Recycling for Charity Challenge Based Learning Project

An engaging and meaningful project idea came to me, like a light bulb in my head.

It was after watching a teacher from India speak at a computer conference. Her project each year is for her affluent high school business students to plan and implement a bazaar where they buy and sell goods. The profit is then turned over for the education of under-privileged children in India and for technology for those students's classrooms. Fantastic!

My idea is to do a recycling for charity project with my class this year. Students can collect cans, bottles, and once a week take those to the recycling center. The money collected each week from recycling can be tallied, saved, and donated to the charity group (I have one in mind!)

A group of students can go with me to deliver wish list items to a needy family in the local area.

In Science we study recycling, and I thought tying this concept in with doing something nice for others might be...nice!

What does success look like?

"What does success look like? What are we trying to do(regarding implementing a 1:1 iPad classroom)?" I was asked these questions. Good questions. Hmmm.

We are trying to prepare students for the future; their future need to know about and use technology.

We are preparing them for ability to function in the future in the work force.

We are preparing them to be responsible digital citizens.

These were my first answers.

"What else?" Was the follow-up question.

In the Edmodocon presentations I watched, a note was made about quality of work improving, when students know their work will be posted and shared. 

So, we are working to improve student quality output in their work.

"Is learning enhanced by using these devices?"

Yes, I believe so.  There's a whole web to utilize for research purposes.

Opportunities for creating projects on any academic topics, enhances comprehension at the highest depth of knowledge level.

The devices are highly motivating to students.

I felt the need to search for answers to the above questions, even though I know this is the correct course. I found some great answers, very similar answers, after reading several articles. These included enhancing collaboration and student engagement, professional development for teachers, businesses want to hire workers who have tech skills, learning goes beyond the classroom, personalized learning, synthesizing information to create projects...thus improving problem solving and higher level thinking skills!

What will success look like this year in my classroom? Addressing all the standards and learning targets with students, keeping them engaged, motivated, and encouraging collaboration, imagination, individuality, creativity. Doing some special amazing projects, developing life long memories, providing an environment of caring, encouragement, and community. :)

Interactive Notebooks

I'll be trying something new this year with my students that I learned about at a district training this summer.  With the CCSS and Depth of Knowledge wheel becoming a focus, a pretty excellent idea given was about "Interactive Notebooks". A real structure is given to the notes that our students take. Each right sided page in the notebook are the facts, or notes presented, and the left page opposite those notes are the reflection and interpretation with colored thought bubbles and drawings. The left side sounds like the fun side!  Students personalize the notes. What do they think of the concept presented? Can they write a poem about the content given? Make a cartoon? Is this all new news, or is some of the note presentation familiar? When have you seen this concept before?

I decided to make an instructional video for students to follow when setting up their interactive notebooks. I'm taking the idea a step further, and asking students to make a virtual copy using the BookPress app on their iPads. The My ScansPro app can be used to scan into PDF form, the template pages for table of contents, index, and all the notes and reflections they take during the year.

The Book Press app gives an option to print and purchase completed student made notebooks and books. 

Can't wait to see how this all pans out! I suspect the students will enjoy the Interactive Notebooks!http://youtu.be/Dgx-uG_tCaY

Blog for blog

Had a nice little surprise today when I saw that Edmodocon presenter, high school English teacher, education blogger, Kate Baker, quoted my blog on her blog.  A really cool blog entry quoting two of my blog entries about Edmodocon and the movie I made about the event, were included in her post. She made reference to me speaking at CUE in Napa in October and attached a link to my blog page. This is a first, being quoted on another blog!

   Looking at Kate's blog I am struck by the title: "Baker's B.Y.O.D.--Bring Your Own Device, Dog, & Deconstruction of Literature"...what is 'Dog' about? 

Scrolling through her amazing posts, I saw one about the PAWS (Pets Assisting Willing Students) therapy program she started at her high school.  What an amazing idea to have therapy dogs roaming the hallways of a high school, attend classes with students, and be available for a hug and a pet!  There was a real need at her school for this type of program, and the results have been tremendous.

This post showed just one facet of the creative, amazing ideas that Kate has utilized with her high school students.

The information that Kate shared as a speaker at Edmodocon last week, was innovative and informative, regarding use of technology in the classroom.  I'm sold, and will follow her blog religiously! :)

http://kbakerbyodlit.blogspot.com/2013/08/edmodocon-guest-post-1-l-monge.html

Edmodocon iMovie

I had to do it! Had to make an iMovie synthesizing the massive amount of innovative information shared yesterday at Edmodocon! Here it is!

http://youtu.be/qbDs4et3hOo

Edmodocon

Yesterday I woke up about quarter to 7 in the morning, opened my emails, and saw this reminder that Edmodocon would be starting at 7:00 a.m. Since this was my first time experiencing Edmodocon, I had zero expectation or thoughts about what it would entail.

I tuned in right from the start of the live stream program, still in my pjs. Little did I know what I was in for...the day was filled with some of the most amazing speakers!  Some were educators, some technology specialists in their school districts, some Edmodo staff. These people speaking were from all over the world, and Edmodo had flown them in for the event.

As each person shared the ways they had utilized the Edmodo site with their students, a code was given out to the audience to join that person's Edmodo page, with all the videos, ideas and handouts included on that page. In real time, we, the audience, commented and asked questions on the Edmodo page and on the live stream.  It was a real collaboration!

I watched the presentations on my iPad. I took notes on my iPhone as each speaker shared their amazing ideas for using Edmodo in the classroom. Although I used Edmodo last year with my students for communication, sharing videos, and flipping the classroom, there are polls, assignments, quizzes, school planner features I need to add to my repertoire.

I will be making an iMovie of what I learned and saw yesterday! Amazing!

I'm going to the CUE

Just got some really nice news, that I've been selected as a presenter at the fall CUE conference!

I have a lot to share, and by that time I'll have even more to discuss!

So many ways to utilize iPads in the classroom! 

ItunesU & instaGrok

Oh my, a really nice little suggestion made to me about itunesU has opened my eyes to new discoveries. Why reinvent the wheel, when there are some awesome lesson plans, links, attachments already out there in cyber space. It's a matter of taking the time to review the information, making sure it has the content I want presented to my students.

 While surfing through the course info offered on iTunesU, I saw a great writing piece for fourth graders, incorporating nonfiction (Science) into the writing curriculum. Here a suggestion was made to add the Edmodo app called instaGrok, which is basically a search engine/topic mapping site. I plan on doing the Animal Writing project the first two weeks of school with my class. Attached is the assignment, that is taken straight from the iTunes writing for 4th graders course. Also, see the picture of story map that popped up when I typed the word "sharks" into the instaGrok search window. I like this creative writing topic and how it incorporates science.