Kindle use in class
The kindles are getting a lot of use! I have two small classes in which I can have every student use the kindles at once. For my other classes, students take turns using the kindles, they work in groups, or they use a variety of devices. Students from 2 other teacher’s classes borrow the kindles regularly as well.

So far, the kindles have primarily been used to access a variety of websites, including http://www.schoology.com and http://www.senorwooly.com. Today my Spanish II classes did an assignment in which they were reading ads and posters related to health and identifying verbs in the command form. One of the digital posters I found about washing hands wouldn’t print legibly. Even showing it on my Smartboard, students couldn’t read it. But, when I linked the image to their assignment on Schoology, students were able to use the kindles to zoom in on the poster to read the text and identify the commands. Students worked in groups to fill out a chart on paper and then took pictures of their work with the kindle to submit on Schoology. I am really happy to have the kindles for this kind of use. However, I still want to use them more for reading.

Along with figuring out how to use the kindles, I am trying to figure out how to use Overdrive (an electronic library that is accessible with a public library card or for purchase by schools). My hope is that students will spend more time reading if they can check out ebooks rather than looking for hard copies in our library. (After a brief interlude with no librarian, our school has just gotten a new librarian.) Students can learn to use Overdrive on the kindles at school and then the can download the app on their phones to use over the summer.

Shortly after I purchased the 18 kindles to use with my classes, our library got a grant and purchased 30 kindles. I understood that the library grant included money for purchasing reading material, so I recommended that our school start buying material on Overdrive to create our own digital library. https://static.od-cdn.com/K12_ED_Brochure_6SP%203.8.pdf After a fair amount of effort on my part, I was told that wouldn’t work.
But, students can check out electronic books through Overdrive and read them on the Overdrive app through their public library. So, I’ve been trying to make sure my students have public library cards. (I’m starting with just my College and Career Readiness class which is remedial reading and ACT prep for those who haven’t met the benchmark for Reading and English on the ACT.) The staff at my public library have been helpful and I had four students fill out forms for new library cards and at least four contacted library staff about lost cards or fees. Now I need to follow up and see if all these students have working library cards.
I also still haven’t figured out how to download the Overdrive app onto the kindles. I got the Kindles registered with a new email and password, but I haven’t included any purchasing information. Even though the Overdrive app is free, the kindle wants me to include information for 1-click purchasing… Hopefully my next post will be about how I’ve figured out to how to download apps.