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=Marian iPad Course = = =


 * Assignment #7 Journal Reflection **

= = The impact I expect to see as a result of teaching with iPads in the classroom is the continual innovation of collaborative learning and technology usage by both teachers and students. My eighth grade students are highly motivated to learn and participate in classroom activities every time we have used the iPads in our Spanish and Language Arts classes. To engage students in active learning, iPads allow an open line of communication and collaboration in which students and teachers learn together and share their findings in an exciting manner. Students are already using their devices, so it is time that educators help students learn responsible technology usage and implement BYOD programs in schools. = =

= = I plan to continue to use my iPad each and every day to read books, communicate with others, stay informed, listen to music, watch videos, and learn about the world around me. In my professional life I will continue to use my iPad and classroom iPads to innovate my Spanish and Language Arts units of instruction and daily activities. I would like to integrate iPads into my daily classroom management and use them as essential twenty-first century learning tools with all of my students. To me, the iPad offers a unique way to revolutionize teaching and learning almost overnight. = =

= = I have learned so much though this Marian iPad course and from our fellow educators and classmates. The collaboration and sharing of ideas among educators is both exciting and essential to teaching our students important twenty-first century skills and instilling a love of learning and exploring the world around us. I have discovered many new exciting apps, interesting lesson and activity ideas, and other inspirational projects to discover in the classroom. I plan to explore additional innovative ways to utilize iPads with students in the classroom. This summer I plan to write a few grants and integrate iPads into revised units of instruction. I look forward to using the iPad to challenge and enrich the learning, productivity, creativity, and innovation of both my students and myself. = = =media type="custom" key="15374830"= = = = = =//Classrooms of the Future Begin Today! //= = = =media type="custom" key="15370970" = = = =Assignment 6A =

Make Your Own e-Book (YouTube Video #1)

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Make Your Own iBook (YouTube Video #2)

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=Assignment 6B =

My Animoto Language Arts Student Video

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=//**Assignment 5 iTunesU**// =

Upon exploring the iTunesU Application on my iPad, I discovered the inspiring Florida Digital Educators' “Publishing a Magazine”to be the most applicable Vidcast to integrate into my Language Arts students’ fourth quarter DEADLINE magazine project. For this reason, I plan to show this video to students tomorrow as an inspirational digital kickoff to the project. This short educational video depicts a sixth grade Language Arts classroom in action as they use iPages and laptops to create a collaborative class magazine. The teacher and various students explain their assigned roles within their two-week magazine project. Immediately apparent to viewers is the class’s combined sense of excitement to use digital tools and technology to research and write articles, create advertisements, and design the magazine’s overall layout. The enthusiasm of student editors and photographers involved is also evident through their personal narrative descriptions. The teacher continues to explain how she and students are using iPages to design their class magazine and the Internet to search for companies to advertise within their digital magazine. I hope that witnessing fellow middle school students enjoying utilizing digital tools to publish literature firsthand will encourage my own students to take a risk and innovate their own magazine publishing this year.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 110%;">My goal is to utilize this particular iTunesU video resource not only to enhance our ongoing lesson to students modeling ways to modernize our traditionally paper, pencil, and computer based project but also to encourage, motivate, and challenge them to use iPages, iPads and laptops to create digital magazines as well. As editors-in-chief of their own paper fictional magazines, students in past years have used Microsoft Word to write column articles, create advertisements, and design other miscellaneous items to sell to eighth grade peers. Ultimately, students have published excellent paper magazines and eagerly shared them with friends and family. However, in order to encourage students to design digital magazines as well, students have spent a week in class and an additional week over spring break reading both paper and digital magazines. After completing a magazine survey on our classroom Web site that guides students to compare their experiences reading paper and digital magazines, students will then choose which type, paper or digital, that they would like to publish this year. It is my hope that many students will choose to use the iPad to create a digital magazine in iBooks or other apps and digitize the publishing of their magazines to match their personal preferences for using digital tools like iPads on a daily basis. Because iTunesU offers easy access to integrate such engaging digital audio, video, and book content into my classroom instruction, I view its benefits as invaluable to integrate student learning with teaching twenty-first century technology skills.







<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">//**Assignment 4 E-Books**//

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">I downloaded the following two e-books to read on my Kindle app for educational use with my students in the classroom and for personal enjoyment at home:

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">Because my Language Arts students and I are so excited about having read Suzanne Collins’s (2008) //The// //Hunger Games// novel and finally going to see the movie together this Thursday, March 29, on a school field trip, I downloaded the sequel //Catching Fire// (2009)//.// Although I have already read the entire series twice, once in print and the second time electronically, I believe in modeling for my students that truly rich literature should be read more than once to grasp its nuances and to appreciate its themes more fully. Reading this novel with students will allow us to discuss contemporary fictional literature together and utilize a variety of reading, writing, and technology strategies to analyze central themes of oppression and liberation. In the novel //Catching Fire// forces are in motion that main characters Katniss and Peeta know little about. Reflecting the necessary stealth of the District rebels to survive the close monitoring by the Capitol’s prying eyes, the reader has to piece together the true story using the author’s subtle clues strewn carefully throughout the novel. I hope to harness my students’ excitement and continue to explore the intriguing world of Panem and its districts in //The Hunger Games// trilogy.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">I am a huge fan of Jodi Picoult, and I have read all of her novels that she has written to date except for her most recently released book, //Lone Wolf// (2012). For this reason, I chose to download her newest novel to enjoy at home and on El Dorado Beach in Mexico next week. Picoult’s novels always grapple with difficult issues and controversial themes in innovative ways, and I love how her characters jump off the pages with lives and loves of their own. I have attended two of Picoult’s book release signings at Mt. Alverno College in Milwaukee, and although receiving an autographed copy of her books is exciting, listening to her speak of her inspirations, research and editing processes, and insights into her next novels thrill me each and every time I hear her speak. Each of Picoult’s novels has touched me in some way as her books ask challenging questions that have no easy right or wrong answers. I look forward to savoring her latest novel that questions the love and loyalties of families and the steep cost of sustaining both. My teaching colleagues and library staff also enjoy reading her books and discussing them together at school. In addition, several of my eighth grade students are mature enough to read Picoult’s novels with their parents’ permission, and I enjoy discussing her captivating characters and riveting themes with them as well.

<span style="display: block; font-family: georgia,serif; font-size: 120%; text-align: center;">References <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">Collins, S. (2009). //Catching fire.// New York: Scholastic Press.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">Picoult, J. (2012). //Lone wolf.// New York: Emily Bestler Books.


 * <span style="font-family: 'Georgia','serif'; font-size: 19px;">Assignment 3 – Application Lesson Plan Format **


 * <span style="font-family: 'Georgia','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Title of Lesson: **<span style="font-family: 'Georgia','serif'; font-size: 16px;"> Let’s ¡SALSA! - //La Casa// Unit Vocabulary and Sentence Fluency


 * <span style="font-family: 'Georgia','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Instructor: **<span style="font-family: 'Georgia','serif'; font-size: 16px;"> Ms. Miller


 * <span style="font-family: 'Georgia','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Time Allocated: **<span style="font-family: 'Georgia','serif'; font-size: 16px;"> 20-30 minutes


 * <span style="font-family: 'Georgia','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Grade Level / Subject Area: **<span style="font-family: 'Georgia','serif'; font-size: 16px;"> Eighth Grade Spanish


 * <span style="font-family: 'Georgia','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Learning Objectives / Goals: **

<span style="font-family: 'Georgia','serif'; font-size: 16px;">As a final wrap-up of the //La Casa// (House) Unit, students will be able to:

<span style="font-family: 'Georgia','serif'; font-size: 16px;">A. Identify appropriate //La Casa// (House) Unit vocabulary studied within the unit.

<span style="font-family: 'Georgia','serif'; font-size: 16px;">B. Construct grammatically and sequentially correct Spanish sentences using English sentence prompts.

<span style="font-family: 'Georgia','serif'; font-size: 16px;">C. Increase speed, accuracy, and fluency in forming sentences through practice.


 * <span style="font-family: 'Georgia','serif'; font-size: 16px;">iPad Application(s) Used//:// **//<span style="font-family: 'Georgia','serif'; font-size: 16px;"> ¡Salsa! - Spanish Language Learning Game //<span style="font-family: 'Georgia','serif'; font-size: 16px;"> by Mobile Madness LLCView


 * <span style="font-family: 'Georgia','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Learning Activities (Indicate where / when iPad is used): **

<span style="font-family: 'Georgia','serif'; font-size: 16px;">A. In the classroom pass out numbered iPads to assigned student pairs and direct students to open the //!SALSA!// app. The teacher will model and project all steps of the process to the classroom SMARTBoard screen using the teacher iPad.

<span style="font-family: 'Georgia','serif'; font-size: 16px;">B. Within the ¡SALSA! App Settings, students will select the //Vocabulary Categories// option and //Uncheck All//. Then select the At Home category only.

<span style="font-family: 'Georgia','serif'; font-size: 16px;">C. Students in pairs will collaborate and discuss how to translate English sentences provided and form correct Spanish sentences by clicking and dragging the words to the top of the screen to form a properly capitalized and punctuated sentence.

<span style="font-family: 'Georgia','serif'; font-size: 16px;">D. If an answer is incorrect, students will receive the following message: //Wrong Order// with an arrow indicating the need to reorder the words. If they use the one incorrect, extra word provided, it will fall off the screen with a loud error noise. When students’ answers are correct, they will receive the following message: //¡CORRECTO!// //Touch to continue.//

<span style="font-family: 'Georgia','serif'; font-size: 16px;">E. Possible activity modification: If students need assistance in forming correct sentences, they may press the play/pause button for the correct answer and the following message: //Está bien. Touch screen to continue.// Students may then return to form that sentence correctly later.

<span style="font-family: 'Georgia','serif'; font-size: 16px;">F. When the sentences begin to repeat, students will attempt to form sentences individually with the assistance and support of a partner as needed.

<span style="font-family: 'Georgia','serif'; font-size: 16px;">G. For advanced students who progress rapidly: Informally time partners to check if their speed and accuracy is increasing.

<span style="font-family: 'Georgia','serif'; font-size: 16px;">E. Students will take screen shots of their correctly formed words and view them in the the Photos app.

<span style="font-family: 'Georgia','serif'; font-size: 16px;">F. For advanced students who progress rapidly: Students will video record their English and Spanish sentences using the Video app.


 * <span style="font-family: 'Georgia','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Evaluation: **

<span style="font-family: 'Georgia','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Completed screen shots in Photos and video recordings saved to the Video app.

<span style="font-family: 'Georgia','serif'; font-size: 16px;">Informal assessments of student pairs by circulating the room, observing students’ <span style="font-family: 'Georgia','serif'; font-size: 16px;">interactions, and talking with specific students.

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<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">The ten content specific educational applications that I found at the iTunes store of value to me and my students include the following:


 * [[image:msmilleripad/spanish_spelling_tips.jpg width="119" height="88" align="center" link="@http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/spanish-spelling-tips-by-word/id436785093?mt=8"]] || <span style="font-family: 'Georgia','serif';">The free **Spanish Spelling Tips** app created by Word Magic Software offers Spanish students a fun, interactive way to explore the complexities of Spanish spelling. Short Spanish spelling rules are organized within a collection of fifty-three groups of rules in six main categories including accents and tricky letters with similar sounds. Compelling examples are linked to specific rules, and the challenging use of the diacritical accent is addressed in a clear, helpful manner for Spanish language learners. ||


 * [[image:msmilleripad/Busuu.jpg width="117" height="100" link="@http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/learn-spanish-busuu.com!/id379971531?mt=8%20"]] || <span style="font-family: 'Georgia','serif';">The free **Learn Spanish with** **busuu.com** app was developed by a leading online community for world language learning. Busuu offers Spanish students an exciting iPad app to learn Spanish through interactive audio, video, photos, and activities. This app allows students engaging opportunities to practice with the Spanish language organized into thematic mini units. ||


 * [[image:msmilleripad/salsa.png width="116" height="91" align="center" link="@http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/salsa-spanish-language-learning/id444645338?mt=8%20"]] || <span style="font-family: 'Georgia','serif';">The free **¡Salsa! - Spanish Language Learning Game** app by Mobile Madness LLCView offers students a simple yet fun way to practice their Spanish grammar and vocabulary. Version 1.o contains thirteen vocabulary categories. Choosing among thematic categories, students can practice forming correct Spanish sentences by clicking and dragging words. Correctly formed sentences can be shared with others via Facebook and Twitter. ||


 * [[image:msmilleripad/Spanish_Class_Lite.png width="118" height="109" link="@http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/spanish-class-lite/id422600410?mt=8"]] || <span style="font-family: 'Georgia','serif';">The free **Spanish Class Lite** app hosts an entire first semester of basic Spanish course that combines interactive verb, vocabulary, grammar and listening exercises. This app allows students engaging practice with verb conjugations, vocabulary, grammar, and sentence formation. This curriculum covers the following: present, gerund, and participle verb tenses; 300 vocabulary words sorted into thematic categories, basic grammar structures, and 50+ useful Spanish language phrases. Students can customize the exercises in a fun way that also tracks student progress with descriptive summaries and statistics. ||


 * [[image:msmilleripad/Spain_Travel_Guide.jpg width="120" height="107" align="center" link="@http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/spain-travel-guide-by-triposo/id447763126?mt=8"]] || <span style="font-family: 'Georgia','serif';">The free **Spain Travel Guide** app created by Triposo Inc. offers students updated city guides for Madrid, Barcelona, Valencia, Sevilla and many other popular tourist destinations in Spain. Spanish students will complete the Vacations in Spain unit during May and use this app to explore the geography, culture, and attractions of Madrid. Photographs combine with interactive maps to allow users the feel of traveling through Spanish cities, and the option to create personal bookmarks allows travelers to individualize their own virtual city tours. ||


 * [[image:msmilleripad/poetry_creator.png width="122" height="93" align="center" link="@http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/poetry-creator-verses-poetry/id371925480?mt=8%20"]] || <span style="font-family: 'Georgia','serif';">The free **Poetry Creator** basic app allows students to create instant poetry using the simple drag and drop style to write poems directly on the iPad in a new and creative format. This fresh spin on refrigerator magnet poetry motivates students to apply their creativity without the risk of losing any of the magnets. Using the screenshot and share options students can share their poems with one another quickly and easily and collaborate in their poetry writing. ||


 * [[image:msmilleripad/practice_english_grammar.png width="122" height="119" align="center" link="@http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/practice-english-grammar-2/id490759167?mt=8"]] || <span style="font-family: 'Georgia','serif';">The free **Practice English Grammar 2** app created by CrowdUniView allows Language Arts students an interactive way to practice English by following the age-old principle “Practice makes perfect.” This app contains over 500 questions to practice English grammar in an individualized format that includes tests, flashcards, articles, and statistics. Students will be able to review and study the grammatical concepts that would best meet their own language needs. ||


 * [[image:msmilleripad/wiseHopper.jpg width="126" height="105" link="@http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/wisehopper/id484781040?mt=8"]] || <span style="font-family: 'Georgia','serif';">The free **wiseHopper** app created by Ganomaly, Inc. cleverly disguises learning, math, vocabulary, and grammar review within a game. This interactive app allows students to practice their word and grammar knowledge through games in both English and Spanish. Students will enjoy learning while helping the hopping animals to shore by answering questions correctly. Additional incentive to work quickly is to prevent the large bullfrog from jumping on top of the player’s chosen animal of grasshopper, butterfly, bee, cricket, or lightning bug. ||


 * [[image:msmilleripad/jIdioms.jpg width="120" height="109" align="center" link="@http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/jidioms/id388883185?mt=8"]] || <span style="font-family: 'Georgia','serif';">The free app **jIdioms** created by JoretoView simply yet efficiently lists the definitions of over 2,000 idioms from spoken English. This app allows Language Arts students to quickly search for idioms and export them to .CVS format to use later in Microsoft Excel. Students can also e-mail themselves specific idioms and their descriptions for future reference. Using idioms is one way to spice up or flavor students' oral communications both inside and outside the classroom. ||


 * [[image:msmilleripad/Irregular_Verbs.jpg width="114" height="122" align="center" link="@http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/english-irregular-verbs-for/id375765038?mt=8%20"]] || <span style="font-family: 'Georgia','serif';">The free **English Irregular Verb Dictionary** app for English learners created by ANTA Entertainment View contains over 370 irregular verbs used in modern English. Students simply select the alphabetized set of irregular verbs they wish to study based on their current mastery of verb grammar. Options include listening to audio pronunciations of all three verbs (for example: //go, went, gone//), copying and pasting the set anywhere else on the iPad, and sending each set via text message. ||

<span style="font-family: 'Georgia','serif'; font-size: 120%;">Five applications that I can use for personal and professional growth include the following:


 * [[image:msmilleripad/pulse.jpg width="123" height="99" link="@http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/pulse-news-reader/id371088673"]] || <span style="font-family: 'Georgia','serif';">The free **Pulse News for iPad** app encourages teachers and students to read contemporary nonfiction and informative texts. Allowing users to choose and organize their news interest sites within an exciting, attractive format marked by striking visuals, Pulse News offers an innovative way to stay informed. Current events will be much more fun to read about in a personalized format that matches previously explored topics. ||


 * [[image:msmilleripad/dictionary.png width="121" height="86" align="center" link="@http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/dictionary-com-dictionary/id308750436?mt=8#%20"]] || **<span style="font-family: 'Georgia','serif'; font-size: 15px;">Dictionary.com – Dictionary & Thesaurus for iPad **<span style="font-family: 'Georgia','serif';">**,** a highly acclaimed free reference app, allows my Language Arts students and me to look up unfamiliar words, search suggested synonyms and antonyms, hear audio pronunciations, and share entries via e-mail, Facebook, and Twitter. One especially innovative feature is the option to tap the screen and speak a word to be searched in the dictionary. This option will be quite useful to students who can pronounce a word but remain unable to spell it correctly in the search bar. Each word in a definition entry can also be tapped to look up its additional meaning. ||


 * [[image:msmilleripad/kobo-app.jpg width="117" height="109" link="@http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/kobo-1-million-free-books/id301259483?mt=8"]] || <span style="font-family: 'Georgia','serif';">**Kobo**, a free customizable library iPad app, allows my Spanish and Language Arts students and me to select and download millions of free or inexpensive Spanish and English ebooks. This app also encourages us as readers to collaborate and share our personal book reviews and favorite excerpts with one another on Facebook as well as selecting books that fellow readers can view in our personal libraries. Kobo exposes both students and teachers to new and exciting books and inspires us all to become lifelong readers and enjoyers of literature. ||


 * [[image:msmilleripad/AppStart.jpg width="130" height="83" align="center" link="@http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/id408984648"]] || <span style="font-family: 'Georgia','serif';">The **AppStart for iPad** (2012 Edition) app created by AppAdvice.com is free for a limited time to celebrate the launch of the new iPad. AppStart offers students and teachers just beginning to use their iPads an extremely useful iPad starter guide and suggested lists of apps to download including a top ten list. As my students and I begin to utilize the iPads in earnest fourth quarter, this app will also teach us inside tips and tricks such as adding six apps in the bottom tray and super fast scrolling and saving images in Safari. ||


 * [[image:msmilleripad/AppsGoneFree.png width="123" height="93" align="center" link="@http://itunes.apple.com/us/app/appsgonefree/id470693788?mt=8%20"]] || <span style="font-family: 'Georgia','serif';">The free **AppsGoneFree** app created by AppAdvice.com is an extremely useful app for people who wish to install high quality paid apps for free each day. This app daily features a list of highly rated apps that have reduced their price to free in addition to useful descriptions of how each app can be used. The experts at AppAdvice.com have already helped me to download several valuable paid apps for free! ||

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">The iPad holds the unique potential to revolutionize teaching and learning in my eighth grade Spanish and Language Arts classroom almost overnight. The more I actively explore and utilize the intricacies of my own amazing device, the more excited I am to begin using iPads as essential teaching tools to motivate and engage student learning. Although the prospect of risk-taking and leaping into the unknown remains a bit scary and daunting, I am confident that my students and I will learn together to utilize the classroom iPad in ways that challenge and encourage collaborative learning experiences and innovation. For these reasons, I selected the following online articles, Web sites, and blogs for their immediate potential to excite, equip, and empower me and my students to embrace the full potential of the iPad in education.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">According to Nadel (2010) in his online article “Making the iPad more school friendly” fully integrating the iPad into daily classroom instruction is not a completely seamless process. The purchasing of multiple accessories including protective cases, stands, keyboards, and AVG adapter cables and several necessary pricey applications must be completed before an educator can even begin to use the iPad and its applications fully in the classroom. I am currently grappling with these same challenges as I seek to use iPads in our classroom. Although I am fortunate to have access to a pilot program of ten iPads synched and protected in OtterBoxes and padlocked SyncTray in conjunction with my own personal iPad and the iPads of several students willing and excited to use them daily within our classroom, I am currently unable to project all of the apps on my iPad though my classroom projector. Screen projection is essential to model the initial use of the iPad and the ongoing collaborative use of applications and programs. Therefore, I was thrilled to find Nadel’s article that shares a few steps necessary to equip and enhance my classroom use of my iPad and projector together in exciting ways. Happily, in addition to providing valuable practical tips for educators interested in successfully equipping their classrooms with iPads, Nadel (2010) savvily foreshadows the need for the advent of more recent projection advances: “Until Apple adds the ability to send a signal to a projector it will be a hard sell in the classroom for anything other than one-on-one work” (Apple iPad dock connector to VGA adapter section, para. 3). I look forward to researching Apple’s constantly emerging technology including the Apple TV and other applications like Reflection that promise to enable teachers to utilize more easily iPads in the classroom.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">Although the major obstacles to implementing my personal daydream of a 1:1 iPad program or even procuring full time access to a classroom set of iPads is financial, other important challenges and considerations exist. Our district technology office remains leery of Apple’s iTechnology, so fellow teachers and I are piloting our use of iPads mostly on our own. Therefore, I am inspired by the stories of schools and districts that are openly embracing the use of 1:1 iPad programs. Accordingly, McCrea (2011) highlights in her online article “ Prepping for iPads in school” how The Master's Academy in Oviedo, Florida, has begun tackling the challenges of providing each of its high school students in grades nine through twelve with an iPad during the next school year. The private Christian school’s proactive principal, Mitchell Salerno, soon to be associate superintendent, describes how the school has already begun to address the main issues of security, infrastructure, and acceptable use: "We have to teach students how to use these tools. Our content on campus will obviously be filtered, but they also need to know that they shouldn't be accessing [inappropriate] content just because they can." I wholeheartedly agree with Salerno that students need to be taught responsible use of the Internet, and I would love to be a member of a school faculty actively working through these issues with "dialog, conversation and education" (Security, infrastructure, and acceptable use section, para. 3-4). In addition to increasing WiFi bandwidth and offering an optional insurance plan for parents, Salerno and his faculty are focusing on instruction and teacher preparation and “how iPads are going to change the school and the way that students learn” through the implementation of six principles: adaptability, creativity, collaboration, innovation, productivity, and ethics (Instruction and teacher prep section, para. 3-4). Teachers are preparing lesson plans incorporating teaching with an iPad and planning to incorporate Moodle as the main learning management system instead of relying on the use of applications. I am excited to begin my own lesson plans to use the iPad to teach in my classroom and share with Salerno and the teachers at The Master’s Academy the focus on envisioning how the iPad will change our classroom and learning.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">Grannell (2010) provides a glimpse into just how radically the iPad is altering student learning at Cedars School of Excellence, in Greenock, Scotland, in her online article “The school that gives every student an iPad.” The school’s principal, Fraser Speirs, immediately recognized the iPod Touch and soon thereafter the iPad as “providing the potential for seamless integration of technology and traditional teaching” (In Depth section, para. 2). Implementing an iPad leasing program through the Glasgow Apple Store, Speirs and teachers alike embraced the iPad and its potential to innovate teaching and learning. Speirs defines the nearly infinite possibilities of the iPad: "This is a device we bought, but it's not just a textbook or an instrument, or a set of art tools – it's all of those things and more" (In Depth section, para. 10). I share Speirs’s view of the iPad as a blank canvas ready to be filled with innovative apps and projects by students and teachers. Fully embracing the iPad and its educational possibilities, Speirs, teachers, and students are actively utilizing apps purchased from the iStore including PocketPhonics for learning letters, Math Bingo for basic computation, iBooks for reading, Numbers for creating formulae, and Brushes and TypeDrawing for artistic projects. Most encouraging to me as an educator is the positive motivational factor for students using iPads, and Speirs describes how teachers are currently witnessing pupils eager to begin their assignments on their iPads "because they have some way of working that's not just 'write it down on a piece of paper' – schooling has become more flexible and therefore more engaging and interesting" (User focus section, para 1). Addressing the classroom management of iPads, Speirs created a wish list for Apple to manage traditional class sizes of twenty-five students: “Apple-enabled iPad administration and access through Apple Remote Desktop, for pulling browser histories over the air, updating apps, locking devices and capturing screens, but without a system administrator having to pay for enterprise-grade infrastructure” (The downside, para 6). As I begin to use our iPads extensively in the fourth quarter, classroom management considerations will become increasingly important, and I hope to learn tips from educators who have already become experts at teaching with iPads in their classrooms.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">The iPad revolution in education almost naturally lends itself to collaboration among educators excited to share lessons, ideas, apps, success stories, and tips. The sheer wealth of information available online at our fingertips is almost overwhelming. However, the true stories of student learning and engagement though use of the iPad are both heartwarming and encouraging to educators like myself who seek to equip all students with an iPad in the classroom. For example, I discovered Kristi Meeuwse’s (2012) humorous and insightful blogs on the Web site: iPads in education: Exploring the use of iPads and eBooks in schools and colleges, and I was delighted by the successes she and her students have experienced in their kindergarten classroom this year using iPads. One little girl Jayde, though only six years old, is already writing her own niche blog for other young girls about dolls, rainbows, and cheerleading using the Kid Blog app on her iPad (Jayde Talks Blogging). After perusing several other blogs detailing how to project wirelessly, what apps to use to teach English and Spanish, and countless other practical and priceless tips from educators already using iPads in their classrooms, I was inspired to create a complete overhaul of my fourth quarter courses. As the fourth quarter begins this year, I would like to revamp my teaching and daily use of the iPad to include Spanish students working in pairs to complete daily lessons and speaking, reading, writing, and listening activities directly on their shared iPads. Daily and cumulative performance assessments will be immediate and meaningful as students will use the video and audio recording capabilities to capture their successful usage of the Spanish language. I plan to continue to create lessons in SMART Notebook and export them as PDFs to my classroom Web site. Using the wireless connection, students will upload the files into iBooks and / or iAnnotation to manipulate the files in ways that meet their individual needs rather than simply projecting the images onto the screen and viewing them as a whole group. Students will be able to progress through the lessons at their own pace rather than moving on when the majority of students are ready to complete the next slide or workbook page. The potential truly to individualize and personalize instruction is awe-inspiring. In addition, my Language Arts students will soon begin the fourth quarter DEADLINE magazine project in which students become editors-in-chief of their own fictional magazines. Students buy and sell articles, advertisements, and other miscellaneous items with peers across the entire eighth grade class and ultimately publish a magazine to share with peers, teachers, families, and friends. In an effort to modernize this traditionally paper, pencil, and computer based project, I would like to find a way to allow students in pairs to use the iPad to create a digital magazine in iBooks or other app and maintain the collaborative aspect of this engaging project. Since the fourth quarter officially begins next week, I will need to work quickly indeed! However, the iPads in education Web site has already become an invaluable source of inspiration and practical advice that I will certainly use to help me accomplish my goals.

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">As I think beyond the fourth quarter to next year, I am already wishing to acquire a classroom set of iPads to use in the 2012-2013 school year. Luckily, grants do exist, and teachers are willing to share their insights into how to assist one another in gaining access to iPads in schools. One such educator is Jennie Magiera (2011), who in her blog I don’t have iPads: Writing iPad/technology grants on her Web site Teaching like it's 2999: Technology in education blog: redefining the (digital) classroom, shares her own story of how she wrote a grant for 32 classroom iPads and also offers practical advice to fellow educators on how we, too, can apply for iPad grants. Magiera suggests first contacting our school districts’ technology education department since many districts have set aside funds specifically for technology including iPads (para. 1-2). Although my own technology department has not been keen on the use of iPads in the past, perhaps talking with our director again, especially after I have assessment evidence from the fourth quarter to share how students have utilized the iPads in innovative ways, will reap rewards in the purchasing of a class set of iPads. Magiera provides a list of grant writing and fundraising sources and details exactly how to write a successful iPad grant, advising teachers with tested words of wisdom: “Take a step outside of the box and consider how the specific technology can support each subject in an effective way. Understand that this may mean a complete change in the way you teach - and it will be quite an adjustment for you and your colleagues” (para. 4). This Apple Distinguished Educator not only provides specific advice on what details to include in an iPad grant, but she also links to copies of her own funded grants. I am inspired by Magiera’s successes and will certainly follow her sage advice when I am ready to apply for my own iPad grant in the near future.

<span style="display: block; font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%; text-align: center;">References <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">Angeli, E., Wagner, J., Lawrick, E., Moore, K., Anderson, M., Soderlund, L., & Brizee, A. (2010, <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">May 5). General format. Retrieved from @http://owl.english.purdue.edu/owl/resource/560/01/

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">Granell, C. (2010, December 30). The school that gives every student an iPad. In Depth: How <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">iPads have transformed the classroom. //TechRadar: Deep into Technology.// Retrieved from @http://www.techradar.com/news/computing/apple/%20the-school-that-gives-every-student-an-ipad-915539?artc_pg=1

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">Magiera, J. (2011, May 11). I don’t have iPads: Writing iPad/technology grants. [Web log <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">comment]. Teaching like it's 2999: Technology in education blog: redefining the (digital) <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">classroom. Retrieved from @http://teachinglikeits2999.blogspot.com/2011/05/idont-have-ipads-writing-ipadtechnology.html

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">McCrea, B. (2011, April 28). Prepping for iPads in school. //The Journal: Transforming through// <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">//Technology.// Retrieved from @http://thejournal.com/Articles/2011/04/28/Prepping-for-iPads-in-School.aspx?Page=1

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">Meeuwse, K. (2012, March 12). Jayde talks blogging [Web log comment]. Retrieved from <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">@http://ipadeducators.ning.com/profiles/blogs/jayde-talks-blogging

<span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">Nadel, B. (2010, October 6). Making the iPad more school friendly. Retrieved from <span style="font-family: Georgia,serif; font-size: 120%;">@http://blogs.scholastic.com/techtools/2010/10/making-the-ipad-more-school-friendly.html