How a 1st Grade Teacher Uses the Engage Teacher iPad App and a Pointmaker

Yvonne Madigan of Esmond Station K-8 in Vail, Ariz., is an early adopter of the Engage Teacher iPad app. For two years, she has used the app in her class of 30 first graders, presenting a wide range of content in the classroom directly from her iPad while freely roaming the room. Networked to the Pointmaker CPN-6000 annotation system, she can also display student work from individual iPads on a large HD display, invite student collaboration on images or files she shares with them, as well as switch between AV equipment connected to the Pointmaker. “With Engage Teacher,” she says, “I’m able to quickly switch between the document camera, the computer or a video with a simple click. The children get their iPads out, quickly log in, then I’m able to share the document with them and we are able to work on it as a whole class.” Here are some of the several ways Yvonne uses the Engage Teacher in the classroom: BELLWORK (15-20 min.) This activity gets the kids going before the bell rings with a quiz or quick refresher exercises of any topic the class has studied. Here are her steps: 1. From within the Engage Teacher app on her iPad, she opens a worksheet or series of Keynote slides she previously saved on her iPad in PDF format. These can include work from yesterday or last week, such as: -- going over the ABCs -- putting words in alphabetical order -- putting numbers in order -- spelling quizzes -- correcting a list of words A PDF worksheet appears as an image in the Engage Teacher app. The teacher can size it and position it before sending it to student iPads 2. As the students do the work on their iPads using Engage Student, she asks for a volunteer or simply selects to show a student’s work from the Engage Teacher app 3. While presenting the students’ work for all to see, the class can discuss it. -- Is it correct? Yes or no? -- If it’s not correct , she asks for another presenter or has the class correct it together. 4. If there is time, she forms quick groups to tackle a problem using the Engage Teacher app’s “Create Groups” function. -- She asks each child in the 5-6 groups to work on the problem, demonstrating their answers on their iPads. She can either peek at their answers and help where needed privately -- or -- -- select a group to share their answers with the whole class . MATH (45 min.) For the math lesson each day, Yvonne uses Engage Teacher and her iPad in a variety of ways, including: 1. A daily review of 5 problems from yesterday’s or last week’s lessons. -- These problems review basic math, such as where to place values in the 10s, 100s, 1000s. -- She might also complete an example problem for them, and ask the kids to finish the other problems she shares on their iPads. -- She will then call on one or two students to present one of the problems and their own solutions. The teacher can also draw on a whiteboard, chalkboard or lined paper background. Here she has presented a math problem to her class and displays one student’s answer. She then engaged the entire class to help her correct it. 2. Then, she’ll go to her math lesson for the day. It’s usually a worksheet in PDF form or PPT slides from Keynote that present blanks the kids must fill in on their own iPads. Example: 2 + 5 = -- After the students work on each solution, she selects a student to present for each problem. 3. She might also use the Spinner app combined with Engage Teacher white board to work out a math problem. -- Spinner is an app like the one shown in the link that randomly allows you to select students to teams or partnerships, then “spin” to see who presents. http://www.kaganonline.com/apps/ (see bottom of web page for “spinner” app) READING (15-20 min.) For the reading exercises, Yvonne usually sends a text passage to the student iPads from a worksheet as a PPT or PDF she’s called up from within Engage Teacher. -- The class reads it aloud together or she selects individual students to read the passage to the class. -- Sometimes she’ll let them read the passage to themselves and ask them to underline certain words, such as: >plural words >words they don't understand >sight words (those they memorize as a whole) >and a few of the students present these words to the class. -- Or she’ll ask them to write on the Engage Student white board what they learned in the passage that they just read, and present that to the class. The class can read together from their iPads or on a large display. The teacher can mark the new words on her iPad or a student can be called upon to select words from their iPad. If you have any questions about the specific requirements in your classroom, please give Pointmaker Engage support staff a call at (520) 745-0001 or e-mail support@pointmaker.com