Teaching Mrs. Ryan

     I got some great news today strolling through the faculty lounge.  I saw I had some items in my teacher box and found a letter from AEP the power company.  I'm sure the secretaries were wondering why I would get my power bill sent to school!  But.. I opened it to see an awesome letter notifying me that I had been chosen for a grant I applied for call the Teacher Vision Grant.  I'm sure for many teachers out there, it isn't that big of a deal, but for me WOO HOO!  Man I am thrilled! My grant is for $500 for STEM/STEAM use.  What I am doing is going to be so much fun for the kids.  I used the grant to purchase an iPad mini , a protective case, an iPod touch , and a View Master virtual reality viewer .  My students are going to be making Aurasma's to turn our stagnant word wall into an augmented reality word wall.  Students will be making videos explaining the mathematical words and even solving problems for each word....

There are a lot of resources out there for teachers using iPads in the classroom whether the teacher is the only one with the iPad or if you are like me and teach in a school that is on a one to one iPad ratio.  I'm always scouring the Internet and of course Pinterest looking for fresh new ideas for my kids.  I've noticed that no matter how awesome something is I have to keep it mixed up because my students are always eager for something new and different. This week I have focused on learning about "flipped" classrooms and what I could do in my classes to integrate this method.  In my searches I ran across a great info-graphic for iPad users that gives great app resources for teachers and how those apps can be used.  It is important to note that some apps are free while others may have a cost.  Just click on the graphic below,  I hope you enjoy it as much as I did! iPad as the Teacher's Pet [Infographic] infographic

After 1/2 a week in the classroom I have pretty good reviews to report about Live Binders .  For those that didn't read my last post about the conference I just attended, I'll give a brief synopsis.  I learned a lot of cool free and some not so free technology apps and programs to use in the classroom.  My goal was to integrate all of these different types of programs into my lesson plans here and there to spice up life a little bit.  One of the programs I introduced this week is Live Binders.  LB is essentially a virtual 3 ring binder that you can add notes, documents, and websites to.  I wanted to introduce this tool to my students to give them a way to organize their notes, and encourage them to discover new resources for class.    Even better; LB has a free app for the iPad.  Here is a little video from their site: Here is what I've learned so far: Some students took to this program like a duck to water.  They were ...