Tag: iTunes

Apps, Education, K-12, Teaching Tools, Websites

EdCampSA

Terri Eichholz

The last couple of weeks have provided a few great opportunities for me to learn, and I would like to reflect on them in this week’s blog posts.

edcampsa

Last Saturday, I attended my third EdCamp ever.  It was EdCampSA, and it was hosted at Churchill High School in San Antonio by the following wonderful people:

  • James Barton
  • Miguel Guhlin
  • Todd Bloomer
  • Mary Ray
  • Marguerite Lowak
  • Jeannine Freeman
  • Roland Rios

EdCamps are also known as “unconferences.”  They are unique because participants have absolutely no idea what they will be learning about until about 30 minutes after they show up.  EdCamp sessions are created by the attendees at the beginning of the day. The sessions are not presentations, but discussions about the suggested topics.

Several of my colleagues from NEISD attended. One of them had never been to an EdCamp before.  At the end of the day, she commented that she had learned more in one day than at many 3-day conferences she has attended in the past.

You can see the sessions that were ultimately created at this year’s EdCampSA here along with the session notes.  There are a lot of great recommendations for everything from iPads in the Elementary classroom to 3D Printing.

Here are some of the apps I learned about that I can’t wait to try:

  • Pirate Cam
  • News-o-matic
  • Apollo by Atlas Learning (supposedly similar to Nearpod)

Pear Deck and http://quizizz.com/ are two other resources I would like to check out.  (The latter one is supposedly similar to Kahoot, but can be self-paced and has fun response memes.)

Another idea – how about taking a look at https://e.newsela.com/ for great non-fiction for elementary students?

Charlotte Dolat, who is our area director for TCEA, shared that we should search for TASA on iTunes University because it has lots of curriculum lesson ideas with technology integration.  (I can’t wait to start exploring that!)

That’s just a sampling of what I learned at EdCampSA.  It was another fantastic EdCamp experience and I can’t wait until the next one!

If you live near San Antonio, Texas, take a look at the upcoming Tech Field Day on November 7th, 2015.  This is another free conference that promises to offer a great day of learning at Cole High School! Dr. Roland Rios, who also co-hosted EdCampSA, is in charge of Tech Field Day – so I guarantee you will have fun and learn a ton!

 

Apps, Art, Creative Thinking, Education, Games, K-12, Student Products, Teaching Tools, Web 2.0

Sketch Nation Studio

Terri Eichholz

I should probably preface this post by admitting that I have absolutely no artistic talent whatsoever.  If I did, my creations on Sketch Nation Studio would be much more entertaining – and I might have included some screenshots on this post.  As it is, though, I am pretty certain you will be much more impressed by the actual iTunes photos.

Sketch Nation Studio is a free app for iDevices that allows the user to create a simple app out of his or her own sketches.  You do not have to know any programming mumbo jumbo or submit your game for approval.  You follow the extremely user-friendly steps and, voila!

Your drawings can be created in the app itself, or you can draw them on paper and upload them to the app.  This is where I think the creativity (and superior artistic talent) of my students will shine.  You can find ways, I’m sure, of integrating curriculum with this app.  But the true value is in the joy of creating and seeing a usable finished product.