Creating the Constitution Prezi

Creating the Constitution on Prezi

Our Skype "Visit" To Yokohama, Japan

This morning my 6th grade class had the opportunity to videoconference via Skype with Kim Cofino, a teacher in Japan.  According to Kim's Twitter bio, she is an "international school educator, currently technology and learning coach at Yokohama International School in Japan."  You can follow Kim's Twitter feed: @mscofino and read her blog: http://kimcofino.com/blog/.   

First, we located Kim's school on our SMART Board using Google Earth's "street view."  There is a 14 hour time difference between New Jersey and Yokohama, Japan.  Yokohama is a large city adjacent to Tokyo.  The Skype chat was also on our SMART Board.  My students had a list of prepared questions to ask Kim.  At the conclusion of the lesson, students wrote down what they learned (the lesson was basically framed as a KWL).

Thanks again for staying up late to Skype with us, Kim!

(On a technology side note, my stapler broke this morning, but our Skype chat across the globe to Japan went seamlessly!  Go figure!)

I Won a Classroom Grant!

Today I learned that my classroom grant request for the Conflict Resolution and United States History curriculum materials was approved! 

The volume includes "a CD with primary source documents, overheads, student handout, maps and illustration, as well as a DVD."  Each case study "provides a detailed historical background, short biographies of key historical figures, an examination of the issues and perspectives, and an analysis of the consequences, along with questions for discussion and a list of additional resources."

I first learned about this when I attended the New Jersey Council for the Social Studies annual fall conference.  While there I participated in a role-playing activity with the president of NJCSS to simulate immigration debates.

Here is a link describing the value of the program: http://civiced.rutgers.edu/CONFLICT/value.shtml

Below is a video that show students using "Conflict Resolution and U.S. History":

Video Link: http://youtu.be/yL5mWSqI3Qg

Case Law Cartoons

This week my 7th grade social studies students created short cartoons to illustrate real-life examples of how important Supreme Court rulings affect students. Students used our GoAnimate for Schools classroom account.  Summaries of major Supreme Court decisions were provided by Scholastic's New York Times Upfront magazine.

Below is an example illustrating the case Vernonia School District v. Acton (1995).  The issue was about student athletes and mandatory drug testing.  The Supreme Court sided with the school.

Below is an example illustrating the case Tinker v. Des Moines Independent School District (1969). The issue was about dress codes. The Supreme Court stated that you have the right to express yourself - up to a point.




Below is an example illustrating the case Grutter v. Bollinger (2003). The issue was about affirmative action. The Supreme Court stated that colleges can use race as a factor in admissions.


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Our Holiday Card Video :)

This Year's Holiday Card

Photo Card

View the entire collection of cards.

Happy Holidays!

TeachUNICEF Podcasts

About TeachUNICEF: The mission of TeachUNICEF is to “support and create well-informed global citizens who understand interconnectedness, respect and value diversity, have the ability to challenge injustice and inequities and take action in personally meaningful ways.” Their homepage is TeachUNICEF.org.

Our Class Project: The goal of this project was to fulfill the mission of TeachUNICEF.  My 6th grade students were each assigned a topic to research about children in Africa.  They utilized the media center to access books and to research online (via SIRS Discoverer).  They each wrote a 5-paragraph expository essay, followed by a team-created podcast.  They used Audacity to produce and mix their audio, along with sound effects and music exported from GarageBand.  The podcasts were uploaded to the class SoundCloud account.  Here's the link: SoundCloud.com/SocialStudies.

Below are some embedded examples:

Poverty in Africa

Malaria in Africa
 
HIV and AIDS in Africa
 
Education Issues in Africa

Published!

I received an email forwarded from Dr. Laura Bardroff Zieger stating that our "paper has been accepted for publication in The Journal of Interactive Learning Research (JILR)"!  JILR publishes papers related to the underlying theory, design, implementation, effectiveness, and impact on education and training of interactive learning environments.  The paper we co-authored was based on my thesis.  I'll post more info when the new issue comes out!

Meso-American Digital Posters

Last week my 6th grade students each created an interactive digital poster to highlight the accomplishments and history of one of the cultures of the ancient America’s (e.g., Mayan, Aztec, Inca, Mound Builder, Pueblo, Anasazi).  Their display included a variety of components to give an accurate representation of the culture they researched.  Students researched information on a library cart prepared by our media specialist.  Research links were socially bookmarked on my Delicious.com account.

The culminating activity of the project was created using the class Glogster accounts.  A Glog is an interactive visual platform in which users create a “poster or web page” containing multimedia elements including: text, audio, video, images, graphics, drawings, and data.  The required project components included a embedding a text paragraph, creating a sound recording, uploading a Discovery Streaming video clip, and other pictures and graphics that explain/describe the culture, including a map of the region.

Click the picture below to see a student example (or, click here: edu.glogster.com/the-aztecs).  Don't forget to click the embedded pictures, click the play button on the picture of the sun, and press play on the video player!

Playing with Media/Remixing History

My 7th grade's 13 Colonies project-based learning (PBL) assignment culminated in students using Photo Story 3 to create digital story TV commercials about each of their team's assigned colony.   

 

This project was later featured on the Playing with Media website: http://share.playingwithmedia.com/2011/10/26/come-to-our-colony-new-amsterdam/.   

The project was also featured this week at the “Remixing History” workshop, held in San Bernardino, CA: https://sites.google.com/site/remixhistory/.   

All of the videos were uploaded to our class YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/SuperSocialStudies.  Feel free to view them and forward them along to help them "go viral!"

NJ Council for the Social Studies Conference

Yesterday I attended the New Jersey Council for the Social Studies Annual Fall Conference, “From Local to Global: Social Studies and the iGeneration,” at Rutgers University.  The conference included "a wide variety of plenary and breakout workshops by teachers, supervisors, faculty as well as the opportunity to see the most up-to-date resources available and to talk with colleagues." 

I had the opportunity to learn about the use of the National Archives DocsTeach, which has billions of primary sources and over 4,000 document-based lesson plans.  I also participated in a role-playing activity with the president of NJCSS to simulate immigration debates.  At the TeachUNICEF presentation, I learned about some Internet-based tools and techniques for promoting global citizenship, such as their map page (http://teachunicef.org/map), Voices of Youth, and digital empowerment efforts by UNICEF in countries around the world.  I am planning on integrating TeachUNICEF resources into our Problems in Modern Africa podcast PBL this year.  I am also planning on sharing selected podcasts on their Facebook page.  A picture of the presenter, who is also the moderator of the TeachUNICEF Facebook page, https://www.facebook.com/TeachUNICEF, is below:

 

Happy 10th Birthday iPod!

On October 23, 2001 the original iPod was born.  It is also another example of Apple smartly marrying design and function.  Below left is the Pocket Radio (model T3) designed by Dieter Rams (German, born 1932) and Ulm Hochschule für Gestaltung (German, established 1953), which is on display at MoMA.  Below right is Jony Ive's design of the first generation iPod.  Dieter Rams was obviously one of Ive's design heroes.

 

For more on the birth of iPod:  

• An Illustrated History of the iPod And Its Massive Impact 
• The birth of the iPod 

"Come To Our Colony" - 13 Colonies PBL

Every year my students participate in a project-based learning (PBL) unit on the 13 Colonies. (For more on what a PBL is, go to: http://www.commoncraft.com/video/project-based-learning, or read Suzie Boss's blog on Edutopia: http://www.edutopia.org/spiralnotebook/suzie-boss.) This year's 13 Colonies PBL culminated in students using Photo Story 3 to create digital stories about each of their team's assigned colony. Pictures were courtesy of Flickr and music loops were exported from GarageBand.

Students were tasked to do the following:

"It is 1700. You become a recruiting agent hired by one of the colonies to attract new immigrants. Your task is to educate and persuade settlers to come to your colony. You will be able to do this by making a TV commercial. Your commercial must reflect the attributes of the assigned colony. You must address the issues of natural resources, economy, religion, relations with Indians, and reasons for settling."

Each student worked in a team to divide up the research. They were each personally responsible to write "copy" (their lines) and narrate their slides. All of the videos were uploaded to the class YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/SuperSocialStudies. Feel free to view them all and help them "go viral!"

Embedded below are some examples of student work:
South Carolina:

New York:

Virginia:

Spencer's 1st Birthday Weekend!

New video from Spencer's 1st Birthday Weekend!!! I used Animoto to produce it... Did I ever mention that I've used Animoto so much in school, they sent me a T-shirt! LOL

Link: http://animoto.com/play/Iq0k9BUT38AutFg0ZPZt2A

Teacher Leaders Network

I am pleased to announce that, as of last week, I was accepted into the Teacher Leaders Network. The Teacher Leaders Network "is a national initiative of the Center for Teaching Quality." The Center for Teaching Quality "seeks to improve student learning and advance the teaching profession by: cultivating teacher leadership, conducting timely research, and crafting smart policy."


Here is the link to my page: http://www.teacherleaders.org/node/7895

Spencer Turns One

Movie Trailer from Spencer's Birthday Party: http://youtu.be/YGwMOQ87uv0

Think Different

This week the world lost a visionary and I, like many others, lost a hero.  #ThankYouSteve

The classic "Think Different" Mac commercial: http://youtu.be/jULUGHJCCj4


The moving remix, "Tribute Video to Steve Jobs": http://youtu.be/DeN5TJxxX2E

Week of Respect

The 1st week of October in New Jersey is the "Week of Respect."  As such, my 6th grade students researched information from an article on the Voice of America website titled "How America Looks Through Muslim Eyes."  The article, based on the documentary "Journey into America," explores freedom, justice and tolerance in America.  My students reported their findings by each creating a Voki talking avatar.  Below is an example of a student answering a question about the life of a Muslim-American immigrant:

Teachers Teaching Teachers, on Twitter

A couple of years ago my 6th grade class used Skype on our SMART Board to videoconference a class of students in Stuttgart, Germany.  The instructor of that class was Shelly Terrell, a fellow teacher in my PLN (Professional Learning Network).  Over the years, we have shared many innovative classroom ideas with each other via Twitter.  This week's New York Times features an interview with her. Check it out: http://learning.blogs.nytimes.com/2011/09/30/teachers-teaching-teachers-on-twitter-q-and-a-on-edchats/

Learn With Portals

Last May I blogged about the educational applications of Valve's Portal 2, for PlayStation 3 and XBox 360:
http://mrfarbersroom.blogspot.com/2011/05/portal-2-video-brain-game-review-ny.html

This week, Valve, Portal's publisher, launched the site Learn With Portals.  Valve is also offering Portal for free for both PC and Mac!  The offer ends September 20th.  Here's the link: http://store.steampowered.com/app/400/.  I just downloaded it for my Mac. 

Portal is a single-player game that applies authentic physics, mathematics, and technology concepts.  It's an excellent addition to any math or science classroom.  Check out the video below: