Our First Virtual Field Trip

Now that we are through parent-teacher conferences, I was looking for an activity that might help the students understand that technology can help us be a part of something hundreds or thousands of miles away. I stumbled upon a virtual field trip for Red Ribbon Week sponsored by Discovery Education. The Santa Ana Police Department was participating at a live event showcasing their K9 police dogs. They would be sharing how the dogs are selected, trained, and used on the job. The event was held during our lunch/recess, so I let the students choose to voluntarily stay in for the field trip. All but five of them chose to participate! Yay! I explained that all of the activity was happening live, and that it was like we were in California watching it with those students in person. We found California on the map and talked about how far away it is and how long it would take to get there by plane or car. I think they understood the concept! We wrote and submitted questions ahead of time hoping for a shout out question live on the air, but that didn't happen. It was still fun! They were very engaged and attentive during the field trip.

iPad Cases

Now that we are using the iPads every day at various times throughout the day, I've noticed the students using various items to prop up their iPads at a more comfortable angle. That got me thinking that maybe we could get stands for them. I was pleasantly surprised to find out that the district already had another case with built-in stands for all of the iPads. I requested to have them delivered, and the students are very happy with them! The only downside to them is that in order to use the camera, the students have to remove them from the case. We can live with that though :)