March 29

Screencasting with students

Our 8th graders have a media class where they learn the basics of Microsoft Office, email and OneDrive.  All 8th graders rotate through this 9 week class.  As we get close to the end of the year, students are arriving in the class a little ahead of those who started the year in the class.  They already know email or OneDrive because of various classroom experiences, so the teacher came to me looking for ideas and one was to use AASL’s Best Websites for Teaching and Learning.  We allowed the students to browse and pick a site that looked interesting to them (even off past lists was fine) and then think like a teacher.  They used Jing to create a screencast teaching others (teachers or students) how to use the site.    While they aren’t as efficient as they could be, the end products are really good and I plan to share them with staff.  I placed them on my website under Student Work.

March 24

Makerspace Progress

So I’ve been fortunate to have support from our Central Office with the 21st Century Shift.  I’m getting new furniture in my Collaboration Zone to make it look more sleek and less mismatched.  While it’s definately functional as is (see pics from earlier posts) it could definatley look more professional.  Because adults and students use the space, it will be nice to make it more professional looking.

With regards to the Makerspace progress, it’s been slow at best.  I made some table top signs to put in the library advertising the space as room to play.  The success came when two 8th grade boys discovered the “deconstruction zone” where they could dismantle old CPU’s, headphones, and monitors.  They were stunned that they could take it apart and leave it!   This, to date, has been my most successful Makerspace venture.  A 3D printer is on order, so that should draw some attention!

De construction Zone

De construction Zone

deconstruction