CORRESPONDENCE BETWEEN WCHS AND GHANA

In our recent global education project, each of the three high schools were paired up with a school in Ghana which is in west Africa.  West Columbus High School was paired with Accra Senior High School which is located in the capital of Ghana.  The gentleman who made arrangements with this school is Mr. Lawson Amenyo, a teacher since 1988.  He received his first degree in Special Education (Visually Impaired) from the University of Education in Winneba. He also has a certificate in Adult Education from the University of Ghana and is currently working as a braillist and a transcriber at Ghana Braille Press of Ghana Education Service.

Some of my AIG (Academically and Intellectually Gifted) students worked on these projects.  They are still working on others and we'll send them when completed.

The first one is an arcade game and can be found at the following address:

http://www.classtools.net/mob/quiz_80/Quiz_for_Ghana_FOswp.htm

Just click on the game that you want to play and begin.  All the questions and answers are the same for all of the games.  We thought your students might learn something about West Columbus while playing.

The second project is a movie trailer filmed and edited on an iPad.  It was done by one of our seniors, Hunter, in one class period which is one hour and fifteen minutes long.  This will give you a quick visual tour of our school. 



The third project is another movie trailer created by a group of mostly freshmen AIG students.  It is a spoof on a horror movie.  They wanted you to see it.



We'll send others as we finish them  Can't wait to hear what you think.  And would you please forward this to Accra Senior High School for me?  I seem to have misplaced their email address.

Thank you so much,

Larry Hewett
High School AIG Specialist
Instructional Technology Facilitator
Columbus County Schools

MY GIFT TO A THIRD GRADE CLASS AT CGES

One day while visiting Donna Bellasado, media specialist at Cerro Gordo Elementary, I happened to take out my iPad during one of her third grade classes.  The children got all excited so I decided to take their photos and I promised to do something special with the photos.  A month or so later, Donna announced that she was moving to Charlotte.  So I knew this was the perfect chance to use the photos.  After much work and writing I finally created an original story in honor of Donna and this special class of hers.  It was also used as a way to break the news to the kids about her leaving.  Check out the video below.

MIDDLE SCHOOL STUDENTS AND SCIENCE FICTION

While visiting Ms. Wendy Tyree, media specialist at Williams Township School, a small group of middle school students dropped in unexpectedly to return books.  I gathered them into a corner of the library and talked with them briefly about what they were studying in language arts.  Here is some of their comments on science fiction.

TUTORIAL ABOUT SCREENCAST-O-MATIC

While working on my online AIG course, I had to do a tutorial about Screencast-o-matic, an online tool that the students will be using quite a bit.  It's impossible to do a screencast while doing a screencast so I had to improvise.  The video below is how I solved my problem.

ACME DELCO KINDERGARTEN TALKS ABOUT PENGUINS

I happened to be visiting Neala Hardie, media specialist at Acme Delco Elementary, while she was doing a lesson on penguins with her kindergarten students.  I couldn't help but join in.  Take a look at what these little fellows said about the cold weather birds.

KINETIC SCULPTURE VOICETHREAD

Below is a VoiceThread that I created in order to document the creation of kinetic sculptures during an artist-in-residency by Sean Pace.  He is a nationally known kinetic sculptor and the week long workshop was one filled with excitement, hard work and awesome kinetic pieces.  This VoiceThread gave each of the advanced art students to comment on their sculptures.

AUTOMOTIVE TECHNOLOGY ONE PROBLEM BASED LEARNING

Automotive instructor, Dean Byerly, at West Columbus High School asked me to work with his Automotive Technology One class in creating a video that he might use as a teaching tool next semester and next year.  I jumped at the chance to assist him but I also asked one of my art students from last year to help.  Dustin was always a student that I could depend on so I taught him how to use my video camera and he filmed the entire video as well as edited it.  I think he did a fantastic job and so does Mr. Byerly. 

PENGUIN INVASTION AT WILLIAMS TOWNSHIP

The third graders throughout the county worked on a unit about penguins.  I was amazed how much they knew about the cold weather birds.  One day while at Williams Township School I had the opportunity to film a third grade class while in the media center with Ms. Wendy Tyree.  Take a look and see what they have learned about penguins.

ECHS'VISITING ARTIST SEAN PACE

Having been an art teacher for the past 22 years, I was very interested when I was invited to the Advanced art class of Mr. Tim Dowless to see what his students were doing under the instruction of visiting artist, Sean Pace.  Sean is a kinetic sculptor and his pieces are fantastic and very creative.  All of the students created some very interesting pieces in the one week that he was there.  Look at the video below to see a montage of all their sculptures.

ACME DELSO ELEMENTARY FOURTH

Last Thursday I had the pleasure of talking with a class of fourth graders from Acme Delco Elementary School.  The topic of our discussion was Martin Luther King, Jr.  View the video below in order to hear what they had to say.

FIFTH GRADE'S SOCIAL STUDY UNIT

Hopefully this post will benefit the fifth grade teachers in their study of the Revolutionary War.

http://www.socialstudiesforkids.com/articles/ushistory/thewarof18121.htm

  

http://library.thinkquest.org/22916/excauses.html

http://home.earthlink.net/~gfeldmeth/chart.1812.html

http://www.let.rug.nl/usa/outlines/history-1994/the-formation-of-a-national-government/war-of-1812.php

http://americanhistory.mrdonn.org/powerpoints/warof1812.html

http://www.factmonster.com/encyclopedia/history/war-1812-causes-war.html

http://www.pbs.org/wned/war-of-1812/classroom/

Excellent Site

http://www.kidskonnect.com/subjectindex/16-educational/history/285-war-of-1812.html

http://starspangled200.org/Resources/Documents/Lesson%20Plans%20By%20Grade.pdf

http://www.vcanada2.com/section_4/rollover_timeline/1812_timeline_roll.htm

http://www.instructorweb.com/lesson/warof1812.asp

http://www.ourflagwasstillthere.org/the-war-of-1812/2011-12-06-17-10-16.html

http://mrnussbaum.com/war1812/

http://www.ourflagwasstillthere.org/learning-having-fun/a-sailors-life-for-me-interactive-game.html

http://pdfreedownload.com/pdf/war-of-1812-for-kids

http://pdfreedownload.com/ppt/war-of-1812-for-kids




MORE SITES

http://www.animatedatlas.com/revwar/revwarpreview.html

http://www.revolutionarywaranimated.com/BunkerHillAnimation.html

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KTtTXo844QM
One of Six Videos

http://www.historyisfun.org/PDFbooks/Life_of_a_Private.pdf

http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2012/07/war-of-1812-in-animated-and-google-maps.html#.UPqrDSfoQ48

Watch The War of 1812 Full Program on PBS. See more from The War of 1812.

Watch Blacks in the War on PBS. See more from The War of 1812.

Watch The British Blockade on PBS. See more from The War of 1812.

CHADBOURN MIDDLE SCHOOL NEWSPAPER

This year Chadbourn Middle School's newspaper is online.  It was created by a group of four students under the direction of media specialist, Greer Inman.  The paper was a collaborative effort and was created in Google Docs.  Click on the link below in order to see the entire newspaper.

CLICK HERE

PRESENTATION FOR DIRECTORS' MEETING

Below is the information that I collected concerning storage space for videos to be used in Professional Development.

I contacted one of my PLC members, Richard Byrne from Maine.  Richard is a Google Certified Teacher.  I recently took part in a webinar with him about Google Docs.  During this course he discussed the entire Google suite of tools including Google Drive.

WHAT IS GOOGLE DRIVE?

It's online Cloud Storage.  You get 5 GB of space for free.

Get started with 5 GB of free space. Upgrade to 25 GB for less than $2.50 a month, and you can store practically everything for next to nothing.

Here are some potential solutions to the video situation from Richard:

1. It sounds like there will be more content than one individual Google Drive account will handle. You could create multiple accounts for collecting the videos. For instance you might create an account for K-2, one for 3-5, etc

2. You could create a Google Drive account outside of your domain and buy more storage for it

3. You could create a YouTube account for storing the videos. You can make the videos private so that only people who are given the links can see the videos.

4. You could collect videos through a YouTube upload widget installed on a page of your school's website. I shared some directions for that here. http://www.freetech4teachers.com/2012/07/use-youtube-upload-widget-to-collect.html

5. A non-Google solution is to use Box.com for gathering and displaying the video files. Box allows you to share access to a private folder. With the amount of video that I think you're planning to have you'd probably have to upgrade from the free account to a paid account. I did that for the videos that I produce for Media Source, Inc so that my editors can access the videos without me having to make them public or send them as emails. I pay $9/month for 100GB (maybe more) of storage. It's well worth it for me and I'm a notorious cheapskate. 

RICHARD: " I'm somewhat familiar with Teach Scape and I will say that what they offer does make the video workflow easy, however you could possibly create your own solution too. "

"I think that you're going to have ton of videos to store and sort. One thing to mention in your meeting is that the videos probably don't have to be HD or even very high resolution. That alone will save a lot of storage space. "

It seems like there are two goals. 

1. Make workflow of video uploads easy.

 2. Save money. Shared Google Drive folders will make the workflow easy. The problem you're going to run into is the storage space. Remember that video files (MP4 is generated by iPads) will play within Google Drive using the YouTube player so the people who have access to the folders should be able to watch the videos without downloading them. If your school/ district has a password-protected page for faculty you could post the links to the Google Drive folders there. Just label the folders by grade level then create sub-folders for each content area. When someone opens the grade level folder they can then open the content area folder. It's tiered approach and probably not as elegant as Teach Scape, but it would be cheaper. Again, my guess is that you'll have to buy additional storage space. 

Another solution that I forgot to mention is Wistia.com. Again, not a Google Product and not free (well you can try it for free) but a fantastic service designed specifically for video hosting in private environments. It's actually the tool that CommonCraft.com uses for all of its videos. You can password protect videos or make them public without having to use YouTube or any public video sharing site. The plans run between $1000 and $3600 per year. Like I said, not free but a heck of a lot less than Teach Scape. 

***********************************************

IT'S ALMOST COMPLETED!!!!!!!!!!

The Online AIG Course In Moodle

INTRODUCTION TO CRITICAL THINKING AND

https://moodle.learnnc.org/login/index.php



*How and when do we choose the 25-30 students who are taking the course?*

*How do we enroll them into the Moodle class?*

*When do we train them on how to use Moodle?*

*In case I need it, who is going to help grade their work and record grades?*

*How do I make sure all the sites I need are unblocked?*

The Boy in the Striped Pajamas

Below are a few ideas for the fifth grade teachers that they might use while their students are reading the book, "The Boy in the Striped Pajamas."

Discussion Questions:  Click here

Activity Ideas:
    Write a short story or a poem about an unlikely friendship.
    Create a poster or Glogster about the damage caused by prejudice.
    Construct a piece of art—a sculpture, a painting, a drawing, or a comic strip—that depicts something     in the book.  Online comic strip generators to possibly use:  Makebeliefscomix and Pixton.
   
A PDF Teaching Unit:  Click here

Another Unit Study:  Click here

Chapter Summaries:  Click here

Study Questions:  Click here

Survivor Video Testimonies:  IWitness

Integration of Technology:

    Suggestion:  Before you start integrating lots of technology into your curriculum I would suggest creating a classroom blog or use your website in order to store samples of your students' digital creations.  If you're interested in creating a blog, I'd be very glad to show you the basics of blogging.

    Use Wordle in order to create word clouds possibly describing characters, locations, events, etc.

    Use Glogster in order to create posters about the book, characters, etc.

 
    Classtools.net:  1)  Have students write questions and then create arcade games.  2)  Use Timeline in order to place certain events in chronological order.  3)  Upload a photograph to PostIt and let them create posts describing various things in it.  4)  Let groups or pairs of students create a FakeBook for the characters in the book.

     Create a free account for Wallwisher, write a question and let the students post comments in the form of sticky notes.
   
    Create a free account for Youblisher .  Let the students draw pictures depicting certain events in the book, write poems, etc. and create a PDF of them.  This file can be easily uploaded to Youblisher in order to create an online flippable or page turning book of their creations.


   
    Assign each student a certain character, place, event, situation, conversation, etc. in the book.  You will use Screencast-o-matic in order to create screencasts of them reading what they wrote about their assigned topic.  A video of them reading it can also be included in the corner if you like.

     Create a backchannel at Today'sMeet .  This can be a site for ongoing class discussions about the book - even while at home.  (This site may have to be unblocked.)
   
    Have the students to go to PicLits .  This is a poetry writing site inspired by photographs furnished on the site.  Tell them to ignore the photographs but instead use a character, event, etc. in the book and create a poem about it.  They have nouns, verbs, adjectives to choose from that helps them in the writing of their poems.  Awesome website!!!!!!
   
    Let students create talking avatars of the characters using the site called Voki .

   

    Bing Translator allows the students to type in quotes from the book and translate them into German.  They will see the German text and if they click on the speaker icon, they will hear the quote translated also.
   
    Download Google Earth and digitally fly your students from Columbus County to Berlin, Germany and then to Auschwitz, Poland.  It will be a great global education exercise.

    VoiceThread might be used to display students' artwork, poetry, writing, posters, etc.  They can type text or talk about their work while others can make comments also.  Feedback from others is one of the main benefits of VoiceThread.

Click on photo above.

    Thinglink can be used with one of the projects in which the students draw a map of the concentration camp.  This drawing can be scanned and imported into Thinglink.  Key positions or places on the map can be tagged with post-it notes on which descriptions can be written.  If you register for a free account with SoundCloud they will be able to record their descriptions that will be heard when the tag is clicked on.  View a sample here.

     Emotional Meter:  Smyface  This might be used in the project about the various emotions exhibited throughout the book.

     Podcasts can be made using a phone and Ipadio.  Podcasts can be used to explain photographs using Yodio.


     WebQuest:Click here Awesome site

    Fake Cell Phone Texts: iFakeText  This could be used in the project where the students write texts using abbreviations.

   

SOMETHING NEW!!!!!!!!
1/9/13

Why not let the kids write an acrostic style poem using a word from the book?  The word is printed vertically on the paper with each letter as the first letter to each line in the poem.

C   an't go home

A   ngry guards

M  ust remain hopeful

P   rayer

Here is a rubric that I found for poetry.  Looks pretty good to me.  RUBRIC   

What about a monorhyme in which all the lines have the same end rhyme?

Does no one care?
Are they not aware
Of our great despair?
Our fate is so unfair.
Freedom is our prayer.

Fold a narrow piece of paper in an accordian fold.  Draw half of a person like the old paper doll chains.  Open it up and a chain of people holding hands appears.  Let the students color them wearing striped pajamas.  Or they may use words in lines to form the stripes.  When finished, have them write a brief story, paragraph or poem about why these people are holding hands.