8 Deadly Sins of Camerawork When Using an iPad

Our high school physical education students will be creating energetic lifting videos.  We will be teaching them how to film correctly when using an iPad.

After each "deadly sin" was introduced, students partnered with another student and practiced how to properly film based on each of the "sins".

I liked how students saw what was an incorrect/correct skill and then practiced the skill correctly.

I also believe this was an outstanding example of how iPads are so portable and function in so many ways.  If we had Chromebooks in our school as our one to one device, this would not have been as efficient as the "all in one" iPad.  You'll also see a great example of team teaching and the very best thing I like about my job.  After the introduction to the learning opportunity, I presented the tech skills that students will be using.  To complete the introduction, the physical education teacher, Ms. Retzlaff, provided the specific requirements and expectations.

The teacher is the facilitator of the content.
The digital learning specialist (me) is the facilitator of the tech tools & skills associated with content.

View all our pictures!

View the presentation below!

World History Twitter Template

Students will be creating three tweets on behalf of a famous person in history.  While we could be "real tweeters", some students do not have a Twitter account.  Because of this we modified a Twitter template that we found online for our purposes.

Students will create a copy of the template using an iPad which has a specific workflow.  Find the specific presentations below.

We feel that this learning opportunity helps students to practice being great communicators, critically thinkers all while creating good content.

The Twitter Template



The iPad Workflow

Marketing Students Hear From College Freshmen Whose Done It

On Wednesday, January 31, 2018 our Pulaski High School Marketing Principles class experienced a thirty minute interview with an Ohio University School of Business Honors Student. Brock Reisler (BrockReisler.com) has developed a positive personal brand through his website.  He is featured on the Ohio University Honors page. He also secured a 2018 paid internship by November of 2017 after sending 400 emails to colleges and university athletic departments throughout the United States.

As a teacher, this was a great way to utilize

• Communication (with "experts" outside of our school)
• Create content as we recording the entire hangout
• Critically thought about the content that Brock presented to our students as they are going to be creating a personal brand

As a father, I am so proud of the responsible young man that Brock has become.  I liked one of the things Brock said in the interview:

"Everything In High School Matters" ~Brock Reisler 1-31-18

Watch the interview conducted through an event on Google Hangout!

Read through the Tweets:

.@OhioUBusiness freshman @brockreisler gives back to @PCSD_PHS Ss by explaining how to positively brand yourself in a competitive #business world. Great intro to a digital marketing campaign for the Field of Dreams. https://t.co/5quz5aviiC #RedRaiderFuture #RaiderStrong pic.twitter.com/mio1ra0siZ

— Ben Otto (@phsbjotto) January 31, 2018

@brockreisler telling @PCSD_PHS students to take initiative to lead. Great discussion on how to make an impact and create a positive personal brand. #RaiderStrong pic.twitter.com/PhsUrAUrat

— Ben Otto (@phsbjotto) January 31, 2018

Changing The Narrative - Communication, Critical Thinking, Creativity

Spending the entire day teaching the "tips" about GarageBand to over 250 juniors was a tremendous honor.  The U.S. History team of Mrs. Schartner, Mr. Krause, and Mr. Rodal want students to develop a 3-5 minute radio show.  As they progress into the era of the 1920's, students will see that radio was the "window to the world" for almost every American household.

As I worked my way through the presentation below, students were given three opportunities to "play" instruments, record voice, and record multiple tracks of instruments.



The content of the U.S. History curriculum is so important.  My teaching role allows students to experience additional learning opportunities while experiencing the information.

My main focus was NOT ANOTHER project, but an opportunity to develop the skills that will help them during their time in high school and after they leave.  I addressed their "attitude" as one more thing to do by changing the narrative.  It's not another project.  They heard me say that this is a tremendous opportunity to get better at skills that employers continue to seek from our students.

Communication.
Creativity.
Critical Thinking.



As always, the impact of the message is undetermined at the beginning.  I'm not a motivational speaker.  I do know that my message is helping students to view learning opportunities in our school differently.  In my time of co-teaching technology tools, GarageBand engaged students to the end of the learning time and beyond better than most tools.

All of this became even more validated for me because of the podcast I listened to this morning.  Education with an Edge, Mike Smith of The Bay  Visit It

Ideas & Learning Through Voice (Teaching Teachers)

Great days of learning! 
Voice Recorder Pro
GarageBand

"Five Minute Finds" and Nearpod Leverage Tools for More Than Projects

Integrating technology tools for "projects only" is not an effective way to help students become great consumers of content, critically thinkers of that content, collaborators, and creators.  Utilizing a "five minute find" in a lesson and incorporating activity cards (with Nearpod) can help utilize the power of technology tools during learning experiences.

Inserting an Apple Logo  Led Me to "STOP" Using the Word "Projects"

I was curious as to how to place an  Apple symbol into a blog or text message.  I found an article from April 2017 on how this works.  However, the January 2018 version is slightly different.

This leads me to the practice of allowing students to "consume content" while teaching.  A perfect example of this happened this week. A teacher had a famous person in history projected in front of the class.  The instructor asked students, "What do you know about this person?" The high school students didn't say a word.

Not. One. Word.

The instructor discouragingly proceeded on by giving the students everything the teacher knew about the famous person.  After observing this, I mentioned to the teacher that at the moment they asked what the students know, the teacher could have provided students with three to five to however long the "investigating" minutes takes for students to consume content that could be a website, a video, an image, a pdf, etc.  Allowing students to "critically think" about the content that they are "consuming" and then sharing that content is a great skill for our students to develop and master.

The teacher tried the strategy the next day and emailed me a tremendous "thank you" as the discussion was so much more valuable and productive.

STOP using digital devices and tools "just for projects".  Utilizing the tools for consuming content, critically thinking about that content, collaborating with others, and creating/sharing solutions can all be incorporated into a single learning experience.  Furthermore, STOP calling all of these "learning experiences" "projects".   Avoid saying, "We are going to do an iMovie project."  We don't say that this weekend I'm going to do a "hammer project".  We say, "I'm going to build a deck and these are the tools I'll need: hammer, saw, nails, etc."  These "projects" are simply opportunities that allow students to build skills through learning experiences that help them move closer to contributing to their college, career, or community while in school and after graduating.

This leads me back to this morning.  I wanted to learn how to insert an  Apple symbol into a blog or text message.  I was able to consume the content, but needed to critically think about that the information I found "shortcuts" from the article

was slightly different than what I was seeing as "text replacement".

Once I did that I was successfully able to insert an Apple symbol on my iPad.

U.S. History & Imperialism: Explaining With Creativity

Tools Used:
Mindly App
Explain Everything
Adobe Draw

I'm a huge fan of "Common Craft" type of videos.  Students will be creating "Common Craft" type videos completely on the iPad using their creativity and some tools.  Since 2012 our students have created "Common Craft" type videos, and we have progressed with our tools.  I look back on my first explanation video and we definitely can improve.  I feel we are!



Student Created 2018

Intro to Business: Creating a Radio Spot with GarageBand

Garage Band was the perfect tool for students to create a radio commercial with multiple tracks to make it real.  Creativity, critical thinking, and sharing were major skills practiced during this learning experience.  I appreciate Mr. Otto and Mr. Coenen allowing me to co-teach the lesson.

A Student Final Product

Student 2 Final Product

Student 3 Final Product

Student 4 Final Product

The presentation:

Geogebra to Solidifying Mathematical Terms and Concepts

The Geogebra app provides a great experience for students to visually see how all concepts connect with one another. 

Freshmen Physical Education Creation Tools

Throughout the week, all freshmen students experienced learning opportunities pertaining to creation tools.  Civics and English 9 instructors wanted students to create or publish so we gave them tools to choose.

The tools for physical education were different.  See the presentation below.

PHS Autos - Building A Library of Skills

Students are starting to creating their video library of skills using images, video, and voice over.  Essentially, students are critically thinking about the steps to accomplish a task (in this case it was a brake job), creatively thinking about the content and how they want their video to be viewed, and sharing it to the world!

We really want students to choose the tool that they want to create with based on what they think their skills.

Here's the presentation of tools:



View some of the final products:

Student 1

Student 2

Tools For Students To Publish Creatively

All tools accessible on devices using a web browser.



Twitter Template

Instagram Template

Snapchat Template

Facebook Template

Fake Text Messages

Slides Carnival Templates

Adobe Spark Pages

Civics: Amendment Assessment With Choice

Students were provided an amendment and then asked to create something to show their knowledge.

Small Engine Disassemble and Assemble With Choice of Digital Tool 2017

Today, students were introduced to four tools that can help them explain the process of disassembling and assembling a small engine in Mr. Marsh's class.  The presentation included a video from the Service Director at Gandrud Automotive Group which help solidify to the students how valuable a video is in setting potential job candidates apart from others in the industry.

Students have the choice of the following tools:

• iMovie
• Adobe Video
• Explain Everything
• Chatterpix

Video of the introduction and students working.



Thank you Mr. Laatsch for your words of wisdom to our students. 

Stick Around App For High School Psychology Students Teaching Third Graders About The Brain

Students in Mr. Krause's Psychology class created literature paper books to teach third graders about the brain.  From those books, students created interactive puzzles using the Stick Around app that will be an interactive learning game following the reading of the book.

Students were collaborating with a partner to critically think about how the book could be made into an interactive puzzle.  Once those determinations were set, they created an inner and outer brain puzzle complete with images, text, and definitions. 
This is all based on our district's mission and vision.

The Stick Around app was the PERFECT app for this learning activity!

VIEW ALL THE IMAGES

PechaKucha Presentations in Criminal Justice

So many students present multiple times in their school career.  We have established a "PechaKucha" presentation opportunity for groups of students in several content areas.  One of those areas is Criminal Justice.  Today I team taught with Mr. Pirman and explained the workflow for the students.

• Create slides that are 20 seconds long in Explain Everything.  Slides should contain image(s) with 20 seconds of narration describing the content.
• Since the students are in a Flex Mod schedule, they may not be with their partners from now until the due date.  After students create their portion in Explain Everything, they will export the EE as a video to their camera roll.  They can either share their finalized portion via Google Drive or AirDrop.
• Each portion will then be combined in iMovie
• Students will take the finalized iMovie and submit the creation on Canvas

Introduce To Students (Option)


To introduce the concept I shared with the students the PechaKucha of "The Secret Life of a Pencil".  

We also played a small portion of an example for students.



We also have a number of students actually delivering their "PechaKucha"

Raider Strong Podcast: Workflow That Makes It Happen

I finally understood and completed the entire workflow for creating and producing a podcast to iTunes!

I made the intro and exit music in Garage Band on the iPad. (Starter Book) I made the art work in Canva on the iPad.  I recorded the actual interview on the iPad.  I uploaded it to Google Drive where it can be produced into an MP3 on the iPad.

Here's where the entire process on the iPad could stop and people could listen to it via the Google Drive Folder.

However, that's not officially podcasting.  I needed to get it to a host, I chose Soundcloud for now as it allows three hours of free hosting.  See the product.  After that, I connected with iTunes Connect. This is the official "housing" area of all iTunes podcast accounts.  I used my iTunes account, completed all of the information, and waited 24 hours for Apple to approve.  Now, you can find my podcasts on iTunes OFFICIALLY!   

UPDATE:  Once the Soundcloud app is installed, use the Garage Band's "sharrow" to produce the podcast directly to Soundcloud.  No computer needed.

MY GOAL: Interview as many Raider Strong employees as possible which will help promote the GREAT people that work in our district. 

RELATING TO STUDENTS' LEARNING EXPERIENCE:

After conferences with Ms. Thut, we created the beginnings of how it looks for students.  Our students will focus on:

• Consuming quality content using Environmental podcasts found on iTunes
• Critically think about what makes an exemplary podcast both from a technical stand point and content stand point.
• Collaborate with experts on YouTube or in the community to develop a passion for an environmental issue that is important to them. 
• Create a series of three podcasts that directly relate to the environmental issue that they want others to know about.

While all of the creation can and will be done on an iPad.  Our students will spend time in the library downloading their podcast from Google Drive and then back up to Soundcloud. We will also use their Pulaski iTunes account to establish an official Podcast account.

I'm thrilled at the final results and can't wait for our students to experience the thrill of podcasting!

UPDATE: [June 2, 2017] Students really did a great job, and had fun doing it! They created unique "entry music" to their podcasts along with rich content.

UPDATE: [February 1, 2018] teacher asked for no frills step by step directions.  Read Them

Some of them can be found HERE.
All of them can be found HERE if the permissions are correct.

GIVE IT A LISTEN, Subscribe, and Review

If you are interested in more of an elaborate set up, THIS post provides great information!

CANVA: World History Russian Revolution Controlled Twitter Project

It's the 100th anniversary of the Russian Revolution.

We want students to Tweet as if they were in the midst of the Revolution, but not all students have a Twitter account.

We decided to utilize Canva's Twitter Post Templates so that students can tweet by creating a graphic.  We are introducing the project by including a great resource from RT
Not only are the tweeting, but they have a very interactive website!

Our students utilize iPads as one of their educational tools.  I created a six minute tutorial for the teachers to display during several sections of classes at the same time.



Once students have completed their three twitter graphics, they will submit all three images through CanvasLMS.  Teachers will be able to use Speedgrader to view all images at one time.

Post It Notes App and The Modeling That Brought Me To It

Yesterday, we had a meeting.  The meeting concluded with writing suggestions for moving forward on a Post-it Note.

This morning I received this image from our leader.

I like how Mrs. Uelmen modeled the use of an app!  It sparked my interest as to what and how to use the app.  Currently, the Editor's Pack of the app is free!  I like how the app captures only the note and not the surrounding parts of the picture.  I like how the creation of boards can be exported to almost everywhere via the sharrow on the iPhone/iPad.  I exported the note to Notability so that I could annotate the groupings of notes.

I see some potential in this app.  I also appreciate modeling of the app by a colleague.  It's always important to use the tools that know work.  Using instead of always preaching about tools is an effective way to motivate others to use the tools, much like it motivated me to investigate this app!