ePortfolio Assignment 15

Popsci.com,Tourwrist, Night Sky and Old McDonald are all really cool apps that I have not noted previously.

Popsci.com is a FREE app that has current science articles that are “popular science.” This apps helps keep more up to date on recent discoveries in the scientific community.

Tourwrist is a FREE app that lets us to explore other areas of the world without actually being there. This app will also allow you to make a panoramic virtual tour of your own for others to explore.

Night Sky is an app that costs $0.99 but it is worth the cost. This app maps out the night sky, in real time, using the iPad as a reference point.  When you hold the iPad up to the sky, no matter where you are, this app tells you which stars are above you in all directions.

Old McDonald is an app that is very elementary and also costs $0.99. However, my kids love it so much I have to mention it.  This app is based on farm animals; it has puzzles, games and music that my 2 year old (who loves cows) absolutely adores.   

ePortfolio Assignment 14

An ePortfolios is an interesting way to assess learning. I like that the entries are open for all class members to view, discuss and use as a reference tool. I appreciate that it is an alternative method to printing essays every week and it is very easy to keep organized. It is enjoyable to gain a differing prospective on similar topics and share new strategies. ePortfolios are also an excellent way to present many different things to an audience without taking a lot of actual class time to on presentations.  

ePortfolio Assignment 13

I have a student who reads on a second grade level. If you remember from earlier posts I teach ninth grade physical science.  As you can imagine this reading deficiency is a challenge. This student has an IEP that excuses her from any type of public speaking, reading or even being called upon to answer questions in front of her peers. This makes it difficult to properly administer ongoing informal assessment with traditional methods, thus she definitely benefits from differentiated instruction.

As reading and writing go hand-in-hand this student finds it difficult to complete written assignments. While talking to some students I have had in previous years I was introduced to an awesome app that helps cross this literacy boundary. It is called Dragon Dictation. Dragon Dictation allows you to talk directly to the iPad. The iPad essentially types the student’s response or even an entire essay.

A second app that would help this student is Science 360. This app has a plethora of videos that explain numerous science concepts. This allows all students, especially those with reading disabilities, to acquire information while not having to struggle with the large scientific words that would easily overwhelm them. While I feel literacy should be taught in all academic areas, it is nice to allow students the opportunity to learn science without bogging them down with even more mental hurdles.

Both Dragon Dictation and Science 360 can be used during my students learning skills class so that she will not feel singled out or looked down upon by her peers.  Since both of these apps are on the iPad organization is plus; there are no papers or bulky equipment to shuffle through or keep organized.  Another bonus to both of these apps is they are both FREE.

ePortfolio Assignment 12

I am a CMHS Freshmen Academy teacher. The Academy has several events to acclimate our freshmen to the high school setting. One of these events is the “Freshmen Invasion”. This event allows students to “invade” or visit the facility before the upperclassmen arrive. They learn more about the journey in which they are embarking. 

The Prezi linked below is one of the tools in which the Academy uses to share information with new students and their parents.  Every year the presentation is updated to illustrate the years’ schedule, events and staff.  All the of the academy teachers collaborate in one way or another to compile and share this information with students and parents; whether it is cooperating to have their picture taken, helping plan information to be included, making the actual Prezi, presenting at the invasion or answering questions students and parents have after the presentation. To make the Freshmen Invasion a successful event it requires team work from all freshmen teachers.

This Prezi is effective because, as new students enter a school for the first time they have a plethora of questions. Students want to know who their teachers are, how the school functions and what is expected of them. The Prezi below is used as a tool to guide the presenters while they address many student concerns. 

Freshmen Invasion Prezi

ePortfolio Assignment 10

Here are two apps that I have found useful:

·         HP home & biz is an app that allows print jobs to be sent to any HP printer directly from the iPad. This is done wirelessly so there is no need to hook the iPad to a printer or email things to later be retrieved and finally printed from a computer. This is a huge timesaver.

 ·         Songify is an app that allows students transform lyrics into a rap. They simply select a beat and record themselves reading or rehearsing the lyrics. Songify then transforms their voice and times it with the beat. This creates a rap that is easily shared with the class and illuminates the issues that often come with live student presentation.

Below is a link to a rubric created in Google Docs. This rubric was created to help guide students as they worked on the Egg Car Project and assess that work once it was complete. The Egg Car Project is highlighted in ePortfolio Assignments 5 and 8.

Egg Car Rubric

ePortfolio Assignment 9

Below is a Wordle that I created at http://www.wordle.net/ 

I use this as a cool way to display our physics word wall. Students can refer to the Wordle helping them remember physics terms while completing writing assignments meant to increase literacy across the curriculum.

ePortfolio Assignment 8

Egg Car

Above is a link to a short movie I created showcasing my students work. Believe it or not the students had a great time working on the Egg Car Project as well as seeing themselves staring in a movie.

ePortfolio Assignment 7

Students could greatly benefit from the flipped classroom if they would take advantage of the opportunity to maximize their learning. I feel that the flipped classroom concept is a good one if I had the power of changing how students value their education. I have trouble getting students to complete homework, practice science equations or even read material to prepare for class. If I do not allow the students time to complete work in class, in many cases, it simply is not completed.  If I were to adopt this form of teaching without the buy in of the students I believe it would fail. 

Social media is where students are tuned in. Communicating with students through Facebook, Twitter, etc. is a really efficient and beneficial. Teachers can get to know their students and gain a better perception of their students. Likewise students can begin to acknowledge their teachers as people instead of strictly teachers. Social networking can help build relationships by allowing students and teachers to identify common interests and build communication lines that otherwise would not have been built. These relationships can be imperative to the student’s academic success. 

ePortfolio Assignment 6

I looked over the exam I gave at the end of the first semester. I chose this assessment because it is a large portion of the students’ final semester grade. The exam questions cover all levels of DOK. I do require students to apply the knowledge they have learned in order to solve posed problems. The test is comprised of multiple choice and essay questions. The multiple choice section weighs more heavily in the DOK levels one and two while the essay portion of the test weighs especially heavy in the third and forth DOK levels.

I could make this assessment more rigorous by adding a lab skill portion to the test. This would require students to properly use science equipment and perform experiments in order to answer questions proficiently.

It is important to question our students in a way that fosters their ability to think analytically. With the use of technology, students are learning to answer low level DOK questions more efficiently than ever. However, when teachers are able to assign tasks and ask questions at higher DOK levels students are required to improve their critical thinking skills. It would be difficult to teach real 21^st century skills by simply telling students “correct” answers that they can readily Google at any moment. Like driving a car or riding a bike, 21^st century skills can be taught, learned and improved with practice. To ensure students get the practice they need to be successful in today’s fast paced world teachers must regularly utilize high level questioning and real problems in their classrooms.

ePortfolio Assignment 5

Although there were times the classes were in quads A-D most of our time was spent in quad B and D.  We have been studying Newton’s Laws of Motion which is not a new concept for my students. We related the laws to something we have all had experience with- cars. 

In ninth grade students need to be able to state Newton’s Laws and then actually apply those laws by experimentally obtaining data, graphing the data and using mathematical models to quantify Newton’s Laws of Motion. Students are required to apply the mathematical equations for potential energy, kinetic energy, velocity, acceleration, force and momentum. To achieve this, I asked the students to build a car that was designed to protect its passengers (an egg) while compensating for Newton’s Laws. The car had to travel a certain distance, reach a specific velocity and the passengers had to survive a head on collision with a concrete wall. 

Students brought materials from home. We would consider most of the “construction materials” to be trash. We turned that trash into cars. Items such as bottle caps, baby food lids or CD’s where used as wheels. Tissue boxes, coffee cans, soda bottles and oatmeal containers were used as cabs for the vehicles. Strings, rubber bands, and small strips of duct tape were used as seat belts.  By allowing students to be creative with their materials everyone had the opportunity to contribute and be successful with this project. 

After the construction of their vehicles students calculated the potential energy, kinetic energy, velocity, acceleration, force and momentum of their cars. Students also crash tested the car and checked on the “passengers’. There were fatalities, head injuries and passengers who escaped the crash without a scratch or crack.  Last students constructed essays evaluating how their car demonstrated Newton’s Laws, how well their car design compensated for Newton’s Laws to protect the egg and reflected on how the car could be improved in future.

Given that my students are just reaching driving age they are thinking of their first car. It would be extremely relevant to them to select five cars they could realistically purchase as their first vehicle and investigate those cars’ safety ratings. They could then determine what aspects of the cars improve the safety of vehicles and present that information to their peers. Last they would be asked to look up on their top car choice and apply the Newton’s Laws to a hypothetical crash involving that specific car.

ePortfolio Assignment 4

In order to prove their proficiency with plate tectonics, simple machines, Newton’s Laws and other physics concepts students have been working on a variety of STEM projects. They have built model houses that were to be able to withstand an earthquake. Students have constructed Rube Goldberg machines. They have engineered bottle rockets, egg cars and roller coasters.  When considering iPad apps the one app that has been consistently used throughout all of these projects is the use of the camera.  Students have used the camera to track their projects progress, remember construction design and record the performance of whatever it was they had built.

The camera apps usage for the tasks at hand would be considered synthesis and evaluation on the levels of Bloom’s Taxonomy. Students were building structures from diverse elements, putting parts together to form a whole, while obviously emphasizing the creation of a new structure. Not only were they creating something but their creations could withstand obstacles and perform tasks.

Students were using the camera app to evaluate their projects as well as their peers’ projects; looking at the end result as well as the process they used to get there. Students were able to see mistakes while their projects were undergoing construction and then compensate for those problems. They made judgments concerning the usability of materials they were working with and had to make collaborative decisions about what would and would not work for the tasks at hand.

 

When evaluating Acuity with Bloom’s Taxonomy I find that it is reserved for the first four levels of Blooms. There is assessment of knowledge, comprehension, and even application. While in fewer instances I can see some evidence of analysis. In my opinion Acuity is not a good assessment of synthesis or evaluation skills;it is difficult to show these types of skills with multiple choice testing.   

ePortfolio Assignment 3:

The students had the opportunity to extend their knowledge of simple machines by building Rube Goldberg machines that could solve a problem they face in their lives. Machines solved problems such as: turning an alarm clock off, turning the light on without getting out of bed, opening and closing a garage door, feeding a dog, feeding a fish, putting toothpaste on a toothbrush, and closing a blind.  Students presented their projects to the class. They had the choice of presenting their machines live, creating a video and showing it to their class or a hybrid of both where students videoed their machine, but then explained to the class what was happening in the video. I have attached three of the videos to this blog entry.Two of the videos feature music by Julian Smith, a new YouTube sensation.

In this lesson students used 21^st century presentations skills as well as various technology skills to create their videos. I could improve this lesson by allowing students to keep a class blog which would allow them to collaborate on their project, swap ideas and constructively criticize each others’ work before the presentation day.   

Turning out the Lights- Sam 

Closing the Blinds - Zach and Andrew 

Toothpaste on a Toothbrush- Rose and Kendall 

ePortfolio Assignment 2:

I have been worried that I would not have anything to blog about this week. I have been waiting for something to go wrong to inspire this blog entry. Until 2:00 this afternoon everything has been smooth sailing. Any technology problems that came about were easily resolved.

As you know from last week’s blog, I attended a webinar discussing the iPad apps for educators today. As I was preparing to participate in the webinar I discovered that there were no microphones, headsets or even headphones to be found. Nor could I find a quiet place in the entire school to use a computer. 

Finally, I found myself in the science office, beside of a copy machine. It was time for some improvising. I turned the speakers on the computer as high as they would go and sat close to the machine. It was rather frustrating but successful. I was able to pick up several new apps that I plan to use in lesson very soon. The apps that were particularly interesting were Science 360, Project Noah and Lino. You can decide if these apps are for you by downloading them for free at the apps store.

ePortfolio Assignment 1:

I have been brainstorming ways I can utilize the Ipad for direct student use. I am planning to use the iPad as a document and video camera. I have needed an Elmo in the past and the potential to use the iPad for this seems possible. Using the camera function in conjunction with the, VGA cord and projector students could share their work with the entire class or use it as a presentation tool.

Also, the iPad could instantly makes student created videos easy to present to the class thus, eliminating transfer and compatibility issues.

I have also registered to attend an online session, “20 Free iPad Apps Educators Can’t Live Without!” that is to take place  on Tuesday, February 7, 2012 from 2:30 to 3:00 Eastern Standard Time.  The best part is the cost is free!  Anyone can register for this session at:  https://www2.gotomeeting.com/register/176010170

I am really not familiar with Apple Apps and the educational benefits they have to offer. I am eager to attend this session to learn more about iPad apps that will help make my class more interesting and relevant to students.

Our 1st week

I am very excited because we received our iPads in class this evening. Everything has been setup. Now we are ready to hit the ground running. Everyone in class seems excited to begin learning new strategies that will engage our students in the classroom.