Saturday, April 30, 2016

Week Eight -- April 11th -- iPad Project

Overview before the week;

This coming week we will focus on shapes and colors again with Jay*. This will also be the last week I will be recording my implementation of using app's on the iPad with Jay*. I will most defiantly continue using these apps with him in the future.

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This week Jay* worked on his counting skills using the EduKitty.

This application works ons many different preschool skills. However in the app you can costumize what you would like the student to work on and the level. I left colors, left to right, and biggest for Jay* to work on. After completely tasks correctly, Jay* got to give himself a stamp on the app. This app is something I would use in the future and can add or take away subjects he masters or struggles with. Over all I would rate this app 5 stars, because there is so many ways you can customize it to your students level.

Week Seven -- April 4th -- iPad Project

Overview before the week;

This coming week we will focus on writing and tracing again with Jay*. It is easy to see that Jay* knows his ABC's by singing the song, but we want to continue working on his skill of writing the letters and knowing what they look like.

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This week Jay* worked on his counting skills using the EduKitty ABC.

This application works on ABC's but also tracing. We used this app for the tracing feature it has. It lets the student choose between upper case and lower case. It shows you the letter and once you trace it, it adds it to your own dashboard with all your writing. This is great because it shows Jay's* work all collected, and it shows him that he can write out his ABC's all by himself. I would rate this a 4 stars, because the tracing is great, but there is also more games in the app that we could further use.

Week Six -- March 28th -- iPad Project



Overview before the week;

This coming week we will focus on counting again with Jay*. It is easy to see that Jay* understands the concept of counting and knows his numbers, but we are still working on making sure they are numerically in the correct order, as well as one-to-one correspondence.

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This week Jay* worked on his counting skills using the Pirate Fun 123.

This application works on numerically counting to 10 in the correct order. The app is more of an interactive picture maker, however instead of drawing, the child using number counting to connect the dots. As you connect the dots, it not only highlights in red the next number, but it says the number aloud. Each set of 10 dots you connect, it adds another item to the picture. Jay* really like this app, he started by enjoying the pictures, but after working with the app, he eventually started counting the numbers out loud with the app. This was great because it showed me he was understanding what he was doing. And after repetition, I asked him to count to 10, and he got all of the numbers correct in the correct numerical order. I would rate this app 5 stars, for it truly worked on the skills he needed.

Sunday, April 24, 2016

Week Five -- March 21st -- iPad Project

Overview before the week;

These coming weeks will be the repeat process of practicing certain skills. This week will be the first time repeating his ABC's. I will continue using one application per week. Jay* is back at home in his own house and will be able to have a full time of using his own iPad for this application.

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This week Jay* worked on his ABC's skills using the ABC Jungle Words for preschoolers.

This application works on the identification of words and pictures. This is more then just ABC's but it is great practice for him to identify the beginning letters of these words and what the words look like in correspondence to the object. The application gives your a bunch of squares and the user needs to match them. Not until you match them correctly does it say the word or image. At the beginning of using this application, I would read the word to Jay*, after practice, he started working on his own and truly working on looking at the beginning letter and looking at the images. I would give this app 3 stars. It was good, but still not as entertaining for Jay* as I would have hoped. 

Week Four -- March 14th -- iPad Project

Overview before the week;

I am going to continue working with one application a week. This weeks struggle will be seeing how Jay* acts differently when he is staying at his grandparents for the week. His parents are gone on vacation and I will be nannying him at the grandparents house instead. I know that they do not enjoy when their grandkids rely on their iPads for entertained, so I will need to speak to them prior to implementing the new application this week.

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This week Jay* worked on his Shapes skills using the App: Smart Baby Shapes Lite.

This application was simple in the way it worked on shapes and colors. Jay* seemed to like it, however it become repetitive. There are three different types of games within the application itself, as well as levels per game. Explaining the levels to Jay* made him eager to move on to the next one to keep going. The games were focused on colors, shapes, and sizes. Overall I liked this application, and would reuse to for review for Jay*. I would rate this application as 4 stars. 


Week Three -- February 29th -- iPad Project



Overview before the week;

This week was a major eye-opener for me in this project. Jay* asked me way he had to switch between applications, and honestly I did not have a great answer for his question. It was easy for me to see that once he enjoyed one application, he did not want to move on to another. This made me think about changing my original plan for using two applications a week, to just one. This way he can enjoy that one application, and use the other ones later when we review a topic.

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This week Jay* worked on his Writing/Tracing skills using the ABC Sight Words Writing.

This app needed more of my assistance in the way it was set up. Due to being the free and basic version, it has limited amount of sight words to trace over. The app opens up to the first word and you need to trace it. On the left side it where you can scroll through the list of words and move onto the next one. This is where I needed to instruct Jay*. Also this app does not have sound. I wish it would read the word aloud before you were to trace it. I would read the word to Jay* and he would trace, and then we would move on to the next one. I would rate this app a 2 and probably not reuse it. I wanted to see how Jay* did with this skill but he seemed bored and frustrated.




Week Two -- February 22nd -- iPad Project

Overview before this week;
This week we will be moving on to counting! I already know that numbers have been introduced to him at his Montessori school, however once he gets past 6 or 7, he tends to just list of names of numbers and not in the correct order. I'm hoping not only to work on correctly counting up, but also working on the concept of one-to-one correspondents.

We will be continuing to work on our iPad use and staying on task for these short periods of time. Jay* is at his grandparents house all week, so this could also have a factor about how this affects his use of  his iPad.
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This week we used:

  • Toddlers Counting 123- Free
  • 123 Kids Fun GAMES Free (counting)

The first app, was very simple with its design. The same image is scattered throughout the screen and you have to touch to images to count them. As you touch them to count, the program helps read the counting process out loud as well as labels the image the number you counted it as. Once you have counted all the images, a caterpillar comes across the bottom of the screen also with the total numbers word spelled out. This way the child can see the numerical value, as well as the written.


For the second app, I chose 123 Kids Fun GAMES free, which is meant to be the more interactive fun game app of the week. The major differences between the first app and the second is that the second feels more game like with its interactions. There is more a visually stimulating interactive way of counting for the user. The great thing about this app is after seeing that Jay* enjoys it, thus I can reuse it for another week but focus on another skill. When looking for apps for this week, I did notice there were many that had multiple topics within one app. This mean this could be something I look back at later and add to my list of apps.

This week I would rate the first app as 4 stars, and the second as 5 stars.  I liked the first one because of its simplicity. It does exactly what it needs to do, and yet also assisted the child on the learning process even if they are still grasping counting from the beginning. This app was great for Jay* because he know the act of counting and what each numbers name, however tends to mess them up in the correct order. I liked the second one a lot because I could reuse it for other topics other then just counting.

Thursday, February 25, 2016

Week One -- February 15th -- iPad Project

Overview before the week;
I was very excited to start this project with little Jay*. As of now, his parents have made it understood that the iPad is a reward, not something that is expected or "his". This is great for me, because he already respects the use of the iPad, as well as thinks it is fun using it. This made my job of implementing learning application very easy because he saw them all as a reward or game. Before starting this 8 week project, I spoke with his parents and grandparents (they watch him regularly as well) about what the purpose of the project was. Even though they do not promote the excessive use of technology in their home, they were excited to see his reaction to the learning applications and if they would be able to substitute them out for the other free play games he currently had on his iPad for "rewards". One struggle I had at the beginning was changing Jay's* time of using the iPad while he eats dinner, to having time before dinner using his iPad. Another struggle was realizing when we practiced using an application before dinner, that using his current iPad with his other applications on it did not work. Before truly starting the implementation of the applications I had picked out, I made sure that I set up my own personal iPad for Jay to use. This also will help me in the long run decide and let his parents know which applications he enjoyed and which were not so great for him. That way they can go forward and download them on his iPad later when they no longer have access to mine.
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This week Jay* worked on his ABC's using 2 different applications;
  • ABC Alphabet Phonics - Preschool Kids Game Free Lite
  • Bubble School Adventure vol 1
Being that this was his first week, it took us some time to truly get used to working with the iPad. We talked about why we were using the iPad and how long we would use it for (depending on his attitude that day, as well as game time). Jay* definitely struggles at first with continually using the iPad. He would start something, then see his sister or a toy he would rather play with. Explaining that the quicker we got done with our iPad time, the faster we get back to playing was key in keeping his engagement on task.

The first app we used was the ABC Alphabet Phonics - Preschool Kids Game Free Lite. This was more of the dry cut academic game for Jay*, and took him some time to figure it out. He is not used to trying to find a certain answer, instead of randomly pressing things to win a game. But once he got started he got a hang of it and started "racing" himself to get them all right. The app it self is very user friendly. A set of letters will pop up on the screen and it will say the letter name of the letter you are looking for. Once you have selected the correct letter, a new set of letters to choose from. As you continue to choose the correct letters, they will increase the number of letters on the screen to choose from. This made it a little more difficult for Jay*, however I did not like the fact that they would put familiar letter sounds on the same page. If Jay* did not hear it clearly, he would pick the incorrect letter.

For the second app, I chose Bubble School Adventure vol 1, which is meant to be the more interactive fun game app of the week. The major differences between the first app and the second is that you have the option of learning, playing or just popping bubbles. In the "lets play" game, the gradually start popping the corresponding letter to which one they need to find. As the levels get harder, more bubbles with a variety of letters start to fill the screen. Jay* loved this app because it was more of a game for him to physically pop the bubbles. He liked the fact that it seemed like it was a race to pop them.

Between these two applications, I would give the first one a 3 star rating, and the second 4.5 stars. The second one Jay enjoyed a lot more, due to it having more of a game feel for him, I knew he would like it more. The second app also had the option of purchasing more subjects to learn about. This is great for others to make an in-app purchase, however I stuck with the free ABC subject only. 

Monday, February 15, 2016

iPad Project - What will these 8 weeks look like?

Over the course of 8 weeks, I will be incorporating the use of iPads with one of the kids I nanny. The family I am currently nannying for is a Swedish family who wants me to not only care for her children while they are at work, but provide them with the resources and knowledge they will need before transitioning into full time schools. My overall focus with the children is making sure they are continuing to learn not only English, but Swedish as well. The little boy I will be working with over the course of these 8 weeks is 4 years old and of course very energetic.

Jay* is currently at a Montessori school and will be transitioning into a Kindergarten classroom next year. Looking at the NC common core for Kindergarten will be my first plan of action, and break down the knowledge he should start working on.

My initial plan for Jay* will be to break each week down into a topic, and work on two iPad applications per week. Due to his age and short attention span to finish any task, I have planned to use one more educational application, and one more game inspired application; but both will be focused on the same topic.

Week One; ABC's
Week Two; Counting
Week Three; Writing/Tracing
Week Four; Shapes/Colors

Instead of moving on from these topics, I have decided I will repeat this order of topics for the following next 4 weeks-- however use different applications. This way Jay* gets more exposure to the topics, and also a different application to learn and use. This will also give me an opportunity to see if he has grasped these concepts, or have struggled to remember them with having a couple weeks in between.

My previous and most recent teaching opportunity was at a middle school, thus this project and 8 week reflection will be interesting and exciting to get out of my comfort zone. I am excited to see how Jay* handles the activities on the iPad, and to see if he will continue to want to use them in the future.