Connecting kids and books with movies

The great difficulty with choice reading for students, especially non-readers, is how to choose a book. Finding a book that is interesting can be challenging. Today I want you to think about what movie you would go see at the local theater. Have it in your mind? Now let me share some books with you that are written in the same genre as the movie you find interesting. Happy reading!

Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles : Heroes are not born, they are created!

 Mutant teenagers, banding together to fight evil, your thing? We have just the book (and it's a series!) for you! From James Patterson's official website: "Max, Fang, Iggy, Nudge, the Gasman, and Angel. Six kids who are pretty normal in most ways—except that they're 98 percent human, 2 percent bird. They grew up in a lab, living like rats in cages, but now they're free. Aside, of course, from the fact that they're prime prey for Erasers - wicked wolflike creatures with a taste for flying humans."

or

Young adult fiction trilogy set in alternative version of World War I, it has German Central Powers (Clankers) using mechanized war machines opposed by British Entente Powers (Darwinists) who fabricate living creatures genetically. The heroes are teens Aleksander, son of Archduke Franz Ferdinand, and Deryn, Scottish girl with dreams of joining the British Air Service with her brother.

If I Stay : It's inconvenient to fall in love as a teenager, especially when it's the real thing.

Gayle Forman, author of the book If I Stay  takes the same formula of intense emotional connection and tragedy in the next series, which begins with Just One Day. Set in a Europe during a post-graduation trip, Allyson and Willem spend a life-changing 24 hours in Paris, France. 

When the Game Stands Tall: It's Never Just About Winning

Sports teams that transcend winning and losing are inspiring. When the stories are true, we learn much from the character of the people involved. One Shot at Forever, is the reverse of When the Game Stands Tall. Follow a small town baseball team, with an unlikely coach, through a magical baseball season.

or 

Follows the Fort Yukon Eages, winner of six regional championships in a row, through the course of an entire 28-game season, from their first day of practice to the Alaska State Championship Tournament.

The November Man  - This classic tail of espionage is sure to thrill!

Caution: this movie has a rating of "R". Under seventeen, you need your parents! But if you like spy stories, this book is sure to please.

In England in 1995, fifteen-year-old Tamar, grief-stricken by the puzzling death of her beloved grandfather, slowly begins to uncover the secrets of his life in the Dutch resistance during the last year of the Nazi occupation of the Netherlands, and the climactic events that forever cast a shadow on his life and that of his family.

or

In 1943, a British fighter plane crashes in Nazi-occupied France and the survivor tells a tale of friendship, war, espionage, and great courage as she relates what she must to survive while keeping secret all that she can.

Lessons from 9/11

Last  year my first book talks of the year happened to fall on 9/11. It occurred to me that our high school students were too young when 9/11 happened to understand the changes that the tragedy brought. It is their reality. Because of this, there are many pre-conceived ideas that they have about Islam, Afghanistan and Iraq. The following was the digital media that I linked to books in the AHS collection to help students think beyond stereotypes and gain a greater understanding of the region, religion and conflict.

To Restore Faith in Humanity

September 11, 2001: FAA Closure of US Airspace from BC Lê on Vimeo.

Introduction to:

In the midst of tragedy, the town of Gander, Newfoundland responds in way to restore faith in humanity.

To understand the rich culture and history of Iraq.

Account of International effort, led by Marine Colonel Matthew Bogdanos, to recover valuable antiquities stolen form the National Museum of Iraq after the U.S. invasion.

Making connections

A california teen returns to his families roots in Afghanistan as he joins his father during summer breaks. Said kept an audio diary of his experience, which was later turned into this book. Listen to an NPR radio interview with the author: Link

In 2002, former British officer Rory Stewart embarked on a solo walk across Afghanistan. Using his understanding of the languages, dialects and culture, he recounts his experiences with the people living in the region.

The Role of Women in Islam

Bhutto served as Prime Minister twice for her country of Pakistan before being assassinated in 2007. Her book recounts her families political  history as well as how Islam is compatible with Demoncray.

Yes You Can! Implement Blended Instruction in your classroom this year.

Thank you for joining me for the Yes You Can! workshop at the 21st Century Symposium. This will be an interactive class, so please join in the activities and discussions. For those of you connecting only through the blog, feel free to follow the links and activities as an introduction.

Defining Blended Instruction

Let's begin by defining blended instruction. Post your personal definition of blended instruction in our TodaysMeet back channel room. You may join by scanning or clicking on the QR code below:

Click for link

Application:

Post one concern you have about implementing blended instruction this year to the Discussion Document.

The commonly agreed upon definition comes from the Innosight Institute (now Clayton Christensen Institute for Disruptive Innovation) white paper from 2012: Classifying K-12 blended instruction. While there is room for debate regarding the definition, using it provides a litmus for development of learning opportunities that move beyond tech-enabled instruction.

The Four Models

http://www.christenseninstitute.org/?publications=classifying-k-12-blended-learning-2

Application:

Take five minutes to review the definition of the blended learning models. Using our Today's Meet room, post the model that you have used, will be using or feel is the best fit for implementation for the coming school year.

In groups based upon model choice, review the examples of the blended learning models. After viewing please discuss the following:

• One answer the video provided
• One concern you hadn't considered
• How the model can work in your personal teaching assignment

Choosing a Platform

Please share the following using our Today's Meet room: Do you already have a platform that you use? What do you like about your platform? What are the benefits and limitations of your platform?

Possible choices include: Weebly Sites; Google Sites; Edmodo; Schoology, Haiku; Moodle

For consideration:

• Model drives platform
• Not a right/wrong; good/bad choice
• Benefits/limitations for your implementation model

Comparisons and Reviews:

Content Management Systems for Education

The Staffroom: Edmodo vs Schoology vs Moodle

Application:

Return to our Google Document discussion and complete the following activities:

• Respond to a concern that was posted at the beginning of training (either with encouragement, ideas, or commiseration)
• Post the platform you are leaning toward using and why you feel that is the best platform choice for your blended classroom.

Building Community

In our Today's Meet room please share the following:

• What do you do for opening day activities in you classroom?
• What do you use for and "ice-breaker"?
• How do you inform students of expectations and formal structures of the classroom?

Making Connections: Students need the same sense of community online

Setting Expectations: Video Introduction; including face in video and profile settings; practice assignments

As you view the introductory video, use our Today's Meet room to share what you notice.

Making connections:

•  Ice breakers: Ideas; Examples
•  online discussions: Edutopia; WriteWell

Moving Forward

Registration

SCCRESA Online and Blended Learning

Build a Professional Learning Network: Twitter (#blendchat; #blendedlearning; #MichEd)

Intro to Moodle

Teacher Tech Camp -SCCRESA 7/10/13

Welcome to this Intro to Moodle session. Teachers have expressed discomfort with creating Moodle classroom, but with some simple guidance, and access to resources, you can begin your Moodle adventure. Today we are focusing on the basics of creating a course, using examples and discussion to create a frame for you to work from. The most important part of any successful technology integration is a willingness to be "playful" in your approach. There isn't one way to create and deliver instruction, so your course will be a reflection of your teaching style. Please note: this is a hands-on workshop! Go to http://moodle.sccresa.org to begin creating your course.

Agenda:

Course Settings

• Format
• Appearance: Themes
• Files
• Completion Tracking

Basic Activities 

• Assignment
• Chat
• Choice
• Forum
• Lesson

Resources

• Book
• File
• Label
• Page
• URL

Hyperlinking

Strategies for Implementation

Setting Expectations and Objectives

Additional help resources:

YouTube (Watch platform!)

Professional Development opportunities

Moodle Docs

        

Creating an Online Presence

Today's Meet 

Many educational experts agree that the most essential tool for education today is an online presence. Edutechgeek, Ron Houtman, (@onhoutman; http://www.ronhoutman.com/)  has coined the acronym ATNAPFTS (All Teachers Need A Place For Their Stuff) to connect this concept to the old filing cabinet. 

Elizabeth Roy

In our training today, you will be introduced to some options for creating an online presence, or virtual place for your "stuff".  We will do this in three steps:

1. Start with the end in mind 
2. What tools are designed to meet your end goal? Which tools will grow with you?
3. Play time

Start with the end in mind

How are you using technology? You do you want to use technology? Do you want a place for students and parents to access class news, lessons, assignments and calendars? Are you ready to move to an interactive space? Do you want to start blending your lessons (maybe even have students access and submit some of their lessons and assignments online)? 

Activity: Use an App of your choice on your iPad to create a quick picture of what you envision with your online space. We will share out with the group in 10 minutes (you may use graphics, presentations, or quick notes; this is not a contest!)

Tool Options

Tool options will be influenced by the technology students have access to in your classroom and at home, including Internet access. We will explore the following:

Wiki

Blog

Sites: Weebly; Google Sites (webinar-1 hour!

Edmodo

Schoology or Haiku 

Moodle

Activity: Each group chooses a tool. Watch video of how tool operates. Create a brief presentation (preferably using iPad, but can be oral) that explains to the group how the tool works with at least one way that students could use the tool in the classroom.

Play Time  

• Examples of tools
• Compatibility with iPad
• Teacher use/vs. Student use

Wrapping It Up

• Advantages of Google Apps and Moodle as a district
• Utilize School webpage as point of entry
• Needs assessment for implementation (use Blog comment feature)

Twitter for Parents

As student engagement in social media continues to become a common activity, it is important that parents understand both how and why students and schools are engaging. Here is a quick guide for parents to begin the process of understanding the engagement, using Twitter as an example. Why Twitter? Many parents are already on Facebook. So the kids have "flown" away. To Twitter!

What is Twitter? 

 Twitter defines itself as " an information network made up of 140-character messages called Tweets. It's an easy way to discover the latest news related to subjects you care about."
The best way to obtain a basic understanding of a social media tool is to visit the help or FAQ page.

FAQ Link

On Twitter's FAQ page, there is a "Twitter 101: Getting Started with Twitter"   which provides such details as how to start using, what Twitter could be used for and tricks and tools to get started. Important concepts include the use of #hashtags and finding people you wish to follow. The Blog post "Mom, This is How Twitter Works" details how tweets appear visually based upon how the tweet is constructed.

How Twitter is being used in Education

Teachers, administrators and school board members are using Twitter to build Professional Learning Networks (PLN).  Some in the form of organized "chats" (see #MichEd); discussions and reactions to presentations and conferences (see #MACUL13); model best practices (@Miech25); conduct exam reviews in a trivia format (@MichaelCesaro);  send homework reminders (@msburnsAHSmath); praise students for work well done (@msburnsAHSmath, @kathybarraco); resource sharing (@AHSmuskrats); news and updates (@algonacsports) social connections and much more.

Here is a great presentation from Scott Kapala (@scott_kapla), Assistant Principal at St. Clair Shores Lakeview, regarding the use of Twitter as an tool in Education.

   

Twitter recommendations for high school parents

Twitter can be a great tool to help your high school student navigate through the college and career ready process. There are several blogs, organizations and education related Twitter feeds that may be useful. I suggest you start with the following:

@nytimescollege: New York Times journalist Tanya Abrams of The Choice Blog offers regular updates here on the college admissions process http://thechoice.blogs.nytimes.com/

@caraleeadams: Free lance writer who writes a blog "College Bound" for Education Week.

@ahsmuskrats: daily announcements, sports updates, school points of pride 

Your Child's Digital Footprint

From the time your child begins to participate in social media they are creating a trail, or story, of their online self. From a developmental perspective, children, even many high school students, have not yet achieved the level of cognitive development that allows them to truly comprehend how current behavior has long term consequences. Why does this matter? Consider the following:

• According to the Wall Street Journal, some companies are asking applicants  to submit a "Tweet" in place of a traditional resume: The New Resume: It's 140 Characters
• College Admissions Using Social Media to Evaluate Applicants
• Want a Scholarship? Better Clean Up Your Facebook and Twitter.

Important points to remember: privacy settings are continuously being updated and changed by social media corporations. Failure to stay on top of the changes results in even the most locked down of accounts being open, at least for a while. And once it's posted, it doesn't go away because you have hit delete. Everything that posts has a "capture" in time.

What's Your Responsibility?

Every family needs to determine how they will handle minors engaged in social media but here are some suggestions:

1. Abide by the rules of the social media tool to enforce good digital citizenship. Right now most require 13 years of age. That is possibly changing in the near future, but in the meantime showing children how to operate within required limitations is an important concept.
2. Engage with your child. This can be accomplished either by requiring usernames and passwords be shared with you or by "friending" or "following" your child
3. Discuss posts, name choices that you see and why you are concerned. Often great conversations emerge from these learning moments.
4. For more information and ideas see the Educaton.com article A Parent's Guide to Twitter.

Conclusion

Your children are connected in a way that most of us never imagined at their age. Their tech-savvy nature can be intimidating. Have them help you as you travel this new path. They love being the "experts".  However, just because they're the "experts" doesn't make them the parent! Be brave. Join them.

Flipped Student Led Conference

In an effort to push myself as much as I push my fellow educators, I experimented with "going digital" during conference time. There were several issues that I wanted to address during conferences:

•  As an elective teacher of juniors and seniors, I am not a priority for even the best of parents. In fact, in a video of a student-led conference, a parent admits that he wouldn't be worried about my class, it's an elective and his student has an A. I understand that thinking. By the senior year, most students either have figured out school or they haven't. Elective courses are not a primary focus or concern. I don't believe that this is a reflection of apathetic parenting; rather, an effort at prioritizing tasks in a reality of being scheduled for more than can be accomplished in a day. The comment made transparent what many parents are thinking and how this thinking is different than how educators view conferences. There is as much a benefit to the student and parent to understanding what is going well and why as there is to identifying what isn't going well and what needs to change.

•  Students, especially in their senior year, need to become the owners of their education. Understanding course requirements, communication, assignments, etc and reflecting upon what is going well and what adjustments need to be made are college and career readiness skills, applicable to higher education and the work force. How do I, as their teacher, scaffold them through this new ownership?

•  For the reasons above, how do I make more school-to-home connections? I'll admit, this was the motivating factor that made me first consider shaking up my conference approach. And it may have to do with new evaluations that address this connection. But I like that detailed evaluations have me reflect upon my instructional practice in a way that connects my actions with student outcomes. And how I provide evidence to that end. 

The idea of making my students conduct their own conferences started rolling around in my head as I was reading articles and tweets about different ways to "flip" instruction. I sent a tweet out asking if anyone  had done anything like what I was imagining and received some interested replies, but no one who had tried this format. A Google search led to some detailed video examples of student-led conferences, but the conferences were a part of a well-developed strategy that combines mentoring and portfolio assessment. Obviously not applicable. So, with encouragement, I ventured into uncharted waters.

The first thing that I did was try to get the students excited about the process. That was fun. They don't seem to enjoy being the guinea pigs as much as I enjoy the mad scientist role. But I did involve them in the process from the very beginning. The first thing we had to discuss was how the conference could be recorded. Acknowledging that there may be technology issues and problem-solving before implementation was helpful. Solutions from iPads to webcams to Smartphones were identified. Next, I found several examples of rubrics for student-led conferences and  spent some time with my students evaluating the content from the perspective of what the students thought their parents wanted to know about a class when they attend a conference. Content was taken from two forms and added to the format the students thought was most user-friendly. The resulting document was comprehensive and served as a guide for the students to use while conducting their conference.

Yes, I accepted the "verbal" signature for points!

What I learned from this process was a confirmation that introducing new strategies, especially those that involve the use of technology, requires patience and flexibility. As an interesting aside, most of my students parents actually came to conferences this year! I think my students were trying to avoid the student-led conference. I made it as an assignment for points in order to encourage participation by parents and students. Technology difficulties included loss of wi-fi service and coordination of schedules. I remained patient, but firm, that the assignment needed to be completed. In the end all of my students (yes, all 8!) did complete the flipped conference. When I had received all of the links for completed conferences I sent hand-written thank you notes to the parents for participating. Including in the note was several ways to contact me with any questions or concerns.

In reflection, I believe that this project did address my concerns regarding conferences. I plan on doing this again, but am looking for input and suggestions from my colleagues more experienced with the "flipped" concept and/or student-led conferences. Unfortunately, the conferences that required the most flexibility and patience were the parents that I did not see during face-to-face conferences so there is still a bridge that needs to be built to connect to parents that don't traditionally attend conferences. Assigning points definitely helped.  Feel free to add your comments to this post or send me a tweet.

The Power of We

In celebration of Blog Action Day 2012, I started thinking about #Power of We in the K-12 education community and what immediately came to mind is the book It Takes a Village by Hillary Clinton. The idea behind the book, which is obvious from the title, is that outside forces, groups, society and culture impact a child's well-being. And in order to do right by children we must, as a society, create a culture that not only values children, but supports families through the process of raising adults.  The children, cliche and song lyric worthy as it may be, really are our future.

While the book has been out for some time, I think it is imperative in the current political and economic period to consider what this means as we move forward. Unfortunately, educators are currently being portrayed as "on the dole" part-time workers with little or no interest in student achievement. Union members can't possibly be negotiating for interests other than their own, right? Lawmakers have passed national standards, reforms that are not based on proved methods and instituted legislation limiting benefits that will deter our brightest and best from pursuing education as a career. Parents feel polarized and left-behind in a sea of failing schools, if we are to believe Waiting for Superman and Won't Back Down. Somewhere, in the middle of all of this finger-pointing and blame, there are still children. Failing. Without Resources. Or succeeding, while few notice.

What if "we" acknowledged that some students aren't getting the education they deserve? That if children come to school without their basic needs being met the school may not be able to overcome all of the obstacles to achievement? What if legislatures valued teachers (not just say it, but put support and finances behind the rhetoric), making them a part of reform? What if teachers were willing to be less defensive and respond professionally to criticism or reform? What if parents decided that they were going to support the efforts of the school instead of placing blame? What if the children really came first.

There is no way as a teacher that I can meet the need of every student that I teach. It isn't humanly possible. That doesn't give me an excuse to not challenge each student and champion them to the highest standard of achievement that is individually possible. But if "we", all of society, stopped blaming one another and became the village described in Clinton's book, maybe we could accomplish what is best for children.

Project Showcase

One of the highlights of my experience at Edcamp Bluewater was a lively discussion about Project Based Learning and the difference between assigning projects and project based learning. I have some ideas about how to tweak my quarters to reflect the difference. In the meantime, my library science students culminating project from Quarter 1 was to create a public service announcement for Banned Books week. They studied intellectual freedom, the 1st amendment and its application to the school library throughout the quarter by reading a book that was on the ALA banned/challenged list and following a book challenge from the Miami Dade school district that went all the way to the Supreme Court. The following are the two best examples from the student submissions. They used the CogDogRoo site to choose the best digital format for their PSA. I look forward to using these as promotional material during Banned Books Week 2013. Nice job Andria and Kristen!


Andria's Banned Books Week PSA

Kristen's Banned Books Week PSA

Edcamp Bluewater

Had a great time at Edcamp Bluewater Saturday. For those of you not familiar with the Edcamp concept, think of it as self-directed professional development. With your colleagues delivering information based upon best practices, innovation and classroom experience. Had a great time and wanted to follow up with my new Twitter and blog followers with a recap and some links.

The session I conducted was on my new favorite tool: Instagrok.   We had a great discussion about how the tool can be used from elementary through high school, its possibilities for instructional differentiation, submission options (including purchasing an app on Edmodo) and assignment options. We also discussed some concerns from a research perspective as some of the key facts come from student assignments and the depth is not sufficient for a long-term research paper at the higher levels. We agreed that this tool has a lot of potential. The conversation took a natural turn, leading to comparisons of Edmodo and Moodle as classroom virtual learning environments. The best part of the session is that the group shared, not me with as the presenter with the expert knowledge (which I admitted up front I didn't necessarily have for this tool). Other participants showed how to look at apps in Edmodo and shared student work that had used CogDogRoo storytools.  When I reflected upon the day, I though about how this would apply back in the classroom. Everyday teachers struggle with the digital shift that has created educators who are not  the experts in all aspects of our teaching. We are certainly usually the content experts, but what about the technology, applications and connections to the students world?  What I experienced at EdCamp could certainly work in a classroom. A shared expertise that left us all more prepared. This is what I envision in the new cycle of technology integration and student connection.                                             

Hurricane Sandy Reading Recommendations

 The devastation across most of the Eastern portion of the United States, as well as an inspiring conference over the last couple of days, has me thinking of books that relate to a theme. If I were to hash tag my thoughts on Twitter I would use #hurricane, #globalwarming and #evacuation. Those three hash tags have me recommending the following two reads:

Zeitoun tells the story of a man who chose to stay in New Orleans during the mandatory evacuation period following Hurricane Katrina. The story is at times warm, funny, heart-breaking and thought provoking. In addition to the personal liberties denied during the emergency situation is the opportunity to understand a unique cultural perspective of an American woman's conversion to Islam.  The detainment, while rife with examples of prejudice and mistreatment, should have the reader also questioning personal responsibility, the role of the government during times of crisis and suspension of liberty. YouTube search Zeitoun for interesting first-person interviews.

                                                                               
Carbon Diaries 2015 is an award winning YA novel of the near future global climate change world that results in carbon rationing. Wen predicted natural disaster actually strikes, many of the same themes found in Zeitoun are explored. As a bonus for my teen readers, this is the first book in a series, providing continued reading choices!

Grab a book, share it with your friends and family and let the conversations begin.

 The devastation across most of the Eastern portion of the United States, as well as an inspiring conference over the last couple of days, has me thinking of books that relate to a theme. If I were to hash tag my thoughts on Twitter I would use #hurricane, #globalwarming and #evacuation. Those three hash tags have me recommending the following two reads:

Zeitoun tells the story of a man who chose to stay in New Orleans during the mandatory evacuation period following Hurricane Katrina. The story is at times warm, funny, heart-breaking and thought provoking. In addition to the personal liberties denied during the emergency situation is the opportunity to understand a unique cultural perspective of an American woman's conversion to Islam.  The detainment, while rife with examples of prejudice and mistreatment, should have the reader also questioning personal responsibility, the role of the government during times of crisis and suspension of liberty. YouTube search Zeitoun for interesting first-person interviews.

                                                                               
Carbon Diaries 2015 is an award winning YA novel of the near future global climate change world that results in carbon rationing. Wen predicted natural disaster actually strikes, many of the same themes found in Zeitoun are explored. As a bonus for my teen readers, this is the first book in a series, providing continued reading choices!

Grab a book, share it with your friends and family and let the conversations begin.

High School Reading

A former principal tweeted me a very interesting article (thank you Mr. Case!) about how high school makes kids hate reading. It's an interesting read and I can't argue with many of the points. However, it is a fact that literature and developing the skills of literary criticism are part of the English curriculum. And should be! What we need to focus on and allow time for is choice reading. Unfortunately this can become a difficult task when many schools are forced by our tough economic time to reduce library staffing or eliminate it all together. Today as classes come to the library we are going to start our discussion by looking at the 4 ways high schools make kids hate reading. And then break all the rules by going around those 4 assumptions. Starting with the students helping me write my book order. Here's to choice reading! 

AHS students, please post your suggestions for new books below. You can post specific titles or topics that you would like to have available for choice reading. Take control of your high school reading!

Booktalking with Ms. Bokano

Given an assignment that allows you to choose the book you are required to read sounds good....until you actually have to be in charge of finding a book! Today we're going to look at some book trailers (essential the same thing as a movie trailer, a visual advertisement for the book) of books that we have available in our LMC. In fact, thinking about a book selection being like choosing a movie is a great strategy. It can help you identify your favorite genre, interests and potentially find the perfect match! 

When making book recommendations I have found that award books have been very popular. The awards were given for a reason! Today I'm going to feature the American Library Association's Alex Award books. The award is sponsored by a trust in honor of a young adult librarian pioneer who was nicknamed "Alex". Every year, ten books that were written for adults but have special appeal for young adults, are awarded the honor. The award list contains an interesting mix of genres. Here are this year's award winners:

 

 

 

And finally, a just because it's my favorite young adult book released in the last couple of years:

Welcome! 

Thank you for joining me today for Video Tutorials in 21st Century learning. This session is designed to be interactive with discussions and hands-on participation. Please begin by opening the Google Presentation. We have a lot to explore in a short hour! If you have not completed your show and tell item before the end of the session, please feel free to finish after the symposium and share on the Google Doc. The blog is updated more often during the school year with issues regarding technology integration and literacy. Feel free to become a blog follower and build our learning network.

Muskrat Summer Learning

The Muskrat 2.0 project began in the summer of 2011 as a way to bridge the summer learning gap that occurs from extended time between the school years. Algonac High School has created an incentive plan that makes the assignments fun and well worth the effort. One of the requirements for a chance to win an iPad is to complete the library challenge.

Muskrat 2.0 Librarian Challenge 2012

1. Obtain a St. Clair County Library card if you do not already have one. (You will need your parents with you to obtain a new card. Requirements are listed on the above link).

2. Check out a book! (You could try an ebook from the new SCCL Overdrive account)

3. Complete the Writing With Writers Book Review workshop. 

4. Write a book review of a book from the SCCL, using the workshop as a guideline. Check for spelling and punctuation errors! Post to this blog by clicking on Post a Comment underneath this post. Comments will be reviewed before posting.

If you have questions during the summer while you are completing this challenge, you may e-mail Mrs. Wynkoop at rwynkoop@acsk12.us. E-mail is checked weekly.

 

March is Reading Month

Creating Video Tutorials

The ability to create video tutorials is an important tool for educators in all the fields. The applications are limited only to your imagination. With the new buzz in "flipped" classrooms, blended learning and online instruction, educators need to move beyond text as instruction. We will review three tools to use to create video tutorials. 

The most basic of the video tools is the recorder found within your interactive whiteboard software. In my district we have SMART boards, so the tutorial will demonstrate the SMART brand.

The second tool for creating video tutorials is Jing. There is a free version that needs to be downloaded to your computer. Be sure you try to download this BEFORE the day you need to use it at your school computer as most schools will require administrative rights to download. Follow your district policy for software installation. Jing can be used to add instructions to screen captured images and create a presentation or to create a video. Jing videos are limited to 5 minutes.

The most advanced tool is Camtasia. Camtasia is from the same company as Jing, TechSmith. It allows advanced editing of videos and the company does offer an educator discount. And, it's a Michigan based company!

Digital Learning Day!

Wednesday, February 1st, 2012, is the first ever Digital Learning Day. Celebrate by  signing up on the official website, creating a lesson that involves digital media and connecting to the 21st Century Learners in your classroom. In library science, students will create a blog to post on their iGoogle page. Throughout the quarter, the blogs will be used for assigned reading journals.Students will then submit the link to their blog posts on their Moodle class assignment. What will you do? As always, I am available to help you design, access and implement technology lessons, starting with some suggestions linked and posted below. Let's engage our students digitally!

Social Studies: Use word clouds to compare political speeches. Students can create their own or you can have them already created and use the interactive white board to display and discuss (don't forget to have the kids up at the board interacting!). Tagxedo and Wordle are both user-friendly, free resources that make creating cloud pictures easy and fun. You could compare President Obama's State of the Union address to the Republican rebuttal or Governor Snyder's State of the State address.

English: Book trailers (movie trailers that advertise books) are becoming very popular, to the extent that publishing houses are creating them as part of their marketing blitz at publication. The storyboarding process (planning the movie) links directly writing and technology standards. In the process students should also learn about copyright as it applies to music and images, an area of copyright often ignored. Animoto allows teachers to create free educator accounts to share with students. Included are images, music and text boxes, making the process quick and easy. The link to the movie trailers can then be added to our web-based school library catalogue, setting a real-world purpose for student work.

Math: Have you introduced your students to the Khan Academy? Try setting up a teacher account to monitor student practice. What a great intervention to use for the mastery of concepts before unit and semester tests.

Science: Use the power of the Internet to take an online visit to a museum. Exploratorium offers explorations in every subject area and includes online activities, videos, simulations and lesson plans. For instance, in The Science of Baseball, the class could use the interactive white board to apply physics principles to test the angle and location of the bat and where to place a hit. Or watch open heart surgery online at The Human Heart.

For Michigan Educators, there is a chance to win a $50 gift certificate for participating in Digital Learning Day. Submit a lesson plan using digital resource from MORE. The first 20 lesson plans accepted before 8:00 a.m. March 1, 2012 are eligible. As always when using technology tools, please be sure to check access from the computer(s) that will be used for the project or assignment. Some of these tools require plug-ins or access that may not be standard and will require a day or two for technology to make the upgrades. At AHS, simply fill out a technology work order request.

Teen Read Week Title Soundtrack Contest

Celebrate Teen Read Week

We're celebrating Teen Read Week at Algonac High School! Library Science students have created contests with GREAT prizes for students who are participating. Contests include choosing the major motion picture based upon a book that is a true story, a scavenger hunt for a pictorial collection, matching the comic strip with its creator, creating a new book cover for a book of your choice and choosing a song that you would use if the book Thirteen Reasons Why by Jay Asher were made into a major motion picture.

Submission of your song choice is easy. Simply click the comments button on the bottom of this post. Post your first initial and last name, grade level and first hour teacher. Include a link to the YouTube version of your song. Briefly explain why you think the song is the best choice for the title track of a soundtrack of the movie. Submissions are due by 2:25 Friday, October 21st. Winners will be announced on Monday, October 24th.

Remember, the song needs to meet the PG-13 rating of the movie and relate to the theme of the book. Any questions, see Mrs. W in the LMC. Happy Reading!

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