BEWARE: Create-A-Monster Sparks Creativity!

Create-A-Monster is wonderfully, wacky, wild fun!  The team at Just Fun has launched an iPad app that will spark creativity and bring your children hours of fun and unlimited possibilities!

Basically, this art app allows children (or parents!!) to create, manipulate and personalize their own monster. There is a great tutorial that takes you through all of the various features, such as how to rotate and scale various body parts.  Upon finishing their creations, kids can share their monsters with the world via email, Facebook or Twitter.  Aimed at grade school age children and up, Create-A-Monster provides wholesome entertainment while igniting the imagination.  It has entertained our five-year old on up to, well, me!  

As a homeschooling parent and educator, this app would serve as a great sounding board to a creative writing unit or as an activity to illustrate the mathematical concept of symmetry.  I have included suggestions on how to incorporate “monsters” in your learning environment.

Lesson Ideas:

• Math:
  • Have children create symmetrical monsters to add a fun twist to this geometric  concept. Save their masterpieces and create a digital presentation using  Google Docs, Animoto, or Glogster.

• Language Arts:
  • Creative writing:
    • Really get the creative juices flowing by using your students’ monsters as a story starters.  Then, publish their stories using Google Docs or on your class wiki.
    • Create a  fake Facebook or Twitter profile to correspond to your monster.
  • Descriptive writing:
  • Begin by creating your own monster.  Then, try to describe your monster in great detail using lots and lots of adjectives and excruciating detail!  Pair up with a friend and see how well you can recreate each other’s monsters.  Not only is this a great exercise in descriptive writing, but also in developing observation skills necessary for scientific inquiry.

BEWARE: You are headed for MONSTER size fun!

[Nano]School Kids: Reshaping Education With Mobile Devices

There are many reports surfacing about the state of the American educational system.  Some suggest U.S. students are falling drastically behind other nations especially in the content areas of math and science.  Others say we are in the midst of an educational crisis.  Many school systems throughout the country are facing devastating cutbacks due to state budget deficits.  In addition, there is debate over educational reform.  Despite these challenges, educators must find ways to prepare students to meet the demands of an uncertain future.

There are many grassroots efforts to address these needs.  Ranging from the classroom teacher to entire districts, educators are searching for ways to bring our classrooms into the twenty-first century.  I know this sounds crazy being that we are already a decade into this century.  However, the atmosphere of most classrooms and the attitude of many administrators are not drastically different from classrooms twenty years ago.  We are living in a global market.  Our students must find ways to compete with people all over the world not just from around their own cities or states.

Technology, creativity, collaboration and innovation dominate the workplace of the future, yet many of our classrooms stifle these traits by emphasizing testing.  As a result, there are many groups and individuals looking to promote change.  John Popadiuk leads the Nanoschool Kids Project based in Chicago, IL.  They seek to redesign and reinvent classroom learning through successful integration of technology.  They focus on incorporating mobile devices to engage students and enhance learning.  His work has been featured in a variety of media outlets including Wired magazine and the New York Times. 

The NanoSchool Kids Homepage showcases their current apps and gives a sneak peak into future releases.  Among my favorites are ZooRound, Matheroids and their kinetic art creator, Space Crayons.  These apps are engaging and make learning, dare I say, FUN!  Mobile learning devices like the iPad or the iPod touch give educators a new platform to structure daily lessons, ignite creativity and excite learning.

Frank Stallwood, a Jacksonville businessman and director of the Alliance for World Class Education, states, "The time is now for us to redefine our educational system."  We need to meet students where they are and bring out their best.  There is nothing to fear about utilizing technology in the classroom except the fear of what happens if we don't.  Today's students are living in a world dominated by collaboration and ingenuity.  Businesses constantly utilize technology in the workplace and to connect instantly with the rest of the world.  As educators, we need to bring this same element into the classroom.  In closing, thank you to the "thinktank" at the NanoSchool Kids project and to the many other educational app developers for shaping the future of education. 

Growing Number Sense with MathGirl Number Garden

The team at Icanology has done it again! After great success with their engaging math app, Arithmaroo, Lynn and Molly Rasmussen are launching a new app aimed directly at girls.  On July 16, MathGirl Number Garden will be released on iTunes.  In addition, there will be a Lite version available for free showcasing the first 4 of 12 levels. 

The format is similar to Arithmaroo in that it takes a right-brain approach to developing number sense.  The game consists of moving through 12 progressively harder levels.  The early levels of the game are geared towards preschool and kindergarten but can challenge even adults at the higher levels.  Along the way, girls will have the chance to earn stars that can be exchanged for exciting rewards like virtual bunnies, rainbows, flowers and many other objects.  These can be used to add personal flair to individual gardens! 

Also like Arithmaroo, this app takes an organic approach to learning mathematical concepts.  Colorful, everyday objects are used to represent numerical values creating visual interest for young learners.  As children interact with the game (Yes, I said game!), they are easily able to make connections between numerical symbols and the values they represent.  This provides a firm foundation upon which future concepts can grow.  Before your eyes, you will begin to see the concepts of addition and multiplication take root.  More importantly, with each success, the "I can't do math" attitude transforms into an "I can" as confidence blooms in young learners.

As a homeschooling mom of four, as well as, math educator, I can feel good about letting our children explore this new app.  MathGirl Number Garden provides a fun, educational alternative to the usual video gaming options.  This app is the perfect illustration of meaningful technology integration into the learning process.  So, go ahead, let the kids borrow your iPod.  Then, sit back and watch as they begin to cultivate a love of learning and grow in their knowledge of math.  By the way, they might have a little bit of fun!

Above Average Fun With the iPod Touch: Merging Gymnastics and Math

As a homeschooling mom and math educator, I am always looking for ways to bring authentic learning experiences into our "classroom."  Our daughters are members of the North Shore Flairs competitive gymnastics team.  Throughout the season, we keep track of their scores and their team's results.  We use a great application called Meet Tracker.  A couple of weeks ago, our 4th grader began her unit on calculating averages using the Singapore Math (level 5B) math curriculum.  I love this program!  If you are not familiar with this program, Singapore pushes critical thinking and problem solving and offers many opportunities to see how math can be applied to various situations.  However, I thought it would be fun to take a "break" from the book and turn her world- the world of gymnastics.  When I mentioned the idea to our daughter, she beamed with excitement and could not wait to get started.

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The assignment is structured after a real gymnastics meet.  There are four rotations with an awards ceremony at the end.  Questions are to be answered at the end of each rotation and recorded on your handout.  Upon completion, the results are to be sent via gmail to your teacher (aka mommmy!).  Everything will be done electronically.

Rotation 1: Using the statistics compiled using Meet Tracker, calculate your season averages for vault, bars, beam, floor, and all-around.  One caveat, all work must be done by hand!  You can check your averages against those  on Meet Tracker. Note: Use only the scores from the four regular season meets.

Rotation 2: Using Kid's Zone Create-a-Graph, create bar charts for each event including all-around.  Using skitch, capture an image of your chart and include under rotation #2 on your handout. 

Rotation 3: Using the statistics for the four meets listed on Meet Tracker, list the team score for each meet and calculate the average team score for this year.

Rotation 4: State meets are the time to showcase all of your hard work over the past season.  For each event, compare your state meet results with the scores from the four earlier meets.  How do your state meet results compare with your season averages?  Determine the net change between your state meet score and your regular season average.  Recalculate your season average to include your state meet scores.

Awards Ceremony: Reflect on this past gymnastics season as you respond to the following questions.  Refer to the statistics gathered to support your responses. 

Which event posed the greatest challenge?  Overall, do you feel you improved throughout the season?

Technology Resources:

• Kid's Zone Create-a-Graph
• Google Docs
• Meet Tracker
• Skitch
  

Digital Learning for the 21st Century Student

Many educators are spending time this January reflecting on the past year.  For me, I am completely amazed at the integral role technology plays in the education of our children.  Even our three year old, can log onto PBS Kids and navigate his way around.  Just like many modern classrooms, it would be impossible for us to return to the "old ways."  Let me explain.

A typical day for us begins with the children going to our class webpage and checking their assignments.  I create weekly lessons for each child using the spreadsheet in Google Docs and post them on Sundays.  This serves as an electronic assignment pad and is essential to all of us staying on track.  I can quickly make changes as needed for each child and it is automatically updated on our website.  So cool!  From there, they navigate to various "online learning environments" such as Time4Learning, Spelling City or BrainPop to complete daily assignments. 

Each child has their own gmail account so that I can create tests or reviews using the "forms" option in Google Docs.  Also, I have used the "share" feature in Google Docs to establish a writer/editor relationship with our fourth grader.  As she types her writing assignments, I am able to edit and send them quickly back to her before anything is ever printed.  Amazing!

Learning has taken on an entirely new look for our children.  It's going digital!  When asked to brainstorm, they turn to wallwisher, create wordles or make flow maps in bubbl.  When asked to define or explain a term, they "google it," use eyeplorer, visuwords or wikipedia.  When asked to write a summary or do research, they create interactive reports using scratch, make animoto movies or digital posters using glogster.  Books are still read, however, digital versions are explored using Google books and even our iPod Touch.  Our fourth grader began blogging and our second grader is curious about stop-motion animation.  Drawing is a favorite around here, but programs like Anime Studio, Manga Debut, Tux Paint, Acorn, and Scratch bring these drawings to life.  In addition to "paper and pencil", stories are created on Storybird, art is created using a Bamboo tablet, journal time is inspired by images on Flickr and spelling words are turned into works of art using Spell With Flickr.  Wow!

With the world at our fingertips, children today are truly part of a global community.  Just this past semester, our children were able to take virtual field trips using Google Earth, correspond with people all over the world, and attend a "live" webcast from the Clearwater Aquarium as they honored Winter, the dolphin.  In addition, we were able to research global customs and relive history through many fascinating, online resources. 

Our children, like students all over the world, are experiencing the changing face of education first-hand.  21st century learning centers around technology and is cultivated through critical thinking.  The student of today needs to be able access, process, analyze and effectively communicate the wealth of information that is readily available to them.  Many classes use wiki's, twitter and other social networking tools to allow for collaboration and stimulate creative thinking.  Through this collaborative process, students (and teachers) are able to develop clarity and lucidity in the expression of ideas while learning the importance of peer evaluation.  Learning becomes more student-centered and the teacher plays the role of facilitator. 

Digital learning is revolutionizing the landscape of modern education.  In a world where preschoolers are learning phonics on iPods and elementary students are writing programs to create interactive reports, educators need to be in tune to the rapidly changing needs of the 21st-century student.  As I reflect on the future learning of our own children, I hope I can provide them with meaningful experiences that fuel their creativity, ignite a passion for learning and ultimately develop their critical thinking.