App Smashing and Rhyming Words

It's an easy app smash that you can do with your students to reinforce those rhyming words.  This whole app smash came about after a conversation with one of my awesome colleagues, Mrs. Hansen.  She had been having her students use the iPads in her classroom to scan a QR code that would display a word.  Her students would then think of and recite a word or two that rhymed with the scanned word.

We did a little talking and planning, and before you knew it, we had created a little app smash to reinforce this simple lesson.   Here is the app smash recipe:

Here is how you can use this app smash in your classroom with your students:

1.  Create a whole bunch of QR Codes that link back to rhyming words (can, car, bat, etc.). Laminate them or store in a 3-ring binder in protective covers.   I like to use QRExplore.com when needing to create a bunch of QR Codes at one time. It's an awesome tool for this. 

2.  Have students scan the QR Code.  Let's say that the word that it's linked to is "bat."  Now have your students open the Pic Collage app.

3.  Let students customize their background as they really like doing this.  Have your students add the word "bat" to their Pic Collage.  Have them make this word fairly large by two finger pulling.  

4.  Now have the students add three words to their Pic Collage that rhyme with their original word.  For example, I would add "cat," "hat," and "brat" to mine.  Have students two finger pinch to make these words smaller and drag them to where they want them in their collage.

5.  Now, let's have the students add an image from within the Pic Collage app.  Have students add an image of their original word by tapping on "web images" in Pic Collage. Drag and place the photo that they choose. 

6.  Five finger pinch to close Pic Collage. (It's a simple move I teach all our students.  If you have multitasking gestures enabled, simply take your hand with all five fingers spread apart and pinch them together quickly. This will close the current app, allowing you to work in another).

7.  We are almost done.  Why not let them create a drawing of one of the the words that is on their collage?  Have them illustrate one of the words using the Doodlebuddy app.  When they are done with their drawing have them save it to their photo album.

8.  Double tap your home button to reveal apps that are open.  Choose the Pic Collage that we have been working in.  Tap to make it full screen.  Add your Doodlebuddy illustration by tapping on "photos" and adding it to your Pic Collage. 

9.  Have students add their names.  Now, you could save this artifact to your library so that we could embed it into a future blog post using KidBlog or you could simply have your students email it to you so that you could do whatever you like with it!  

Happy Smashing! 

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Great Apps to Complement Your iMovie App

The iMovie app could possibly be my favorite app on my iPad.  It's a versatile app that can lead to a whole lot of creation in your classroom  Yes, I know that iMovie on my MacBook Pro has all the bells and whistles, but I believe that the app has all the ingredients to make some pretty powerful products in your classroom.

I love the fact that the app allows our students (and us) to make thinking visible.   There are so many ways that you can use iMove in the classroom.  From knowledge to comprehension, every level of Bloom's taxonomy is easily addressed using the iMovie app.  I plan on teaching our K-5 students how to use the iMovie app in the coming weeks and I can't wait to see the creativity that is generated!

The best thing about iMovie is that you can use it with a lot of other apps! App Smashing?  Try using iMovie as the final app to display your app smash.  Just drop your products in from the photo library, do a voice over and you have created a product that allows you to showcase the learning happening in your classroom!

I have created a folder on my iPad of apps that I use to supplement some of the videos that I produce. Here are some of my favorites:

Prompterous ($1.99) Planning on doing a newscast or something that would be nice to have a script that was written ahead of time? Purchase this great teleprompter app that has all the goodies (and then some) that you will need.  I like the fact this app will allow me to import scripts that I have created in Google Docs! 

Teleprompter Pro Lite (Free) Very basic teleprompter.  This will suffice for most of your student created projects. 

IntroMate ($2.99)  Awesome app!  You can easily create professional quality intros and end credits for your movies.  They have several templates for you to choose from.  Just tap the template you like, edit it as you see fit, save it to your photo library them add to your movie within iMovie. 

Extras4iMovie ($1.99) I don't use this app enough.  You can add scrolling text to your movies, search within the app for HD backgrounds, photos and clip art to use in your movies. 

Movie Drops ($2.99) I find that the app is a bit pricey for what little it offers, but you get to choose from 24 different HD clips that you can save to your photo library.  Simply tap the record button within the app of the scene that you like, record for the amount of time that you want and when you tap the button to stop, the clip automatically drops into your photo library.

Intro Designer ($2.99) This app has an awesome collection of beautiful intro movies and credits that you can easily edit for your project.  I use this app a lot when creating movies on my iPad. One of my absolute favorites.  You can get the Lite version, but there are a lot more options in the paid version.

ImageChef (Free) Your creativity explodes when using this app!  Take your photos and do all sorts of things with them.  When you are done creating, save it to your photo library and add into your project in iMovie.

Canva (Free)  I love Canva!  When it first came out it was only available on the web, but it's now an app and you will LOVE creating all sorts of things with this app.   With Canva, you can choose from over a million layouts, stock photographs and illustrations to create some pretty professional looking products. Customize your creations and add your completed products to your iMovies!

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Talking Turkeys and Pilgrims!

It's a simple app smash that can be completed with a group of students in about 30 minutes. Originally, I was going to have each student create a ChatterPix using something they created in their class that pertained to Thanksgiving (turkey, pilgrim, etc.), then upload each completed ChatterPix product to my YouTube page.  I was planning on creating a QR code that linked back to each ChatterPix the students created, then have students glue their QR code to their original piece of artwork.  The students would love taking this home and showing Mom and Dad how to scan the QR code!

Well, I had to go with Plan B because I was having trouble saving some of the ChatterPix to the camera roll on the student iPads.  I had a room full of Kindergarteners with no time to think!  They were getting anxious!

I had the students use my iPad to take pictures of their artwork.  When done gathering all our images, I sat down and smashed them all together into an iMovie.  I like to use the IntroMate app with iMovie, but it's not really essential.  Leave it out if you don't want to spend the $2.99 for the app. I completed our simple iMovie and uploaded it to YouTube.  I then used my handy, dandy goog.gl URL shortener Chrome extension to create a QR code of our iMove and sent it off to the teacher so that they could make copies for their students to take home along with the URL to our new "movie."

It's simple, it's easy to complete and students love watching all of their creations come to life.  Here are a couple of our movies.  Enjoy!

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Easy App Smash for the Primary Grades

It's a simple app smash that we complete in Kindergarten.  It might look like there are several steps, but it's really quite easy for students. Our teachers are extremely busy so I take care of uploading all of our smashes once in 30Hands to YouTube.  I then take each URL from YouTube, place them in QR Explore, download them and toss them into a Google Folder that I share with each teacher.

Completing this app smash at the start of the school year gives me the chance to teach the basics of some apps that students will frequently use throughout the rest of the school year.


Here is the recipe:

We use this particular app smash recipe to demonstrate some of the things our Kindergartners learned about apples.  Students create a Pic Collage of the different kinds of apples and then label it. Students learn how to insert images and and labels in Pic Collage during this step.  I have student then create another Pic Collage with the ingredients they need to make applesauce.  The students actually make applesauce, so this is really easy for them. They just need some help spelling the ingredients (water, cinnamon, sugar, apples) for their labels.  We add an image of each ingredient as well.  

Next, I have students use Doodlebuddy.  Students have to draw an apple and two foods that we can make using apples (apple cider, apple pie, etc.).  This is one of my favorite apps to teach because students love to draw!  Once the students are done with their Doodlebuddy, we save it to the photo library like we did when done with our products in Pic Collage. 

We are finally to 30Hands!  I have the students place the products they created in Pic Collage and Doodlebuddy into the 30Hands app.  I show them how to add their voice with each image and we now have a short summary of all that we learned about apples!  I can't wait to hand our students a QR code to their finished product!  They love it!

It's a pretty basic app smash, and I think that you could use it in a variety of ways in your classroom. I would love to see some examples of how you used this recipe!

Happy App Smashing!

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10 Activities to do on an iPad instead of a Worksheet

I always have teachers wanting to know how they can better utilize the iPad in their classrooms. I know that it's very easy when first receiving an iPad to take a worksheet that you have done for several years, and convert it to glass. But glass can be boring too, so I created this Breakfast Club session to give my teachers some ideas on ways to better utilize this powerful tool in their classrooms.
So the "activities" that I started coming up with started turning into all sorts of ideas and app suggestions.  I shared all of the ideas with the teachers that attended, but found myself particularly enjoying the conversations that we were having about some of the activities that are taking place in the classrooms at Aurora Public Schools.
Our teachers are doing great things with the iPads in their classrooms and it was great to have teachers share and learn from each other!  Here are some of the activities, ideas and apps that we talked about on how to better utilize the iPad in the classroom.

• Create
• Have your students CREATE using the iPad instead of CONSUMING.  
• Creation Apps 
• My new favorites to utilize more this year include Touchcast and Adobe Voice
• Present
• What if we allowed our students to demonstrate their understanding by NOT taking a written test? 
• Haiku Deck, Prezi, ThingLink, PicCollage, Keynote, Presentain, Deck, Tellagami, Zoobe
• Place word limits on slides
• Collaborate
• Get connected, it will revolutionize your classroom!
• Teachers all over the world are wanting to participate in collaborative projects. 
• Social MediaApp Suggestions-->Twitter, Hootsuite, Pinterest, Google +, Instagram
• Monster Project, Mystery Skypes
• Classroom Collaboration-->Google Drive, Padlet, Titan Pad
• Code
• It was called "programming" when we were kids.  Think of all of the career possibilities for the students in your classroom that pertain to coding, yet a majority of us don't integrate it into our curriculums.  Shouldn't we be doing more with coding in our schools?
• 7 Apps for Teaching Coding Skills
• How to Teach Coding in Your Classroom, Even if You're A Novice Yourself
• Explain
• Similar to presenting, but on a higher level
• Download Explain Everything immediately.  This is one of the best (if not the best) app that you will have on your iPad. (All students 6-12 will have this year)
• App Suggestions-->Educreations, ShowMe, Skitch, Adobe Voice, QR Codes (linked to Croak.it or 30 Hands product)
• App Smash
• Combining multiple apps to create one product.  (prior blog post)
• App smashing comes naturally to students.  Quit giving recipes (this is what I want it to look like) in your classroom and encourage app smashing! 
• Discover
• As human beings we are naturally curious.  Do you allow time to discover in your classroom? 
• Allow time for students to discover the "why" using the iPad, by searching for more information about something you are teaching/learning.
• Teach students how to better search on the internet using Google Operators
• Explore
• Discover and Explore are tied together
• Are you teaching your content in a manner so that it creates a curious environment? 
• Allow your students to explore using Google Earth, Google Maps, Social Media
• Assess
• Quit making trips to the copy machine and use the iPad instead!
• Socrative
• eBackpack quiz feature
• Edmodo quiz feature
• Google Forms
• Class Dojo
• Kahoot
• Zondle
• Communicate
• Create a Twitter hashtag for your classroom or school (#aurorahuskies, #ahsbio, #ahs109)
• Create a class Facebook page
• Create a class Instagram account (hashtag as well)
• Start blogging and sharing the awesome events that are taking place in your classroom!
• Create and share an Animoto  
• Use Remind to inform and educate parents. 

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"Extra! Extra! Learn All About It!"

Summer is a great time to recharge as a teacher.  It gives us that "time" that eludes us during the school year.   It's also my favorite time to teach teachers.  A very important part of my job as the technology coach of our district is to provide multiple learning opportunities for our teachers in regards to the educational technologies that are available to them.  I want these opportunities to be relevant and free of stress, and I also want teachers to be able to take something away that they can immediately use in their classrooms.

Last summer I came up with the concept of summer tech trainings that I refer to as "The Breakfast Club."  They are only an hour long and are on a variety of topics.  Teachers can learn how to become a connected educator, learn how to app smash, use social media in their classrooms,  to activities to do on an iPad instead of a worksheet.

The Breakfast Club was a hit, but I also wanted to differentiate for our teachers to best meet their individualized learning needs.  Not all learn well in a group setting, some teachers wanted a "guide by their side."

Starting this summer I will be offering a new learning opportunity called "Individualized Instruction." These trainings are tailored for the teacher in an one on one setting.  They simply email me with the details of what they would like to learn about and we set up a time to meet.  

What are you doing to make yourself a better teacher this summer?

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Thank you App Smashers!

Created from #appsmash4 hashtag using Tweetroot

Day four of the #appsmash4 challenge has come and gone...and I didn't complete day four!  I had every intention of sharing an app smash yesterday, but an old house got in the way.  Yes, an old house.  If you know me personally, you know that I have a weakness for old houses.  #colonyb is lucky enough to live in a 100 year old beauty and we absolutely love it. Well, long story short, a good friend of ours bought a 100 year old gem in our neighborhood and we ended up over there until 10:30 last night tearing up carpet after we figured out that there were beautiful oak floors underneath!  So much for creating sharing my day four app smash blog post as soon as I got home from golf practice.

After reviewing the #appsmash4 hashtag, I think you all had  it covered for me on day four.   All I can say is, "Wow!" Teachers from all over the world did an amazing job of sharing their favorite App Smashes.  I loved reading the tweets from teachers that saw something that piqued their interest and immediately went and turned a tweet they saw into an integration activity in their classroom(s).  Awesome!

Thank you to ALL that submitted and App Smash.  You all are doing amazing things in your classrooms.  Keep up the great work!

I want to personally thank Meghan Zigmond,  Sabba Quidwai, Holly Stachler  for their app smash contributions, and Stefanie Onieal and Jennifer Manning for having your students create and submit their app smashes!  If you haven't added these educators to your PLN, I would highly recommend doing so. They are doing some amazing things in regards to technology integration and I learned a bunch of great new ideas this week from their creative genius.


Keep on Smashing!

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#appsmash4 Challenge: Zoobe/Tellagmi in the Classroom

Day three of our #appsmash4 challenge brings us a very easy App Smash that can be done at any grade level in any subject.  This App Smash was introduced to me by our two fabulous Spanish teachers Rebecca Huls and Kara McNeese.  They do an outstanding job of enhancing their curriculums with technology in their classrooms and this App Smash is one of my favorites!

Smashing Steps

What's your objective?  Do you want students to summarize something?  Analyze? Recite?  Have them create a product for your objective using any app that will allow them to save to the photo library (Pic Collage, Doodlebuddy, Fonta, Skitch, ColorSplash, Labelbox)

Open Zoobe or Tellagami app and choose the characters (more customizing in Tellagami). Change the background to the product you just created, record your voice (or use one of the 16 voices in Tellagami). Save your finished product to your photo library.

Upload your product directly to YouTube from your photo library or you could create multiple products and stitch them all together in the iMovie app.

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Calling All App Smashers--Day #2 App Smash

Day two of our #appsmash4 challenge is here.  Again, there are lots of great app smashes coming in via the #appsmash4 hashtag and personal blog posts.  Thank you to all that are participating. You all are doing some amazing things with the technology that you have in your classrooms.  I appreciate what you are doing, and more importantly your students are loving it!  Thanks for being awesome!

One of the best parts of my job is working with the primary students in our district.  Their enthusiasm for learning is contagious.  If you are ever having a bad day I think you should take a stroll down to the Kindergarten classroom in your building.  Stay four about 15 minutes.  I guarantee that you will walk out smiling!   Be sure to also thank the Kindergarten teacher for being awesome before you leave. 

The App Smash recipe you see below was done with first graders and it is very easy to integrate.  @30hands is quickly becoming one of my "must have" apps.  It's very easy to use and has some great features.  We did this App Smash before Christmas and it entailed them telling what they like about Christmas and what they were wanting for Christmas.  We created our products in Pic Collage and Doodlebuddy, then dumped them into the 30 Hands app to record their voices over their products.  I didn't add the YouTube logo below, but you could upload your completed iMovies to YouTube, then use the Bulk QR Code Generator to create QR codes for all of the videos.  Students love to take these home or you can affix them to a physical product that they have created.

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Calling All App Smashers--Day #1 App Smash

It's late into Day #1 and I have yet to post my product for the "Calling All App Smashers" challenge that I issued yesterday.  In browsing through some of the products that have been shared, I see that I am going to have to step up my game!

What an amazing response we've had and I can't wait to see even more of your app smashes as you submit them via your blog post or by using the #appsmash4 hashtag. Awesome stuff!  Keep it coming!

I am going to start this challenge with a very basic App Smash.  This is a smash that could be used pretty much in any subject area in grades pK-12.  YOU just have to be creative (remember, creativity costs you nothing) in how you integrate it into your curriculum.

The two apps I am going to be using today are Croak.it and QR Beamer.  The Croak.it app allows you to record up to 30 seconds of audio, while QR Beamer allows you to create QR Codes on your iPad. Smash the two together and you have an easy way to share that 30 seconds of audio.

Smashing Steps 

Open Croak.it app 

Tap on record button (Croak.it symbol) and record your audio

Tap again when done

Give your new Croak.it a title

You used to be able to copy the link, but now that takes you directly to their website.  You can get the embed code here, but I choose to tap on the share via email feature (or Twitter) and just copy the URL by copying it from within the body of the email.

Open QR Beamer app

Double tap in the white text box

Tap on "Paste" (your URL should appear in box)

Tap on "Beam"

There is your QR Code

You can choose to Save, Email or Print.  Email each code you create, naming it in the subject line of your email. 

Happy Smashing!

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Calling All App Smashers!

I have been feeling a bit guilty lately about my inability to consistently push out a blog post or two during the week.  I won't use the "time" excuse that I hear too often, I am simply just shutting down during some evenings of the week and leaving my computer alone.  Not a bad thing, right?

Okay, so here's the deal.  I want to create a blogging challenge (to force me to blog more) in which we can share some of the App Smashing that is happening in your classrooms/schools. What is App Smashing (or App Synergy as Lisa Johnson calls it)?   It's a term coined by Greg Kuloweic in which you use multiple apps on the iPad to create one product." I used to call it "App Blending" when I first started doing it, but "App Smashing" just sounds so much cooler!  I love App Smashing because it allows for a ton of creativity in the classroom and it fosters higher level thinking from your students.

I'm gonna use the NCAA Basketball tournament and the Final Four as our theme and motivation (I just want to force myself to blog FOUR days in a row!)  If you choose to participate in the challenge, please share your blog post or Tweet with your particular App Smash recipe that you enjoy using with students, use as an assignment, or one that your students have used, including the #appsmash4 hashtag.  This challenge will start tomorrow and end on Friday.

It doesn't have to be earth shattering. Remember, what you think as menial could be magnificent to another teacher! One or two apps is fine, but I would love to see some of the smashes you have that involve 4-5 apps.  

I will get the smashing started with one of my favorite App Smashes.  I used it in an App Task Challenge that I created for teachers and it is a very easy smash to use!  Students love it! No, yours don't have to be in the format you see below, just share your recipe with us and your successes (an example would be great as well)! 

Good luck!  Tune into the #appsmash4 hashtag throughout the week to see what the Twitterverse is sharing.  Thanks for participating!

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Tellagami in the Classroom

The favorite part of my job as an Integration Specialist is when I get to sit down with a teacher and introduce and work with them on a technology that can be integrated seamlessly into their classroom.  I had that opportunity yesterday with Brenda Klawonn (@bklawonnNE).  She teaches American History and does a great job of incorporatig the iPads into her classroom.

Her students are currently studying about the propaganda that was used during World War I and Mrs. Klawonn wanted to know if I had any new technologies or ideas up my sleeve.  I recommended that we integrate the Tellagami app into her classroom.  Together, we sat down and took the poster analysis worksheet that her students would have used as they analyzed their World War I posters and digitized this assignment in to time using Tellagmi.  Here is the example I created to show her students:


Tellagami is an app that allows the user to create thirty second movies that are called "Gamis."  The best thing about this app is that it allows for a tremendous amount of creativity. The user can customize the avatars clothing and voice and appearance.  A finished Gami can be emailed, saved to the Camera roll (great for iMovie integration), Tweeted or posted to Facebook.

I also like the fact that it is easy to App Smash with Tellagami.  Our Spanish teachers @RHulsHuls and @Kmcneese1 have their students create weather maps using the Pic Collage app, import their weather map into the background of Tellagami, then have their students create Gamis that have their character forecasting the weather in Spanish.  Here is an example:


If you haven't tried Tellagami, download it and integrate it into your classroom. Your students will love it!  Here are some of the Gamis that were created by Mrs. Klawonn's students.

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