French_Danielle

My French class students used the iPads for various daily activities. We mainly used Explain everything App for writing, picture, and speaking. One of the projects for my AP students was about "French people homes" "Où habitent les Français". The students worked in groups of 3 in the class to research online for one kind of residence, take notes on explain everything, insert pictures, and finally describe them and explain the type of residence. After they completed it we exported the project as a movie and saved it on Vimeo. The whole project was developed in class. It took longer than my previous projects using Laptops because students were unable to follow-up on their writing and research at home, since the iPads are only in the class.

Things I learned and will try to do better next year if I have iPads: - Management: even with the best organization and monitoring, students are going to send messages to each others and take silly pictures! so be prepared to talk about your rules and students responsibilities. They were surprised to read messages going out to the whole school when they thought it is only between their classmates... They stopped! - remind them that it is not a personal iPad, as it is designed. We are using it with multiple users. having this in mind, they need to be respectful for other students work and not overwrite on it or delete it. Teach them to create a new project before they start typing... - outline the project in detail, otherwise, they will loose too much time online chating... - Walk in the class and monitor their progress. - Many of them were first time iPads users. It was a great opportunity for them to learn to use it. - online dictionaries were very helpful. - Cartoon creation was very fun! next year I will create more project using the students self portrait/cartoon! - Socrative: I need to familiarize myself more with this App. It can be used for assessment and discussion, but I had technical problems when I used it... maybe the internet? - the recorder was extremely helpful and practical. We used it almost everyday to practice speaking the language. - the transition between one activity to another was very smooth as long as my planning is clear and available to students online. - Many of the links that I included worked successfully on laptop but didn't open on iPad. Make sure to try it on iPad before making it available to students. - Great for reading. I will use next year more note taking Apps... - quizlet for vocabulary was great! - students taught me a lot! It was interactive and fun!

- Could iPads replace laptops? yes, if each student has his own, but as long as they share the same tablet, I don't think it is practical... unless all work is shared on Google...