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!

Zach Seidel, Social Media Coordinator - UMBC Athletics

Our marketing students were blessed to have experience an interview with Mr. Seidel of the UMBC athletics Twitter account.

UMBC men's basketball and UMBC became famous as they were the first number 16 seed to beat a number 1 seed in the NCAA Tournaments.

Zach's wittiness and timely tweeting caught the eye of many!  Since our marketing students are in the midst of a social media campaign to raise funds for Phase II of our Field of Dreams Campaign, I reached out on Twitter to Zach and asked if he would "hangout" with our students. 

He graciously agreed.  By the way, this was a great lesson for our students as well. 

IT DOESN'T HURT TO ASK!











He gave great responses to a number of questions:

• How has your life changed since your famous night in basketball?
• What was your social media plan prior to the game?
• What is your social media plan now?
• How are you leveraging the success you have found to improve your entire university?
• What does your social media team look like?
• What's two things you can specifically tell us that helps when being "good at social media"?

Watch the interview:

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

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.

Google Sites Perfect For Student Professional Brand

Since 2014 when we converted the "professional binder" to a professional website, we have continued to improve the delivery and final product.

Collaboration With Arcadia SD, New London SD, Ashland SD To Make The Best Pet Food

With the help of Mr. Santy, Small Vets Instructor, we embarked on a collaborative learning experience that is unlike anything we have attempted before at Pulaski High School.

With our Bright Bytes surveys from 2016-2017, students revealed to us that "collaborating with others outside of our school district" was something we "never did".

With this data, I decided to make it a goal to decrease the "never" and increase the "every few months" as a starting point for content areas at Pulaski High School.  I approached Mr. Santy about the idea to collaborate with students in another school district.  He immediately thought of the small vet learning opportunity for creating a pet food.  I was able to provide a tutorial on the publishing tool as students will produce a website that will market their product.



I also provided a tutorial on the features of Google Hangout.


I'm thankful that Mr. Santy was willing to attempt the creation of a new pet food with students outside of our school district.  To me, this makes sense.  Learning from people more than one mile away is something that happens in so many businesses on a daily basis.

The details of the learning experience for students was well thought out by Mr. Santy, and the email communication with teachers allowed emails to be exchanged among instructors.  A spreadsheet was used to "match" students with other districts. 

I'm also thankful to Ms. Caelwarts, Ms. Kurowski, and Mrs. Uelmen for allowing the "Google Hangouts" to be opened for our two week period.  Without an "informational and instructional" technology team that has visions of innovative learning, none of this would happen.

High School and Elementary Students Collaborating On A Menu

Students from one of our elementary schools have been helping our Culinary 2 students design new menus.  Providing healthy foods that elementary students have interest in will promote healthy eating habits.

We were thrilled to use Google Hangouts as a quick and easy tool for collaborating during this learning experience.

Day 2 between Mrs. Fullerton’s 2nd graders and @PHS_ProStart Culinary Arts 2 students in developing new hot lunch menu items- this time Google Hangouts! @PCSD_PHS @pcsd @tafullerton2 @ProStart @PCSD_SS #RaiderStrong pic.twitter.com/b1eh6iXTpb

— Liz Moehr (@lamoehr) December 9, 2017

We are so thankful that Mrs. Moehr,  Mrs. Fullerton, and Mrs. Markowski are providing this learing opportunity for our students.  View more images from the day!

Day 1 of a super fun collaboration project between Mrs. Fullerton’s 2nd graders and @PHS_ProStart Culinary Arts 2 students in developing new menu item for Sunnyside Elementary’s hot lunch program. Let the menu planning begin! @PCSD_SS @PCSD_PHS @pcsd @tafullerton2 @ProStart pic.twitter.com/PUUiD6hbMH

— Liz Moehr (@lamoehr) December 4, 2017

Using an LMS in Flex Mod

We believe at Pulaski High School that a Flex Mod schedule is the best schedule for students.  In the last two weeks we have had Liberal High School in Kansas and SPASH in Stevens Point visit us to see how our schedule works.

We are in year three and believe and LMS (learning management system) is essential for students and staff to maximize classroom and personal learning time (PLT) for a positive learning experience.

Below is the presentation that outlines some major ways we utilize our lms, Canvas.  No matter what lms is used, a "one stop shop" for course resources is essential for success.




I created the presentation in Keynote and exported it to YouTube.

Canvas Courses Starred in App and Browser

We use Canvas from Instructure.  Making sure a student sees the correct courses.

Flipboard in High School Geography

iPad Mini - Set Up Suggestions

As we are preparing for 1100 students receiving their own iPad on November 1, our teachers were presented an iPad Mini at the beginning of the school year.

Today's Lunch N' Learn, which Pulaski High School staff have been faithfully attending for five years, is all about starting with a personal iPad.

I like to use the "One Page Home Page" where the most used apps are on the front page of the iPad.  All other apps are accessed through the "pull down and spotlight search" feature of the iPad.  I will be demonstrating that concept and providing productivity apps along with "must have apps" that help to make educational life easier.

I utilized Keynote on the iPad because I want to be able to use AirServer and toggle back and forth between the presentation and the apps that I will be talking about.  All with one device, the iPad Mini.

View the Keynote

Additional digital work flow steps included sharing the Keynote from my iPad to "other apps".  I produced the Keynote as a PDF and exported it to my Google Drive.  This allowed me to make a "anyone with a link can view" document to share the presentation.

One great resource that all students and staff should be looking into further as iPads rollout in our district is the Apple Ecosystem for Educators Flipboard magazine that I have created and contribute to on a regular basis.

Twitter Takeover: A Student Runs Our High School Twitter Page For A Day

As a continued emphasis of student ownership exists in our school community, we decided to allow students to run our @PCSD_PHS Twitter account for a day.

The process started in August of 2016 when our 3D group (review practices and set goals) met to outline actions for the upcoming 2016-2017 school year.  We focused on how we will promote positive aspects of our school to maintain a healthy, positive culture in our high school.

I had seen the actions of other school districts who allowed a student to takeover the school's Twitter feed and decided this is something we could do.  We set up parameters and shared them with two students that we thought demonstrated outstanding leadership in our school.  They thought the idea was fantastic. They even added that the Twitter Takeover should occur until after the football game!  This proved to be a tremendous idea as so many people liked Allison's account of the fun actions from the game!

With that we set up the second Friday of the school year as our first Twitter Takeover.

We promoted the day by placing posters around our school like the one above and digitally promoted it as well on social media and via email to the staff.

On Friday, Sept. 9 at 7:00 A.M. our first student, Allison Van Lannen met me in the library so that I could place the account and the password onto her person phone.  She didn't see the password and our agreement was that she would "log out" after the football game.  She was so responsible that she sent me a screen shot of her Twitter account after she logged out. (Great idea!  This will be a requirement for future Twitter Takeover students)  Please notice at the bottom of the picture below that only one account is on her phone. 

So was it a success?  Let's look at the Twitter Analytics.

On Friday, our student created 17 original tweets with total of 22, 200 impressions. (Impressions of number of times users saw the tweet on Twitter.) Compared to the previous Friday of two tweets (only a few adults have access to the account) and 5,000 impressions.  

Specifically,

• An Engagement Rate of 4.7%
• 37 Link Clicks (she did a great job of including pictures)
• 26 Retweets (mostly by students)
• 129 Likes
• VIEW SPREADSHEET of ALL STATS

The students and our community knew that a student was in charge of the content and were very interested in what she had to say!  Scroll through the day below or click here.

After the last tweet, Allison sent me an email and stated, "Thank you so much for the opportunity!  It's been a blast!"

Yes it was!  For Allison and our #RaiderStrong community!

The next time you are looking for some positive PR for your school, allow one of your students to run your Twitter account!

Innovative Ideas: Objectives Met Through Choice In A Flex Mod Diversity Class

Through a conversation, I reached out to Mr. Rodal, Social Studies (Diversity Class), to provide an opportunity for students to meet specific objectives while choosing the product they create.

It's always a balance between "old school" education which entails read this, listen to this, and answer questions that somehow shows you understand the objectives that need to be met, and the "new school" movement that allows for students to meet objectives while choosing the path to acquire the information.  In addition, providing students the opportunity to "show what they know" in a creative fashion.  I say "balance" because this class is "transcribed" with a technical college which, in my opinion, is of the "old school" model for learning when comes to this class.

The objectives met with choice!

Mr. Rodal's students will

• Discover the four main groups to study in a flex mod large group
• Know the objectives that need to be met 
• Propose (through a Google Form) why they should be able to study the group during a flex mod large group (partners are acceptable)
• "Pitch" to their peers in a flex mod small group what their final product will be to display that they "know the objectives."
• Peers provide feedback to each "pitch person" during flex mod small group
• Students work during flex mod labs with students possibly not in their lab group through a collaborative technology tool.
• Students "polish" the product during second flex mod large group
• Students produce a "final product" showing objectives being met during a flex mod large group.

Students will be held accountable for "work time during the work day" during flex mod PLT (personal learning time) by acquiring signatures from monitors.

We would like technology to be used because of the skills we are seeking to master other than just the objectives.

All the resources can be found HERE

Imperialism Takeover - iPad Consumption

We are really trying to focus our learning opportunities with iPads to be "more than just projects".

Mrs. Brylski, Mrs. Krause, and Mr. Emmerich, our World History teachers, allowed seventy-five students using iPads or personal devices at the same time to effectively research the "best African country".

View how it's done.

Snapchat & PicCollage In Anatomy

It's awesome that Mr. Anderson is allowing students to use a technology tool that they have mastered to accomplish a task that Skitch was used for.  More awesome is that the student decided Snapchat and PicCollage could be used for educational purposes.

I asked the student to demonstrate how the she accomplished the required task.



In the business world, more efficient, creative ways to accomplish tasks correctly is always rewarded!

As with everything, the bad of using Snapchat can always occur.

George Couros pointed out in his TIES 2015 Keynote on Tuesday a time when he gave a hashtag out to high school students while he was presenting.  I wish I could find the exact Tweets, but I can't at this moment.  I can share the summary of the story.  Three students immediately used the hashtag to display their displeasure with George's words while they were sitting and listening.  Of course, their language was graphic.  However, one Tweet by as student was noticed by George during the speech that was EXTREMELY positive!  George spoke up to the crowed asking where/who the student was that posted the positive comment.  George THANKED the student and told him how much he appreciated the positive comment.  The student was a "larger than life" football player.  Once George acknowledged the positive tweet many, many other students jumped on board the positive Tweeting bandwagon.

Sure, something could have gone wrong with the student using Snapchat, but it didn't.  If it did, it would be addressed.  Now, the student feels empowered and invested in this process which allows her to "show what she knows."

Let's hope that our schools and the educators involved can be more comfortable allowing creation and productivity to have a personal touch!  Eventually, the innovation and creation will be rewarded.

Market Place Project Digital Skills To Master in Explain Everything

The Market Place Project in Spanish II has always been an enjoyable experience.  This year, we are continuing the project, but the students will utilize Explain Everything to demonstrate proper dialogue while bartering for a product.

This will be our third time using Explain Everything.  Mini projects one and two were introduced through tutorials.  We are increasing the levels of digital skills each time we innovate with Explain Everything.  Our hope is to continue to build on the creativity and other modern day skills with the students.  We are already seeing students not "concerning themselves with learning the tech" as Explain Everything is just "our tool".  The process of learning the content is becoming the focus.

The Spanish teachers and I discussed the Unit 3 Market Project and collaborated on how it would look.  Some areas of emphasis for me as a technology integration specialist include Creativity and Global Communication.

The Exceeding Expectations is highlighted because we are going to encourage students whose final products are pleasing to them to post them on Twitter, Instagram, or Facebook with #RaiderStrong 

Our Day 3 which is when the Explain Everything App is utilized looks like this:

As a help tool, I demonstrated the three skills that students will need to master 

• Background
• Characters
• Layering
• Animation

Using Explain Everything.



UPDATE:
We played the video above and walked students through each of the three skills that were to be mastered.  Students, all 168 of them, have completed the assessment.  We are SO impressed!
Please view the conversations from "The Marketplace" that students created.

Explain Everything for Spanish 2 Directives (Morning Routine)

Students continue to learn the features of Explain Everything while practicing the Spanish language.

Explain Everything in Spanish II Class

In Spanish II, students created a postcard in Spanish that pertained to a place that they visited.  With Explain Everything's features

• Easily crop images
• Layering
• Multiple text font and size options
• Exportable as a PDF to Google Drive

the students were able to create their two slide PDF, export it to Google Drive, and share it on Canvas.  All within a 55 minute mod.

The students who were prepared simply copied their paragraph from their Google Doc app into the Explain Everything text boxes.

As a technology integration coach, I presented the features to Explain Everything for about 5-6 minutes using AirServer.  Since this learning opportunity was multiple sessions, I taught the first Explain Everything tutorial and stayed in the classroom for the entire 55 minutes.  The second time I taught the tutorial, but then left the classroom.  The third and subsequent times after that the content teacher Ms. Slusarek taught the entire lesson.  This will be the case when I am in Mrs. Van Gheem-Rottier's room tomorrow.  As the first slide of the video displays, while the instructor is focusing on the content, we have instilled an expectation of creativity which aligns with the four c's.

Flex Mod Visit From Lake Forest (Illinois) High School

Four members of the Lake Forest High School staff joined us today to discover and ask questions as they determine if the flex mod schedule is right for them.

Our schedule was filled with different professionals from our school answering questions.  Everyone who participated in the different panels was open and honest with our visitors about positives and challenges of the flex mod schedule.  Teachers truly stated more positives than challenges.

If you are interested in how the flex mod schedule works, please contact Pulaski High School.

Show What You Know - Spanish Guest Blogger

(Ms. Slusarek & Mrs. Titler) developed a unit for our Spanish III students where they were asked to identify and solve potential problems while traveling abroad.  Students were given the task of identifying a potential problem, brainstorming solutions/advice, and then asked to select a tech tool to share that information with other travelers.  Here are a few of the examples from my class in case you are interested.  (Mrs. Titler) was really happy with the results!

Una enfermedad en el extranjero  (Smore)

El cambio de moneda (Prezi)

La pérdida de su boleto  (Smore)

This group used a tool called Emaze that was really visually attractive. 

https://app.emaze.com/@ALLQLZCC/un-viaje

While all of these are in Spanish, they are incredible examples of students creating artifacts that "Show What They Know".