Feature Me: Getting IT Right @ CeVMS

At Cedar Valley, there are so many innovative lessons that incorporate technology in some form that it really is difficult for me to keep up and keep it all posted to the blog. Not trying to make excuses...but this campus really is pretty awesome about letting students use the available technology that we have here.

So, I was looking back over my blog entries when I turned in my evidence for my evaluation and realized that I had a lonely draft blog post that was hanging out waiting patiently to be published....oops. So, here's a recap of a lot of great things that have happened at CeVMS this school year that have been awaiting their blog debut...

Sra. Blanton's Phone Booth - December 2012

During Fall Semester Final exams, Sra. Blanton tried out a new technology in her classroom: Google Voice. The gist of this activity was that students could call into a phone number from any phone (including one they brought to class that day) and answer various questions in Spanish as part of the oral section of their final exam. The students loved having the ability to answer the questions "privately" instead of in front of the entire class. Sra. Blanton loved the fact that she could direct all of these calls to her email--the voicemails come to her as an email--and not have to stay at school to grade all of the oral submissions. While it was happening in class, Sra. Blanton could literally be in two activities at once! Isn't that what every teacher needs?

Here are some of the pictures from the activity:

A student calling from the "Phone Booth"

Sra. Blanton helping students with the Google Voice assignment

Student calling from the privacy of the phone booth to answer final exam questions.

Ms. Burwinkel's Choir classes focus on Technology in Music - January 2013

In preparation for their performance and sight-reading contest, Ms. Burwinkel's classes took advantage of a program called SmartMusic. Here's her take on what SmartMusic is and the advantages that the program offers:

Smart Music is a program than records and analyzes live student performances. Students are then able to listen to themselves and are also able to see on the screen in color a grade for accurate their technical performance was. Red notes were incorrect, green is good!

This is great for helping students not only learn to read music, but, to learn to gauge how accurate they are as individuals and as a group. It is extremely difficult to get a 100% if all students are not doing the same thing.

This program is a big hit with 6th graders who are singing and sight reading mostly unison music. Not as helpful for more advanced students who are singing and sight reading in 2 or 3 parts, as the program is not designed to filter that much data.

Another activity that Ms. Burwinkel did with her classes was to take the time to use the library databases to research different careers and college pathways that students can choose to pursue that incorporate music. The students were surprised at the possibilities that music and choir can open up for them. Thank you, Ms. Burwinkel!

7th grade poetry bracket - March 2013

How do you get 7th grade boys (and girls...) to beg to read poetry as they enter a Language Arts class? Make it a competition, tie it to March Madness, and tell them they can use their phone during class. What's not to love? The 7th Grade ELA team of Ms. Humphries, Ms. Dugan, and Ms. Costas presented poetry this year in the form of a bracket. Students would come into class each day and be presented with two competing poets. They would read and dissect a poem from each of the competing poets and then use their phones (or a computer) to vote with PollEverywhere.com on who they liked the best. The overall winner from all of the 7th grade classes during the day would move forward in the bracket. Each time a poet advanced, a new poem was presented to the class--the students never saw the same poem twice.

The Poetry Bracket. The ultimate winner was Billy Collins!

Here's what Ms. Humphries had to say about this project:

"I just hyperlinked names within the document to slides [from Poll Everywhere] and when voting time came, I just opened my other powerpoint with the voting slides. Super easy. The time-consuming portion was setting up the bracket at first, determining the poets and poems and keeping up with it day by day. We wanted new poems each time so we had to keep up with that as well. Worth the effort."

The kids loved this! They were talking about it for months after they finished. Perhaps next year, the students can do the hard part and find all the competing poems for you. :)

Animated .gif - March 2013

During a small break between yearbook and newspaper deadlines, Ms. Dowd's journalism classes show off some of their digital media skills by creating animated .gifs. Check out some of the files. What if you asked one of these talented students to create a file like this for you that showed the water cycle, the life cycle of a butterfly, or something similar? The possibilities are endless, and you could definitely keep the attention of all the onlookers in your classes. 

ifaketext - March 2013

Do you ever feel like your students are more interested in their text messages than they are in your class? Harness that love of txt spk and grab their attention using http://ifaketext.com/. In March, Ms. Midkiff did just that--Check out what she used as a warm up:

Remember, students can access this resource and turn in fake text messages to you as well. This is a great way to summarize a reading selection or concept, a good way to present vocabulary words for the first time, a good way to extend a conversation between two characters that may or may not have happened in a book. Ask about creating a digital dropbox if you use an assignment like this--it will cut down drastically on the amount of time you spend organizing all the great products your students create with an online means.

A Video - May 2013

Earlier this month I was working on a project for a conference that RRISD Instructional Technology is presenting at this summer and captured these great sentiments regarding technology use at CeVMS. I just had to share. Teachers, what you are doing makes an impact--even if the students don't tell you all the time.  

Some of the activities that were mentioned: IXL, Fakebook, Google Earth, Edmodo, the Poetry Bracket, BYOD, research....just to name a few. 

The sentiments of the 7th grade boys really stuck with me in regard to technology usage in the classroom. (I promise that we didn't even coach them on their responses to the second question!!!) Use of technology in an assignment simply to check off a box on the evaluation isn't true integration--these kids hit the nail right on the head. Listen to what they have to say; their points are genuine and valid. 

Finishing the Year Strong

I know that currently all of the carts/labs are checked out and being used during these last two weeks before finals. I look forward to all of the great products that your students are able to produce with the assistance of technology. If you have time, forward some of the great products to me. I promise to get the up on the blog before school starts next year.... 

Feature Me! - Getting I.T. Right @ Cedar Valley

Math in the Cloud
Small group settings make understanding difficult concepts much easier. That's why the 8th grade math and algebra classes at Cedar Valley have reorganized their classrooms to include mini-labs (although, I know they'd love having access to more computers!). Each of these classes has a minimum of 6 laptop or netbook computers in the room that students are asked to rotate through to complete online assignments. Using online programs like The Khan Academy and IXL, students can have their lessons tailored to their needs. When the students are not in their rotation on the computer, the teachers can focus more attention directly where the students need it based on feedback they receive from the online applications.

Mr. Lawrence and a student work in the Khan Academy online application.

Touring the Battlefields
Ms. Moore's 8th Grade History Class got to tour the Battles of the American Revolution without leaving the computer lab! By combining Google Earth with BatchGeo, Ms. Moore took her students on a fact-filled tour. Students were focused and engaged as they went from battle to battle--even if they flew over their own house or nearby present-day attractions with the additional features in Google Earth. At the end of each class Ms. Moore asked for feedback from the students who said that, once they got the hang of the program, it was much better than reading the information from a book. Maybe next time, the students will take Ms. Moore on a tour...

An 8th Grade student touring the Battles of the Revolution.

Cha...Cha...Changes!

6th Grade science classes are experiencing some changes--physical and chemical changes, that is. The students were asked to enhance their understanding of physical and chemical changes by watching video simulations. Ms. Ebers, one of the 6th grade science teachers, elaborates: "Lab experiments are fundamental to a true science learning experience. Many experiments are too dangerous to perform in class. With video simulations, students can have access to investigations and equipment not commonly available in the classroom."

Click here to take a look at some of the experiments that were analyzed. 

In addition to this opportunity, the 6th grade science classes used one of the district-provided, online resources--Discovery Education--to help them learn about physical and chemical changes. With Discovery Education, the students can view lessons at their leisure that will enhance their prior knowledge before they enter the classroom. This program focuses the lessons on the standards (TEKS) that will be tested later in the year and offers questions like students will see on the state assessment in 8th grade.

I want to be a Meteorologist when I grow up...
8th Grade science students just finished up their unit on weather with a visit from a local meteorologist. Albert Ramon from KVUE Weather in Austin gave students an inside look to what being a meteorologist is all about in his presentation to students and staff on October 4. But leading up to this presentation, students had to do a little weather predicting themselves. Mr. Cearley describes the preparation process:

"The Students are becoming their own meteorologist by looking at our local weather updates online and recording all of the weather data in the United States for a week and making assumptions and weather predictions based on the data that they have gathered and by interpreting the local weather stations online weather maps and radar systems. The students are learning what type of weather to associate with weather fronts, pressure systems, air masses and much more. If they have ever wanted to be a weather reporter before, now is their chance!"

Students used online resources like http://www.kvue.com/weather to formulate their predictions.

Foreign Language is Talking it UP!

The presentation of the Grant money to Ms. Macharia.

Congratulations go to Madame Macharia for applying for and receiving a grant from the Partners in Education Foundation. Ms. Macharia and the LOTE department are consistently featured on this blog for the innovative ways they use technology in the classroom, and they will no doubt continue to impress as the year progresses. Ms. Macharia was presented a PIEF Grant in front of the CeVMS staff on Monday, October 8. The LOTE department intends on using this grant money to purchase class sets of headphones which will be used to practice speaking the foreign languages with programs like Audacity which is used for the AP/IB French, German, Chinese and Spanish tests. We are anxious to see the products you all come up with!



CeVMS Teachers, if you have an exciting lesson happening in your classroom or that you observe in someone else's classroom that uses technology, please visit the Technology Webpage and submit the Feature Me! form. I love to hear what's happening around campus.