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.

PENGUIN PLAYGROUND

Upon hearing that third graders were working on a unit about penguins I decided to create a blog post that is all about the birds that can't fly.  I hope you enjoy what I have created for youl

 

 

I heard that one third grade teacher wanted to compare the skeleton of a human with one of a penguin.  What an awesome idea!!!!!!!!!  I liked that idea so much I decided to help with it a little bit.

In order to compare and contrast the two skeletons, I would suggest using “Post It” in Classtools.net.  All you have to do is upload the two pictures into “Post It”.  Then follow directions.  Click on a Post It note and add the desired text.  Then draw a line to the skeletal part from the Post It note.  I have attached the two skeletal photos.

 

 

You can easily find both the human and penguin skeletons online.  And speaking of games, if you want to see how the skeleton works check out the site below. This is an interactive site in which students can manipulate a human skeleton to see how it moves.  Click on the picture below.