The official rules of an Ignite presentation are that the presentation consists of 20 slides that auto-advance every 15 seconds, resulting in a five minute presentation.  These are REALLY fun to put together, and the video is the result of my attempt.  As they presentations are supposed to be live, I allowed myself no edits and only one take.

You need to plan and think about your message in an Ingnite presentation, making it perfect for small group reviews.  If you'd like to see how I laid out the script before recording, click this link.

In a fun little green screen project, we explain what Jason is really thinking about.  Anyone can take the basic idea for this in any direction, content area, and grade level you like.  This was inspired by Apple's Creative Challenge.  What can your kids create?

Using Apple's Keynote, we can create really personalized digital art using our favorite images, art, shapes, and more.  This would be great for summarizing a time period, explaining the thoughts of a character, or making an advertisement for environmental issues.  

0:00 - Intro

0:44 - Starting the Project in Keynote - Dropping in Images

3:08 - Where the Magic Happens - Remove Background/Instant Alpha

4:53 - Adding Shapes and Titles to Finish Up

7:49 - Finished Product

Voice Memos is a basic voice recording app on student iPads.  But, when combined with Google Drive, it can be the perfect tool for student created podcasts!  Record student-led interviews, short stories, or JOS TED Talks and share them with the world.

We created an entire site dedicated to student video production.  Videos and tips will walk your kids through the process and then allow them to choose from tutorials on Clips, Camera and iMovie, iMovie's Storyboard, and Magic Movie.

Blackout Poetry can be used in any grade level and any content area.  All you need is a desire for kids to read a passage of text and be able to arrive at the main points of that passage.  This assessment is fun for students because they can use their creativity to turn a mundane task into a work of and art.  

Student Steps for Completion:

1.  Take a photo of a reading passage on their iPad.

2.  Open the image from their Photos app.

3.  In the top-right corner of the screen, click "Edit."

4.  At the top of the screen, click the three dots icon.

5.  In the menu box, click "Mark Up."

6.  Using the annotation tools, highlight words to create their "poem" from the text.

7.  Create art to symbolize the main point of the passage.

8.  Click "Done."

9.  Submit work!

Many JPS teachers are asking for new ideas for engaging assessments to keep things fresh.  We had an idea to take the standard tic-tac-toe assessment board and add ideas that could be completed on student devices.  A little digging brought us to Shake Up Learning's excellent Tic-Tac-Toe Choice Menu for a novel study in grades 6-12.

Take a look at the options for kids, all of which could be done on student devices.  How might you adapt this for your content area or grade level?

We already ask our kids to do research.  Rather than have the students complete a straight report or outline, take the next step and have your students package their work in an infographic. This project asks kids to complete their research and use graphic design in order to convey their message to an audience.  As a bonus, it is easy to do and really fun. 

As a novice Keynote user on an iPad, it took Jeff about 13 minutes to go from blank page to finished product.  Along the way, he used built-in shapes, split his screen to access (steal?) images from the internet to enhance the look of his project, used the speech-to-text function on the iPad's digital keyboard, and learned how to resize and change the angle of images.  The image at the top on the right is his finished product.  Below that is the sped up screencast and play-by-play of his creation.  See if you can spot all of his rookie mistakes at 8x speed!

Who doesn't love playing with magnetic poetry?  Here is a quick and easy way for students or teachers to create magnetic poetry to show mastery of new content or vocabulary in a fun and creative way.

The Idea:

An interview is a quick-and-easy way for students to either explain their thinking on any topic in a creative way.  Imagine, for example, students "interviewing" a character of a story in order to have the character explain their actions.  Or, students could hold a "debate" between two historical characters.  

The Tutorial and Sample:

Our tutorial walks you through the steps of the process in two different apps - Voice Memos and GarageBand.  It concludes with a model interview in which Jeff is asking Jason about Ten Minute Tryouts and the thought behind them.  Enjoy the special guests in the clip!

Sample Task:

Take a Bill and Ted's Excellent Adventure journey and head back to the beginning of your teaching career and interview yourself as a first-year teacher.   You may ask anything you like, but here are a few suggested questions to get you started.

BOCES sent this out and we thought it worth sharing:

"We wanted to let you know of a FREE website (for most events) available to teachers for the 21-22 school year. FieldTripZoom has a lot of great virtual field trips with a wide range of content available to you at no cost. We are entitled to unlimited recordings.  You can search by month, grade level, or different categories. 

To look at options, go to fieldtripzoom.com and SIGNUP with your school email. Then, follow the step-by-step directions below as provided by BOCES.  (Please note that the CLASS programs are not part of the subscription).

1. Go to www.fieldtripzoom.com

2. Click on SIGNUP

3. Register an account with your school email domain.

4. Activate your account – our system sends an email, simply click on the link in the email.

5. Once activated, go back to the site and click on LOGIN

6. Go to PROGRAMS (you'll also see the Recordings in this menu if you are logged in)

7. Click on ZONE Programs

8. Find a Program – Filter by Grade, Month, or Subject

9. Click on BOOK.

10. You will receive an email with a URL link embedded.

11. Share the link with your students.

12. Click on the link 5 minutes before the program start time.   Students can do this from home or the teacher can facilitate as a group in class."

Find a bunch of project ideas from our friends at Apple.