New App for LOTE Lessons

Sensai has found a great new FREE app to help you learn Japanese. She would like all students to please install the app, called Kana Tutor, on their school iPads. It would be fantastic if you could all have this app ready to go for this week's Japanese lessons.

Kana Tutor by Twin Pines Software

Social Media Policy at St Catherine's

We have been seeing a few social media apps popping up on children's iPads at school. A reminder that as all children in our school are currently under 13 years of age, no current student should be using Social Media sites or apps such as Instagram, Facebook or Kik.

Our 1 to 1 Parent Handbook - Policy and Guidelines contains guidelines for Acceptable Use of ICT to which all parents and students have signed their consent. The Student Agreement for Acceptable Use of ICT Resources (page x. of the Parent Handbook) clearly states in Section 3, Point 4:

"I will not hold accounts or participate in any social media sites intended for people 13 years and older (such as Facebook and MySpace) without express written advice from my teachers to my parents/guardians that such an account is required for learning and teaching purposes."

We ask parents to ensure that social media apps are never installed on school iPads while your children attend St Catherine's. The actions of even a few students and families can affect many others in our community. We thank you for your prompt attendance to this matter.

[Image Source: "Social Media" by Yoel Ben-Avraham via Flickr CC BY-ND 2.0]

iPad Holiday Tasks: "Spring Cleaning"

Even though it's not Spring in our hemisphere, it is certainly time for a clean out of your school iPad. Many of our 1 to 1 students have been experiencing sluggish iPad performance and some of their apps are refusing to start up altogether. The most common reason for issues like this is that your iPad is crammed too full of "stuff".

Please take some time on the holidays to check your Usage. Delete photos and videos you no longer require and, definitely before you come back to school in term 2, uninstall the games and movies you've been using over the break.

Remember, the iPad is first and foremost a learning tool for school. You may enjoy using it for recreation on a rainy day, but games and movies should not be taking up valuable space and preventing optimal performance for your learning tasks.

How do I check out what's taking up most space on my iPad?

Go to Settings > General > Usage

Now tap "Manage Storage"

This screen will tell you how many Gigabytes of storage space is available on your iPad. Regardless of the total capacity of your iPad, you need AT LEAST 10% of free space for the device to run properly. When you use an app, it uses the available free memory to work.

Check out the list of apps you have installed. The apps taking up the most space will be at the top. Usually, Photos & Camera app is near the top of the list.

Go to the Photos app and delete any photos and videos you no longer need. You can connect your iPad to a computer and upload any photos and videos you wish to keep.

You can tap any app in the list to delete it from your iPad. Deleted apps will still be associated with your Apple ID. This means you can install them again without having to pay.

Last minute holiday tips...

Remember never to leave an iPad in the car if it's parked in the sun. Overheating can ruin your battery and shorten its lifespan. If you are going away and won't be using your iPad, leave it in a cool, safe place. Your iPad prefers to rest at half charge (50 - 80%). Turn it off completely so the battery won't run flat.

We look forward to seeing both you AND your cleaned out iPad back in Term 2, ready to learn and perform at optimum level!

A Window into Year 5

Time for a snapshot of what's been happening in Year 5...

Firstly, here's a reflection on Year 5 History lessons from one of our Year 5 students, Angelita:

History lessons in the library

On Wednesday we went to the library to do History. We learnt about the early days of the Moreton Bay settlement. We learnt all about the convicts and how hard their life was. We even got to write a made up story about convicts to hop into their shoes and let our minds investigate how their lives were. We also used iPads and we used our QR scanner app that took us to an amazing site about the Brisbane windmill that the convicts had built in 1828. We completed a task on our iPad about the settlements and highlighted all the important words and sentences that stood out. So now we know bits about the early days of the Moreton Bay settlement.

Photo and reflection by Angelita

With access to their own devices, students no longer have to wait in line for these valued resources. They can use digital learning tools whenever they need to during the school day, and access their work outside school hours as well.

Manga High provides maths drill online in an engaging format with instant feedback on students' performance.

Learning spaces are flexible. Chairs and tray tables can be easily moved to create more floor space, dragged into large circles, small groups or rows.

Carpet mats extend learning spaces to the breezy verandahs.

Movable furniture allows configuration for different group sizes.

iPad Support and Technical Help

Well it's taken a few weeks but we have almost all of our new iPad recruits set with Apple IDs, Mail passwords, Paid apps etc. The children look like 'old hands' already as you move through their learning spaces at school.

We make every attempt to support families with technical issues and troubleshooting at school, but sometimes we strike a problem that we simply can't fix here. After all, we are educators and not mobile device technicians.

So, where can you turn when you need some 'expert' iPad help? Apple do provide excellent support options which some of our parents have already found very useful. You might like to add the web links and phone number below to your Contacts. ...You never know when you'll need them!

Apple iPad Support Website

Apple Education Telephone Support: 

Call 1300 968 979

Hours of operation:
9am - 9pm Monday to Friday
9am - 6pm Saturday

More Online Support

If you're just after a quick answer, or you'd prefer to email your support request, use this website for iPad support.

New App Required for LOTE

Our lovely LOTE teacher, Mrs Amy Flynn, would like to use a free app called Kana Quiz in her Japanese lessons with years 4, 5 and 6. Would you please assist your children to install this app at your earliest convenience. Unfortunately the app called Fotopedia Japan (published on our free apps list last year) is now only available in the United States but Sensai will be able to keep her classes very busy and engaged with Kana Quiz.

Here's the icon and a link to the app on iTunes:

Kana Quiz (FREE)

The iPad as a READING Tool

Parents, despite what your children may tell you, they will never have to be on their iPad for school purposes for extended periods each evening or weekend! Homework which must be done on the iPads will rarely exceed half an hour and don't forget, you can use a 4-finger swipe (upwards) to check which apps are running at any time. If most of the running apps are games, then chances are homework has not been the main priority in the last little while...

However, one activity that can often be enhanced by a digital device, is READING. Nothing will ever replace the look, feel and smell of a real life hard copy BOOK. But a few digital enhancements can make reading on the iPad an especially valuable experience, especially for developing readers.

[Image Source: news.blogs.slv.vic.gov.au]

For children who have difficulty reading subject-orientated texts, or website content, the iPad also has a useful "text-to-speech" function which will literally read any selected text to them. Admittedly the 'voice' is a little robotic and sometimes makes pronunciation errors, but this feature can open up a world of text for children who would normally be dependent on a real life adult to read to them.

To turn on "text-to-speech", go to Settings > General > Accessibility > Speech. Turn Speech Selection ON. You can adjust the speaking rate here as well. With Speech Selection turned on, when you select text in an app (such as iBooks or on a webpage in Safari), you will see a Speak option (see sample below).

Screenshot from iBooks

We published the following post about the iBooks app a couple of years ago for our first iPad classes. We're posting the information again here as it has some useful information about borrowing eBooks from the Brisbane City Council libraries. If you would rather hear about this process in person, staff at any of the Council libraries will be able to take you through it. Our own lovely Teacher Librarian, Mrs Monique Hegarty plans to show the students how to borrow books through Brisbane Catholic Education's Overdrive account. However, they need two (free) apps to access these books: Overdrive and Adobe Digital Editions:

Overdrive

Adobe Digital Editions

The children can also widen their literary experience by listening to audio books. This is not 'cheating'. It is a valuable experience for students approaching the latter half of their primary years to be able to enjoy a book in an area of interest, even though decoding the text may be beyond their current reading skills.

Using iBooks on the iPad

The built-in iPad dictionary allows young readers to check word meanings within the text with a quick tap (no searching for dusty dictionary volumes) and font size can be adjusted to suit personal preference. If less text on the page is less daunting for your young reader, they can increase the font size and enjoy a more positive reading experience (see screenshot below).

Screenshot showing features in iBooks

Buying eBooks and Audio books can be as expensive as purchasing the printed copies but did you know you can borrow eBooks and eAudio book recordings through Brisbane City Council libraries? Using any BCC Library card, you can log in to the Digital Media site and browse Juvenile and Young Adult titles.

Click here to browse the Digital Media Collection

You can borrow titles for up to 21 days at no cost. A borrowed book simply disappears from your shelf once the borrowing period has expired so you will have no concerns about accumulating overdue fees.

[Image Source: www.stylingyou.com.au]

Some cautions:

• Due to the wide variety of digital media file types on offer, you may need to install a couple of extra FREE apps to allow you to read or play borrowed files. Follow instructions in the Digital Collection site and be assured that Overdrive and Adobe apps are perfectly safe to download from this site.
• Parents please supervise students and check what they are borrowing. As in any public library, there are many adult titles available. The above link will take you to the Juvenile and Young Adult section but does not restrict access to these sections.
• Finally, a reminder that unfortunately it is not advisable to read eBooks in the bath!

[Image Source: techli.com]