Tech Lessons for the week of April 30 - May 4

Hey everyone! I hope your week has started off well. In this past week of technology integration, we had some different ways to utilize tech within the classroom, and there were some visits to other schools to see how project-based learning works. The pieces of technology used within the classrooms were: Screencastify, Typito, Google Slides, Pear Deck, and Google Forms!

*Do NOT forget if you have a lesson involving technology, please send me a short description of how you used the tech tool and a few pictures! This puts your classroom on display to share with others within the district!!!!

This message is from Mrs. Shattuck:
“My 5th grade class recently read, Bridge to Terabithia by Katherine Paterson. We created a collaborative slideshow of alternate endings to the book. They still need some TLC with editing, but I thought they were really engaged and enjoyed the activity! Some rewrote the ending, while others added on or began to create a sequel to the book.” Great Job, Mrs. Shattuck!

Mrs. Swales had students create advertisements using persuasive techniques with Screencastify and students edited their videos using Typito! Below are some pictures with the Google Doc that explained the idea of the advertisements. Students also were excited to use their phones to record their video and put it on their Google Drive to edit through Typito as well. Nicely done!

 

Mrs. Walsh used PearDeck to have an interactive presentation on Mythology! Students were able to contribute to the presentation and critically think about the material within the lesson. PearDeck is a very simplistic way to have students interact with your presentation. A perk for using PearDeck is that you can control their Chromebooks throughout the presentation! PearDeck also has an add-on for Google Slides that goes great with slides as well! Either way, seeing these students interact with the topic was amazing because of their insight, focus, and their ability to give their thoughts all at once. When every student is able to contribute at the same time = WIN!!!!

 


Mr. McCann had me come in last week to show Screencastify and its NEW look after their update! There are some new features that students could utilize when they are creating their videos for his class!

 





Mr. Riehle, Mr. Disbro, & Ms. Schomber had me come into all of their "classrooms" and show how technology can be integrated into their Physical Education classes. Each class got into smaller groups and students used Screencastify & Typito to create and edit their workout videos. Students used different movements that they have already learned and discussed those movements while one was performing the movement. Students collaborated and scripted their video on Google Docs to show how prepared they were to deliver this video to their peers. It was really neat to see how students "showed off" their abilities in their classes! Here is a piece of some of the action! Workout Video

 



Mrs. Brooks and I got this next idea from Ms. Schomber (thanks for that!) for the Choir classes.  Mrs. Brooks had her students create a Google Slide with a song (of their choice, school appropriate of course!) that included a themed image (of the chosen song) that would be repeated throughout the slide using animations with appearance and a background that followed the same theme of that song. Students had to intricately align the images to appear with the many pitches of that melody. Students then put those slides into a classroom slide to share with the class to vote on the "best" slide! Seeing students work on how the animations correlate with the appearance and melody pitch, was great to witness their effort to be "perfect"! Here are some of the student's work being shown to the whole class! Class Video 1   Class Video 2

Mr. Johnson had each of his students create a Google Form survey to collect data for mean, median, mode, and other statistical categories. Once these surveys are completed, they will use another GSuite app that will help them find the stats...I wonder what that app that will be...😁 

 


This last section involves technology, but more of a way bringing content to the real world. At the middle school, there were six teachers (Mrs. Lecher, Mrs. Herbert, Mrs. Mersmann, Mr. Sizemore, Mrs Knueven, and Mrs. Bertke) that went on a visit to Winton Woods High School to witness and experience Project-Based Learning in the classroom. Teachers came back eager and excited to plan for the next year with others to make the learning experience for the students even better. Below are some pictures from their visit along with some quotes about their experience.  

"PBL makes students responsible for their own learning and allows them to learn at their own pace. PBL is “real world” learning, it inspires passion, creativity, and global thinking."

"Experience with Project Based Learning is a graduation requirement starting with the class of 2023, so it is necessary that teachers begin to incorporate this style of teaching for the benefit of students. The visit to Winton Woods was insightful, and I will be implementing many new ideas next year.

 

 




Last week had a TON of technology in many classrooms! Several tools were used and some of the same tools were used differently! With the PBL visit, teachers were learning and implementing ways to integrate technology into their classrooms! When teachers reach out to get better for their students, you know you have great people surrounding our students!


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Have a blessed week everyone!!!!