People to follow on Instagram:

needleworks (your presenter)
magrelacanela (grade 4 teacher)
fisler_school (see learning)
joshhohnson (for contests)

Here’s a list of apps sorted by Tiers.

Find app sales:

AppShopper (free)
create an app wishlist and receive notifications of sales

Tier I (Everyday Use—iOS/Android)

Instagram (free)
the go to app for sharing, community, and photo editing

Snapseed (free)
simple navigation, provides filters for grunge, vintage, drama, and fine-tuning

Tier II (Heavy-duty editing)

Photo Wizard ($2 sometimes free)
clunky design but has very powerful tools beyond Snapseed

Photoshop Touch ($10)
elegant design with advanced features like layers

iPhoto ($5)
strengths include albums, sharing, and transferring photos between devices

Tier III (Great once in awhile…cost $0-$5)

Camera+
better camera app

Hipstamatic
fun vintage filters

Old Photo Pro
old time looks

Color Effects
mix b&w and color/recolor

Percolator
fun color effects

Pixlromatic, VFXStudio
special effects apps

ScratchCam
add scratches/grunge

FrameLens or Diptic
make collages

WordPhoto
add words to photos

Fracture
Van-Gogh effects

Slow Shutter Free
for blurs

MySketch
turn photos into sketches

Cinemagram
animated gifs

Film Director
for silent videos

Action Movie
cool video effects

About a year ago, I published a list of all the apps I installed on our school’s iPads.  I still like that list, however, there are a number of drill-and-kill type apps that see occasional use in  my classroom as well as those that require higher-level thinking and student creation which I use more often.  I wanted to give our teachers options so I gave them tons of apps.  However, my personal toolkit is much smaller.  Here are my recommendations based around instructional needs in the area of literacy.  The specific apps I recommend don’t matter so much as how we they are used in the classroom:

Fluency

Any voice recorder from the free and simple, Audio Memos to the pricier and more advanced, Garageband, can be used to have students record themselves reading.  Data from Escondido Unified which used iPods and Voice Recorders with English Language Learners (back before iPhones and iPads existed) consistently shows that students showed growth.  The key is having students record and then listen to themselves reading so that they hear the mistakes they don’t hear when they’re focused on decoding.

I’ve used Reader’s Theater in my own classroom (find free printable reader’s theater here or see our class reader’s theater movie, The City Mouse and the Country Mouse).  However, you can also use any passages that might target certain spelling patterns or sounds students are working on.

Writing

I like simple.  StoryKit is a free iPhone app that works on the iPad and allows students to write, record their voice, add a photo, or draw on a page resembling kindergarten writing paper.  If you want to publish a whole book from the iPad, the $5 Book Creator is a great option.  Apple’s free desktop app, iBooks Author is even better but it requires both an iPad and an updated Mac desktop or laptop.  With iBooks Author you create the book on your computer and preview it on the iPad.  You can easily import Keynote and Pages files into your final product.   When you’re ready for multimedia, iMovie is a great way to engage even the most unmotivated writers in writing something that will include audio, visuals and an audience.

Apps like Toontastic and PuppetPals are also fun.  However, be careful, Toontastic teaches story crafting via a beginning, middle, and end structure.  If you’re a fan of Lucy Caulkins writer’s workshop and the notion of expanding a single moment with details to make it something bigger rather than structuring a bare bones story sequentially, you will might not be happy with an app that would set you back to an outdated way of teaching writing even if it’s more fun.

Learning Letter Sounds

Apps like the above mentioned Storykit can be used to have students make a book of letter sounds by taking pictures of things that begin with the sound /p/ for example.  Student Tommy would end up with a page with photos of pencils, pictures, paint, and paintbrushes and then record his voice making the sound /p/ on the page.   I know that you can find apps that give students the letter sounds while students passively listen but I’m much more in favor of having students create their own books with the sound in it.  I suspect the learning is more internalized.

What other areas of student early literacy need do you notice?

How do you do this and what does it look like in a classroom?

Let me be clear, I’m a fan of digital libraries (LAUSD teachers should check out the LAUSD Digital Library).  However, in addition to putting expensive high quality pre-vetted resources in front of students we also need to be teaching them how to choose keywords and use Google like a pro.

Picking Keywords

Beginning in kindergarten I would be modeling how to pick keywords before entering them in the Google search box and finding results.  For example, let’s say you’re researching where an octopus lives.  Say to students,

“I’m looking for information on where the octopus lives.  What words should I search for?”

With your help, students should come up with something like “octopus home” or “octopus habitat” depending how much academic language  you’ve seeded.

This two minute step would go a long way toward building effective researchers.

Sharon Sutton at the UCLA lab school has compiled and created some resources to help.  Scroll down to the Information Literacy Worksheets, in particular the keywords and synonyms one which asks students to list keywords and synonyms for a research question.

Advanced Googling

Familiarize yourself with the Google Cheat sheet.

In particular, know that using quotes allows you to search for a particular name or phrase e.g. “Mathew Needleman” gives you only people with my first and last name rather than any page with both my first and last name, possibly disconnected on the page.

Also know that using the minus sign “-” eliminates results.  For example, when searching for information about the band, The Eagles, you might search “eagles -football” (eliminating results about the football team).  In this example, you will likely need to add keywords to specify information specific about the band and not the bird.

Bias and Reliability

Students should always check for an “about this page” link.  If there isn’t one, move on to another site.  I’m a fan of the site All About Explorers, it’s created by teachers and gives absolutely false information about famous explorers.  Will students catch the errors or will they report that Columbus was born in Australia?  Students always need to triangulate the data, find information from multiple sources to eliminate inconsistencies and gain depth.

Have any tips to add?  Post them below.

While there are no isolated technology standards in the Common Core State Standards, technology is embedded across the the grade levels.  Many people are focused on students needing a device to take the assessment and not thinking about what students will need to be able to do with that device.  The assessment will not only require a computer for students to take it, students will actually be tested on their use of their device.

According to the language arts standards here are the three major things students will need to be able to do.

1.  Research

Students will:

Use search tools.

Interpet interactive elements on a web page.

Draw on information from digital sources.

2.  Writing

Students will:

Explore a variety of digital tools to produce and publish writing including in collaboration with peers.

3.  Multimedia

Students will:

Ask and answer questions about key details in [multi]media…

Include multimedia elements…in presentations.

I haven’t separated the standards by grade level.  The same requirements exist at all grade levels with different amounts of teacher assistance and depth and complexity.

In future posts I will suggest sample activities to meet each standard.  If you want a preview, please check out my slideshare presentation, Technology in the Common Core.

I’ve always been interested in TV Production and am thinking about writing a grant to start one.   Our school has no funding for this, so I don’t even know where to start. What equipment do I need? How much will it cost?

I’ve learned that nothing goes out of fashion faster than equipment recommendations.  However, here are my best recommendations for today.

Cheapest

Your iPhone, iPad, or iPod Touch with iMovie installed is all you need to start making movies.  $200-$500.

Better

I’m using a T3i DSLR camera that is excellent for still images but also shoots 1080p 24 frames per second high definition video.  $400-$600

For sound, I use a boom microphone which can attach directly to the camera to shoot better sound.  $100-$350

You will also need editing software, either iMovie (free with any Mac) or Final Cut Pro X ($300).

The T3i shoots excellent video in low-light situations.  However, you may wish to add some lighting to your setup.

I’m pleased to announce that my keynote presentation for the K12 Online Conference is now live and will be archived indefinitely so you can watch it whenever. In this fifteen minute presentation I share a little bit about how taking photos with my phone sparked something of a creative renaissance in my life and talk about my thoughts on how this might apply to our classrooms. I am very much interested in your ideas as my thinking on the subject keeps evolving. Please leave your comments below.

See the movie here.

I’ve presented twice for the conference before, my favorite being Film School for Video Podcasters in which I play a detective and  explain how to make better classroom movies.

This year I was asked to be the keynote speaker for the Kicking it up a Notch strand.  I’m not wearing any costumes this year but I do speak from the heart about what taking photos with my phone has meant for me, nothing short of a creative renaissance, and explain the implications that this could have for our classrooms.

Please take a moment to view my 30 second teaser trailer.  The actual presentation goes live on 10/29 (but remember, you can see it any time after that).

It’s Not About the Apps

1.  Update your apps.

2.  Force quit the app.  Double-click on the home button.  Find the problematic app on the bottom of your screen where it shows recently used apps. Press and hold on the app icon until it wiggles.  Click on the red circle with a minus sign.  Your app icon goes away.

When I’ve used this successfully: iMovie was crashing.  Forced it to quit and then it worked fine.

2.  Restart the device.  You don’t normally need to turn off your device.  However, whenever you’re having problems, it’s a good idea to do so.  Press and hold the power button on the top right of the device until you see “Slide to power off” on your screen.  Now, swipe to power off the device.  Then press the power button to turn the device on.

When I’ve used this successfully: A strange fluttering was showing up on the screen in all apps and on the home screen.  Restart and problem went away.

3.  Delete the app and reinstall (use this for app-specific problems).  Press and hold on the app icon on the home screen until it wiggles.  Press the red circle.  The app will be deleted after you confirm.  This sometimes might also delete your data for that app so only try this when you have to.  Then go to the iTunes store and download the app again.  You will not be charged twice if you are using the correct account.

4.  Restore the device.  This wipes out everything and is done by hooking up the device to iTunes.  I’d only use this if a bunch of apps are giving you problems as it’s a headache having to set up all your apps again.

If you have any other troubleshooting steps, please add them below.

Periodically, I like to reintroduce myself to blog/newsletter readers and (re)define the purpose of this blog/newsletter for those of who may be joining this program already in progress. In addition, a couple of recent developments will be new to almost everyone.

E-Mail Subscribers

I want to thank subscribers to this blog.  Many of you have subscribed via the e-mail newsletter link on Open Court Resources.com or Treasures Resources.com.  You may not know that what you’re reading is a blog at all, but thank you!  Blog reading is pretty painless, isn’t it.

Who Am I?

I’m Mathew Needleman.  I’m just one guy, a teacher and sometimes filmmaker.  I write all the content on this blog and do not accept guest posts.  The most prolific periods of my blogging have been while serving as a Literacy Coach and Intervention Coordinator in the elementary grades during which time I blogged about things like reading comprehension, reading fluency, and writing with a dash of technology thrown in occasionally.

I was recently hired as an Instructional Technology Specialist.  I assist 130 schools with integrating technology into their curriculums particularly in support of the Common Core Standards and Language Learners.  I’m still focused on good instruction but my focus has widened to include not just language arts and all grade levels K-12.

The focus of my blogging going forward will likely shift to include more technology but only as it relates to instruction.  I’ve never been interested in technology for technology’s sake.  If you can do it better with a pencil and paper, please do.

My Other Sites

I maintain a number of additional web sites.  I’ve made the decision to revive my dormant independent digital film studio, at Needleworks Pictures.com.  Needleworks Pictures hosts my personal  artistic pursuits unrelated to education and will have more information about my latest moviemaking project shortly.

I’ve spun-off all education endeavors (Open Court Resources.com, Video in the Classroom.com, and this blog the most popular among them) and linked to them all from Needleworks Education.com All of my web sites are free but sometimes advertiser supported.  No advertiser support has ever influenced the content of any of my pages.  In addition to web sites, I also make iPhone apps which are not free and quite costly to produce.  More information about the apps is available at the Needleworks Education site.

My Outside Associations

Although I don’t intend to ever post anything offensive or controversial, it’s worth noting that although I work for a school district, everything I post here is my own opinion and not the opinion of my employer.

I am an Apple Distinguished Educator.  I was chosen for this program because of my fondness for Apple products.  I am not required to post about Apple and only do so when I choose to.  I am allowed to be objective in posting comments about Apple products.

I’m a member of the Adobe Influencer Program.  In exchange for passing on some information about Adobe news I’ve been given something akin to advanced press access to some Adobe announcements.

Questions

I thank everyone for sticking with me, particularly in this long dormant blogging period.  I hope to have new content soon.  If you have any questions, feel free to post them below.

Research has shown that having students listen to themselves reading increases reading fluency, particularly for English Language Learners.  While there are many capable voice recorders, I wanted an app that would stop after a predetermined amount of time and not go on forever.  Having it stop on its own means that I can focus on listening to students reading and not have to keep an eye on the clock.  Teachers can use the app with students or set it up as an instant center activity.

By recording fluency readings, teachers can review them for patterns of errors and play them back for students, parents, and colleagues.

Download the pro version to eliminate advertisements and add the ability to transfer multiple recordings to your desktop:

http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/fluency-timer-pro/id519937066?mt=8

The app allows you to individually e-mail recordings.  The length of the timer can be adjusted.

More information about the app and the different versions is available at fluency timer.net