I am privileged to be co-teaching a Unified Music class this semester. I'll be blogging the experience on a page dedicated to that class. Be sure to check it out! It will be a neat way to document the experience!
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I'm proud to announce that I passed all of the exams, and I'm now a Certified Google Educator. It's a wonderful experience (a bit daunting too) but there is SO MUCH to learn about using Google.
Google knew exactly what they were doing when they established their collaborative platform of google docs, forms, etc. But, collaboration can go much further beyond Google (I know, it pushes many of us outside of our comfort zone...)
So check out this post by Emerging Ed Tech - 20 Free Tools for Collaborative and Interactive Classroom Experiences. http://www.emergingedtech.com/2014/05/20-excellent-free-tools-for-interactive-collaboration-experiences-in-the-classroom/ While some of these are not surprisingly on the list, there are a few gems hidden in between.... I know there have been times when I'm giving a powerpoint, and want to be able to write comments, questions, etc on it during my presentation. Who knew that it's actually possible!?? See the blog posting Cool PowerPoint Tricks for the details!
http://trainlikeachampion.wordpress.com/2014/05/01/cool-powerpoint-tricks-writing-on-your-slides-during-your-presentation/ Read more about the "new" rules of using PowerPoint: http://trainlikeachampion.wordpress.com/2014/02/03/trick-out-my-powerpoint/ Stop Motion Animation - something that my pal Krista inspired when we were in our Ed Tech program at UCONN. Here is the video my student cretated using an iPad app (iMotionHD) and a lego kit.Something I've dabbled in over the past year (or two) is creating videos in the classroom. Here are a few I've dug out of the archives... now that skills and available technology have improved, we can move forward and create some even better videos! I often tell my students that the time they spend giving excuses is time they could spend doing good things. Which is why I'm not going to go on and on about why I haven't posted in over a year... and just do it. There will be a fury of posts in the next few days. Bear with me as I try to catch up.
We ventured into the holiday season with our 3rd Annual Holiday Baking Project! This year, the project was a less ambitious and more enjoyable and relaxing! Our first year doing the project we baked over 55 quick breads in 2 days, the second year we made 67 tins of "treats"..... this year, the students chose 4 recipes (Jordan's Almonds, Cranberry Walnut Bark, Peanut Butter Balls, and Rolo Turtles), gathered recipes, multiplied ingredients, created a shopping list and budget, and prepared all the goodies to fill 75 'take-out' boxes for the faculty and staff at Woodstock Academy. We spent one full block in Mrs. Ayotte's kitchen (making the Rolo Turtles) and one full day at the Congregational Church Kitchen making the rest. It was really great. We even ended up with some extra treats for the students to have some to take home and share. It's really encouraging to see these students excited and wanting to do such a large scale project - one they don't reap 100% of the benefits from. Their charitable and giving attitudes really contributed to Yes, I am writing my Thanksgiving post right before our Christmas break. Needless to say, we've been busy around here! Check out the project we made in Resource Math for Thanksgiving. The students had to follow a multitude of steps, apply estimation skills, measure, approximate and BE CREATIVE!! Our classroom blog is off to a great start! We've gotten a few students 'feet wet' and are working on building written expression skills through posting and commenting. I have one student who has ventured beyond and created her own blog - LavenderView. I post one (or more) prompts a week that students can post and comment on. Some posts are serious (like the Bullying one) and others are icky (like the wierd food one). We have fun, laugh and talk about things we've experienced or want to experience out of the classroom. It's a great way to get to know students on a more personal level.
Come visit us often - we're always talking about something cool. PAPERLESSons http://mrsvdespres.edublogs.org/ |