One of the goals of my project was for the students to increase their digital literacy and show their learning different ways. A variety of apps were used throughout the year for various projects. The other day during science I asked the students to summarize what they learned during a lesson about living and non living renewable resources. The students were to post their learning in Seesaw.  It was great to see the variety of ways students demonstrated their learning.

A few students choose PicCollage. Here is a sample:

Other students used the drawing feature in SeeSaw and  used the comment section to write about their picture.

Another student recorded a video of himself explaining his learning.

 

In Social Studies we were studying early explorers to Canada. I found a great interactive activity created by the Government of Canada to celebrate Canada’s 150^th called Journey to the Arctic. http://canada.pch.gc.ca/eng/1435340710904. During this activity students experience an expedition in the Arctic via short video clips on youtube.com. At the end of each clip they have to make a choice of what to do next. I didn’t want the students searching youtube for the video, so I added a link in every student’s Social Studies folder on SeeSaw(which was very easy to do).

I was away the day the students completed the activity. It was great to read their comments about how much they enjoyed the activity.

Unfortunately autocorrect changed the name of the student I was responding too. I can’t figure out a way to edit my comment.

During the last few weeks students have been reading Stone Fox by John Reynolds Gardiner.  We are using a book club format to discuss the book. We set up a reading schedule and groups meet twice a week to discuss the book. Each group member is required to ask a deep thinking question and answer the questions posed by their group members. Students are encouraged to explain their thinking using evidence from the story.  As the teacher it is hard for me to meet with all the groups and make sure the other groups are on task, so we are using the iPads to record the group discussions.  I really enjoy listening to the students ideas and it is great that I can hear each group’s discussion. Students use the video feature in the camera to record their discussion.

I tried to email their discussions so I could post them but wasn’t able to send the emails for some reason. I am going to ask groups this week to use Seesaw to record their discussions so that I can post some examples and  so that parents and other students get to  hear the discussions.

 

 

Adding work to Seesaw is very easy for students to do. When students sign into the app they are have a choice of how they would like to upload their work.

Once they have selected how to upload their work, they select the folder to add their work to. I made folders for each subject.

Students have added a variety of work to their digital portfolios using the drawing (math example from previous post) and video tool. They have also uploaded photographs of their work from the camera roll.

Most of the work students have added from the camera roll are photographs of their art work. I have them use the camera on the iPad  because they can edit the photo better using the editing features in the camera compared to SeeSaw.

Here are some examples of student art work.

 

 

Here are two examples of videos students uploaded. Students made little booklets for their finished product for an assignment based on Adrienne Gear’s Writing Power.  The focus was writing to help the reader visualize. The students combined the senses and similes to help the reader visualize a colour.

 

 

When work is uploaded to Seesaw the students, parents and myself have an opportunity to comment or “like” the work.

 

In math the unit we are currently working on is Multiplying and Dividing Whole Numbers. We just finished a lesson on multiplying 2-digit numbers. We began by modelling problems using base ten  blocks and counting the blocks to find the answer. Then we used the app, Number Pieces, to make an array using the base ten blocks in the app. Next, we drew diagrams similar to the arrays we built using the Number Pieces app. We called this diagram a box diagram.  The final strategy we learned  was partial products. When solving problems the students use the strategy that works best for them. Today they made a video in SeeSaw to demonstrate their understanding and describe the strategy they would use to solve a 2-digit multiplication problem.

Using the Box Diagram

 

Partial Product Strategy

 

 

Students selected the drawing feature in SeeSaw. This feature has a record button so students can make a video of what they are writing/drawing and add audio. It was easy for the students to use. The only thing they did not like or were unsure about was how their voice sounded on the recording. Once there drawing/video was complete they could preview it before saving.

 

The iPads that we received from the SET-BC project have arrived! On Tuesday, December 8th, I am meeting with our district technology leader to set up the iPads. I have a long list of apps to add! Some of the apps include: Seesaw ( this is what we will be using for our digital portfolios), Padlet, QR scanner, PicCollage, ShowMe, Thinglink,  Animoto and many more. What apps would you recommend?