The App also scaffolds the thinking and planning that goes into an interview - the why, the how and the what - along with providing some inspirational, humorous and thought provoking interviews to get excited by! 

Recently I was discussing with a colleague how they could work smarter - they had so much testing they did and whilst the data helped them inform their teaching, the corrections detracted from the time they had to prepare for the next phase of learning. So I worked with them to explore the possibility of using Socrative to run pre and post numeracy tests. We selected 2 tests from different topics and got started exploring. 

Click on an image above to view the tests we explored - Place Value & Money 

To start the test enter the following room number 55ced47a

App picker using Random Name Generator Lite (free) 

When enhancing learning through iPads in the classroom there will come a time when the students will get so savvy they won't know which App to use for the task they have been given - they will be confident across many! So to help I created a very simple App generator based on the type of tasks the students were doing so they could use this to quickly pick an App to use and get moving with their learning.  

The App can also be set up to randomly generate writing topics, circle time topics,  activities for reading journals etc 

1 min experts - students teaching students (and the teacher!) 

When using an App for the first time I often ask the students to become 1 minute experts. They have 10 minutes to explore an App or in some cases an aspect I want them to find out more about in a particular App and then they have 1 minute to share what they know with their peers. They use the Apple TV to flip their screen up to show us what they know either as the do it in the App or to flip up their notes or ideas they identified. Here is an example of the task Year 5 students completed earlier this year using Lino. 

Ask an expert board - created using Padlet 

A great way to empower students  as facilitators of learning for themselves and others is to set up an expert board. That way when you discover students who are excelling at using a certain App or who know when or why to use it they can be called upon for this. I ask any student who thinks they are ready to be an expert to summarise in 1 minute what they know. If they showcase  a solid understanding they go onto the board. If they do not they get to have another go in a weeks time. There is no reason you could not add teacher to this as well - then teachers could call on other teachers to help them explore and learn! 

This idea also has the added bonus of providing students an audience to present to thus developing confidence in their ability to communicate and also empowers learners in the classroom to be more active in their problem solving rather than just relying on the teacher. And what a way to make the classroom learning student centred! Sitting with this kind of set up are some circle time discussions about how we ask for help, how we support others (learn with rather than learn for) and when we ask peers vs when we ask teachers. 

As a side the board is created using Padlet and only the owner of the board (in this case the teacher) can add/edit names. You can make this accessible by embedding it in a class Edmodo or as is the case for this one via a QR code.  That way when students need help they can scan the QR code, find out who can help them and visit them - and they already have their iPad with them! It is another way students can interact with their learning space. 

Gmail Tasks – most requests to do things for and with colleagues arrive to me via email.   Requests for help, meetings requests etc are all daily occurances. In Gmail you can create tasks lists – using the email so saving time in transferring info to a new list. You can have multiple lists (eg urgent work, not urgent work, weekend plans etc) and you can also share these lists. For example you may be working on a team project and you can break down tasks and share it with your team mates. 

Priority Matrix (free) – this App is useful for both teachers and students. It allows you to organise a larger task or range of things to do into categories that you can drag around. It promotes students and teachers thinking about time management and helping them manage their own learning and thinking visually.   It’s also doubles as a thinking tool and can help students reflect on their time management! 

Pros & Cons

Pros 

• Simple interface
  
• Can nest items below topic to create organisation 
  
• Links to Google Calendar 
  
• Can add notes to items
  
• Easy to learn
  
• Can share with others 
  
• Set reminders 
  

Cons 

• Can be frustrating to switch between task lists rather than single view model 
  
• Works with Gmail, not edumail or other email unless routed through Gmail    

Pros & Cons 

Pros 

• Excellent to break big tasks into smaller aspects or to establish priorities
  
• Easy to move items around with drop/drag 
  
• Can be used to reflect on progress and effort 
  
• Can be shared with team
  
• Can add notes to items 
  
• Highly personalised
  
• Can use for thinking and planning as well
  
• Can share with others
  
• Set reminders and gather summaries’ of weekly activity 
  

Cons

• Need an account (with email) 
  
• Lots of buttons to distract  - not suitable for younger primary learners 
  
• Takes time to learn how to use it (not as intuitive as a list) 
  

This was a journey, as the school was already signed up for Google Apps for Ed and a lone ranger had been exploring and trialling a few sites with staff previously, however it was all new to me. In short this is how I went about it:

1. Study what exist already. I visited, pushed buttons and used the features of the existing server, existing intranet and visited the existing Google sites.  
2. Spoke to and took notes from key stakeholders - the Assistant Principal, the teachers (all Year levels and specialists) and the Admin staff were not always sure what they wanted, but they did know what they did not want and this was great data to start with. 
3. Establish a 3 concept design brief -  SIMPLE TO USE - HARD TO STUFF UP - SCHOOL WIDE TRANSPARENT
4. Get building!  
5.  Get staff onto it, support them to use it and then use feedback 6 months in to refine it, grown it, tweak it. 

You can see a quick tour of the ENPS Staff Hub here to the left.