The 1:1 Initiative: A Student Post about the iPad

This year, our classroom experience has changed dramatically. Going from standard notebooks to a widely diversified mobile tablet can be a big jump for many people. Before the school year began, I talked to many people that thought it was going to be a hard transition. Now, half was through the year, I have realized what a great learning tool, the iPad really is. There are so many things that the iPad can do, that students can now use on a daily basis. Note taking, classroom participation, and organization has been revolutionized as a result of the iPad. Teachers being able to review for a test, with tools such as Socrative, has made the review experience more involving for students. What can i say to other schools looking into this iPad adventure? Go for it.

-Christian Woods and Mike Ackerman

Genius Scan: An Awesome Alternative to a PDF Scanner

   

   

     Anybody that has used a traditional PDF scanner knows it can be a little bit complicated.  Genius Scan is an awesome, easy alternative.  Taking use of an Iphone, iPod Touch, or iPad camera, you can simply take a picture of what you want to scan.  Once you have your scan, you can crop and enhance the image.  It thens turns your scan into a JPEG or PDF.  From there, you can export it through email, twitter, Facebook, or straight to your camera roll.  Genius scan is awesome if you do not want to carry your books from school to your house.  You can scan your book or worksheets and access them from your device.

                                                                This is a photo of a picture before and after being

                                                                put through Genius Scan.

Mentor Study Sessions for History Mid-Year Exams

     Today after school study sessions in the cafeteria will be available for freshman to get ready for History mid-year exams.  Study sessions with a mentor will be 30 minutes long.  You MUST bring the material you want to study, as the mentors will not provide any.  We strongly recommend you take full advantage of this great tool, to prepare yourself for your exam.

The Race to Nowhere: An Educational Experiment

Over holiday break Burlington High School has pledged to the Race to Nowhere. The Race to Nowhere is a pledge to no homework over vacation. This is meant to make the students less stressful over vacation and give the chance to spend more time with their families. Mr. Larkin saw the website for "The Road to Nowhere" and thought it was a good idea for the school to try out. Contrary to popular belief, the teachers from other schools that participated said the students felt recharged and ready to return to school. Burlington High School is going to try this out and if both teachers and students say it is successful, then it will be a plan to look at in the long term.

What is your Vision of a Perfect School?

      Would like to design your own school?  Ms. Gould's psychology class is doing just that.  They have been assigned to build a school, based on this criteria:


- How does your school make learning enjoyable?

- How does your school prepare learners for the future (college/work/life)?

- How does the research (sleep, teen brain, learning/memory, development) back up your choices?

     They have been using a free online program called "Posterous", to share their ideas with other classmates.  The school designing process is also based on what they have learned about the brain, that can help people succeed.  It is going to be very interesting to look at what school designs students produce.  Who knows, maybe their ideas could benefit our school? 

3D Brain: A Great Psychology Class App

   
       We have discovered another great free app.  The "3D Brain" application can be found in the app store on the iPhone and iPad.  Ms. Gould, a history and psychology teacher at BHS, has been using this great tool.  She does a Zombie project and has her students use "3D Brain" to help them with their projects.  "3D Brain" has 29 interactive structures to view and explore.  You can discover how each brain region works, what happens when it is injured, and how it is involved in mental illness. Each region of the 3D Brains comes with attached links to modern research.  "3D Brain" would also be a great app for science classes such as biology and human anatomy.  

StoryKit: Creating Books and Presentations

      
      StoryKit is a great app that can help you create books and presentations.  It is a free application, and is very easy to use.  I have created a presentation using StoryKit in the past, and plugged an AV adapter into a projector.  The project went very well because it allows you to save images from the web, and pull them into your presentations.  You can add text overlay, to read it aloud to the class.  One of the main reasons i love this app is that it is a great substitute for the PowerPoint program.  You can easily organize the slides you are presenting to the class.  StoryKit is a great application.