#2 This is the SECRET to my success...Seriously, it has changed my WHOLE classroom.  I download all my products from Teachers Pay Teachers on my iPad. Whatever I plan to use for the week, I download into my iBooks. I take screenshots of the things I need and will use for the week.  They are in my photos for me to use whenever I need to send them to students via AIRDROP or to put them into different time-saving apps that I use.

These first two tips alone will change your life and will save you from running to the copy machine.  But, these two tips alone will not save your sanity.  You will need some tech tools to help you and your students to collaborate, collect, create, and demonstrate. 

So...the #1 reason I love my PAPERLESS classroom is my students have more time to learn and we get more instruction, acquisition, and reflection on a daily basis.  BOTTOM LINE.  I can teach more vocabulary because they understand the basic six words I am required to cover because we use the app Pic Collage. I can look at their project with labels and KNOW they truly grasp the words. The immediate feedback that technology can give my students is remarkable. It is a true game-changer in the classroom. I can tell in four problems on a math app if they understand the concept or not and then we can move on. That means we have more time for ABOVE and BEYOND. 

The four apps that we use each and everyday are all free.  These four apps alone help me in many different ways. I take NO papers home at all.  I grade all assignments on my iPad.  I grade assignments at basketball games, on road trips, and sitting on my couch.  The first app that makes that possible is Seesaw. 

Seesaw allows me to communicate with my parents, see all assignments, and grade projects at home.  It has so many unbelievable advantages that I could write a whole blog post on this app alone.  But, the best thing about this app is that my students cannot wait to post their assignment for their parents and peers to see.  They take PRIDE in this and that makes all the difference in the world.  The picture below shows me what one calendar day looks like in my classroom.  For more information about Seesaw, contact me or go to http://web.seesaw.me/.

EPIC! Books for kids has not only saved me money in my classroom but helped me have an surplus of nonfiction books at all levels for all abilities.  I can select books for my students by creating weekly collections of books that I would love for them to read.  It allows them to have a choice in what they are reading and helps me get the content out to them.  Every child with an iPad has access to all the books, educational videos, read to me books, audiobooks, and tutorial videos. 

For more information about this amazing app, go to https://www.getepic.com/.

This next incredible app is Classkick.  I use this app several times a day to introduce new topics or concepts, to ensure that every child has a copy of the book we are reading, to do scavenger hunts, to prove our text based evidence from a story, and it is our morning bell ringer.  This web-based app allows the students to log into a specific code for an assignment that I have created for them.  It is allows me to add my own content, my voice, my images, and directions.  Students can also add their own pictures, labels, voice, and text.  The example below shows a text-based evidence scavenger hunt that I created for the story, BOOM TOWN.  Each slide provides directions and they would then find the answer in the book, take a picture of the evidence, and then add it to the slide.  This app is on my daily instastory on Instagram because we use it in so many different ways. 

For more information about this app, contact me or go to https://www.classkick.com/.  Classkick also has an amazing YouTube channel with lots of ideas on how to use this app in your classroom. 

This is the app that I have used the most in the 6 years that I have had iPads.  I started replacing worksheets with Pic Collage projects.  Now, years later, I am a Pic Collage Ambassador and I am helping teachers all over the world with my ideas on how to use this simple app in the classroom.  For more ideas, follow our blog at PIC COLLAGE EDU.  You can also check out my other blog posts about how I use it on a daily basis.  The pictures below are just a tiny bit of how we use it in our classroom.  Graphic organizers used in the slideshow are created by Hello Literacy-Jen Jones or myself. 

I didn't learn all of these wonderful things overnight.  This took years of failing and falling, testing and trying, doing and seeing.  I use a handful of apps on a daily basis for so many things.  Remember, take it one app at a time. Don't be afraid to make a mistake and release that control over their tablet.  They know how to operate this device more than you.  Let them show you how to do it.  If I cannot convince you, listen to this Ted Talk.  The day I watched this for the first time, I changed my mindset and realized that I could learn so much from my students.  Thank you Kayla for making me realize that!

So, need MORE ideas on how to go PAPERLESS in your classroom?  Follow my daily INSTASTORY on Instagram.  @teachingwithappitude!
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Lots of ideas on how to use the DOODLE BUDDY app!  It is a free app that not only can be used as a dry erase board but MUCH, MUCH MORE!  In my TPT store, I have a packet of 150+ ideas to use with this app. 

Do you the app CLASSKICK?  Need a boost to help you get started?  If so, watch my original video to see how I used it when I first added it to our iPads. Classkick is an app that can be used on laptops, Chromebooks, and iPads.  It is web-based app that allows students to log into your lessons.  For more information, go to the CLASSKICK website.  Feel free to contact me if you have any questions about the iPad side of using Classkick.  kamibutterfield@gmail.com

Pic Collage is one of my favorite apps for the iPad in the whole world.  I have been using it for 6 years now and it keeps getting better.  This is one of my iteachtvnetwork videos on how to create great visual presentations.  Pic Collage is so easy to use on an iPad and on my phone.  That is one of the reasons I started using it in the first place.  I will be posting more videos so stay tuned for more APPY-goodness with TONS of APPITUDE! 

Need a way to captivate their attention...Using iMovie trailers to introduce new topics to your students is one of the best ways to help get sucked into the new subject material!  This video is just one that I have made to help you get you introduced to this amazingly easy app!  Use it to introduce new stuff or for them to use to tell what they have learned...Stay tuned for our I AM projected inspired by Don Goble. 
@dongoble on TWITTER

Here is my video from the ITEACHTVNETWORK.  Hope this helps anyone who needs some extra help with starting the app, SEESAW.  So many benefits with this app.  You can use it with Chromebooks, laptops, iPads, and other devices.  Reach out to me if you need any help with it. 

This app is so amazing.  I can't say enough about it.  The NON-FICTION collection alone is worth taking a look at it.  IT IS FREE to EDUCATORS and $4.99 for parents to sign up for at-home use.   Just go to their website at www.getepic.com, sign up as an educator, and look at it yourself. 

This is a video from past April that shows some of the things that I do with the EPIC APP in my classroom.  Teachers were asking me how I held other students accountable and so I did a video on the ITEACHTVNETWORK and discussed how I use it everyday. 

I love how focused he is using this app.  They love the VARIETY of non-fiction books that EPIC offers.  Just as the search shows in the photo BELOW,  it gives you a variety of books according to the topic you are researching.   They have books listed by age range, time it will take the student to read it, AR/Lexile level and students can also add it to their FAVORITES!

Another great feature for teachers is the ability to get even MORE specific with their searches.  If they are looking for only fiction books with a certain AR level, it is super easy to find. 

Creating collections for my students to read is another one of my tools that I use with my students.  I can select a variety of books and ASSIGN them to my students on a daily or weekly basis.  Teachers all over are creating collections and sharing them with other teachers in their buildings and all over the world.  You can even share your collections with others on PINTEREST. 

It is super easy to have SCAVENGER HUNTS in the books and then add the details and pictures into the app PIC COLLAGE so students can turn in assignments.  My students love hunting for the details in the books.  EPIC has a wonderful assortment of NONFICTION books.

Questions....don't hesitate to ask. @teachingwithappitude on INSTAGRAM!

I sure hope you follow me on instagram because I give you a daily glimpse of what we are doing in our 1:1 iPad classroom.  Out of the four apps that I use on a daily basis, three of them can be used on any type of device including laptops, chromebooks, and Android devices.  I use Classkick, Seesaw, Pic Collage, and EPIC! Books for Kids. 
Each day if you tap on my Teaching with APPitude face, it will show you images or videos of projects we are doing everyday.  It is like free INSTASTORY PD!

As much as I use Pic Collage for reading and language arts skills, we use it for math just as much.  We love adding pictures of our manipulatives that we use for math practice.  It helps us to document what we have been working on but it is a great reminder before math tests.  Here are a few ideas for your classroom-no matter what grade you teach. 

With this activity, we used a graphic organizer for our background.  After setting that sheet as the background, we can then add our pictures of different types of perimeter problems.  I love how Pic Collage allows us to add the text that we need to add in our own language.  We love being able to change the color along with different definitions. 

As I said earlier in this post, we take a lot of pictures of our math problems.  Almost every math lesson, we take pictures of our manipulatives.  The lifesavers on the paper plates allow for us to create our our story problems for sums of ten.  You could do this any kind of manipulative and journal it by adding text to the collage. 

Dominoes are a great way to show different types of math problems.  Something as simple as adding the dots on the domino could replace a worksheet.  With one to one iPads, my students can create their own unique math sheet in the app, Pic Collage.  So easy to use that even a preschooler could add their own pics and text with assistance. 

Until next time....more useful and practical ideas to come! So, teach with APPitude everyday and go PAPERLESS with PIC COLLAGE!  Your kids will thank you!

I have had iPads in my classroom for the past six years.  I started using the Pic Collage app as an alternative to worksheets and my students LOVE it.  They have been become Pic Collage experts in fact. 

For example, instead of using a PRONOUN worksheet from the story, we created a pronoun collage and my students took pride and ownership into their project.   They understood what pronouns do for a writer and they started using them more often in their own writing after the project. 

Instead of filling out our goals on a paper this year, we did it digitally in Pic Collage and showed our parents our goals and best projects using our iPads.  To start this, I created a graphic organizer for them to set as a background for their collage.  This gave them a guideline of what my expectations are and what I wanted their parents to see.   Parents loved having this digital copy.  These could be printed but we uploaded them to Seesaw and the parents have a digital copy for themselves.   

We love typing in the Pic Collage app.   I airdop graphic organizers and writing paper to the students all the time.  Pic Collage allows us to change color, text, background colors, etc. which make for more eye-catching projects.  The six reasons I would not make a good Herdman pictured above shows the versatility of this amazing app and how to make your projects stand out from others.