Tech Tip Tuesday {Teacher Week}

I am linking up with Blog Hoppin' for Tech Tip Tuesday, part of Teacher Week.  Last year, our building received a set of iPads through a grant with a local university.

I couldn't wait to get my hands on those iPads!  I had 2 gifted readers, so as enrichment, we used the app "Zapd".  You can easily create a website using this app.  My boys did research on penguins using some nonfiction books I had in our room.  They wrote out their penguin facts on paper for me to review.  After writing the facts out on paper, they typed them into Zapd, and with my supervision and guidance, found images on Google images to go with their research.  They LOVED it!  Here is a link to one of their Zapd sites.

Another app we love is Bugs and Buttons.  I paid $2.99 for it, but it is well worth it!  Awesome graphics, games that work on fine motor as well as academic skills and a little something to interest everyone.

My students also each maintained their own blog.  We used Weebly to accomplish this.  As you can imagine, this is not something that was done independently for quite some time in kindergarten!  When beginning in October, students dictated what they wanted to write to a college student volunteer as the volunteer typed it on the iPad.  In January, I began writing out (on a white board) what students dictated, and they independently typed it into their blogs.  By the end of April, they typed completely independently.  I did help with spelling if it was something that their audience wouldn't be able to figure out.  This was done in groups of no more than 5, depending on how many iPads I had in my room that day.  We blogged about 2 times per week.  Parents enjoyed accessing their child's blog, and the kids loved sharing.

What is your favorite tech tip?