I've had my iPad in the classroom for about a month now. Some of the things that I had planned to do with it really didn't work, and I've also discovered some pretty cool things to do with it that I hadn't considered when I wrote my original grant.
Since I am the only music teacher in the grant group (I'm guessing that's where most of my readers will come from) I'll start with some of the non-musical applications that I've found for the iPad.
One frustration for me has been the lack of wifi in my classroom. This has really limited some of the most important things that I've wanted to do with the iPad. One thing I have found though is if I download my email (either at home or as I walk through the library on my way to class) I can respond to them as I have time, then the next time I have Internet, they will all send automatically. Handy yes, saves me some time for sure, but not revolutionizing my classroom.
Zangle was one of the main reasons I wanted an iPad. Zangle is our student attendance and grade program and is Internet based. In my classroom (and I would guess any non traditional set-ups- P.E., shop, theatre, etc.) having our roll and especially the grade book tied to the computer is difficult to navigate. I find myself walking around the room to give assessments, keeping records or grades on a piece of paper, which I then have to put into my computer later. Basically this means I have to input the grades twice: once on paper and once in the computer. When I have wifi, I will be able to put grades directly into Zangle from the iPad. This will be a HUGE help to me!
In the mean time, for those whom have wifi now, I've discovered that Safari can't always load Zangle. I downloaded the "Perfect Browser" which works with Zangle well. As a side-note, perfect browser will also project webpages through VGA, which Safari will not.
Briefly, here are some other apps I've found some interesting uses for:
Keynote- I broke down and bought this one. I've started a presentation for band recruitment with 8th graders. Even though it is not finished, the kids I have shown it too are pretty impressed by it.
Wifi Finder by JiWire- This is a good app for finding free wifi to use your iPad. I picked this one over the others out there because it has an offline database. So when I'm out and about town and get the urge to do school work (this happens to us all, right?) I can open it up and find the closest hotspot to me.
BeWorlds Translator- this one is totally cool! It can translate over 30 languages (language to English and English to another language). Once you've translated you can email your translation or in most languages have the iPad speak it for you. It can also translate webpages. I translated my band website into Spanish just to see if it worked. "Bienvenido a la página de banda Manteca de alta escuela!" The uses for this app to improve communication with ELL students and their families are nearly endless.
UYH- this one is "Use Your Handwriting". You can write notes in your own handwriting and turn them into ordered to do lists. I found this a bit easier to use than typing a list on the notepad, and the ability to easily change the order is great. This has replaced the little scraps of paper I used to use for this purpose. It also has the ability to do multiple lists, so I can have one for work and another for home without mixing them up.
Cloud calendar- I downloaded this because I already used google calendar, and this seemed to be the most functional app for that. It cost me a couple dollars, and I found out later that if you add your gmail account to your email list, your google calendar integrates into the default calendar automatically. However, cloud calendar has a lot of the features I like about google calendar (color coding, invites, etc.) so I'm still using it over the default one.
Read it later- This is one that is really good for me since I don't have the wifi in my room yet. You can look at websites when you have internet and save them to read later when you don't. I haven't checked to see if it will project through VGA or not... I hope so!
Drop box- Man, this is what I've been looking for for a long time! Seamlessly shares files between my iPad, home computer, and anywhere else you have internet (work computers). It also has a public file where I can post files for my students and parents to download. Band handbooks, recordings for score study, permission slips, trip itineraries, etc. can all be drop boxed for parents or students to pick up later. I'm trying to figure out if it will work, but I think I'm going to try to submit all of my students' auditions to our all-district honor band via drop box. We'll see how that pans out...
Those are the main apps I am using right now that I think could be pretty generally applicable to teachers in any area. I'm also exploring some apps that utilize social media and mass-texting to better keep my students informed. I'm just starting to look into those, so I will save that for another blog.
Next time, I'll go into some of my favorite music specific apps!
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