iTouch, step 2 - Apps

Here's what I have so far:

Glow Draw! and Glow Draw!! ~
This is a free app for finger drawing. Glow Draw! is very very simple, which I like for the age of the kids I teach. But who am I kidding? They can already run my smartboard. Glow Draw!! is more complex, but way cooler with the FX's.

My thinking is that it would be an excellent app for writing sight words and word-family words

Don't Let the Pigeon Run This App ~

NOT free. But for Mo Willems I though I would spring the $6.99. Seriously a splurge, considering my intent was to outfit these suckers for free. It's pretty, graphics are great, and the story telling feature is repetitive but fun. I'm a bit disappointed in the lack of things you can do, but my 12 and 9 yr old have been at it for a half an hour. Great for creating audio stories with a video that is supplied.

VLC Streamer Free~

for playing WMA's. I also downloaded Good Player, which was 99 cents. Both do the same thing so you do the math on which is a better (free) buy.

And now the 12 year old is filling in the Pigeon story with inappropriate words. I would be disgusted if I wasn't trying so hard to stifle my giggles.

iTouch, a step-by-step adventure

As I wrote over the weekend, I came home with 5 shiny new iTouches last Friday. I had been waiting for them since the end of August, and when a fellow teacher walked in with the bag I did a little happy dance. I think I might have actually moon-walked.

They actually scare me a little, though. I ended up calling in the big guns, my friend Brian who is a bonafide Mac fiend. Now I know how to get apps, organize the apps, get videos I made onto the iTouches, and get them them all synced identically.

So far, I have Glow Draw and a MVA player on them.What's next? We'll see.

Of Peacocks and Penguins

When I was beginning my second year of teaching, our principal showed us a video that (as silly as it sounds) changed my teaching. It was during a staff meeting, a few days into professional development, tucked in right before the first day of school. The video was Perry the Peacock.

Perry gets it; he feels the dilemma all peacocks face at one point or another. The truth is that most educators are Penguins. They may like your work, but your style makes them uncomfortable.

This blog is dedicated to any teacher who shrugs off the penguin suit so that they can teach to the best of their abilities. It is not always easy, and at times your footprints may be the only ones you can see on your path. But if you stop and listen, you can hear feather rustling. If you look closely, you can find bright feathers sprinkled along the way.

~ Heather