Introduction to Blendspace

Teachers and students collect different types of learning materials to create a learning environment using Blendspace. By being able to pull information from many different places over the web such as youtube, google drive, flicker, world wide web you can create a dynamic learning experience. Blendspace also offers a easy to use interface and workflow. Learning Outcomes Students will take control of their own learning Students will create Blendesace Accounts Students will create a Blendspace Lesson to present their Google 20% Project Students will add 5 different types of media into their presentation Students will create a quiz Demographic Junior High Art students in the 6th,7th and 8th grade. Rationale There are so many great tools out there to create content. Blendspace allows me to pull learning materials from many different kinds of sources and put them in one space. I want my students to be able to pull materials from all over the web into one place for easy use of viewing and collecting. Google 20% Project Presentation Students will be working on a Google 20%,similar to and Genius Hour. Both of these styles of projects give students the power to learn in their own hands. Students will create a proposal for a research project that they are passionate learning more about. I learned about the Google 20% project from other educators which led me to various educators to had started a movement in their schools and classrooms. Von Jan (20011) goes on to explain that “Google’s “20% Time”, was inspired by Sergey Brin’s and Larry Page’s Montessori School experience, is a philosophy and policy that every Google employee spend 20% of their time (the equivalent of a full work day each week) working on ideas and projects that interest that employee. They are encouraged to explore anything other than their normal day-to-day job. As a result 50% of all Google’s products by 2009 originated from the 20% free time, including Gmail. Real break-through happens when we are free from others’ expectations and driven by individual passion.” In my classrooms students will be given this opportunity to research and learn based on their passions. Students will be given the skills to be able to research and find reliable information on the web and other local sources. Students will use blendspace to create a collection of the materials used for their project. Then create a final lesson to teach others in their class about their own research and findings. According to ISTE Student Standards its important that students get experience working and critiquing others. “Students will demonstrate Interact, collaborate, and publish with peers, experts, or others employing a variety of digital environments and media” (Iste 2014) Getting Started Tutorials for Blendspace References ISTE standards taken from International Society for Technology in Education website. Received from: http://www.iste.org/docs/pdfs/20-14_ISTE_Standards-S_PDF.pdf on 5/11/14 Jan, K. (2011, October 24). Pursue Passion: Demand Google 20% Time at School. The Huffington Post. Retrieved May 12, 2014, from http://www.huffingtonpost.com/katherine-von-jan/unstructured-classroom_b_1024404.html

Presenting your Project to the class

Create a flipped classroom environment with your own powerpoints! Movenote makes it easy for you to present your presentation without having to have any special software.

Have your students use move note when making presentations Its great for shy students to present in front of the whole class, or large groups.  Students can create a presentation in google drive and then save it as a pdf. You can upload jpegs, pdf’s or video files. Students can also record themselves while talking about the subject with the laptops. Check it out at www. movenote.org

20 Questions 2.0 in today’s United States History Classrooms

20 Questions 2.0 in today’s United States History Classrooms

At Google 20 Summit I heard of this amazing idea that was sweeping the country. We all have heard about being able to connect via skype with classrooms across the world, but what do you say? What are you going to talk about? What about playing a game?  Classrooms are playing 20 questions with each other from across the country on skype and google hangout. What is the question you ask? Well they are trying to guess what state you're from!

This sounds like a blast no matter your age group. TechNinjaTodd told me the idea at his keynote speech at the Google 20 Summit. Todd suggest you make sure you try to hide your accent! Don’t say things like ya’ll it gives Texas away every time!! Also be sure to hide your state flag! Check out more about Mystery Skypes on Skypes website. Skype gives you the tools to connect with other teachers who would like to play a game of mystery skype!

Online Science Resources

Today I found myself a little jealous the science teacher has started using Edmodo in her classroom and all my 7th graders were excited about their "Facebook" like Edmodo Accounts. If you don't know about Edmodo yet, read up on the basics here: Edmodo 101, a introduction PD class I taught for my school district. So why was i jealous? I haven't received my iPad cart yet! But it got me thinking about all the fascinating resources for science! Here is a list that i have been compiling:


1) Understanding Science

UC Berkeley's Understanding Science website is an amazing resource for all science teachers.
If you need a place to start from scratch this is your go to!

2) NASA Wave Length

A great resource for earth and space science's, this website has k-12 lesson plans that have been developed threw the NASA program for educators.


3) Periodic Table of Videos

Check out The Periodic Table of Videos for a wide assortment of videos about the elements and other topics.


4) Science Class .net

A great resource of science lesson plans. Lots of Topics to choose from! 

http://science-class.net/

I can't wait to use these in my classroom when we do a Art/Science Collaboration Project!