Masterpiece for Osmo

Masterpiece for Osmo is now available in the app store. It's their 4th activity. My students have been fortunate enough to have been beta testers for the app so we've been using it for awhile.

The app, in my mind, is like 21st century tracing paper. Students start with a drawing (on the iPad) and the lines of the drawing are projected onto paper for them to trace. The initial drawing on the photo can be something from the Masterpiece gallery, a photo students take, or something saved in the camera roll. In that sense there's a lot of flexibility. In addition students can add items as they draw that are not in the original and they can color it in.

Photos in the camera roll are arranged by subject. There are items to trace of differing complexity--from a very basic outline to something that looks like an art student's work.

Although fun and enjoyed by the students, it has been harder for me to come up with meaningful classroom uses for this app compared to the previous 3 apps, but here are some ways we've used it.

--pick an animal from the gallery, label with existing means of protection and then add 3 adaptations that don't exist that would help the animal further protect itself

--2 students draw the same item and compare their drawings (not for whose it better but for similarities and differences), I did however pair students with similar artistic ability

--students drew a character for a narrative they wrote which will be the story cover

--practice correctly writing letters and numbers (this they wrote on lined paper rather than blank paper)

--outline items from a photo, add in something that isn't really there and see if a partner can find it, use clues as necessary

--on day 1 give students about 5 objects and a balance and have them determine relative weight of the items. On day 2 students take a picture of the balance to draw with a new item in the balance and 1 of the objects from day 1. Based on how the new item and the object from day 1 compare in weight students draw the balance with the new object on one side and one of the 4 objects from day 1 that they no longer have access to. How many of those objects and which ones do they need to add to make the scale balance?

--free choice activity

2 Day Whirlwind at SXSWEdu

I was fortunate enough to attend SXSWEdu on Tuesday and Wednesday with the backing of Silicon Valley Education Foundation.

I had a chance to meet with several app developers, both some that I have connected with previously and some whose apps I hadn't yet experienced.

Here's a brief wrap-up of some of the sessions I attended.

It's Elementary, My Dear: Primary is BOSS--good refresher for me of where to focus--choice, voice, differentiation

Portal2--cool game-based learning, probably beyond what my 2nd graders would do, but it was fun to watch the experience

Cartography--I loved this presentation by some National Geographic representatives. I was excited to learn about 2nd grade resources on their website  http://education.nationalgeographic.com/education/activity/exploring-maps-and-models/?ar_a=1

Project Designers--a good review of some of my Buck Institute training, especifically about how to get students to inquire and collaborate

iBeacon--probably my favorite session of the whole conference. I learned how to use Locly to make iBeacons work. I had access to some iBeacons last spring from an instructional coach, but we were unable to get them to actually do anything. Now I know how to get content to my students. Locly seems easy to use and has many variables that can be altered, such as duration and distance.

Then it was off to be a teacher shark at #SharkTankEdu, sponsored by Silicon Valley Education Foundation, Innovate NYC Schools, and Leap Innovations. The companies pitching at the event were Kiddom, Wonderlib, Steriome, and Improveclass. It was a fun opportunity and a great chance to meet other teachers. I had a chance to meet many of the active member of #dtk12chat.

The Butterfly Effect--expeditionary learning, great reminder to model, allow time for peer critique, and make work purposeful

Personalized Learning--think high expectations with hands-on, make students do the work, they are never "done"

Innovative Thinking--getting kids to be inventors, take a problem and ask them to use everyday objects to model a solution, take an everyday object, how else can it be used

WeCollabrify Apps for Comparing Kids in Fiction to Real-life Friends

About 2 weeks ago we started a unit comparing kids in realistic picture book fiction to real-life friends (and self). After completing the 1st 6 books groups of 3-4 students completed a WeKWL chart with their findings. I asked them to focus on behaviors and feelings of the book characters.

After reading an additional 4 books students added to the L column of the chart.

In different groups, 3-4 students used the same 10 books to create a WeMap focusing on feelings of different characters and what caused those feelings. They also made connections to themselves, relating similar events that caused the feelings in their own lives. Each student was assigned a different color so I could easily determine who had added each node.

I formed new groups, still with 3-4 students per group, and asked them to write at least 6 examples of specific behaviors of the realistic characters that they could relate to on a personal level. They used WeWrite.

Finally, groups of 2 students created a WeSketch with 2 boxes. Once box showed a scene from one of the books. The other box portrayed a similar scene from one of the students' lives.

Bully Description and Story

In anticipation of writing longer narratives, students are working on the building blocks that go into making an interesting story. After some whole class modeling, pairs of students webbed a description of a bully (tying into a recent Project Cornerstone lesson and some recent school behavior). They used the web to write a paragraph describing their character.

Robot Stop Animation and Story

Students started their project by working in groups of 3 to build a 19 piece robot from Legos. They filmed the building process using the stop animation app My Create.


My Create Stop Animation

Next, they took a screenshot of their completed robot and annotated the photo using Skitch. The directions for this part were to label 4 or more body parts using an adjective.

We watched the video short "Powerless" on https://www.literacyshed.com/the-inspiration-shed.html.

Students storyboarded a short story in which their robot solves a problem. Finally, they created their story using Toontastic or PuppetPals.

Toontastic video

More Six Thinking Hats Practice

As a class we mapped Corduroy using De Bono's Six Thinking Hats (see March 7, 2014 post). This year students followed that up by switching partners and mapping My Lucky Day by Keiko Kaska. For this map they used WeMap with each student in charge of 3 of the 6 hat colors. Prior to submitting both students had to agree with what their partner had written.

Butterfly Reports in Pages

We are cycling back to our insect unit in preparation of silkworm eggs arriving next week and also to practice report writing.

Students read a variety of leveled texts about butterflies, both paper books and in the Epic app.

Each student determined 4 categories to focus on for their report. Reports were created using a postcard template in Pages.