Educreations is being used in 9th grade Geometry classes.

 Freshmen in my 9th grade Geometry class are using the iPad in a new and unexpected way.  Rabbi Pittinsky was able to give the students access to their textbooks in DropBox.  While it has become second nature for the kids at the start of class to prop open their iPads and open their textbooks via DropBox, I was surprised to see on a student's iPad screen a colorful  bar running across the top of the page.  My iPad screen didn't have that and for a minute I thought the student wasn't on task.  Little to I know then that they were more on task than I could have ever imagine. As I walked up and down the rows that day, I saw that the majority of my students also seemed to have this colorful bar of buttons superimposed on their textbook pages.  What I learned is that for some time many students were taking a picture of their textbook pages and were then opening the screen shot in Educreations. 

 Ecucreations, a recordable interactive whiteboard app, was pre-loaded on their school issued iPads but it was not something I had used or even introduced in class.  What was so exciting was that Educreations allowed the students to technically  "draw" on the textbook pages.  They could mark up the geometric figures as they chose in an attempt to better understand the given information.  I had of course been modeling this technique using colored markers on my whiteboard or the drawing tools of the Smartboard. While I am sure my markings help students understand the problems better, the ability to do it on their own is much more powerful.  They could trace the angles, mark what was congruent, and gain more than familiarity with the problem than simply watching me do it at the board.  As we advance through the curriculum I look forward to learning with them new and exciting ways the iPad can enhance the learning process. It is going to be a great year.