTunes. Success!

In our classrooms, we made efforts to prepare our kids for using the iPod touches. Valarie had her kids come up with their own contract for using the iPod touch, and Jen and I made one that we had the kids sign. Our 8th Grade Pre-AP students were at the spot in our curriculum where it was time to review figurative, so on Friday we did a three group rotation. One group has Silent Sustained Reading, one group took notes and did some independent practice on figurative langauge using the video we made (from Keynote) that was on the iPod touch, and one group worked on an activity connected to our class novel. Students were given about 20 minutes in each rotation. They seemed VERY focused when they had on the headphones and were taking notes. It was amazing the differences I saw between that version of reviewing a concept and when we do it whole class. If we had used that same video with the whole class, there would have not been as much engagement. Jen agreed that the rotations worked really well in her class. Of course, there are some kinks to work out (mostly with the focus of the other two groups who don't have the technology), but we look forward to discussing that and trying it again with our Academic classes. I actually was able to use the videos with my Academic classes on Friday. The students were supposed to view the movie clip, figure out the type of conflict it showed, and explain the conflict. The students were either doing their Silent Sustained Reading or were viewing the clips. It was amazing to see how those students were focused when they had on their headphones and that little screen. The other kids who were waiting for a turn were mostly really focused on their book. I would say a few students were a little distracted, but this was a Friday and the first day of using the devices. I would not say they were really any more distracted than they would be on a regular day. That was my most challenging class, and yet they still did well.

This next week we'll try the rotations with our Academic classes. We're ready to use the iPods for some different types of activities, as well. It's just that we need time to figure everything out. I think having the time to be as creative as we want to be will be one of our greatest challenges. Also, we feel bad because this year we don't have the same planning period as Melissa. She was sick and did not get to attend the workshop last Saturday. She's very good with technology and a quick learner, but we really counted on being able to team with her during planning time. I filled her in on what we've been up to, but I want to make sure she has enough support. Maybe this blog will help? I don't know. I know I would not have been able to make any of this work in my classroom this past week if it weren't for my team members. This is all happening so fast. It's a total whirlwind. Jen has grad school two nights a week, and this is Valarie's first year of teaching. They are doing a great job balancing everything.

Also, the Dell mini laptops arrived on Friday. We have not even had a chance to think about those. I think we'll wait until we get info on the Gmail accounts before we start to worry about that. This is exciting, but a little overwhelming.