Monday, February 23, 2015

Digital Citizenship Lessons

This past week ED 305 students were engaged in creating interactive and engaging digital citizenship lessons using SoftChalk. For many of these students this is their first attempt at writing a full lesson - and it's certainly their first attempt at a digitally published lesson! But they had NO FEAR!

This is a truly special group of 305 students - they are engaged in the content and have a strong desire to achieve great results. At least 90% of the class included "above & beyond" work, as part of their lesson - this means they did more than was required, stepping up to meet the challenges presented to them. What a wonderful character trait - this will serve them well throughout their career.

As is always the case, a few students submitted some truly exceptional work -
These lessons were excellent!

Other lessons that were submitted that either were overall just really good or had a few special bells and whistles include: 

Thanks to the entire 305 group for their hard work! I really appreciate the effort.


Friday, February 13, 2015

Flipped Presentations

ED 307 students completed a flipped classroom lesson, after which they were required to perform some independent investigation about the topic and present their findings via an animated video. This  assignment is typically a "student favorite" in 307.

Overall the videos were really great - the content presented was "spot on" and for the many "first time" animated video makers, the videos were actually quite good. Congrats to all 307 students for their hard work.

The criteria I use to grade the flipped classroom video submissions is based on (1) following the video requirements, (2) thoroughness and correctness of content and (3) creativity. I typically find that "creativity" is where the big differences are between submissions. Taking a step outside of the box is a scary venture for many students - but their efforts are applauded in 307.

Check out these videos that I feel are "spotlight" worthy -
-          D Cornett - http://screencast.com/t/w9iIljHNXUv - very creative approach to this project. Animation needs some work – but nice first attempt.
-          R Driver - http://goanimate.com/videos/0y6zQI8BKh7o?utm_source=linkshare&utm_medium=linkshare&utm_campaign=usercontent – “outside of the box” presentation of materials. Animation needs some work, but nice first attempt.
-          Danielle Frazier - https://plotagon.com/28632 - Plotagon video, which is a relatively new animation product with some really nice features. The story line is not overly creative, but nice job with the animation.

-          A Slone - http://goanimate.com/videos/0He3elpNVarI?utm_source=linkshare&utm_medium=linkshare&utm_campaign=usercontent – Nice job with change of scenes and multiple characters and conversations

Wednesday, February 4, 2015

My Super Students!

My 305 students are hitting it out of the park early on this semester. Last week they learned about Google Drive, completing an assignment in which they created a document, presentation, and survey, linking the 3 together. Grades were very good overall - so thanks all for your hard work!

This assignment has an "above & beyond" component, providing students with the opportunity to do more than is required for additional points - the following students went the extra mile -

  1. Rachel C
  2. Keri C
  3. Olivia H
  4. Matthew H
  5. Morgan P
  6. Kayla G
  7. Stephanie H
  8. Jada C
  9. Mary F
  10. Christian G
  11. K Shubert
  12. R Duvall
Keep it up 305!