E-Books and After-School Programs

Here it is!
https://docs.google.com/document/d/11wBOPFMebgg7HR2OMAXC196_oyOfcGZAOwHnNAW0QeQ/edit?usp=sharing

I'm planning a nine-week after-school program of writing e-books with children in grades 3-6 (although I think the after-school people opened it to grades 3-8....). I barely know what I'm doing, however I've tried this with my 3/4 grade reading group and I'd like to take it to a wider audience! I'm not afraid of the unknown - I frequently rely on my "try something" attitude and the children's adventurous spirit to get things rolling!

I know that the tutorial videos I created with Screencastify aren't great -- I used a microphone with the first one..obviously a lousy microphone...and with the second one I tried just recording with my laptop microphone. The sound stinks. Can I take my Screencastify and re-do the sound?? This is something I can work on over the holiday break. I think I had some good stuff there - I just think the sound is lousy!!! Perhaps I can get a better microphone and Screencastify again. This project is NOT over.

I'm also not entirely satisfied with the WeVideo tutorial. I found WeVideo kind of tricky to work with at times; using both my Windows laptop and my Chromebook I frequently found the screen freezing when I went to save something - specifically, sound recordings.I was working with WeVideo with a group of first graders recording a play of Goldilocks and the Three Bears (found here) and had technology glitches like those listed above. Is iMovie easier to work with or more complicated? My job is to teach literacy -- I want my technology integration to be fairly trouble-free. I also want World Peace.......

It was tricky coming up with a timeline for this project and writing lesson plans for someone else to use. My vision is to start the 8 children in my group with Google Slides and see what happens. I am very thankful for the skills I've gained from this course. I think I can use these lessons to benefit my reading groups and I also think I can be an example for other teachers in my building who might feel they don't know quite how to integrate technology into their classrooms in a meaningful way.

I hope that my after-school group works with this project but if it doesn't, I'll revise it and try something else!!

PBL and Haiku LMS by Nick Fahey

This course developed from a need to provide, in a non-threatening manner, an opportunity for teachers to dive deeper into the idea of proficiency-based learning. After the basics of PBL were understood, I then wanted teachers to start thinking about how we’re going to implement it, stressing the need for some kind of technological component. The original project was designed in conjunction with the learning theories discussed in Teaching with Technology. To fulfill the OCT requirements, I included a unit demonstrating how project-based learning can be a strong component of proficiency/competency-based education. Part of this was showing how online collaborative tools can aid in the project-based learning process.

The project combined several online tools. Primarily, the Haiku Learning Management system was used as the central nexus, as I had secured a year long pilot to test out it’s standards-based gradebook capabilities. The introductory video was created using Powtoons. While the project-based learning template was created using Realtime board, and its explanatory video created using Screencastify.

I tested out the first module during a PD session yesterday and received positive feedback from my peer teachers. Although my district is professing a transition toward proficiency-based learning, there has been very little evaluation of the technical side behind the process. No real planning of what the final PDL system will look like has yet occurred. I hope that this might spur us in the right direction and  also hope that it convinces others of the need to include some sort of technological component.

PBL and Haiku LMS by Nick Fahey is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International License.

The EYE and the CAMERA

I had quite the experience developing all the elements for this final project.  I was able to explore and use various advanced technologies to create some really amazing projects.  I plan to even use some these same projects in my curriculum.  This final project experience has truly inspired and wowed me, by guiding my research to discover so mush that I never knew existed or was possible.  It has be questioning where we are going in the world with technology and how long is it really going to take us to get there?

Components of Final project:
Video: Created in WeVideo
Video of Eye & Students: New footage shot in classroom
Parts of the Eye: Grabbed from "The Eye" video on youtube
Parts of the Camera: Made frames in photoshop/Pixlr Editor
How the Camera/Eye sees images: personal photographs
Tinkercad 3D eye: made from scratch in tinkercad
3D printing from 2D: Grabbed from "Touchable Memories" video on youtube

Final Project: The Eye and The Camera

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1fezkhoYwJ3oLx2WkghIGEBW0Q8sWgQ_bowP21p2JAes/edit?usp=sharing

Fro more projects by David Mazor view additional Blog:  http://davemazorphotography.blogspot.com/

Who Was Shakespeare by Jamie Gallagher

My project, titled "Who Was Shakespeare," is aimed at a variety of grade levels, but I have used it with 7th grade. I created and modified this assignment to engage students in a creative manner of researching, analyzing and arguing their conclusions, using a creative tool, WeVideo, to demonstrate their learning.

This project was created because William Shakespeare was arguably one of the most creative individuals in western history, yet the chance that he did not actually create the works attributed to him is unknown by many. Students complete their research, organize their facts in a graphic organizer, construct a bibiography page of their sources, draft a script for their movie, and then finally, develop their video showing their learning. Students are engaged in creatively presenting what they have learned, and in the end, they are expected to own their learning.

Creativity is important to this assignment because students have the flexibility in sharing what they think, why they think it, and what their final product looks like.
The Creative Commons attribution is below. Because my final project is a Google Document, I did not embed the link, but instead posted the picture.

Who Was Shakespeare? by jamiergall is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.

Lexi's Final Project

Here is my final project on CS-First. I used Google Sites to create a host page for all you need to know about starting the CS-First Storytelling Lesson. I share student work, instruction manuals, and other resources. I hope this is interesting and helpful to anyone looking to work with CS-First!