Looking for a tool that can help you to manage your classes? So I strongly recommend that you check the 'Teacher KIT' FREE app for Ipad. Previously known as "TeacherPal", the app was renamed after its last update, but it still keeps the same functionalities as described bellow.
With a very nice design that emulates a classroom environment, this app allows you to create groups of students and manage attendance, grades and even write notes about students' behaviour.
Once you have created your course timetable and registered your students, you can take attendance by simply clicking on the icon with the students' name or picture (yes, there's this very nice feature that allows you to add students to their profiles).
It's also possible to include students or parents contact information.
You can establish grades and their weights. And if you're worried about losing this important data, you can at anytime upload it to Itunes or send a report with the details to your email, on a spreadsheet that the app automatically generates.
If you teach private classes and have to manage your own groups, 'Teacher Kit' is really worth a try.
Recently I wrote about my first experience with the BYOD (Bring Your Own Device) principles in an attempt to include more technology in my English classes in the public school where I teach here in Brazil (click here to read a short description of this activity).
The idea was to use the students own mobile phones to record themselves asking and answering some questions based on a reading activity they had previously done. It was also part of a project I developed while taking part in the English Language Certificate Program at the University of Oregon, in Eugene/Or during this winter.
The result was satisfactory for a first try, although I need to work a lot more on the methodology.
Check out this video with images of my students performing their tasks:
And I hope you like The Ramones...
*** Unfortunately, due some copyright issues with the song "Rock'n'roll High School" (performed by The Ramones) which I used as a soundtrack for the video, it's not available to mobile devices, which is a great irony. I also can't make any changes on the video, except for deleting it. I apologize for that. The video is really funny.
My answer to this question would be 'no', although we're struggling hard to find it. And as far as I can see reading blogs & tweets on the web, this is a global concern. Maybe it's just a matter of time as we're still learning how to deal with all this tech issues, but by now we should have something else than just this talk of the potential of technology on Education.
No Mobile Phones allowed in São Paulo - Brazil
In the Brazilian case, I'd say that we have bits of technology and even smaller pieces of pedagogy. Yes, we have a few computers at our schools and the students have their own gadgets, like smartphones, but I haven't seen it at work the way it should. In São Paulo, for instance, there's a State law forbidding the use of mobile phones in schools. But what if a teacher could create a learning situation in which a mobile gadget would be useful? Isn't it a paradox that they don't allow the use of the most common and handy device and still claim that more technology should be part of the school routines? Of course, there are many reasons Mobile Phones can cause trouble in the classroom, but the fact is that the students do bring their mobiles, even though they're not allowed. So, why don't we use them?
A student using her own device during the English class.
On this direction, there's this BYOD (bring your own device) trend, which I've been looking at with some enthusiasm. And I gave it a first try this past week. I asked my students at the public school where I teach to record themselves and a classmate saying a few sentences out loud. And to do that they had to use their mobile phones. I even recorded myself saying the sentences out loud and shared the file from my mobile to theirs via bluetooth technology. It wasn't the most revolutionary thing in the world but it worked. It was a pretty cool class.
