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MobyMax: Tablet + help differentiating instruction

December 8, 2014December 8, 2014Kelly Tenkely11 Comments9999 views

It’s always nice when new toys show up in the mail to review. Especially when they promise to help make your program more tailored to the individual, that I really like!

What it is: MobyMax is more than just a tablet, it is a complete system that helps you identify areas of strength and weakness that your students might have through placement testing, progress monitoring, assessments, and IEP reporting; has practice for kindergarten through eighth grade mathematics, fact fluency, number sense, reading, language, literature skills, informational skills, writing, vocabulary, and state test prep. MobyMax also includes “Power Tools” acting like a clicker, monitoring behavior, messaging, a social wall for students, a parent portal, manipulatives and time reports. Students can earn prizes and badges as they work through MobyMax and can set their own daily goals.

Each student gets their very own learning plan with MobyMax with the adaptive curriculum. Students who are struggling get the extra exposure and help they need, while students who are ready to move on are challenged appropriately.

One of the things that I really appreciate about MobyMax is the mix of direct instruction and the ability for students to discover learning on their own through discovery-based instruction. As a teacher, the continuous progress monitoring makes formative instruction that much easier. Because MobyMax is based on the Common Core, you can analyze data based on standards, student, class, school, or even district.

The MobyMax tablet is $69!! It has a 7” screen and runs on Android 4.2. The battery life is 5 hours and should last most of your school day without a re-charge. Wifi and speakers are built-in and there is headphone input so that your students can use MobyMax Tablet independently without disturbing others.

How to Integrate MobyMax into your classroom: One of my favorite MobyMax features: it reads each question/problem/challenge for students so that your remedial or ESL students have an additional layer of support. Really helpful when you are working to meet the needs of a lot of different students! While MobyMax focuses mostly on the Understand/Knowledge levels of Bloom’s taxonomy, it is a really fantastic (and reasonably priced) way for your students to gain math and reading fluency practice. Each step of the way they are supported and challenged as needed thanks to the adaptive technology built-in!

MobyMax is reasonably priced enough that even if your classroom doesn’t have classroom computers, you could have several Moby Tablets. The MobyMax tablet would be a fantastic center where students can work on building skills independently. While you work one-on-one with students, other students can use MobyMax to keep moving forward with support. With class-sizes as out of control as they are, this is HUGE. The MobyMax tablet runs on Android which means in addition to all of the great MobyMax curriculum, your students also have access to all of the happiness that Android brings. Web browsers for research, additional apps, file saving etc.

In a 1-1 setting, MobyMax would be a great place for your students to interact and build a digital class community (practicing digital citizenship, communication, and building class culture). If you allow your students to take the MobyMax home for additional support/practice, you could forever banish worksheets from your classroom. Really! The feedback you get is fantastic and auto-magically adjusts to meet each individuals needs for practice and support.

At Anastasis, we are a 1-1 iPad setting, this works really well for us, but we also have a population where we can request a device in a BYOD situation. Many of you don’t have that luxury, MobyMax would be a fantastic solution in a lot of ways! Not only do your students now have a device, but they also get a robust math and reading fluency platform that enhances learning as aligned to the Common Core Standards. It’s like getting an extra set (or 20) of hands! Students who don’t have great support systems at home, now can continue learning independently. Really happy!

One of our struggling students (happens to be dyslexic) has a broken iPad and used the MobyMax for the last two weeks in his 7th grade year. “I miss my camera, but I really like the way it let’s me practice and read with it so that I don’t miss anything important on my own. They should make apps for the iPad so I can get the best of both worlds. Overall, I think it has saved me the last two weeks!”

The one thing I wished for in the tablet was a camera. At Anastasis, our learning portfolios are digital. We take a lot of pictures of non-digital work for those portfolios! However, at $69 it is hard to find too much fault, camera or no!

Tips: You can WIN a MobyMax Tablet of your very own. Leave a comment below before December 15 about how you would put MobyMax to work in your classroom. On December 15th I’ll put your names in a random draw and one of you will get a happy surprise for your classroom! Make sure to include your correct email address in your comment so that I can be in touch with you!

Happy Monday!

Wonder how we individualize learning every day at Anastasis? Join us for 5-Sigma Edu Con in February!

Buncee: Digital Creation tool

January 16, 2014February 10, 2014Kelly Tenkely1 Comment5229 views

Okay, it is 2014…time to kick it into gear and get back to blogging. The awesomeness of what exists in educational technology is stacking up and NEEDS to be shared. I’m on it!

What it is: Buncee is a super cool creation and presentation tool. Buncee is useful for students and teachers alike as a digital canvas. Students can use Buncee to create neat interactive presentations and stories. Teachers can use it to help teach new concepts, in a flipped classroom, or to share information with families. There are three account types to choose from within Buncee. The free account lets students and teachers share finished presentations with social media, upload your own photos, create Buncees with two slides, offers 500mb of storage, and lets you save the Buncee as a jpeg. The education version cost $9.99/month or $59.99 for the year and includes: sharing to social media, uploading of files (audio, media, image), record audio, create Buncees with unlimited slides, storage of 2G, ability to save as a clickable pdf or jpeg, 1 teacher account to create and manage 30 student accounts, create and post assignments, and view/grade student submissions.

How to use Buncee into your classroom: Buncee is a great creation webapp. As a teacher, use Buncee to assist guided reading by recording a read aloud. Use the recording as part of a classroom reading center where struggling or emerging readers can get a customized lesson. Stop during the reading just like you would if you were doing a read along sitting with the child. Include slides with questions that students can answer, ways that they can reflect on the story, etc. While you are working with a small group of students on close reading, other students can still get some great reading support. This is also great for those kids who don’t have a parent at home that can read with them- you can “go home” with your students every day! Buncee can also be used for guided learning. Create your own digital “textbooks” complete with multimedia, images, audio, and text. I’ve often been let down by what a boxed curriculum provides for students, create your own resources for students to access. This is especially helpful for young students who won’t be able to independently research using the Internet on their own.
Buncee could be a great help for the flipped classroom model. Send students with learning to complete at home in preparation for a project or activity that will be done at school with your support.

Students can use Buncee for multimedia presentations to demonstrate learning. Students can create interactive presentations when learning a foreign language connecting vocabulary words with meaning. Because it is so easy to combine multimedia types, students can create their own digital “textbooks” where they collect learning in history, government, geography, science, social studies, etc. and present it in new and meaningful ways. These digital “textbooks” can be shared and commented on by other students.

Buncee could be a great way for students to reflect on a book that they have finished. They can complete character sketches, retell, or combine media types to create a book review.

If you have a digital camera (built in or separate), students can take pictures of a science experiment and create a digital review of the experiment including any hypothesis and conclusions.

Tips: With the education version, students can submit their work and it can be graded and commented on directly in Buncee. This could be a really great way for students to keep a digital portfolio that you, and parents, can comment on throughout the year.

World Spelling Day

March 2, 2011Kelly TenkelyLeave a Comment1716 views

What it is: World Spelling Day is brought to you by the same folks who hold World Math Day. This year (2011) World Spelling Day is taking place on March 3. Don’t wait, sign your kids up now and they can start practicing! World Spelling Day is a world-wide competition between students where they engage in live games of spelling. Each game lasts for 60 seconds and students can play up to 100 games to earn points for their personal tally. Students can play more than 100 games during the event but only 100 count toward the Spellometer. Students who answer the most correct question will appear in the World Spelling Day Hall of Fame. World Spelling Day has 5 levels to play and 20 games at each level. Just like World Math Day school age students (4-18 years old), individual children, and homeschoolers can register and participate. Register as many or as few students as you want (for free!). Even better, if you already registered for World Math Day, your login credentials will work on the World Spelling Day website!

How to integrate World Spelling Day into the classroom: It couldn’t be easier to get your students involved, just sign them up by registering, pass out usernames and passwords and away you go. Students can play in a computer lab setting (they like to try to login at exactly the same time so they can play against each other in games) or on classroom computers in 60 second rotations. The 60 second time limit on games makes it easy to pass all of your students through a World Spelling Day center on classroom computers. In addition, students can take their login information home with them to play at home. World Spelling Day takes place every March, now that you know it is coming, plan to make it an Olympic type event in your classroom. I have been known to hold opening ceremonies in my classroom prior to the event.

Since your students are competing against students from around the world, why not use the competition to practice using a map and identifying countries? Since I had a Promethean board, I did this digitally with a Google Map. Each time a student competed against a country, they would come up to the board and put a “pin” in the map. Don’t have an interactive whiteboard? The paper map and actual pins are just as fun!

Tips: There is a free World Spelling Day app for the iPad, you can get it here.

Please leave a comment and share how you are using World Spelling Day in your classroom!

iLearn Technology-enter to win 1 year membership to StarrMatica!

March 1, 2011Kelly Tenkely2 Comments4061 views

Need some exciting news to start your March off right? You all are so lucky, this is the place! StarrMatica is giving away a one year classroom membership (that is a $300 value!!) that will give you access to all 3,800 of reading, math, music, art, and science resources to a lucky iLearn Technology reader! This stuff is GOOD, I should know because I helped out with the music, art, and science resources. The subscription gives you access to teacher-written flash activities, animations, games and manipulatives as well as a database of over 3,200+ hand selected (some by yours truly) ad-free links. Aren’t you feeling springy and smiley just reading about it? Yeah, me too.

StarrMatica is a Prometheus award winning educational publishing company founded, owned and operated by one of iLearn Technology’s first Edublogger Alliance members, Emily Starr!

So, now that I have your attention you are probably wondering how to enter for your chance to win. There are 3 ways to enter, enter using all 3 methods and get 3 entries (just because I am feeling EXTRA generous on this sunshiny Colorado day!)

1. Subscribe to iLearn Technology via RSS or email. (If you are already subscribed, you can send me a Tweet with the hashtag #luvilearntech)

2. “Like” iLearn Technology on Facebook (Or if you have already “liked” it, you can leave me a message about how much you would like to win on the iLearn Tech FB page).

3. Fill out this Teacher Assessment/Creativity survey (would love for EVERYONE to do this one!!)

Easy peasy right? Right. So get your buns moving and work on one or three of those entry methods!

Thank you to StarrMatica for letting us take part in a fun contest with such an outstanding prize!

EdTech UNconference- Win a year of professional development!

October 1, 2010Kelly Tenkely22 Comments16842 views

What it is: Recently I received a free year long pass to the EdTech UNconference from Simple K12 to review. Not only did they offer me a free pass, they offered me a free pass to give away to a lucky reader, very generous! After spending a few days learning and playing around in the EdTech UNconference, I am impressed! The EdTech UN conference is a year long, 100% online all-inclusive resource to help educators learn about and use technology in an “UNintimidating” way. It is professional development that works the way you need it to. Teachers are some of the busiest people I know. We constantly work, think about our students, and strive to make ourselves and our classrooms better. The problem: because we are so busy, professional development can be an after thought or put off all together. It isn’t convenient to leave your family and travel across the country for a 4 day conference…not to mention the expense. The EdTech UNConference has a low admission fee $199.99 (or free for a lucky iLearn Technology reader), lasts 365 days, has a recording of ALL sessions, is online and on demand which means no travel, no sub plans, and no rearranging your schedule. In addition to the great sessions, EdTech UnConference will send regular email updates, twitter updates, offers a private social networking site, 500+ hours of learning programs, and online support. That is a lot of professional development for your school $$. Learn about Internet safety, technology integration through podcasting, wikis, interactive whiteboards, Microsoft Office (for both Mac and Windows), iMovie, monthly live edtech sessions, live follow-up Q&A, ongoing collaboration with other educators from around the world, your own blog (so easy it is already set up!), 2 min. edtech talks (professional development in those spare 2 min!), and printable reports of training time that you can share with your supervisor. And that is just the beginning 🙂 Presentations come from some of the best in education including Steven Anderson, Kyle Pace, Richard Byrne, Shervette Miller, Cory Plough, Adam Bellow, Kim Munoz, Steven Katz and more! If some of those names seem familiar, they probably are, a few are members of the iLearn Technology Edublogger Alliance. The kickoff session for the conference starts today, October 1. Online Professional development is amazing, it is there when you need it, available any time, and in a manner that works for your schedule. What can you learn in 365 days?

How to integrate EdTech UNconference into your classroom: The EdTech UNconference is sure to launch your classroom into the 21st century with practical professional development that you can implement into your classroom right away. One of the difficulties of a regular conference, is hearing a new idea, getting excited about it, only to have it fizzle out when you try to implement it because there is no one to talk to, no ongoing support when you hit a roadblock. Not so with the EdTech UNconference. This is professional development that you can really use. The recorded sessions mean that you can review a topic as many times as you need to. Still need some help, head over to the forum and get on demand help from other educators from around the world. How cool is that?!

How to register to win the iLearn Technology EdTech UNconference pass: There are two ways to enter to win the iLearn Technology EdTech UNconference year-long pass. 1. Tweet about why you need free professional development using the hash tag #iltUNcon or 2. Leave a comment below about how much you would love some free professional development. You have until Oct. 4, 2010. On Monday, I will put all of the entries into a Google Doc and use a random number generator to choose the winner. Good luck!

Please leave a comment to enter the EdTech UNconference contest!

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Kids’ Science Challenge

December 8, 2008Kelly Tenkely1 Comment2720 views

What it is: Kids’ Science Challenge is a nationwide competition for 3rd- 6th graders to submit experiment ideas and problems for real scientists and engineers to solve. Teachers or after school science programs can enter their classes for this contest that will inspire students to find the fun in science. The deadline for entry is January 31st, 2009 so get this one in before the holiday break! The grand prize winner will win a visit with the scientist or engineer to work with them to solve the question or problem proposed, along with possible appearances in Kids’ Science Challenge videos and Pulse of the Planet radio programs. Other prizes include: a tour of the flavor lab, Ben and Jerry’s ice cream party, science kits, Kids’ Science Encyclopedia and Science books, visit to the SETI institute, telescope, personal planetariums, celestial seeker, a visit to a skateboard engineering workshop, a visit to your school from a pro-skater, a week at camp Woodyard, a skateboard, a physics workshop, a research cruise, kayak, handheld digital microscope, and more! If that isn’t incentive to give it a try, I don’t know what is! The first 1000 entrants get a free science activity kit. The Kids’ Science Challenge website is a great place to explore even if you won’t be able to participate in the challenge. Students are introduced to real scientists through video, can play science games, and find additional activities including downloadable science projects.

How to integrate Kids’ Science Challenge into the classroom: Invite your students to explore the Kids’ Science Challenge website and then journal some original questions, problems, or experiment ideas that are related to one of the four fields of science including flavor science, water quality, skateboard engineering, and the search for life in outer space. This is a great opportunity to use technology creatively to present the questions and problems that students have and want solved. Think blogs, websites, video, or podcast.

Tips: Be sure to check out the great lesson plans for the k-12 classroom to use for each of the scientific fields explored on this site. The lesson plans are aligned to National Science Education Standards.

Leave a comment and tell us how you are using Kids’ Science Challenge in your classroom.