Issue: 8.32

August 26, 2014

What I Did on My Summer Vacation!

It's a lot of fun to find out what your students and colleagues did on summer vacation. It's exciting to reunite for a new school year and share experiences. Most schools are back in session already with a few holding out for after Labor Day, but it would be fair to say that we are all in the "here we go" mentality. A new year brings new hopes, new expectations, new curriculum, new textbooks (or techbooks!), new students, new colleagues, sometimes new schools and even administration. With this new start, I want to welcome you back and share in your excitement for the 2014 - 2015 school year. In this "tuesdays" I would like to share the best technology I experience the whole summer!

A creative website

Yapp is a new website that helps the non-app creator feel like a real app designer. I was part of the TEACH Academy this summer and was introduced to Yapp. At first, I thought it was created professionally and must have been a large expenditure, but when I asked Dr. Ruth who made it and how much it cost, I was blown away that it was free and that she plugged everything in herself! Game on. I knew I just had to try one myself so I created one for a Digital Academy that I was attending and a Leadership Think Tank where I was one of the presenters. This FREE app allows the members of your group (of any size and of any purpose) to share updated information quickly in the palm of your hand. It even gives the participants the ability to upload images and there is even a news feed for commenting. Probably my favorite part was how everyone started getting into the app by uploading images during the events. It felt like going to a wedding where they provide a digital camera at every table to make sure everyone is covered. The classroom implications are huge. Why not set up a YAPP for your class to share ideas, images, projects and have a timeline of the whole year with true collaboration. I enjoyed the process so much that I even create a Yapp for our family vacation to Disney this summer.(I know I'm a geek!) I highly recommend this ingenious tool.

An encouragement

Before you create an app for your classroom, do two things. Find out first if it is something that your district will support. There is nothing that they need to do on their end, but it's always good to check if it's an emerging technology that they will approve. If they are not sure, ask permission to beta test it with your class. Second, be sure to make a personal Yapp before creating one for your class. Once you layout your first Yapp, the next few become increasingly more simple to make. I know that my first one was good, but my second I experimented with more page designs and by the time I made my 3^rd and 4^th I felt like I was actually a real app designer. If your school uses Twitter, you can even add a Twitter feed right into the app itself. Thank you Dr. Ruth for using Yapp for TEACH Academy. It was inspiring.

How do you do that?

How do you make your own app with Yapp? It much simpler than meets the eye.

Step 1: Go to www.yapp.us and create a free account.

Step 2: Click the Create a new Yapp button; enter a title, subtitle and/or date

Step 3: Change the theme.

Step 4: Examine the Pages on left side panel. (Click add page to see a few more.)

Step 5: Add or subtract pages for your Yapp. (These will be the menu items at the bottom of your app.)

Step 6: Go to the app store on your device and download the FREE app called Yapp.

Step 7: Test your design on your device. It's live!

If you would like to see what one looks like, download the Yapp app. Look for "I've been invited to a Yapp." Add your name and use CEAI for your ID (my.yapp.us/CEAI). I chose the news feed for this app, but Crowd Pics works better for images alone.

It's super fun and very effective for this generation of handheld devices to have a customized learning app of their own. Go for it!

What is "tuesdays with Karen"?

"tuesdays with Karen" is a weekly newsletter/blog designed to encourage, equip and empower teachers to be creative with educational technology. Please add your technology comments to my

"tuesdays with Karen" blog.

As always, I am
Ubiquitously yours,
Karen

Karen C. Seddon
www.ecubedcreative.com
tuesdayswithkaren.blogspot.com
tuesdayswithkaren@gmail.com
http://the16-9movement.blogspot.com/
www.one16pray.com
www.aw180days.com
seddonk - Skype

In This Issue

A creative website

An encouragment

A proverb

"Summer afternoon, summer afternoon; to me those have always been the two most beautiful words in the English language."

Henry James

An image to share

The Yapp cover page for our family vacation to Disney

Favorite websites ...

Yapp
Gamification
Edthena
Edutopia
New Vista for Learning
TenMarks
Canva
GoogleScienceFair
TpT
Magic Educator
Curriculum 21
Spotlight on Strategies
Infographics Kit
Education Portal
Narrable
Hastings iBook
Answer Garden
MLK, Jr. video
Top Teaching
Kathy Shrock - iPad
Google Science Fair
New Teacher Central
Conchita Espinosa
SOS - Spotlight on Stragegies
Visuwords
Blendspace
Symbaloo
The Teaching Channel
Discovery Education
Yummy Math
Schoology
Project RED
QR Code Treasure Hunt
Blooms Taxonomy
Pay It Forward Foundation
Pecha Kucha
Remind101
Bammy Awards
File Pigeon
Haiku Deck
Power2Teach
Answer Garden
Fair Use Evaluator
CBL
Reach Out & Read
Digital Learning Day
Kathy Schrock
PhotoPeach
Google's Cultural Institute
Screen O'Matic
Rock Our Word
KenKen
Media Literacy Clearinghouse
Read, Write, Think
Tech4Learning
Student Voice
iAppinar
Paper blogging
John Kyrk's Biology
Multiple Intelligence Test
CA Media Festival
US Census map
Skype in the Classroom
Talk to Me

IZZIT

Splashtop
Rock-It speakers
Scale of the Universe
iPad Livebinder
Bibme

Boom Writer

Edmodo
Search-Cube
Not On the Test

The King Center
FIZZ

Calculation Nation

The Open University

Common Craft - QR codes 7 Billion