Virtual Vacations in Social Studies

Have you ever wanted to take a vacation to South Asia? Students in Mr. Sorrow’s class did exactly that. Well, they did not actually travel there, but they planned a 14 day vacation to a country in South Asia. The students were given 10,000 virtual dollars to buy plane tickets, book hotel rooms, plan excursions, and eat at restaurants. The students were learning about the history, economy, government, and people through a very interesting and unique assignment. The students worked extremely hard in groups to research using the Internet their respective countries.

When students completed the research, they collected pictures, and combined the research creating a travel commercial using iMovie. These travel commercials are very interesting, and you definitely start thinking about planning that exotic vacation to South Asia. Take a look at the great work: Student Projects

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Soviet Union Activity in Mr. Sorrow’s Class

Recently Mr. Sorrow assigned a writing assignment on the Soviet Union. Students were ask to write a fictional story map of USSRabout life in the Soviet Union. Students were paired-up and told to put themselves in the times of Stalin in the Soviet Union. To get students started Mr. Sorrow provided some basic questions:

  1. What was it like to have government tell you what you could do and/or what you could one day be?
  2. Was the Soviet Union a classless society? Explain.
  3. What was it like to go to school under Russification?
  4. Did you ever think about speaking out against the government?

Instructions for the full assignment can be accessed from the World Cultures Blog. Students then went to the Mac computer lab and used GarageBand an audio program to record their short stories. It was not a simple recording, but rather radio theater with show introductions and music.

There are some very interesting stories and the presentation of the students is great. Take some time and listen to the students as they are involved in some authentic learning. The completed projects are located on the following web page: Life in the Soviet Union Theater

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US History Classes Look at the 50s, 60s, and 70s

Recently in Mr. Saint’s US History classes students studied the 50s, 60s, and 70s. Mr. Saint’s study of the period included a look at cultural changes brought on during this period. To conclude the lessons students choose musicians or musical groups and constructed projects about the musicians. Tools that were used were Animoto, Youtube, and Wikispaces.

Students chose a musician, did research on the Internet about their topic gathering data on the group, their influence, and their songs. After students completed the research segment of the project, they constructed a wiki page on the class’ Wikispaces site.The page had an Animoto video, lyrics, and a YouTube video of the band.

Read more about the project and check out the finished product at http://wa8.wikispaces.com/rocknroll

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Google Sites

Google provides many powerful educational tools for teachers and students in its Google Apps. In the Middle School at Woodward teachers are taking advantage of these tools to promote collaboration, communication, making sure students are being prepared for the 21st century. One teacher, Brian Sorrow uses Google Sites in his 7th and 8th grade social studies classes to provide exciting opportunities for students to communicate and collaborate. Mr. Sorrow wanted to use a tool that would allow him the opportunity to provide a media rich environment that students could be more involved and interested.

Google sites is a a very easy to use web site editor. You do not have to know code or have knowledge of a professional web page editor like Dreamweaver to create professional and interactive web sites. Mr. Sorrow began creation of his site over the summer  as he prepared lessons for the beginning of fall semester. He did not choose the technology tool and then force the lessons to conform to the technology tool–he had a set curriculum that Google Sites enabled him to deliver content, communicate with students, and create opportunities for them to be a part of the conversation.

The US History classes have been working on WWI in the past week. Check out his site and the fantastic videos that have been posted on trench warfare.I have embedded one of the videos below, but visit the site to see all of the videos and to read the blogs students have been working on all semester. I know you will enjoy the site.

 

 

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ISW-Internet Safety Week Poster Finalists

We have just finished our Internet Safety Week One aspect of the week’s activities was a poster contest.   The contest was open to all students in the Middle School. Students were to design an original poster about an important aspect of Internet safety. We had thirty students submit entries. The top ten finalists were chosen by a committee. The students will then vote in homeroom from the top ten choosing a winner. The students are told to choose a poster that clearly conveys a safety issue and promotes positive action.

In addition to the poster contest, middle school students were a part of a Connect Session  in each of their homerooms. A 20 minute video was shown that included questions and a cyberbullying survey. The cyberbullying survey was eye-opening for the students. After school many of the students in the courtyard were discussing their scores on the survey. It was a very positive program and we are thankful that our counselor Tonya Dedeaux put together the program.   You can go to the StopCyberBullying site and view a quiz similar to the one students took by clicking here: Cyberbullying Survey. If you are a parent or educator and looking for a great site that provides material to help you and your children with Internet Safetycheck out  NetSmartz.

Take a look at the student finalists posters below:

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Internet Safety Week

We are preparing for Internet Safety Week, October 4-October 8.  Internet Safety for middle schoolers is extremely important. Middle schoolers are very active on the Internet, and it is important that they be safe and that they learn how to be safe on the Internet. This year the theme is “SMART.” Each letter represents an important concept for Internet safety.

  • S-”Stay Safe”
  • M-”Make Good Choices”
  • A-”Alert an Adult”
  • R-”Respect Others”
  • T-”Think”

One activity in the week is  a poster contest. The contest is open to all students in the Middle School. Students can  design an original poster based on the “smart” theme, or another important part of Internet safety. Last year we  had thirty- five students submit entries. From all entries the top ten finalists will be selected by a committee, and then all Middle School  students chose the winner by voting in homeroom on the posters.

In addition to the poster contest, middle school students will participate in a  Connect 2 Kids  Session prepared by our counseling department.  A 20 minute video will be shown in homerooms,  and after the video there will be time for questions and  group discusssion.  The topic of the video is cyberbullying. Cyberbullying describes behavior involving digital technologies, i.e. cell phones, computers, etc… These technologies are used to threaten, harass, humiliate, or embarrass an individual. A great site for middle school students and parents is from WiredKids: Stop Cyber Bullying. This is a great site for finding out details about what is cyberbullying, how it affects your child, and what you can do to educate your student and prevent it from happening.

There are many general Internet safety sites available, but one of the best is NetSmartz. This site has online resources for parents, educators, and students. A comprehensive directory of Internet safety resources is available from Connect Safely. Take a look at the resources. It is an issue that is too important to ignore. Also, below you will find last year’s poster finalists.

 

 

 

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Google Docs in the Middle School

Google DocsThis year in the WAMS Google Docs has been introduced for teacher and student use. Google Apps is a great digital tool that is offered free to schools. You can read more about what Google offers and the Apps at http://www.google.com/educators/p_apps.html. Students and teachers at Woodward now have access to gmail, Google docs, and even Google sites. All of the resources are accessed or delivered through your favorite web browser. Students and teachers can now share and access documents and mail anywhere they have internet access.

English teachers in the Middle School have been early adopters of Google Docs. They immediately recognized that students could collaborate on projects, submit essays, and teachers could provide feedback on essays; and all of this could be done asynchronous and from anywhere internet access is available. Jan Holland, WA middle school English teacher, said that she could make comments to students, and they could make revisions, and submit a final paper; she further stated that even “after a student finishes the paper, I can make comments, and the improvement in their writing continues.”  In Microsoft Word you have a comment feature, but with Google Docs students can engage in live interactive comments, teacher or peer review.

The sharing features in Google Docs enable you and your students to decide who will be allowed access, and how the document will be edited. In using Google Docs, group work and collaboration can be promoted through the process providing a stronger final product, but more importantly a more productive and meaningful writing process. The group work does not just involve a written essay, but in a social studies class, a presentation can be prepared by a group of students, and then presented live in class from Google Docs. It is extremely important that our students be able to collaborate, but they also most be able to communicate effectively as well. Google Docs is helping our teachers prepare out students for the 21st century learning demands. One of the NETS for Students Standards is Communication and Collaboration, which states, “Students use digital media and environments to communicate and work collaboratively, including at a distance, to support individual learning and contribute to the learning of others.”

Teachers are using Google Docs both to publish instructions about  assignments and to enable them to monitor student progress .  The monitoring process is ongoing and interactive. If it is a group project, the teacher can view the revisions history, and see who contributed to what assignment and when; if a student worked on a project it is clear to see. The individual students in the group can be graded for their contributions–a process that has been difficult to clearly show in the past.

English teachers are not the only ones finding the great benefits of Google Docs, but they have been leading the way as a department in the WA Middle School. Check out the Basics of Google Docs and see what other teachers are saying about it. Once you start with Google Docs check out the Tips and Tricks resources from Google.

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Students Draw City Backgrounds

After students drew desert backgrounds, they were challenged to draw a city background. It can be more complicated as perspective including 3-D is very important in drawing this background. The assignment was to draw an urban background with buildings, warehouses, streets, parks, etc… The student could choose whether or not they wanted to focus on a downtown area, industrial area, or to combine various areas into one drawing. The students had two days in class to draw the backgrounds.

Perspective in drawing is essential to create  depth and realism to your art work. To begin the section their is a demonstration and explanation of one point perspective. Students soon realize that they can use one  point perspective  for roads, railway tracks, hallways, or buildings viewed so that the front is directly facing the viewer. A great site with video on one point perspective is the virtual instructor. I think you will find this useful for teaching one point perspective drawing with a pencil as well as digital drawing in flash. Below you will find several examples of the city backgrounds students drew for class.

 

 

 

 

Zoe's City Background

 

Grace's City Background

Grace's City Background

 

 

 

 

 

Branson's City Background

 

 

 

 

Kashif's City Background

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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Ms. Williams’ Language Arts

In Mrs. William’s Language Arts classes she integrates technology using Web 2.0 tools. She has students using blogs, wikis, and creating podcasts to engage the students and enhance the language arts curriculum. The blog is used as a content container as well as a space for students to write, collaborate, and evaluate each others work. Her 8th grade prep classes’ blog contains grammar, composition, and study strategies lessons. Take a look at the 8th grade blog here: http://williams8p.edublogs.org/ Her students can find homework, assignments, links, and communicate with each other from her blog.

The 8th grade class has also done numerous wikis related to books they are reading. This year the class is doing a wiki on the book Night by Elie Wiesel. The wiki contains projects by the students that were constructed using media tools and Web 2.0 tools. The students have used visual images, and phrases to create interpretations of the early sections of the book. Check out the wiki at http://nightwilliams8p.wikispaces.com/

When you look at Mrs. Williams’ sites you see it is clear, she is preparing her students for their technology future. That means she is not only working with some of the new Web 2.0 tools, but she is also working to make them good digital citizens. As you read her material, you see she is explaining plagiarism, proper digital communication, as well as proper behavior online.

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Working in Flash

After we learn the basics of tween animation, the class concentrates on the Flash tools that enable  students to create backgrounds and other elements or objects that are important to movie construction. Background or scene animation is a whole area of animation that many times is not considered by students as an area to pursue a career. Computer animation has grown as a profession in the past few years, and there are schools providing opportunities for degrees that were not seen ten years ago.

afshan-desert background

The first background we draw in class is a desert background. It is the typical background you might find in a “Road Runner” cartoon drawn by Chuck Jones. Believe or not the roadrunner characters first appeared in 1948. I always ask the students if they have seen a roadrunner cartoon. Most often, every student has or is familiar with the roadrunner cartoons by Chuck Jones. One example of a background is pictured above.

In the process of drawing the background students learn to use various drawing tools, special effects, and filters. The backgrounds that students draw will be used in future Flash projects, or become a part of their Eportfolio, which is their final project. Students can view videos to help them with their backgrounds that are linked to the class wiki. Here is a link to the videos I have done for the background section of the Flash class.

chandler fish banner

The students also designed banners for a restaurant  in the first couple of weeks. The drawing above was from one of the students, and is a great example of a first drawing. It was a simple ad that could be used in a document or brochure. After completing the ad, students worked on animating fish swimming in a tank. We used frame by frame animation as well as tween animation.  Here is a very good example that combines the drawing skills of the students with their animation skills: fish-animation

Our next project is an airplane race that gives students to be creative with their drawing skills and ability to apply motion animation. We have learned how to use tween animation, frame by frame, and apply motion guides to objects. Students should be able to make the airplanes fly in many different ways and to wherever they want on the screen. I look forward to showing some of the work.

Here are a few of the other backgrounds of students from our first section in drawing:

grace fish banner

david fish banner

marshall desert background

nicki desert background

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