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.  

Incorporating Twitter Hashtags into Teaching Current Events

     Have you ever thought of using hashtags to learn about current events?  One of the great tools of the past few years is Twitter.  Hashtags are key words that help you find others talking about the same topic.  For example, if you are learning about Occupy Wall Street in class, you can use their hashtags to get up to date news.  This is awesome because you can create a class discussion about the current event you are talking about.  In my history class, we have a set time where we talk about different current events.  If we talk about something interesting, each one of us who use twitter can enter the topic as a hashtag.  You can get awesome information about the event.  Hashtagging is a extraordinary tool that can keep you up to date on World news.  

The New Way to View History Maps

       I think we can all say that we have had to look at a map in history class.  Usually it involves a teacher pointing to one in the front of the room, and a lot of eye squinting from students.  HistoryMaps is a great substitution for this old viewing system.  It is is a free application that can be downloaded by any teachers or students.  This app has huge selection of maps from many time periods.  If a teacher has found a map to display to the class, they can all open the application and find it that particular map through the search bar.  The zoom feature is great because it makes it easier to view and clarifies the picture beautifully. HistoryMaps is a great application that I recommend all history teachers and students download.

Great Organizational Apps for History Class

   

       We all know that a major part of history class is note taking.  With that in mind we have selected a few great apps to help you stay organized.  Our top two recommendations are Evernote and inClass.  The best thing about Evernote is the cloud based system.  This means that no matter where you are, if you have a internet connected device, you can retrieve your notes.  This is great because if you accidentally leave your device at home, you can hop on a school computer and print your notes.  Tagging is another great feature of Evernote.  When creating a note, you can enter tag words into the tagging box.  Down the road, when looking for your notes, you can search your tag words into the box, and find your note.  We recommend anyone who wants great notes taking app, to get Evernote.  inClass is another great app that incorporates a agenda book into the app.  We did not get agenda book this year, so this is a great substitute.  inClass can also take notes, but is not cloud based.  Evernote and inClass are two awesome apps everyone should download.  

Socrative in Mr. Coughlin's Classroom

     History Teacher Mr. Coughlin using Socrative

      Have you ever used Socrative? "Socrative is a smart student response system that empowers teachers to engage their classrooms through a series of educational exercises and games via smartphones, laptops, and tablets."  Mr. Coughlin has intergrated Socrative into his history classroom with the use of student ipads.  He says the main reason he uses Socrative is for review games.  Before a big test, he forms the students into groups, and asks questions related to the topic.  He likes that Socrative can record data real time, seeing a live feed of student answers.  Mr. Coughlin says the major downside is he wishes Socrative could record a little easier, and keep record of what each student said for grading.  Overall, Socrative is a great tool that should be considered by all teachers who want an easy review process.

Technology Sit Down with Mr. Milton

Mr. Milton: BHS History Teacher

     

      We sat down to talk to history teacher Mr. Milton.  He gave us insight on how iPad technology has incorporated into his classroom.  Mr. Milton has taken full advantage of tools such as Edmodo, Noterize, Socrative, and Google Docs.  He finds Edmodo to be most useful, because it saves lots of paper.  Instead of running down to the copy room and making fifty copies of one worksheet, teachers can simply have students pull it up on their device.  So easy.  We asked him if he has taken advantage of Google Docs or Socrative and he said he has used it much more in his English class.  Many teachers in the school have used Socrative to review material, before a big test or quiz   Mr. Milton says that he considers he and his students, "Digital Detectives."  There is not one person in this school that knows all the iPad tools out there, and that is what has made this journey so incredible.  With the app store producing knew applications each day, there is endless possibilities to digital learning with the iPad.  

Welcome to the BHS History Blog!

We hope you find that our new blog will keep you up to date with what is happening inside the History Department!