This showcase page demonstrates the activities I have been asked to create in other classes and professional developments. Each item that is included helped me grow as a learner of technology. I have also brought back what I have learned and incorporated it into my classroom. This could be through including the activity itself or some of the skills I learned due to completing the activity.
I’ve divided these into two different sections. The first section shows different project based activities that one can incorporate into the classroom for students. The second section is research projects I have done, the different formats in which I have presented them and the what I learned and how I incorporate it into my classroom.
Activities for the Classroom:
App Prototype
At a conference we were given the question “How do we get kids interested in exploring our National Parks?” Then we were asked to design an app that would solve this problem. Our group decided to gamify exploring National Parks by making them more interactive for students. We were able to make a prototype using Keynote.
Afterwards I challenged students to do a similar activity but their problem was to design an app for colonist explorers or Native Americans to make their lives easier. This project based learning allowed students to combine the information they learned in social studies and problem solve by thinking like the people who lived during this time.
Self Worth Movie
In the beginning of the year I show this in the classroom to show students I am here to be a support system. The other side of that is so that they can start to be introduced to what one can create an animation using Keynote. This feature can be used in a variety of ways and across different content areas.
Animal Trading Cards
In this activity, I wanted to combine a regular research project with a popular trend happening at the time. Rather than having students write about an animal, they were asked to make a trading card similar to the Pokemon ones that were popular at the time. Similarly to the Pokemon cards they had to classify the animal and then write a description about them about what they had learned. This project allowed them to learn about science, writing and research all at the same time.
Making A GIF
I had never realized how easy it was to make a GIF! This is a more recent skill I have learned, so I have not yet incorporated it into the classroom. I would like to use it for a character traits or a prediction activity. With GIFs being more popular in our daily lives I think this would be an awesome learning tool to promote learning and engagement!
5 Scenes for 5 Seconds
I have always been less familiar with video making/editing in my technology knowledge. This was a short activity that had us go out and tell a 5 scene story lasting 5 seconds each. Using this as an inferencing or a prediction activity would be so fun in the classroom! It gets the whole class up and moving, practicing content skills and explaining their thinking.
Research Based Activities:
Research Project: Creating Relationships Between Students and Teachers
This piece of work was a research project turned into a poster describing the importance of having a positive teacher student relationship and the positive impact that has within the classroom itself. This project combines creativity, research and public speaking. Most importantly when creating this project it taught me the art of refinement and attention to detail. Making sure that my colors were all in the right palate and I am consistent with my font choices. These are now elements I consider each time I am designing a lesson for my students, which has been even more essential during online learning this year.
Sharing Learning with the Community
The objective of this activity was to share what we had learned with the theoretical parents in our classroom. We frequently ask students to share what they are learning so we can see them growing, but teachers are rarely asked to do the same. This platform allowed for parents, students and staff to see that teachers are still learning too and want to demonstrate this knowledge with them.
Advertisement for Functional Learning Context
This was another way of showing what I had learned in a non-traditional way. This is a way for students to demonstrate their learning as well. Making sure they are thinking of their target audience and then making an ad to engage them.
Wicked Problem Project
I am currently working with student’s who are coming from a low socioeconomic area. This assignment was to think about a problem in education where there is no clear answer. This problem of achievement gap struck particularly close to home for me. This allowed me to really dig into the research and reasons of the achievement gap between students coming from lower socioeconomic households compared to students in a higher socioeconomic household. This project better equipped me as an educator. It focuses my teaching and made me more knowledgeable of the outside struggles my students have to encounter, as well as their schoolwork.
More than Colored Pencils and Crayons 