Mobile Teachers
I can't imagine not having my iPad and/or Droid by my side while teaching. Am I tethered to my devices? Not necessarily. But I have become accustomed to the applications available on them that assist in the daily 'stuff' that makes up teaching.
I can not say enough about Evernote! I use it to keep track of parent - teacher conferences and phone calls as well as notes during PPTs and student - teacher conferences. I was sold on upload with Evernote last year while conferring with one of my students. after conferring, he wanted to try what we just talked about but couldn't remember it. I tossed him my phone and he listened to our conference to remind himself, followed by application of our chat. Because I have Evernote downloaded on both devices I could still confer with other students while he was doing this!
Twitter and HooteSuite are very helpful when we are tweeting away in the classroom. Having these applications on both devices has allowed me to walk around and chat with my students while monitoring what they are all tweeting. During a recent TwitterView my classroom desktop was not connecting to the Internet. But...hooking my iPad up to the projector I was able to display the feed in case the student devices were not loading quickly enough. But I was able to walk around chatting with my students and use my Droid to stay in contact with the folks we were interviewing. Also, it comes in handy on field trips when we want to share our experiences with other folks!
Goodreads is a fabulous social bookshelf! We can be knee deep in a read aloud turn-and-talk and I can monitor what my students are saying about the book in real time. Or I an see what books my students are uploading to their shelves to get an idea of what they are reading at home and school. I really enjoy seeing their ratings and book reviews!
These are just some of the apps that I have on both devices, but there are some specifically on my iPad that I find helpful. Stick Picks is a handy app that lets me keep track of Ana array of things. I have written about it here. another one that infrequently use is Teacher Pal. Also written about here. While some may think it is poor modeling to use our mobile devices in the classroom, I disagree. When we use our devices for things like these we are showing our students what it means to be a responsible learner and citizen. We are showing them that we can use our devices for specific tasks and walk away from them. We are showing them how to be task oriented. Purpose driven. Accountable.
I can not say enough about Evernote! I use it to keep track of parent - teacher conferences and phone calls as well as notes during PPTs and student - teacher conferences. I was sold on upload with Evernote last year while conferring with one of my students. after conferring, he wanted to try what we just talked about but couldn't remember it. I tossed him my phone and he listened to our conference to remind himself, followed by application of our chat. Because I have Evernote downloaded on both devices I could still confer with other students while he was doing this!
Twitter and HooteSuite are very helpful when we are tweeting away in the classroom. Having these applications on both devices has allowed me to walk around and chat with my students while monitoring what they are all tweeting. During a recent TwitterView my classroom desktop was not connecting to the Internet. But...hooking my iPad up to the projector I was able to display the feed in case the student devices were not loading quickly enough. But I was able to walk around chatting with my students and use my Droid to stay in contact with the folks we were interviewing. Also, it comes in handy on field trips when we want to share our experiences with other folks!
Goodreads is a fabulous social bookshelf! We can be knee deep in a read aloud turn-and-talk and I can monitor what my students are saying about the book in real time. Or I an see what books my students are uploading to their shelves to get an idea of what they are reading at home and school. I really enjoy seeing their ratings and book reviews!
These are just some of the apps that I have on both devices, but there are some specifically on my iPad that I find helpful. Stick Picks is a handy app that lets me keep track of Ana array of things. I have written about it here. another one that infrequently use is Teacher Pal. Also written about here. While some may think it is poor modeling to use our mobile devices in the classroom, I disagree. When we use our devices for things like these we are showing our students what it means to be a responsible learner and citizen. We are showing them that we can use our devices for specific tasks and walk away from them. We are showing them how to be task oriented. Purpose driven. Accountable.
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