Saturday, April 23, 2011

iPods in the classroom

In December we received our iPod carts and orientation on iPods basics. Each student has their own iPod touch to use and to be responsible for.

A few of the students were immediate experts, many more spent a lot of the scheduled iPod time just trying to figure out how to turn in on and operate the buttons and never got to the internet or to the apps.

Five months later, we have a class full of experts. Sure, from time to time we have technical difficulties, like the iPods mysteriously jump Wi-Fi networks, keeping us from going on line. Or we have a network slowdown when we all try to go on IXL Math at the same time. But all in all, we enjoy using the iPods to supplement and support our learning. Here are some of our favorite apps.

Pocket Frogs - not all that educational, but fun when all of our work is done

Motion Math - helps us practice fractions and decimals on a number line, one of our toughest standards

Math Zombie - helps us practice our mental math, speeding up our addition skills

We also use the iPods to listen to podcasts. One of our favorite Podcasts is

The Princeton Review's Vocabulary Minute.

Check out our class blog G2Rocks next week to hear thoughts about using the iPods in class directly from the students.

http://kidblog.org/MrsCsclass4/