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!

New Way To Train

March is......

Most people in education focus on March as reading month. For those who aren't in the know, this is in honor of Theodore Geisel, more commonly know as Dr. Seuss, whose birthday is March 2nd. In high schools across Michigan, the celebration occurs in the middle of MME testing, allowing for little time and attention to celebration! A great opportunity for classroom activities or family discussion is to research Theodore Geisel. He has a very interesting start to his career. As students move into middle school and high school they are ready to consider the meaning behind those delightful rhymes. There are great history and social studies lessons sparkling like little gems. My students in library science were given two activities, using databases instead of web searching, to look at biographical information and to read literary criticism of one of his books. Our county library system pays for Literature Resource Center from Gale which is a great resource for this type of activity. Students were interested to learn of Geisel's career during the war and especially that he was a college drop-out! The Butter Battle criticisms had students thinking differently about children's literature. My recommendation for all social studies teachers is to let the kids bring in the books and then find the connection to history. Who wouldn't love a day spent reading Seuss?

Often over looked in schools during March is the fact that we are also celebrating Women's History Month. As today is the 100th Anniversary of International Women's Day I would like to recommend a great read for high school students and adults. The book is Half the Sky by Nicholas D. Kristof and Sheryl WuDunn.  The Pulitzer Prize winning authors take the reader to Africa and India to meet women struggling to survive under dire, often almost unbelievable, circumstances. While the subject matter can be graphic and the reality difficult to consider, the authors always end with a positive experience and example of how the women are being helped by being given the opportunity to help themselves. The book is a great read not just as a reality check for global citizens, but to consider how we distribute our charitable donations. Be amazed at the resilience of womankind.