Being one of six model technology classrooms in our district has been a whirlwind of a ride. There have been many ups and downs as well as obstacles to overcome and plenty of time involved in everything from syncing devices, to finding apps, to preparing lessons which embed the technology as well as teaching and prepping the kids for technology usage. It has all been worth it as the gains I am seeing in my students' engagement, time on task and creativity has been phenomenal. I've also seen students increase their skill levels in various areas and take a renewed interest in their learning as well.
Last week added an additional bonus though- we found out that all of our hard work has brought with it another positive. Our model classroom initiative has been named an Apple Distinguished Program for 2012-2013!! You can read more about it on the district's blog.
This was yesterday's lunch at my house to celebrate Groundhog Day. No I haven't changed the focus of my blog to household hints and recipes (I'd be done blogging within a week if that was the case)... so what in the world does this have to do with technology- well, it' the fact that I used a FREE app called, Phonto to label my photo.
Very simply, Phonto is an app in which you can take/upload a photo and then label your picture. I'm sure there are many other great uses, but for my purposes I am thinking this will be a great app to use to reinforce our non-fiction conventions unit.
Students can easily change the font, color, size and rotation of the font and it was easily shared. In this case I emailed it directly to my blog.
Here's a quick video to show you how easy it really is to use.
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