Innovation Ideas Opportunity For AP Students

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Everyone associated with high school AP (Advanced Placement) classes knows that "after the test" can be a challenging time to engage and empower student to continue to learn.  This year, through the original creation of Ms. Slusarek, I adapted the Genius Hour she created for her Spanish I students to Innovation Ideas that any content teacher could use.  Ms. Slusarek had one student in particular create an amazing project.  She is a French V student who took Spanish in her senior year.  She wanted to know more about a topic and did an incredible job of presenting per product.

Mr. Martinson, AP Stats, and Mrs. Krause, AP European History, spent one hour apiece with me understanding, learning, and designing what a two to four week "Innovation Ideas" learning opportunity looks in their classes.  We really want students to find their passion relating to a concept or two that was learned during the year.

Students will need to

• Find passion utilizing tools such as the "Passion Bracket"
• Devise a question that will help them create a product
• Create a "Shark Tank" pitch for peers with constructive feedback
• Develop several quality steps to accomplish the learning
• Create a final presentation of concepts learned and problems solved
• Reflect on Epic Fails and Epic Successes

For those teachers who have seniors and a smaller time frame, we will utilize a Canvas assignment for uploading of the presentation slides along with an audio recording of their final presentation.  If seniors want to video tape a presentation they can do that as well.

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All of the resources can be "copied" by clicking "File" then "Make A Copy".  They can be customized to the teacher's content.

From a technology stand point, we are focusing on "creativity" and "communication".  As educators, we are asking students to complete tasks and reflect on the process.  We will do that as educators as well with the entire process.

UPDATE: Students presented their "Shark Tank Pitch" and received feedback from students.

UPDATE: Students working through part 3.  The Process!

Google + Community For AP Biology Reviews

Earlier in the year, our AP Biology teacher, Mrs. Vertz, attempted to conduct an evening review session using Google Hangout.  It was ok, but at times the video lagged which caused some frustrations.  As we get closer to the AP Biology test in May, we have decided to incorporate the Google Plus Community as our method for posting pictures, discussion questions, and videos. Today, we used our personal iPhones or Android phones and classroom iPads to join the community and to post comments to questions.  The teacher also set up and event, which is scheduled for tonight at 8:30 P.M. Since the community members can respond Yes, No, Maybe, as to whether they will attend the session, Mrs. Vertz now has an indication as to the number of students that will be attending.  In addition, the community allows for students to return as much as they would like to look at the posted items.  Essentially, this could become her online learning management system.

View The Day's Activities


Impact On Students:
Collaboration:  Ideally, this community would allow for threaded discussions that would lead to deeper questions and deeper discussion among students and teachers.

iPads, iPhones, iPods, BYOD in Google Hangouts For AP Biology Review

Today, was a classic "go slow to go fast"!

Mrs. Vertz has decided that a Google Hangout would be the best tool for an "at home" review session. Prior to today's lesson, Mrs. Vertz walked through information for setting up personal accounts.  We spent an entire class period dedicated to setting up personal Gmail accounts.  We needed personal Gmail accounts so that Google Plus and Google Hangouts could handle more than one person.  Our district has decided that Google Plus will be enabled for teachers only.

The best way to connect students was for the teacher to search Google Plus for the exact email address that students created for their Google Personal Gmail.

The mobile devices connected for a number of students as well as personal computers on our network.  We did run into a few error messages for students when connecting to Google Hangouts.  This could be for a number of reasons which we are investigating.

Tonight, we have planned a practice Google Hangout.

Video Link



Impact On Students:
Collaboration: A review session is a perfect time for staff and students to pool their resources together to master a topic.  With Google Hangouts, many people can review together in the comforts of their own home or on the go!
Critical Thinking: Students will have questions and both students and staff will determine the best answer. With Google Hangouts, screens can be shared and therefore, resources can be shared!
Citizenship:  Students needed to create personal Google accounts.  Connecting with the proper students from the class was a lesson that forced students to choose the correct contact.

Storyboarding For iMovie

Our AP Environmental Science students are about to embark on creating videos for two "areas of concern' (AOC) in our local area.  These videos will be made with an iPad and iMovie.

Before the videos can be created, some preparation work needs to be done.

Credit

Students need to know that storyboarding is truly what makes the video pop!  Thinking through the following items will help to ensure a final quality product.

• Scene Setting: Where will the scene be filmed? If still images, what scenes will the still images portray.
• Scene Characters: Who will be in the scene?
• Scene Visual: Somewhat similar to scene setting, but with more emphasis on the actions that will take place during the scene.
• Scene Text: Specifically, what will be said and who will say the exact words during the scene.

Storyboard Usable Information For PHS Teachers Here

While we love using technology at the correct time in our district, the best tool for storyboarding is paper and pencil.  Therefore, the link below may be useful as a storyboard.  Students will only print out the number of scenes that they fill will take place during their production.

Storyboard Scene setting, characters, text, and visual printout

ITLS Strand 1

Explain Everything AP Statistics

Mr. Martinson, AP  stated, "Every student in here can do the math, it's the explanation of the data collection and the process that's being assessed."

That's where Explain Everything enters the classroom!  Students in AP Statistics provided a perfect canvas for students to describe the process of data collection and analysis.

Listen to students explain how they are using Explain Everything...


*The video contains the Explain Everything app prior to update.  We updated the app after class and students prior work transitioned to the updated version with no glitches!

After two and a half days of creation time, students will share the created videos to the teacher through the Google Drive exporting option in the Explain Everything app.

Examples of Final Student Productions!

Haiku Deck In Action

Last night, the culmination of six months of work took place for our AP Environmental Science students.  As has been noted in the past here, here, and here, Mrs. Stainton has done a tremendous job of creating a real learning experience with her students and showed the final products to parents, students, and staff.

After I introduced Haiku Deck in a Lunch N' Learn time, Mrs. Stainton felt that it was the best tech tool for vividly capturing the students' responses as it pertains to their project.

Check out the incredible presentation that was created by Mrs. Stainton.  LINK HERE

Today's Meet As A Collaborative Learning Environment in AP Geography

The AP Human Geography teacher wanted a different method for students to learn the content.  We chose Todaysmeet.com to create a quick and easy way to collaborate between class periods.  The teacher focused on the content, while I focused on the logistics of the technology tool.

Students were paired up with another student in a different class.  The learning environment created in todaysmeet.com was simply made by using initials from the students in the class.

We took a hint from Twitter chats by using Q1 and A1 for questions and answers between the two students in each class.

See the process and the reflection by the classroom teacher.