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. 

RWT Timeline: Amazing Free iPad or Computer Tool

The Timeline App is a tremendously easy app (or website) to create timelines.  So many of the timeline apps are extremely expensive.  This app allows for three different options for organizing events:

• Date
• Time
• Event

A timeline that graphically represents related items or events in a sequential order and displayed along a line can be another method for students to "show what they know".

Exporting Options are as a JPG or as a PDF.  Collaboration is also possible as a "file" type .RWT can be emailed or Airdropped so that students can add their portions to the group timeline.
View the steps.

Final Product:

Adobe Spark Pages-Advanced English 9

After attending a Lunch N' Learn on Tuesday, December 13, 2016, Ms. Tubbs provided a new learning opportunity for students.  There class has sixteen comma rules.  The students chose three random objects from a list that the teacher provided.  Students chose three numbers and analyzed how the numbers corresponded.  The students needed to include the three chosen items in their story.  Sentence number one needed to fit comma rule one (commas in a series); sentence two fit comma rule two, and so on.

All creations were completed on an iPad and sent via the "Website URL" assignment option in Canvas.
View the student creations:

• The Perfect Picnic by Jessica G.
• The Day I Slipped On A Banana Peel by Alex C
• Halloween Spooks by Emily F
• Champagne Taste with a Pauper's Wallet 
• The Beast by Rachel P

Google Docs, Slides, Sheets Templates Workflow on iPads

The Google Docs, Slides, and Sheets apps provides some great TEMPLATES for students to create something that will "show what they know".  All of the screenshots in the presentation below are from the iPad app.  While this was the workflow I used for Lunch N' Learn, all of the same template options are found on a computer.

VIEW THE PRESENTATION

The presentation above was created on Keynote on my iPad.  I "made a copy" of it and sent it to my Google Drive.  If you are desiring students to make Keynote presentations, this is the workflow to get the presentation to a teacher.  As blogged about earlier, I really like Keynote on my iPad while presenting.

IMPORTANT: Teachers must have students turn in any assignment in Canvas that requires a Google Doc, Slide, or Sheet to be submitted as a "File Upload" through Safari and not simply a "Website URL".  See poster below.

Canvas Settings For Google Assignments by ClayReisler

Explain Everything Level 2 Features and Progressions to Get There

PechaKucha Created With Explain Everything On the iPad For Sociology Final Assessment

*My PechaKucha example at end of post.

In spending more time in our high school Sociology class with Mrs. Krause, we have experienced a few "Show What You Know" learning opportunities with the iPad as the technology tool of choice.  We've already used  Popplet as a tool on the iPad to "Check For Understanding".



As we approach the traditional "final exam" period which comes at the end of Semester 1, we will not be conducting the multiple choice, true/false, essay exam.  Instead, students will be analyzing all of the content they discovered over one semester and apply that to their life.  We are focusing on taking one or two concepts that spoke to the students. Students will then take these concepts and demonstrate how it has impacted their life.

To do this we are incorporating a "presentation" method of PechaKucha.  Truthfully, until TIES 2015 and Ben Friesen's introduction, I had not heard of this presentation method.  Discover the history behind PechKucha or see one of many examples.

Of course, readers of iPaddiction know we are focused on creation and workflow utilizing iPads. In other words, how are we going to create a PechaKucha on the iPad?

Explain Everything is going to be our tool of choice.  Placing one image or a collage of images on a stage while recording is easy. Since we are modifying the PechaKucha format slightly (using 10 slides x 20 seconds each vs. 20 slides x 20 seconds each) Explain Everything's visible clock while recording is SO helpful.  Students will record each slide for 20 seconds.
Their thoughts. 20 Seconds. Don't Go Over!

Also, if students error while recording one slide, the entire presentation is not ruined.  Students simply rerecord the slide that is incorrect.

Another awesome feature to Explain Everything is the feature of easy access, viewing, copying, and moving of each stage (slide).  Ten slides are needed.  Since we have used Explain Everything before, it will be very easy for students to create and arrange the slides according to their needs.

Once students create, arrange, and record each slide to their liking, students will export the video to the camera roll.  Students will then "submit" this video as their assessment to Canvas which is our Learning Managment System.  Students will view each other's creations.  While students are watching presentations, students will be engaged in a discussion utilizing Canvas' Discussion option.  We provided them with a rubric and guidance.

My PechaKucha example to the students is below.  

Option:

• Have students create each slide with silence and have students speak in front of the class while their "silent movie" is running on the screen.

Creating a PechaKucha utilizing Explain Everything was extremely simple and effective.  I'll post more about the process and student examples as the students complete the learning opportunity.
Images from our "recording day" are HERE.

• Students in our Spanish II class are utilizing the PechaKucha speaking option.  Due to the "second language" concept, students are being given the "leveling up" option.  This option gives an "exceeds expectations" status to the presentation if note cards are not used.  If note cards are used, a "meets expectations" status is given.  We feel that with the added element of speaking in a second language students should have the opportunity to have note cards.  It is our hope, however, that they will be used sparingly.

Reflection:
I am so impressed with our students and the presentations they have conducted.  The fact that the "slides" kept moving motivated the students to talk to the audience as opposed to reading cards.  Students also needed to "think on their feet" if they finished early on a particular slide or "fill in" if they finished early.  There was also REAL connection from concepts in Sociology to their life.

That's what we want!

Students applying knowledge gained to life experiences.  The PechaKucha format really provided a great medium for students to "Show What They Know".

Explain Everything Spanish 2

Students completed their second experience with Explain Everything.  Students were to create a picture with text that demonstrates the present.  Along with this, students created a part of the section of the product that included video to demonstrate the pres.prog.  I truly don't understand Spanish so the exact concept is new to me.

I do know that Explain Everything has become our main focus for this year to allow students to create items that "show what they know".  We want students to become so familiar with the technology tool (EE) that they don't even think about the tech tool, but simply focus on getting their knowledge to a digital medium.

Below is the information given to the students.  We are focusing on "Creativity" from the four c's for the entire year.

An example of the student's work is below.

SimpleMind and Notability to "Show What You Know" for Three Branches of Government

To allow students to "Show What They Know" in seventh grade, Mrs. Burch provided students with an introduction to the SimpleMind app and smashed it with Notability.  Google Drive and Canvas were used to finalize the workflow of product to instructor.

The SimpleMind app is a tremendous app that serves as a "graphic organizer" with multiple options for colors.  This was the best app for creating a web graphic so students could describe the Three Branches of Government.

We found that when we smashed the SimpleMind app into Notability the students were able to include images of topics described in the SimpleMind app.  Students were also able to add hand written annotations using tools in the Notability app.

As students took more than one day, we were able to export the Notability and SimpleMind creations to students' Google Drives via the app.  This allowed for students TO NOT need to same iPad each day of creation as the Notability app allows for importing of content from Google Drive.

As part of the assessment, Mrs. Burch chose the creativity portion of the four c's standards to assess along with the content.

From a tech coaching aspect, I (the tech coach) taught the the features of the app and the workflow needed completely to the first group of students.  During the second group of students, Mrs. Burch taught the features and workflow, while I was in the class for support.  It was a great interaction between Mrs. Burch as she was able to teach almost all aspects of the project while asking a few questions of me in front of the students if needed.  For the remaining two classes I was not in the room, but followed up with an email to see how the day progressed.

Overall, Mrs. Burch and myself believe the process worked well.

View the images of students working

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". 

Toontastic iPad App For Social Studies

Mr. Rodal, social studies teacher, wanted a "Show What You Know" tool so that students understand the process of resolving conflicts through conversation in an organized manner.

Many video tutorials exist for the Toontastic App


However, presenting a video to students may be too long or not personal.  I created a presentation using one of the 24 unique Google Slide templates from Slides Carnival.

Presentation Link


In year two of this project and in the flex mod, students will be introduced to the idea in Lab 1 (60 minutes) on Monday.  Students will receive the printed words from the picture at the top of this blog along with a Toontastic Storyboard which was created in Google Docs and with Google Draw.  On Tuesday during small group (30 minutes) students will view the presentation on how the app works.  On Wednesday in Lab 2 (60 minutes) students will complete the Toontastic project and export the final movie to Google Drive and share it with their instructor using Canvas.

WIX Website Building For Spanish Students

Mrs. Titler and Ms. Slusarek, PHS Spanish teachers, asked a few weeks ago about website building tools for students to "Show What They Know".  Besides Google Sites, WIX was a suggestion I provided as it is an easy drag and drop tool to build a website.

A guest blog post is below along with student examples.

The students just completed a project where they had to make a web page giving advice and suggestions to people who want to be come different types of professions. The students worked with a partner, picked a profession and created the webpage with information such as typical day, salary, description of job duties and characteristics of a good worker. They did a great job, but I especially liked the projects that used WIX. This was a new web building tool for me and I was very pleased with how the website looked. The students said that it was easy to use, but that they needed a lot of information to fill it up. I included some examples here for you to see. There are some errors, but the overall presentation is what I wanted to share with you. Thank you for the suggestion!

Example 1

Example 2

Example 3

Example 4

Coaching Teachers Through Using The Explain Everything App

A week from now, the entire population of Biology students at Pulaski High will be describing mitosis using the Explain Everything app.  To coach the teachers on the intricacies of Explain Everything, I

• Demonstrated the tools on Monday with the expectations that they would create a storyboard for their personal creation during the day on Monday.

Note: one of our teachers's children became ill and she was unable to be at school on Monday.  No problem, she used her personal iPad and another device to join in the learning through a Google Hangout!

• coached them through their creation on Tuesday while using the Explain Everything App.

Next Friday, I will be utilizing our school's Large Group Instruction area to demonstrate features of Explain Everything to all of the biology students .  This should take about 15 minutes or less.  Students will then formulate their storyboard in their classrooms so that during the next class period, they will start creating using the Explain Everything app.

Below is the Protein product that one of our biology teachers, Ms. Thut, created.

This was the first time that the entire process of coaching teachers using a technology tool occurred in this sequence.  Teacher's time is very precious and not taking an entire prep period to discuss technology integration was a benefit.  Extending the learning for teachers over the course of two days was also a benefit.

I'm looking forward to teaching the tools of the Explain Everything app to the students knowing the teachers know the tech tool because of a personal learning experience.

Some might say that we use the Explain Everything app too much.  We do use it numerous times, but as students become  MORE familiar with the app, the technology tool becomes invisible.  Students and teachers don't think twice about using a writing utensil because it is essentially invisible.  The thoughts, ideas, and solutions that come from the writing utensil are what matters!  So it hopefully will be with technology tools!

Step 1 - Teaching Teachers

Step 2 - Teaching Students

Step 3 - Exporting the Project 

Step 4 - Lesson Reflection

Step 5 - Student Reflection

American Literature Using Explain Everything to Discuss

Students used Explain Everything to show what they knew to the instructor.  The question posed to them was "Is Emerson's philosophy about individualism a real possibility for society? Why or Why Not?

Ms. Rheingans stated, "As I was listening to these, I was so amazed at how well I was able to see how much they actually understood from reading."

In my opinion, having students "show what they know" provides some truthful insight as to whether they understand and can communicate their understanding.  A traditional multiple choice test may not provide this type of insight.  Of course, there is a time and place for every type of assessment.

This appeared to be the right time and place for students using Explain Everything.

Westside School District DevelopU Reflection

June 11 and 12 were two days of an incredible experience.  I was blessed to be invited to Westside School District in Omaha, Nebraska.  The Westside School District is doing it right!  At the start of the 2014-2015 school year, all Kindergarten through fifth grade students will have a school issued iPad.  All sixth through twelfth grade students will be issued MacBooks.

Issuing devices is one thing, providing impactful professional development for the teachers and administrators is another!  Westside provided their already incredible teachers with the opportunity to learn so many different effective technology integration strategies from Apple Distinguished Educators.  All of the ADEs are classroom teachers who have effectively demonstrated technology integration which provides valuable learning lessons that involve critical thinking, creativity, collaboration, and citizenship.

All of the ADEs are experts in their own fields.  I feel blessed to be able to present with...
Kelly Croy, Bill Ziegler, Matt Baier, Cristin Rold, Matt Lee, Julia Garcia, Gabby Meyers, Katie Morrow, Kevin Morrow, and Josh Mika

All of their presentations can be found on the Westside DevelopU Wiki.

I was asked to present four different topics.

App Smashing: Advanced Workflow on the iPad
About 100 people attended this.  Their energy and enthusiasm was outstanding!
I truly wanted to show how using a simple iPad app is an effective method, but utilizing two, three, and even four apps provides critical thinking and creativity opportunities for students that moves them to a higher level of thinking.


Creating Content with the iPad: What Can I Use For...
About 50 teachers attended this session held in the beautiful Courtyard in the Westside High School.  In my teaching support role, I am asked numerous times in a day, "If I want to edit an image on the iPad, what would be the best app?"  Not only this task gets asked about, but close to twenty different requests are asked.  With that, I created an infographic to help teachers, BUT more importantly students decide what what's the best tool to accomplish a task.



The second day brought me to teaching two different sessions.

Visualizing Learning: Show What You Know Using An iPad
About 30 people attended this.  Mostly elementary teachers who wanted to complete screencasting on the iPad.  Screenchomp, Educreations, and Explain Everything were featured.  I believe that the best part of the presentation was showing MANY real videos of students creating assessments using these tools.  Positive feedback was also provided on the portion of the presentation that included a tutorial for Explain Everything!



My last session of the day was AWESOME!  140 staff and administrators joined in learning about...

Innovative, Personalized Learning Environments
I really tried to show teachers who have removed their traditional rows and desks and created students centered, learning environments.  This doesn't mean that direct instruction areas are eliminated!  We just think about them differently!


An enormous thank you to Paul Lindgren, Matt Lee, Cristin Rold, all of the administration, and the entire teaching staff of the district for making my first trip to Westside one of the most enjoyable learning and presenting experiences I have had!  The DevelopU learning experience and the Wiki are all very well done!  I would also like to thank all of the wonderful people associated with Apple (I will not list them all as I, unfortunately, will probably forget one) as they always make ADEs feel like rock stars!  It is NOT taken for granted and does NOT go unnoticed!

Explain Everything Enhances and Clarifies AP Stats Project

Last year, Mr. Martinson had AP students complete a project that required students to use every piece of knowledge that they acquired throughout the year.  While the projects were acceptable, for the most part students just lectured to the audience about the step by step process that was completed to meet the requirements.

This year, we decided students needed to include a guest speaker.  They could choose any person or character they wanted to help explain the complete process.  In addition, students were asked to smash the PicCollage app with Explain Everything in any way they could.  While all students loved adding the "guest speaker" students struggled with including the PicCollage in an effective way.  Maybe the PicCollage app wasn't the correct app to smash.  Next year, I would like to include ChatterPix as so many students use M & M or Skittles as their subjects and ChatterPix could be a great way to enhance creativity.  We also encouraged students to limit their video to two to three minutes.

Overall, the final products this year WERE simply outstanding.  Even if you don't know much about stats, you will walk away from watching a more educated person.





Impact On Students:
Creativity:  Students incorporated a "guest speaker" of their choice to enhance the production.
Critical Thinking: Having students attempt to smash an app (PicCollage + Explain Everythin) required students to think how the two apps can enhance the final product.

AP Environmental Science "Show What You Know"

As any AP teacher knows, time remains after the test.  Ms. Thut is utilizing some classic books found in our library for students to read and inform other students in the class their findings.  Her project for the students explains everything.

She asked me to provide some technology tools for the students to have choice in "showing what they know".  Fortunately, I completed something similar for our E 10 students for an end of Semester 1 proof of learning! Today, I will present to the students OPTIONS for sharing their findings.

Of course, the Top Tech Tool Infographic is going to be utilized along with items from Tony Vincent's Infographic.

Let the learning and choice of proof of learning begin!


Impact On Students:
Creativity: Students will be encouraged to smash the apps together to create products that catch students' attention.
Critical Thinking: Choosing the correct tool to transfer information that a student knows to other students takes a thought process that doesn't come easy.  This is similar to many life skills where the manual doesn't exist and yet, a task needs to be accomplished.

App Smash Options For End Of Year Projects

*All links are examples of the apps in use with different content areas.
The end of the year is upon us.  AP testing dates are passing soon.  Providing a valuable "Show What You Know" project can be an effective method for an end of the unit/year project.  Finding the right combination of apps to "smash" together can provide choice for students as they provide you with the insight that they have.

Starting with iPads, here are some suggestions for smashing apps to create "Show What You Know" opportunities.

Pic Collage + Funny Movie Maker + iMovie

Pic Collage can be a great tool to place more than one image together to make an image.  With that, Funny Movie Maker can be used to transform any image into a talking image with 30 seconds of audio.  Combine those to applications into an iMovie and students can "Show What They Know" from different character perspectives.  Since Funny Movie Maker is free, it does provide some advertisement.  Simply "cut" that portion out while the movie is opened in iMovie.  

 PicCollage + Thinglink + Explain Everything

PicCollage is a great tool to place more than one image with other images.  Take that image and place it into a Thinglink and all aspects of the combined images can be interactive.  Taking that image and placing it in an Explain Everything through the link that Thinglink provides can allow an opportunity for an audio recording that enhances the creation.

Snapseed is the premier image editing app.  It allows for many filters and alterations that can enhance the image.  Combine multiple images into a PicCollage and add that to a Haiku Deck for presentations and a challenging, yet enriching, app smash has occurred.

As always the final products can be shared with the instructor via Google Drive.

Explain Everything - Inserting Objects For Creating & Reflecting

Our Lunch N' Learn topic for Tuesday, March 4, 2014 and Breakfast Bytes topic for Thursday, March 6, 2014, will be a quick tech tool follow up to "What's Your Clock?"

Explain Everything is an app from the TOP TECH TOOL list that can help with one of the quarters in your class, week, or unit preparation.

View The Topic


After viewing the video I noticed the last portion of the video with a video inserted caused an echoing effect.  I immediately contacted Reshan Richards who steered me in the direction of MorrisCooke, the iPad app company.

My email stated this:

I am trying to have students/staff realize the power of inserting video for authentic reflection using the EE app.

I am finding that when I record a video, insert it into EE, and then record movements on the canvas while the video is playing a echoing affect is taking place.

Here's the example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=g8I4I4XC5eo#t=59

Am I missing something?  Do I have the steps correct?

  1.  Push record for the EE slide.

  2. Push play on the video.

  3.  Use annotating tools during video playback and canvas record.

Thanks for any help you can provide.

Within five minutes, I received a product response!  Awesome!

Hi Clay,

thank you for contacting us!

The echo problem occurs when the sound of a video played within Explain Everything is also carried over to the microphone - this might happen when playing a video within the app and simultaneously recording. 

To fix that in a new recording, you may use 2 approaches:

1. If you want to just have the sound from the video - since 2.05 there's a setting (see attached screenshot) that will mute the sound from your microphone when exporting an XPL project with a playable inserted video. Setting this to "ON" will fix the problem with the echo.  

2. If you want to record your voice over the video - you can use the volume control to turn down the sound from the video, and additionally use iPhone headphones with a microphone, so that the sound from the video is not heard. You can also turn down the volume on the iPad speakers as well. 

Let me know if this helped!

Best regards,

Daria

MorrisCooke Support

e-mail: support@morriscooke.com

I completed OPTION 1 from above with great success!
View The Topic Without Echoing and How It Was Done!



See you tomorrow for Lunch N' Learn!

Google Presentation To Explain Everything

For students to discuss a Google Presentation that was created on a computer/Chromebook, we used Explain Everything to annotate and/or record audio notes to enhance the presentation.

Process:

• Create Google Presentation on Chromebook/Laptop
• On iPad, Use Google Drive App
• Find Presentation
• Touch i button for information
• Open in -->
• Explain Everything

Every Google Presentation slide will be placed on a separate Explain Everything slide.

Begin to enhance the presentation with audio and visual cues.

View the Process

Impact On Students:
Critical Thinking:  Creating a slideshow is one thing, however, annotating and recording audio to explain aspects in detail takes script writing and planning.