Graphic Organizers Templates with Keynote or Numbers

Graphic organizers are an important part of planning, programming, projects, and papers in the classroom.  They create a vivid and visual map of ideas, especially where learning is not linear.

Visual ideas splattered about may be shifted quickly to an organized and logical order in a graphic organizer.  Learning templates are very useful to get students started.  Our digital resources allow for great flexibility in creative design, including the ability to add in audio and video.

There are many websites and apps that can be used for this purpose.  Keynote and Numbers are applications your students are already using that may be customized for their graphic organizer needs.

I like Keynote because links may be created quickly to connect topics with sub-topics and their researched data.   This is especially helpful for our younger learners.

I like Numbers because it has an 'unlimited' canvas to create on.  Zoom in/out and navigate as needed.

A counterpart of mine, Jamie Clark, @XpatEducator, created a Graphic Organizer Pack in Keynote that may be used by you or your students.  Click here to download his Keynote templates.  Select from the list provided and remove the other slides.

His category groups include:

• Recalling, Grouping, Classifying, and Summarizing Ideas
• Sequencing Events and Ordering Ideas
• Showing Casual Links (cause and effect)
• Deeper Analysis - Breaking Down Ideas and Exploring Elements

	I added my own twist that you may want to consider for your classroom.  Slide decks in Keynote do not need to be 'presented' in a linear order from first to last.   Any picture or shape in Keynote may be linked to any slide or website. I modified one of the templates to show how details may be linked between multiple slides in Keynote.  Click here to download my version.
	To create custom links between Keynote slides: From your iPad, tap once on the object you would like to link.  Tap on Link.  Now, decide what direction you want to go, whether it is another slide, a website, or an email address.
	Numbers will provide a much larger canvas for your student projects.  This may be useful for your older students or for larger projects. If you are looking for a larger canvas for your graphic organizer, but like the templates here, you can use cmd-A to Select All of the items on a slide and paste it into a Numbers worksheet. Numbers will give you a flexible canvas size that works for almost any project.  When you first open Numbers, you will see a data table.  It may be deleted to clear off your canvas.

Please share with me how your students use templates to create graphic organizers.

Choice Boards with Keynote

In our classrooms, we work to give students a voice, especially where we are looking for feedback and checking for understanding.  Their 'voice' can be found in many forms.

An avenue to find a student's voice and get quick feedback is with a Choice Board.

Choice Boards can show up in many ways.  Below are two examples that you can use.
The credit for this idea comes from my PLN and counterpart @jesgarrigan

These are created with Keynote and work exceptionally well in an iPad environment with Apple Classroom.  With Apple Classroom, the teacher can quickly 'see' every student's feedback, and can even take a quick screenshot for later reference.  This can be adapted to other digital tools and platforms, including a laptop.

Example 1 - Choice Board Words

	This is a view of the Student iPad Paired with Apple Classroom, the teacher can 'see' when all students have responded to a question or prompt.  A quick screenshot of the teacher's Classroom screen will save the student feedback.
	Once opened, the student will select the Play icon in the upper right corner to go to Presentation Mode. 'Pinch in' to return to Edit mode

Example 2 - Emoji Choice Board

	Here is another Choice Board I created using emojis. Your students look different than these emojis.  They can be adjusted as desired. To change the icons: In edit mode, tap and hold a rectangle to bring up the 'Unlock' command.  Double-tap to highlight and select an emoji. Change to picture as desired and 'Lock' it back up.
	To build these slidedecks: I linked each rectangle to a different slide. Every rectangle on every slide needs to be linked. Editing links from a laptop (top picture):  right-click on the rectangle to bring up a menu.  For many of you, this will be a 'two-finger' click on your trackpad. Editing links from an iPad (bottom picture):  just tap once on a rectangle to bring up the menu.
	Once all the editing is finished, go through and 'Lock' every rectangle in the slide deck. This is important to avoid accidentally changing the template

_______________________________________________

Download these Examples:

Click here to view Example 1 Words

Click here to view Example 2 Emojis

You may download either of the examples for your own classroom use formatted for Keynote.

You can share your own simple choice board with students using Keynote.
They are really quick to build.  Please let me know if you have a different one that you use with your class.  I look forward to seeing different creative applications.

Let me know if you have any questions or if I need to adjust my directions to make them more understandable.

Thanks

Text-to-Speech

Our teacher and student devices have a built-in text-to-speech feature.
Words, phrases, or passages may be selected to be 'spoken' on just about any application.

I prefer either the Siri Female or Male voices. They seem to sound a little more natural than the other options.  They include natural pauses at commas and periods.  This can be a great tool for emerging readers.

iPadOS	Laptop (MacOS)
This option will need to be turned on in the Settings App. When text is highlighted, the 'Speak' option will become available.	The keyboard shortcut is usually Option-Esc. This may be turned on in your System Preferences. Simply highlight the text you want to hear in any program and press the short cut keys shown above.
Settings -> Accessibility -> Spoken Content	System Preferences-> Accessibility ->  Speech
Turn on 'Speak Selection'.  I would recommend leaving Speak Screen turned off. Adjust other settings as desired.

With either of these options, Text-to-Speech is now available in almost every application on your device.  This may be paired with several other great applications that are readily available on teacher and student devices.

Engineering Design challenge - iPad Stands

K-2 iPad stand project

I could use a little help from some young engineers.

Our new K-2 iPads do not fit on the classroom iPad stands.
These stands are useful when we need the iPads to stand up tall in Portrait mode.

Would you help me come up with ideas for a new iPad stand?

Create a design proposal.  You may either....

	Create a design using the drawing tools on your iPad. OR
	Mark up a picture that you have taken OR
	Create a plan on paper and take a picture of it.

If you have time, please build a model and take a picture.
Add your voice to explain what you did.  You can use Keynote or Clips to do the work.  
Let me know what materials you decided to use and why you chose them.

I am excited to learn about your ideas.


You can check out 2 of my ideas.  Watch the video if you would like to see them.  However, I would really like to see what you come up with on your own first. 

My first idea takes 4 hours to make.  The second idea takes about 10 minutes to make.  Which one do you think would be a better choice?  Explain.

iPads: Save your battery

It is a MYTH that 'closing out' of all of your iPad applications will make the battery last longer or make your iPad run faster.  The iPad will only 'run' what is currently up on your screen, whether that be one app or two (with split screen)

	Closing out of all of your apps may create an unintended consequence. Many apps require login with a Google or Microsoft account.  Once you are logged in to any ‘Google’ app, you will not need a password for any other Google app.    IF you close out of every app, you will likely need to log back into them later, an extra step that may not be necessary. This includes popular apps such as SeeSaw or ClassLink
So what WILL affect my iPad battery?
I rarely ever turn off my iPad.  It will only get restarted about every month or so when there is an update.  I use it every day and plug it in to charge every night.	Check the sleep settings on your iPad.  This may be found in Settings->Display & Brightness -> Auto-Lock If you use your iPad as a document camera, you will likely want to delay the time before it goes to sleep, perhaps changing it to 10 or 15 minutes.  Adjust as desired. When you close the cover, the iPad display will go to sleep, too.
	Use the correct charger for your iPad.  Most phone chargers are rated at 2 watts, including what's likely in your car.  You may be able to charge your phone with a 3 or 4 watt charger, but you do need to be careful.  Putting too much charge too fast may cause heat issues with your phone and shorten its life. iPad chargers are rated at 12 watts.  It's fine if you use a charger with less wattage.  It will not hurt anything.  However, it may take much longer to charge up.  If the display is not 'asleep' then you may be using up the battery faster than it is charging.

Please let me know if you have any comments or questions about this post.
I welcome your feedback.

Here is a post by Apple, related to those open Apps, with something called Background App Refresh.