Zach http://scratch.mit.edu/
Morgan https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Mack & Alexia: Level 1- http://scratch.mit.edu/
Chet http://scratch.mit.e
Ben: Christmas Game: http://scratch.mit.edu/
Friday, December 19, 2014
MS Advanced Tech Final Projects
I think I can speak for Mrs. Yoder when I say our Middle School Advanced Tech class has been such a joy to teach this semester! Several students have really exceeded our expectations with what they were able to learn and accomplish in this class. They are currently wrapping up their final projects for us, most chose to complete a coding project which is really exciting to us with the big push to teach kids to code! Below are some of the projects and a link to our class blog. We will keep adding as they come in! http://hmsadvtech.blogspot.com/
Zach http://scratch.mit.edu/
Morgan https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Mack & Alexia: Level 1- http://scratch.mit.edu/
Zach http://scratch.mit.edu/
Morgan https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Mack & Alexia: Level 1- http://scratch.mit.edu/
Finals at the High School on the iPads
Several teachers at the high school including Mrs. Simpson, Miss Dryton, and Mrs. Kroeker gave online finals this year. The students iPads were placed into "Guided Access" mode so they couldn't access other things (the same setting we will use for State Assessments this year). Student scanned QR codes to access the link to the final. Bonus for the teacher? Using Google Forms and Flubaroo, the multiple choice part of the final could grade itself! Watch the quick tutorial below for more about Flubaroo. And...I added a bonus picture of the cutest backpack I've ever seen on a senior boy :)
Wednesday, December 17, 2014
Miss Dryton's HS Government Elections
Miss Dryton's High School Government classes are wrapping up their mock elections.
Below are more details about the assignment:
"The Government kids will be rounding out the semester with the school wide election/campaign project. Students will also be inventing their own party platforms this year as well instead of mimicking the current US parties, making them work together as a group to create viable objectives and ideals."
"The students had to "pay" more money based on where they showed the commercials so not every seminar will be seeing the same thing. The only free component of this campaign are the speeches which will be aired in every seminar."
Students were asked to film a short campaign speech and commercial. Students were also told to ask for teacher approval to use their name and image in school wide advertising.
Here are the links to the speeches from each candidate.
Below are more details about the assignment:
"The Government kids will be rounding out the semester with the school wide election/campaign project. Students will also be inventing their own party platforms this year as well instead of mimicking the current US parties, making them work together as a group to create viable objectives and ideals."
"The students had to "pay" more money based on where they showed the commercials so not every seminar will be seeing the same thing. The only free component of this campaign are the speeches which will be aired in every seminar."
Students were asked to film a short campaign speech and commercial. Students were also told to ask for teacher approval to use their name and image in school wide advertising.
Here are the links to the speeches from each candidate.
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
https://www.youtube.com/watch?
Below are a few of the commercials students made:
Here are two examples of the websites students had to create for the campaigns.
The will be deleted by the end of the week of December 19th though!
Monday, December 15, 2014
Mrs. Yoder and I's MS Advanced Tech Skype w/ Skype!
Mrs. Yoder and I's 7th and 8th grade Advanced Tech students Skyped with Derek Lakin, The Lead Developer for Skype's new Qik App.
A few interesting things our students learned about what they look for when they hire at Skype?
1. They stand up instead of sitting around a table in all of their team meetings!
2. They have their prospective employees complete a "Behavior Interview" where discussions include how well you work with others on a team.
Mr. Rhodes commented on this in his recent Sunday Notes:
"Any list of top employability skills includes teamwork, people skills, and communication skills. With consistent expectations and use of CL aren't we help promote, teach, and reinforce these? I would say YES, and will always say those should be cornerstones of a student's education."
A few interesting things our students learned about what they look for when they hire at Skype?
1. They stand up instead of sitting around a table in all of their team meetings!
2. They have their prospective employees complete a "Behavior Interview" where discussions include how well you work with others on a team.
Mr. Rhodes commented on this in his recent Sunday Notes:
"Any list of top employability skills includes teamwork, people skills, and communication skills. With consistent expectations and use of CL aren't we help promote, teach, and reinforce these? I would say YES, and will always say those should be cornerstones of a student's education."
Miss Wiebe's 5th Grade Homeroom App
Miss Wiebe is connecting with parents through her new Homeroom App!
Available on computer and mobile devices for free.
She can share pictures of what is going on in her classroom.
The latest in Science?
Building airplanes and testing flight!
A great resource for parents!
Hour of Code Week December 8th-12th, 2014
"What is the Hour of Code?"
"The Hour of Code is a global movement reaching tens of millions of students in 180+ countries. It is a one-hour introduction to computer science, designed to demystify code and show that anybody can learn the basics."
Hesston Middle and High School were part of this global movement last week. Mrs. Yoder and I worked with freshman in Mr. Rempel's class. His students worked through the Hour of Code using hourofcode.com and completed projects using Scratch.
Mrs. Yoder and I's 7th and 8th grade Advanced Technology students worked with 59 other middle school students during lunches to teach them about coding. It was so fun to have our students in a leadership role teaching other students the skills they have learned.
They say every student graduating from high school should have the basic knowledge of coding to be more employable. Kids love it because we can teach it as if they are playing a game.
There are many good sites and apps for teaching basic coding, even for Kindergartners! If you would like to incorporate coding in your classroom let me know!
Follow on Twitter at: #hourofcode
Friday, December 12, 2014
ES Academic Software Links
The elementary school now has their most used academic links available in one handy location (thank you Phil!) Just go to es.hesstonschools.org, Academics, Online Software Links.
Mrs. Lafferty's 3rd Graders use EduCreations on the iPads for Math Arrays
Mrs. Lafferty had her 3rd graders using EduCreations on the iPads to explain arrays. The students wrote 2 math problems (example: 3x4=12) and then had to create the array for the problem as well as give the fact family. Students included pictures and narration of themselves explaining the problem!
Mrs. Coker's ES PE Classes on Study Island
Mrs. Coker got her 2nd-4th grade elementary PE classes on Study Island to complete the writing prompt: "Explain why warming up is an important part of exercise. Give at least 2 reasons". Students did a great job of responding to the question. Elementary teachers will be looking at the writing responses based on a specific rubric soon. Great job Brandy of integrating writing and technology into PE!
Miss Dryton's High School Government Music Videos
Miss Dryton's High School Government classes created music videos to explain sections of Article I of the Constitution. See the assignment instructions and a couple of the videos
"Constitution Rap" below or at the links: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=s00hOVv-lm0.
They are hilarious and very informative!
Mrs. Funk's Elementary Christmas Program & Mrs. Simpson's Video Productions LiveStream
If you did not get a chance to attend Mrs. Funk's Elementary Christmas program you missed out! What an engaging and fun program for the kids to perform. This year we integrated 3 tech components including a pre-show movie quiz, an interactive show on 2 screens during the performance, and a live-feed streamed online by Mrs. Simpson's High School Video Production class. The show even included a special guest performance by our very own High School principal, Mr. Rhodes as Buddy the Elf. Check out his #elfieselfie below.
"Something New This Year: Family and friends who are not able to attend the concert will still be able to see the show. Log on to Elementary School Live Program The event went live at 6:45 p.m. December 11th, school ID: 121638."
"Something New This Year: Family and friends who are not able to attend the concert will still be able to see the show. Log on to Elementary School Live Program The event went live at 6:45 p.m. December 11th, school ID: 121638."
Mrs. Gunden's 1st Grade Fun4thebrain.com
Mrs. Gunden uses fun4thebrain.com to help her students practice skills such as "Silent E" after working in Study Island. I like this site because it is broken down into subjects: Math (Addition, Subtraction, Multiplication, Division), Science, English, and has a place for Quizzes and Tests as well as Just For Fun. The Math quizzes will grade themselves! Check out this site for elementary practice!
Miss Unruh's Kindergartners Skype with Wise Oceans Marine Biologist
Wise Oceans even tweeted about us!!
Miss Unruh's Kindergartners Skyped with Abbie, a Marine Biologist from the UK. Abbie is passionate about educating kids about oceans and the importance they play in our world. She has started Wise Oceans. Find out more about them here: www.wiseoceans.com.
"WiseOceans is a specialist Marine Education and Conservation company striving to spread awareness for our wonderful yet fragile oceans and the creatures that live within them.
We are a leading resource in marine conservation jobs, advice, news, events, marine education, information and recruiting marine educators."
Our students first watched an interactive video made by Abbie full of facts about her underwater travels as well as dancing and singing along to the songs. Abbie Skyped with us and answered our questions about oceans such as "What is it like to swim in the sea?" and questions about lion fish, sea stars, and jellyfish. See a little of their Skype visit below!
Wednesday, November 19, 2014
Miss Unruh's Kindergarten Brain Breaks-Gonoodle.com
Miss Unruh uses a fabulous website to "get the wiggles out" of her Kindergartners! Gonoodle.com is a free, easy way to have structured brain breaks (or for those yucky indoor recess days). The activities are tailored and structured for kids and teachers to use. Their favorites? Have a dance party with Kid Bopz or have your kids run a race (they think they are actually influencing the program, however Miss Unruh is making their character run faster or slower based on taps on the keyboard). They have a blog full of free resources and ideas!
Create your free account (it only takes a minute) and check out gonoodle.com!!
You can either play in the demo mode or it can track your class progress.
Watch this short tutorial for GoNoodle below. You can also find lots of them on YouTube.
Create your free account (it only takes a minute) and check out gonoodle.com!!
You can either play in the demo mode or it can track your class progress.
Watch this short tutorial for GoNoodle below. You can also find lots of them on YouTube.
Tuesday, November 18, 2014
Ms. Bisoni-Lais 3rd Graders use QR Codes
Ms. Bisoni-Lais had her kids use the QR Code Scan app to check their answers while practicing homophones. QR codes are a great way to quickly get students to websites without them having to type in a big, long web address. High school teachers could have it posted on your door and the students could scan it on their way in and already have it loaded for when you need it in class. You can link about anything to a QR code so it is a great way to get resources to your students quickly and easily. They are great for checking for understanding, scavenger hunts, and can easily be created through a website such as qrstuff.com. Students could even create their own QR codes to link to a video project they created and works great with the Carousel Feedback structure.
Mr. Richardson's 8th Grade Science EduCreations Projects
We love EduCreations! We have been using it in 3rd grade for several projects on the iPad and now are using it in 8th grade Science. The students first project was to create a video lesson discussing mutualism, commensalism, parasitism, and symbiotic relationships using graphics, text, and recording their voices explaining the relationships. The next project included a discussion of the different biomes. It is an easy and fun app for the kids to use...there are some setup tricks that can help your classroom run smoothly, let me know if you would like to use it!
Teacher YouTube Channels
I'm not sure if everyone is aware that they have a free YouTube account that comes with your Gmail account. If you are in your mail and you click on the App Switcher button (9 squares located in upper right same one used to go to your Google Drive), you will see YouTube. Click on the YouTube button and it will take you to your school YouTube account. You can easily upload videos to your account and make them public (a great way to share what is happening with parents!) or private and could share them on your teacher webpage on the school website. There is limited space, I think the largest video you can upload at a time is 2GB or 15 minutes, but most class projects won't exceed that amount. Let me know if you need any help using this tool!
Below is an example of how Mrs. Jaso used it to share and communicate with her 2nd grade parents. The students love to show their families what they are doing!
"Good Evening Families -
By now I'm sure you have heard about the WONDERFUL performance that your student participated in today. Our 2nd Grade class had the opportunity to perform the play, "The Strongest One" for the Hesston Elementary 1st graders. This play was based on a story from our Scott Forseman reader. Each and every student did a FANTASTIC job creating their costume, preparing and performing the play. I wanted you to be able to enjoy the same performance. Follow the link in this email to YouTube and enjoy!! Congratulate your student on a JOB WELL DONE!!"
Kindergartners on Study Island!
Kindergartners are logging onto Study Island this week! We practice typing in their own logins (which are not short!), how to scroll using the track pad, and had them take their first pre-test using the audio feature to have the questions read to them. The students are learning to use the MacBooks and where letters/numbers are located on the keyboards! Great job Kindergarten!
Ms. Bisoni-Lais 3rd Grade Modio App Figurine Creation
Ms. Bisoni-Lais had her students problem-solving and creating with the Modio App on iPads! The students first wrote a narrative story in Study Island about a superpower they would like to have, then fielding into a description of a superhero they would like to be. The students were then able to put their ideas to life with the Modio App on their iPad. They were able to build figurines by problem-solving the parts of the figurine or create their own from scratch. With minimal instruction on use of the app students quickly figured out how to change colors, designs, and make the figurine talk. The engagement level was high as you saw their little brains working to create and several wanted me to take pictures and send them to their parents, or "Post on FaceBook!".
Dreaming big disclaimer: With a 3D printer, these students could print their figurines and have a toy they created themselves!
Watch this short video to learn more about Modio or visit their website at www.modio3d.com
Dreaming big disclaimer: With a 3D printer, these students could print their figurines and have a toy they created themselves!
Watch this short video to learn more about Modio or visit their website at www.modio3d.com
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