Mrs.+Hovanec

Welcome to Mrs. Hovanec's iPad Page


 * Year 2: 2012-2013**

This year, the iPad carts are specific to each department and, so I will not be seeing the innovative projects that the classroom teachers will be doing with their students. However, I have the Destiny Quest app added to the Language Arts iPad cart and the students' iPads so that the students can connect to the library catalogue on their iPad. Using this app, students are able to log in to their own account to search for books, check when their books are due, and put holds on books.

I have also had the Follett eReader app added to the Language Arts and student iPads. Once some technical issues are resolved, students will be able to use this app to search for and to check out ebooks from our library. We currently have over 250 eBooks!

I also asked that EasyBib apps be loaded on all iPads so that when students are doing research in any subject they will be able to create citations in the proper format very easily.

The Language Arts iPad cart has an AR app so that teachers can have their class take AR quizzes on the iPads.

In September, the day after the students received their iPads, the library was inundated with students wanting to use their iPads after eating lunch. I asked the iPad students to create their own pass from the cafeteria using their iPad apps. Many students submitted their creations made with a variety of apps. Because of the diversity of the submissions, I choose 3 winners. Each student won a $10.00 gift certificate to the Scholastic Book Fair in December. Congratulations to all the contestants for jumping right in and working with new technology!
 * YEAR 1: 2011-2012**

The iPad cart for teachers to sign-out for use with their classes is housed in the library. During October, teachers have been signing the iPads out to explore the apps and what internet resources work on the iPad. I have been reviewing the basics and showing some cool apps to teachers who have questions. ====In addition to the iPad pilot with the sixth graders who utilizre the iPad as their primary instructional tool, we also have an iPad cart which teachers can sign out to use with their classes. The cart has been in demand and is rolling from room to room most days. Teachers sign up for the cart on an on-line schedule we call "Lab-O-Rama" and pick up the cart at the library or at the classroom where it was last scheduled. I asked teachers to give me a one sentence summary of what they have been using the iPads to do in the classroom in December. ====

Julie Whyte: I have used the iPad cart a few times with my 8th graders. One day 8th graders explored an App on the Revolutionary War which allowed the students to test their knowledge while playing games. We also used another App just titled Revolution and read some supplemental material on the war.
 * Social Studies **

This week we are working on creating a Revolutionary War Timeline. I created a zapd webpage that included good sites to find information as well as related pictures. I created a QR code and attached to my zapd URL, which was a quick and easy way to get everyone to the same place. From there they did their research. They created a total of 10 “slides” in Doodle Buddy and then used those “slides” in iMovie.

Hope Still: I have used the iPads to have my 6th grade science students create a concept map using words from our Rocks & Minerals Unit as a means for reviewing prior to the unit test. In the next couple of weeks the 7th grade students are going to be using Keynote to create a presentation as a public service announcement for various diseases.
 * Science **

Melanie Polk: I used the iPad cart in my 7th and 8th grades honors science classes to let the students research information for their science fair project. My 8th grade classes used it to analyze an activity done in class with the periodic table using Paperdesk and email to me. It made it more fun than answering on paper.

Cherie Burns: Eighth graders reviewed the elements and the periodic table using the QRC Elements app. Sixth graders used the Idea Sketch app to make a concept map of science terms dealing with erosion and deposition. Eighth graders made a screen chomp of chemical reactions, defining products and reactants and giving examples of each.

Regina Strzalkowska: Eighth graders reviewed the elements and the periodic table using the QRC Elements app. In my class, the students overall quiz grades improved compared to previous years after using the Elements app as a review activity.

I used the **Idea Sketch app** in my 7th grade classes as a Review for the Human Body Unit. Students had to link together words according to the structure and function of 3 Human Body Systems: Digestive, Circulatory and Respiratory. The Idea Sketch was started for them with 6 words and students used a list of 30 words to add to the concept map. Again, overall test scores were higher than in previous years for the final Unit assessment.

ED Bowman: 8th grade RC Science class used the QRC elements app to identify products made of elements and to match their symbol with the respective element.
 * Special Education Science and Math **

7th grade RC Science classes used iTube to view and discuss videos of digestion. They also used idea sketch to create a web of the digestion process and the organs involved.

7th and 8th RC Math classes used the Glowburst app for comparing integers. They also used Screen Chomp app to make instructional videos of mathematic processes.

Beth Jackson DiEnno: 8th graders used it to research and create a presentation using keynote or screen chomp on credit, credit scores for the consumer math elective.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">Math **

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">Alison DeAngelis: The 7th grade math electives play educational math games that help prepare them for the NJASK in ways that relate to the curriculum of each elective. Students also utilize a variety of apps that allow them to reinforce their mathematical skills while learning new technology.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">Lisa Quirk: The 7th and 8th grade students used the iPad app, Screen Chomp, to record and write an explanation of a grammar concept they learned in Spanish class. We played them back on the SMARTBoard for all of the classes as a unit review. <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">The 6th grade used the Spain app to research facts on Spain. They presented the information to the class on a poster or in a PowerPoint slide show.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">Spanish **

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">Chris Matylewicz: The 7thgrade and 6th and 7th grade Honors classes used Grammar Dragon and Idioms Lite to review. We used Idea sketch to create webs for prewriting and learned that the web can become an outline---so cool. We used Keynote to practice using the components so we can later create a presentation. We used Writing Prompts to prewrite for a creative writing piece, which then was used to create a final draft. We’ve been busy.
 * <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">Language Arts **

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">January 25
<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">Today, for the first time, one of the kids with iPads asked for a book and I had an eBook for him! I showed him how to log in to the MS Library Catalogue on his iPad, search for the title, and check out the eBook to read on his iPad. He was excited--not only one less book to carry, but as he said "Now my teachers won't know if I'm reading in class." Yes they will once they start seeing more eBooks availbale from our library. And there will be more available soon!

**<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">January 27 **
<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif'; font-size: 16px;">I get great information delivered to my in-box daily. This week I saw 2 websites that could be useful to iPad users. One, Pearltrees, organizes the web in a non-linear way, like Idea Sketch. This link shows educational technology: http://www.pearltrees.com/#/N-u=1_434993&N-p=29606384&N-s=1_3729162&N-f=1_3729162&N-fa=3729162. Quixey is a search engine for iPad apps that is far more user-friendly than iTunes: [].

January 31
__<span style="font-family: 'Century Schoolbook','serif';">iPad Cart Use __ <span style="font-family: 'Century Schoolbook','serif';">Kelly Smith’s Spanish students learned how to access their textbooks on the ipads via QR codes around the classroom. Students also use doodle buddy to write answers to problems on the board and use the stamp part of the app that makes noises every time they got an answer correct.

<span style="font-family: 'Century Schoolbook','serif';">Lisa Quirk’s Spanish classes used Idea Sketch last week to create concept webs to help students organize their notes, Spanish vocabulary words or Spanish grammar concepts. They e-mailed the diagram to themselves using their Gmail accounts on the iPads.

<span style="font-family: 'Century Schoolbook','serif';">In Cherie Burns’ 8th grade science classes, students used Mobicip to research a presentation on a planet. Students were able to use Keynote or Screen Chomp to present their information to the class.

<span style="font-family: 'Century Schoolbook','serif';">In Cherie Burns’ 6th grade science classes, the students used Notes to write a geologist’s report on a fictitious area of Marshland, Hillside, or Seaside Cliff to argue which one would be best to create new construction for a growing population. They had to persuasively argue their reasons based on their knowledge of weathering, erosion, and deposition.

<span style="font-family: 'Century Schoolbook','serif';">In 7th Grade Science, Mrs. Polk’s students choose a disease to research. They then used the iPads to research information about their disease (cause, symptoms, treatment, etc), then presented this information in Keynote.

<span style="font-family: 'Century Schoolbook','serif';">Beth Jackson DiEnno’s 6th and 7th grade math electives used the math game apps to practice and reinforce various math skills.

<span style="font-family: 'Century Schoolbook','serif';">Linda Jatzke’s 8th grade <span style="color: black; font-family: 'Century Schoolbook','serif';">students in BSI used the Pearl Diver app to practice their fractions and number sense.

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The Follett eReader app became available this week. It is an iPad app that allows students to access eBooks from my library to reader on an iPad, whether it is their own iPad at home or the school's device. The timing is perfect because I just ordered 111 eBooks last week.======

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The eBooks I ordered are readable on any device that has internet access. Kids can just log-in to the on-line catalogue and check out the eBook. Many of the new eBooks are unusual because they allow unlimited, simultaneous use, which means a teacher could have an entire class log in, check out the same book, and use it during a class period using the iPad cart, the laptop cart, or the computer lab. If a sixth grade class is studying soil or volcanoes in science, they can all look at the same library book and extend their knowledge beyond the textbook. Unfortunately, not all books are available that way, but it is exciting that some are and that we'll have some!====== The implementation of eBooks, eReaders and tablets in school libraries was the subject of a recent article: [].

March 6 <span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">The Follett Quest and Follett eReader apps were loaded to the iPad pilot group’s devices and the iPad cart’s devices. Quest will allow students to utilize the on-line catalogue more easily. The Follett eReader app will allow students to access the library eBooks with full functionality, including note-taking, highlighting, and a built in dictionary. This will allow students to access the 187 eBooks we currently own on an iPad. Teachers will also be able to have an entire class read one of the 88 Unlimited, Simultaneous Access eBooks on the iPads at the same time. All of eBooks can also be accessed on-line.


 * <span style="font-family: 'Cambria','serif';">iPad Cart use in February **

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Mrs. Schoenberg’s 7th grade Health classes used Qrafter to scan QR codes for medical websites. They researched information about the different forms of tobacco and the negative effects.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Mrs. Martin’s 6th and 7th grade OCR language Arts class used the Accelerated Reader app to take AR quizzes. Her 6th grade RC Language Art classes also used the **Idea Sketch** application to organize their descriptive writing notes.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Mrs. DeAngelis’s 7th grade Engineering elective class used the iPad cart to measure angles in the classroom. They also played Whizzball, an engineering, problem-solving app.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Mrs. Ball’s 6th grade science classes used the iPad to figure out the identity of mystery minerals based on properties they were given. They accessed a Zapd website that I had created to see a picture of an unknown mineral. Along with the picture were two minerals it might be as well as a description of the mystery mineral’s properties. They used the app Qrafter to read QR codes to access helpful websites in order to determine each mystery mineral’s identity. In addition, my iPad class is creating their own Zapd websites with mystery mineral pairs that will be identified by their classmates.

<span style="font-family: 'Arial','sans-serif';">Mrs. Castiglione’s 6th grades classes used Tap Quiz Maps to review and practice identifying the location of countries in Latin America.