Why My School Uses Atomic Learning Reason #45
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Remediation: With my elementary school being a high-tech school you cannot imagine how intimidating it can be to a fourth grade child who moves into our school and is now faced with technology that they had never used before. With their classmates flying along using tech at what seems like a hundred miles an hour, the on-ramp can seem very scary.
Which is why I will sit down with parents and review some of the top Atomic Learning tutorials that their child will need study to be ready for an upcoming tech project that uses tech skills that the other students already know. This way their child can then get up to speed at home, with no intimidation or embarrassment. For example, there is a Prezi project starting in a few weeks, so I sent home an email with the link to the Prezi tutorials and the ones I recommend.
With Atomic Learning I can achieve the differentiated instruction I need in my classes for those students who are struggling to keep up with the flow of this new digital world. Students that need extra time to understand a tech skill, can review the online tutorials and come to me with the project specific questions that will help them be more successful in my classroom and the school.
- Brad Flickinger, Tech Teacher, Bethke Elementary School
Kid’s iPad Band Cover Katy Perry’s “Firework”
#edtech #edchat #ipaded #mlearning
This was recorded as part of our final show and tell with parents to show everything that was done during the iPad Boot Camp (students in grades 3, 4 and 5).
For more video and photos from the Boot Camp go to http://www.KidTechCamps.com
- Brad Flickinger, Tech Teacher, Bethke Elementary School
Read MoreGetting students to be more than just iPad Neanderthals.
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Many educators believe that students already know how to use their iPads, but the truth is that most students only know what I call “The Neanderthal Basics.”
The Neanderthal Basics when it comes to students on iPads are:
Game Play: there is no doubt about it students love to play games on these devices — so much so in fact, that they don’t see the potential for all the things that their iPads can do. If they would just close Angry Birds down for a few minutes they could discover all of the great things their iPad can create.
Music and Videos: Every now and then they turn off a game and then they take a step down and just sit back and watch videos or listen to music.
It is time for our students to evolve and start to see what that thin little device in their hands can do.
As you know from my previous posts, I am working hard on my new iPad Boot Camp. I am designing some of the most amazing projects that will push my students to do more with their iPads. Every time I try a new app, and then I adjust it so that it makes an incredible digital artifact I am blown away at what these little tablets can do.
We are also going to cover the basics operations of their iPads — turn them into iPads pros. For this I turned to my friends at Atomic Learning. They have a new series on the iPad (updated for iOS 5) that covers it all.
Many of the parents of the students that I have in the boot camp tell me that they are excited for the kids to come, so that they can learn from their kids how to use iPads themselves.
Today I am breaking down each lesson using the UbD lesson planning method so that I know that my student will get the most out of each project.
Stayed tuned,
-Brad Flickinger, Tech Teacher, Bethke Elementary School
Read MoreFLL Tips & Tricks Number 8: Using Parents Volunteers
#edtech #elemchat #edchat #legorobotics
You cannot have a great First LEGO League (FLL) team without some great parent volunteers. There is just way too much work for one coach to do. So the first thing you need to do when you put together your team is to find out what each family is going to bring to the table, every family needs to contribute something. So I make a sign up sheet that has the following categories:
Co-Coach: I need another adult at every meeting, someone to help supervise and make sure that things get done. So if I need to work with two students on getting the robot to pick up an item, the other parent can have the rest of the team and work on the research project. So I have a list of all the weeks and parents can sign up to co-coach.
Snacks: Since most of team practice after school, I make a parent in charge of snacks. They bring something for the kids to munch on before we start our meeting. This is a great one for parents who do not have the time to devote to being a co-coach, they can just buy or make some great snacks and just drop them off at the school.
Hats: Our local qualifying competition already provides us with t-shirts, we usually put a parent in charge of our hats — something that really makes us stand out. This parent works with our team to design and make cool hats for us to wear at the competition.
Support: This parent works with our team to develop posters, cheers and chants to motivate our team during competition.
So to get the help I need I have these positions posted at the first meeting, once they are filled things just take care of themselves — don’t ever try to do it by yourself. USE YOUR PARENTS!
The Power of Students following a Tech Checklist
This past week I spent three days and two nights with 51 fifth-graders near the Rocky Mountain National Park here in Colorado for our annual ECO-Week, I was the guy in charge of technology, of course.
Before ECO-Week began I had trained six students on how to use technology to record the activities of ECO-Week. Three were trained to be digital photographers and three to be FLIP videographers. The morning of ECO-Week arrived and I gave them each their assigned piece of technology and a checklist they had to follow.
The checklist was the shots that I needed them to get, things like; “Students getting on the bus.” “Students looking at tracks.” “Wildlife” etc. I had learned from previous years that you cannot just give student a camera and expect to get back the shots you need. A teacher once criticized me, saying that the checklist stifled student creativity, I argued that it enhanced it instead. 11-year-olds are not natural professional photographers, they need to be pointed in the right direction and then take the photo (following a couple of rules of photography that they have learned). They can use all the creativity they want – but just get me the photo of the student at the roller-rink.
At the end of the first day when the student returned the cameras to be downloaded and recharged I was blown away at the great photos and video I got back. We also did a daily podcast from ECO-Week for our parents back at home.
Check it all out at our school’s website:
http://www.bethkeelementary.com/eco-week.html
So here’s the take away: decided what you want from your students, give them a little training (ie: Atomic Learning Tutorials) and a checklist and then stand back and prepared to be amazed.
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