More, more, more!

Yesterday I came home and played with my Blog some more. I am quickly realizing that there are so many different features to add and play around with, that I am spending far too much time Blogging! I was always so reluctant to try Blogging but I now see the potential in it and I can see how I would use it with my students in the classroom. They would absolutely LOVE the fact that they can customize their Blogs! 
 
After we watched the podcast, The Myth of Average yesterday, we were asked to use one word to describe our main take-away of the video. We used a very cool App called Poll Everywhere, and like magic, our words were displayed in a graphic for all to see.


This is what we created: 

How great would this be in the classroom! It was mentioned yesterday that this App could be used as an "exit card" activity where student's responses would be automatically displayed. I cannot explain it, but there is a sense of immediate gratification and pride when seeing your words displayed in this manner. Mrs. Welsford brought up the fact that one downside of the App might be the fact that it is anonymous. I understand what she meant...we have probably all had that student who would put something ridiculous or inappropriate but as Mrs. Welsford mentioned, the students don't have to know that it's anonymous. Very sneaky... I personally see the anonymity aspect of the App as one of it's beauties! Students can post their thoughts completely without judgement. It might allow for increased honesty. I LOVE this App! It's fun and simple to use. 

This bring me to the third amazing thing that we did yesterday. We learned about Presumed Competency. In Douglas Bilken's words, presumed competency means to:  “Assume that a child has intellectual ability, provide opportunities to be exposed to learning, assume the child wants to learn and assert him or herself in the world.” There are several differing opinions about presumed competency but in my humble opinion, it just makes sense. As Chelsea mentioned in her Blog yesterday, in the educational setting, too often we see staff members talking about students, primarily non-verbal students, as though they were not there and/or as though they do not have the intellectual capability to understand that they are being talked about. What Mrs. Welsford did to facilitate our learning around the topic of presumed competency was very clever indeed. She "snuck" it in there while we were also learning about the App, Book Creator. Clever, clever.
 Book Creator is a wonderfully easy App that we used to create a six word story around the topic of presumed competency. This App was very user friendly and I can imagine that my students would find it extremely engaging. There are so many options available within the App to customize your books. Speaking of options...who knew that iPad had so many wonderfully accessible modifications built right in to the settings function! Well...maybe you knew but I certainly did not! With each class, I am becoming more and more of an iPad believer.