Let's Get Started!

Here are some tools and ideas that can help you get started with your next PBL project and to show your students’ creativity.

1.    Storiesabout Me:  This app is pricey ($5.99) but you may find that it is worth it.  Students can create stories that have pictures, text, and audio.  It is simple for young children to tell the story of their project.  It can also be shared through a drop box option. 

2.    Another App Smash:  App Smashes are apps that work together to create one product.  Tellagami is one of my favorite apps to create talking Avatars.  With Tellagami you import your own backgrounds.  If you create a background in a drawing app such as Kids Paint or Kids Doodle, your Avatar appears in front of the picture explaining the picture.  This would be great to show vocabulary words or steps in the PBL process.  Several completed Gamis from Tellegami can be dropped into iMovie to create a great finished project.

3.    ComicBook App:  This app let’s you use a photo from your Camera Roll. Choose the template you want to use, add your pictures with a tap.  Then you can add speech bubbles and text.  There is a wide selection of image filters, comic fonts, captions, and classic comic graphics.  You can save to a PDF.  The app is $1.99 and expansion packs are $0.99 each. 

4.    Using Screen Shots:  Screen shots can be used in so many ways in the classroom.  Students can take pictures of score screens in games.  These screen shots can be emailed to you to put in a digital portfolio.  It can also be shared through any app that allows you to upload pictures.  Edmodo, Dropbox and Showbie are just a few.  They can also be used to create step by step directions for using app that require explicit directions.

5.    Recording your PBL Project:  Add the class job of class photographer.  Have the class photographer take one picture each day, post it to your class blog and write about why that picture was important.  If you rotate jobs, it gives every student the responsibility of sharing your classes learning.

Bonus:  For those of you who have class stores or earn points for prizes, I read about a reward that was near the top of the price list.  Students were able to earn the ability to “Text the Principal.”  What a fun free reward for the privileged few.

Have a great weekend!