Wanted it to be Emazing...

           Recently I attended the Pinnacle Showcase that our county puts on every year.  It is a chance for leaders in technology to show off their stuff and share what they have been doing during the school year with their technology.  Now that I don't have to present myself, I love going and seeing what others are doing and take new ideas.  This year I took two ideas away, one of which is Padlet which I will try out at the beginning of Units next year.  The other I took away was Emaze, which has a Newspaper template that I was UBER excited to try out.  In the past I have tried a couple newspaper templates and I must say that this one is by far the best in appearance and its ability to bounce around.  So I decided that I would implement it in their final project.

          Breakdown of the Assignment:
             - 10 slides total
                   -One slide needed to be dedicated to vocabulary - at least ten vocabulary words
                   -Last slide needed to be a youtube video (not exceeding 10-15 minutes)
                   -The other eight slides were to summarize the note pages from the Unit they were                      assigned 

          The main complaint by students was that it didn't allow for collaboration, and that was a minor flaw for me; although while one was typing the other could be looking for new information to add so a "divide and conquer" method was applicable since their notes were not on the device.  The other main complaint students had in their evaluation was the slowness in logging in.  As the whole class was trying to log in at one time, there did seem to be a variety of responses on the website.  Some students (those in the room first and logging in first) had no issues, those who took longer to get in, also had a rotating circle while the website tried to load.  The longest it took was eight minutes after the bell rang.  

          My critiques of the web application were the same as my students.  The only additional critique is the cost of the app for individual students or having to pay for a classroom rate.  The posting of links does not always work in the presentation for some students.  It shows they posted something, but when you click to go view it, it simply brings you back to the presentation.  My likes were the following:
-The Newspaper Template is the best I've come across thus far
-Moveability feature similar to Prezi makes the presentation more interesting
-Ease of use - top left corner has an add slide with multiple layouts to choose from; moving slides was also easy with just click and drag
-Ease of Sharing - provides embed codes and links with just a click of the button

The benefit is that we now have shortened summaries of our Units that students can use to go study on their own before finals (we are also reviewing them as a class).  

Parts of this project were great!  But I'm not as "Emazed" with the application as I was hoping... If they allow for collaboration in the future I may be willing to pay.

March - 1920's Posters

          I will be out for Maternity leave so while I am writing this in February, it will appear in March.  My students will be completing a 1920's project while I am out.  They are creating posters of an assigned person from 1920's culture.  They have to find someone that is like that person today, find examples of their work, have an image for the poster.  They have to create a poster in a creative way (i.e. Louis Armstrong = in the shape of a trumpet, make it look like a facebook page, etc.).  
        The reason I have them finding a person similar to that person today is because one of the many questions I ALWAYS hear in my history classes is "Why do we have to learn this?" or "What does this have to do today?".  By having them conduct this project I bring forth the point that we didn't all just magically appear here one day acting one specific way.  We have developed as a society, as a world over the course of time, there are things in our past that have influenced the foundations of society whether politically, socially, economically, etc. This allows them to find connections on the social component of life from then to today.  As long as the posters are still in my room when I return in May I will post some examples.
          A digital version of this could be awesome if you wanted to use Thinglink or a Prezi, just to throw ideas out there.  This one we will be going old school with the iPad for research, but not for creation.  Apps need updating and such and don't always work right with the iPads and it will just be easier to allow students to use traditional supplies to create their end product than to have it backfire when I'm not here to troubleshoot.  

For and Against - December Post

          Ever have one of those days that you think you've completed something only to realize you didn't post it?  Well looking at my list I see that I've posted everything, but this... so now it is out of order... "Best laid plans of mice and men..."

          This month we are working on our "For and Against" projects - students were assigned a topic from the list compiled - they could also give suggestions of topics.  They had to take a survey to see what their stances were before they were assigned.  If a student chose neutral they could be switched to being "For" or "Against" based on their classmates stances and groupings.  

Here was the form for their topics:

-Abortion

-Gay Marriage

-Minimum Wage - Increase

-Raising the Debt Ceiling

-Euthanasia/Physician Assisted Suicide

-Vaccine for Kids

-Gun Control

-Medical Marijuana

-Animal Testing

-Video Games and Violence for Youth

-Death Penalty

-Drinking Age

-Cell Phones

-Illegal Immigration

-Concealed Handgun Permits

-Legalization of Marijuana

-E-Cigarettes

-Social Media in Schools

-Felons and Voting

-The Gold Standard

-Standardized Tests

-Tax Exempt Organizations

-Corporate Tax Rate

-Drones - Domestic

-Drones - International

-Electoral College

-Vocational Education

-Welfare

-Social Security

-Military Spending

-Domestic Violence

-Gambling

-Medicating Children

-Vaccinating Children

-Religion in Schools

-Police Brutality

-Discrimination/Affirmative Action

          Students had to provide a historical overview of their topic in an unbiased faction.  The main bulk of their paper is their persuasive portion where they focused on being for or against the topic and explaining why.  

         Next month, we will have them create short presentations where they introduce their main arguments to their classmates and then have open discussions about the topic.  This project is working on the research component of their standards, group communication, public speaking, and presenting information.