This week's teacher feature comes from two amazing high school teachers working hard through the end of the school year. Ms. Ashley Coleman and Mr. Corey Bittle had their students create a project from any area of interest that they studied throughout the course of the year. Ms. Coleman explains it best, "The project was a review of all content studied in the ninth grade course Academic American Studies II this year. Students were asked to create any project of interest of any material studied in the curriculum. Students spent six days in class using technology, art supplies, textbooks and notes to represent their favorite era, decade, historical figure, or event. Project submissions included music videos, dioramas, paintings, journals, website creations, scrapbooks, comic strips, children's books, play skits, short novels, memory boxes, newspapers, and many others. Students then viewed all peers work in a gallery walk as a way to honor the work but also to revisit historical context from the entire school year." I was amazed that some of the students created Minecraft projects and others used Python programming language for their projects! Great job Ms. Coleman and Mr. Bittle!
2 Comments
This week's teacher feature comes from LHS and Ms. Lindsey Kress. Here is what she had to say, "My Keystone Biology students did an inquiry activity on lab equipment in the Chemistry classroom. They researched a chemistry demonstration that could be done in 1 period. They then collected a list of materials and equipment that were needed for the demo. They had to identify the lab equipment and explain how to use it during their demo. Students took pictures and videos with their phones. Using the WeVideo app, students were able to produce a short video with their demo and the lab equipment. Student then uploaded their videos to Google Drive to share their finished video with me." This is a great way to put students in charge of their own learning! Great job Ms. Kress and classes!
This week's teacher feature is no stranger to technology tools in the classroom and she sure showed us how to utilize them to engage her students! Ms. Tracey Willet and her sixth graders were using Padlet, Answer Garden, and WeVideo to learn about Southern Asia in a Blended Learning model of station rotation. Here is what Ms. Willet had to say: "The students were rotating as groups to different stations to learn about South Asia. Padlet was utilized for them to create and share a haiku about the population in this region. They created public service announcements about pesticide use and its effects and recorded them on WeVideo. To get a big picture of South Asia the students put three words or ideas into Answer Garden." I want to congratulate Ms. Willet and her classes on utilizing technology in an effective manner!
This week's teacher feature showcases how one teacher and his classes have transformed math concepts into easy to memorize and even hard to forget songs! Mr. Lonnie Myers and his 8th grade math students are getting creative in memorizing some important mathematical skills. These students used phones and iPads along with an app called Video Star to create these awesome videos. Congrats to Mr. Myers and his classes and these videos are truly amazing. The videos below really speak for themselves!
This week's teacher feature showcases Maple Avenue Middle School because, well, they deserve it! MAMS has been hard at work redesigning the middle school experience for students. The teachers decided to use a Pineapple Chart to open up their classrooms to each other and allow continuous professional development to take place throughout the workday. By definition, "A Pineapple Chart is a systematic way to put a “welcome mat” out for all classrooms--a central message board that lets other teachers know that you’re doing something worth watching today, and if they’d like to come by, your door is open." To get a better understanding, watch the video below created by Kasey Smith. Way to go MAMS! You all should be proud of how hard you are working to make teaching and learning better for our students!
This week's teacher feature comes from Maple Avenue Middle School where Ms. Janelle Koontz uses quite a few educational tech tools to engage her students. She started off by using Plickers to assess her students on statistical and non-statistical questions. This seemed to be a review of the lessons from the days before. The beauty of Plickers is that you only need one iPad!! That is right folks, one iPad! Then she brought up a Padlet that the students had created in the days before containing different questions. They had to pick a question and use it to create a graphical representation of their question by polling their classmates. They used a QR code to get to chartgo.com to create their graphs. The final product was a class collaborative Google Slides presentation with their data. I am proud of Ms. Koontz and her class for seamlessly integrating so many tools into one lesson! P.S. By the way, the students were focused on every aspect of the lesson! Great job Ms. Koontz and class! What a great example of how tech tools can change your teaching!
This week's teacher feature is no stranger to enriching her classroom with technology inspired projects. Ms. Kasey Smith and her class (@ksmithsclass) are at it again with an augmented reality app called Aurasma. Here is what Kasey had to say about her experience: "I don't know about you, but my students absolutely despise packet-based reviews. This time they were drawn in with Aurasma! Students spent time really owning a topic from the marking period and then used clever "target" images to anchor their review videos to. When someone uses Aurasma to scan an item in my classroom a student created video pops up that reviews a Non Fiction concept. In order to direct their classmates where to find the images, students created their own scavenger hunt clues and note sheets. They loved learning from each other and seeing themselves on video!" Kasey also plans to utilize Aurasma for Spring Achievement night! All of the student work in the hallway will be live with videos of the students talking about their work. Great job Ms. Smith and class!
This week's teacher feature comes from Maple Avenue Middle School where Ms. Janet Wagner and students worked hard to create iMovie trailers about the different body systems. Students had to first research their body system, then create a storyboard for their trailer, and finally they could get to filming! We selected iMovie trailers instead of regular iMovies because they made the students concisely represent the most important parts of their body systems. The students were COMPLETELY engaged while creating these trailers as well as having fun. Great job Ms. Wagner and class! Check out some of the samples below.
This week's teacher feature comes from the high school where Mr. Todd Gantz is helping his students to understand exactly what math means for life after high school. Yes, the students have a hard time understanding this concept! Mr. Gantz gave the students the following assignment: "Students often are unsure about what math classes to take and where mathematics will be used outside of their secondary education. Your job is to answer this question. You will be making a presentation about what mathematics are required for your potential career and the schooling that will help you arrive at this career. To answer these questions you will follow the following guidelines: pick a career, 2 schools that offer that line of study, the types and examples of math they would be taking, and a presentation to summarize their findings." Of course, Mr. Gantz gave more detailed instructions for his students, but I summarized for this article. Most students used Google Slides or another similar platform to present, but a few thought outside the box. One student actually used Python.org to create his presentation. If you are unfamiliar with Python it is a coding language. That is about all I know as well! It was great to see students making connections to math that will extend beyond their education here. Great job Mr. Gantz and class!
This week's teacher feature takes us to Rolling Acres where Ms. Erin Hahn and her star Kindergarten students are learning to use Google Classroom. I know most of you are probably thinking, but how could they possibly be using this in Kindergarten? Ms. Hahn actually has students practicing typing in the question response areas. This not only familiarizes students with keyboarding skills, but how to answer a question. The students really liked being able to see everyone's responses in the discussion forum. If that wasn't enough for you, Ms. Hahn also posted resources here for the students to access. Great job Ms. Hahn and Kindergarten class!
|
AuthorThis blog has been created by Mrs. Gabrielle Sipe, the K-12 tech integrator in the Littlestown Area School District, for the purpose of sharing tech tips with the school community. Archives
May 2016
Categories |