Here Comes the iPad.....

It's the first day of school. Twenty five students have their iPads open. You're pretty sure they're smirking at you just a little bit . You've been asking yourself a lot of questions during the summer...how will I know they're on task? Don't the students know MUCH, MUCH more about these things than I do? You know how to use "Watch ESPN" and play "Angry Birds", but what happens when (and you know this WILL happen) there's a technical issue in the class? And you don't know how to fix it? It's always been YOUR classroom, your little corner of the world, where you're in charge, where you know more than the adolescents...hasn't that always been the truth? And now, they gave you the....iPAD! Just when you had it at least partially figured out, they sprung this one on you, didn't they? But wait a minute! Before you decide to use that little machine as really expensive book end (wouldn't that be a conversation starter?) or serving tray, hold on...be patient because, before long,  I believe that you're going to view that machine as a tool, as a friendly mechanism helping you do what you've always done: guiding and cajoling and helping these students become the loving, intellectually competent, open to growth,  religious young men who are prepared to contribute significantly to society.

iPads will not revolutionize education. BC High certainly does not need a revolution to teach its young men...the school has done a pretty fair job for the past 150 years. Instead, the iPad offers the classroom teacher a wide supply of user friendly resources designed to assist you in your daily job. You'll find some of the resources very helpful, others not so great. There is no pressure to become an Apple Genius overnight...or ever.

The iPad Resource Team has produced three iBooks, each targeting a different level of iPad experience and knowledge. Hopefully, within these three books, you'll find some practical strategies and ideas that you'll be able to incorporate into your classroom. If you're unsure about this whole iPad experiment or uncomfortable with the machine itself, take a look at iPad: The Basics. It provides an excellent overview on using the iPad, as well as explaining many of the machine's basic functions, and troubleshooting strategies.

The second iBook, iPad: The Apps, focuses mainly on content specific apps that you may find helpful within your subject matter. These apps represent suggestions from the iPad Resource Team...there are many other apps that you may already be using. Many are free, so why not download a couple and make your own determination?

The third iBook, iPad: Classroom and Beyond , moves beyond subject specific apps and investigates social networking, web curation, flipping the classroom, going paperless, and exploring new media. In other words, almost anything you needed to know about the full incorporation of the iPad into the classroom.

Enjoy the iPad, explore how it can be employed to further your students' learning. Remember, it's not a revolution or brave new world...it's a really effective, well designed, user friendly machine that can enhance your teaching and help you better connect with your students. The iPad Resource Team, Kara Brennan, Eric Gartside, Amie Kuzara, Jen McLarnon and Jack Travers will be around to listen and help.

IRT Convenes to Create iBooks

Members of the IRT are pleased to announce their creation of three ibooks; iPad: The Basics, iPad: The Apps and iPad The Classroom and Beyond. Each book highlights information, instructions, skills and techniques to meet the needs of the faculty.

iPad: The Basics, covers topics such as passwords, settings, charging, closing active apps, emailing files, using the camera, updates, using the VGA adapter, printing, Apple TV and accessing 'My Documents' on the iPad. 

iPad: The Apps, highlights subject specific apps, as well as common education apps such as Socrative, Notability, and others. 

iPad: The Classroom, focuses on apps and websites that integrate well with the iPad, providing ways for faculty to engage students and implement lesson plans using iPads. iPad The Classroom, also meets the needs of faculty eager  to go paperless, differentiate instruction and assessments and flip their classroom.

8th Grade iPad Geniuses Volunteer at Arrupe Orientation

The boy geniuses, Jamie Kowilcik, Ryan Kowilcik, Bobby Beniers, Michael O'Donovan, Ethan Harris, Luke Sideropoulos, Andrew Pollis and Bach an Nguyen volunteered at Arrupe Orientation to demonstrate their expertise using iPads, specifically, the note taking app, Notability.


Notability is a note taking app that allows students to:

Write and type notes

Highlight

Create a palm rest

Record voice overs

Organize notes into folders by subject and categories

Cut/copy/paste

Outline

Insert and re size text boxes

Bold, italicize, underline, bullet

Insert web clips, PDFs, photos, and take photos with the iPad camera

Import PDFs and RTFs from cloud services

Auto-sync to cloud storage like Box and Dropbox

Password protect folders an documents

Spell check

Export via email, Dropbox, Box or print

Notability - Unleash Your Note Taking Ability.

Bobby Beniers '17, discusses file creation, organization and exporting notes to cloud services in Notability.