Welcome to my blog! I'm Karen Belt, a Deputy Principal, working at Lynmore Primary School in Rotorua, New Zealand. In the past I have taught Years 0 - 4 and used 1:1 iPads to engage and motivate learners and improve student achievement. This blog documents my teaching and leadership journey and my learning processes with iPads in the classroom. I am a Google Certified Educator #SYD17 and I'm proud of having been a member of the inaugural Manaiakalani Digital Teaching Academy(MDTA) program and a Spark Manaiakalani Innovative Teacher (MIT) and an inaugural Manaiakalani Google Class OnAir teacher.

Thursday, 5 June 2014

The power of 'the voice' with Explain Everything

The learners being able to record their voice is a very powerful feature of Explain Everything.  As a teacher we can 'replay' their learning through Teacher Dashboard, and this can assist with identifying any gaps in their learning.

Yesterday for writing, a group of learners used Explain Everything to write their story.  They used their stylus and started with a lined page - I created the lines and set it as the background on a blank Explain Everything page, using Teacher Dashboard to share this with all learners.   The focus was on crafting their own story, based on what they did over the long weekend - we shared our weekend activities first with our peers and then as a whole class.  On the whiteboard, we documented just some key words from their ideas next to each child's photo.  At the teaching table, the learners came up with their own sentences and we worked on identifying high frequency words and sounds within a word.  

Once the writing was completed, learners read their story and recorded this using the iPad.  While this session was guided with the learners, it opens the way for the learners to create a story independently, recording high frequency words and known sounds in a word before reading and recording their story so we are able to hear and compare their oral language with their writing - powerful!




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