I loved today. I spent time in a Grade One class at Maple Grove, working with the students to learn Explain Everything. I was a little nervous when the classroom teacher asked me to do this. I wasn't sure the best approach. I've watched enough Grade one students roll on the floor, when I was trying to give instructions, to know that a long carpet time showing them how to use the different functions wasn't going to work. We started off by showing the students an Explain Everything video made by a student their own age so that they could understand what the app does. We then handed out iPads to teams of two and let them explore on their own. Within minutes students were importing pictures, recording their voices and drawing with the draw tool, it was exciting to watch their faces light up us they discovered something new! After 10 minutes of play and exploration, we asked the students to teach their classmates one function they learned about. Each group proudly came up and shared their discovery with their classmates, suddenly they were the experts about something, they were empowered and they took that new knowledge back to their work. We asked them to use Explain Everything to express the number seven. It was amazing to
watch the different ways they showed their thinking. Some students took pictures of 7 shells, others drew 7 objects. One group took used the video function to explain why seven was so fabulous. Each group of students got to show their thinking in their own way. I can't wait to see what theses creative thinkers will do next!
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