Technology in an Ever Changing Classroom

 As a teacher I am still working and growing toward technology not being a replacement for the learning tools of the past but being truly an innovative tool and a natural complement to today's instruction.  I believe that this the major difference in when I started my teaching career and now.  Students are no longer producing projects simply for the teacher to give them a grade but rather for a global audience.  Their worlds will never just be their  own neighborhoods but rather a global community so the same should be true about the classroom.

A few ways I have tried to use technology in the classroom                      with iMovie  

iMovie is now free (on all devices activated after September 1st)  and I have used it in several different capacities.  One way is to have students digitally record a statement at the end of a unit to display what we have learned.  (Favorite Family memories at the end of a social studies unit on every family being special.)

Another use of this technology in the classroom is establishing a digital pen pal relationship with a 3rd grade class in Westminster, CO where the students have shared about their schools and themselves.  The video we sent to them was entirely filmed and written by the kindergarten students. 

A Final way we have used iMovie is to share our learning with a larger community.  We have done videos both whole group and in small group.  From the introduction of a rubric to a reading group book about old and new things, the students love to see themselves on the screen acting as the teacher!

There are many other apps out there that can do similar things.  The way I approach it is I think of what I want to innovate in my teaching and then I go and find an app that will do what I am looking for!  A website I often used when I was just starting out to build my knowledge of apps is http://www.tcea.org/ipad.  They have over 1000 apps labeled by category and price! And they are all directly linked to the app store. Which helps cut down on search time!