Feature Me! -- Getting I.T. Right @ CeVMS

Fuel Up to Play 60

According to their website, "Fuel Up to Play 60 is an in-school nutrition and physical activity program launched by National Dairy Council (NDC) and NFL, in collaboration with the USDA, to help encourage today’s youth to lead healthier lives." Students and staff at Cedar Valley are joining the Fuel Up to Play 60 movement. In the past few weeks, almost every student and staff member has signed up to be a part of the effort put forth by the Athletics, Wellness, Health and Physical Education team at Cedar Valley. Students have pledged to be active at least 60 minutes a day.

CeVMS PE and Athletic students in the lab signing up for Fuel Up to Play 60.

Why is this making the Getting I.T. Right! Blog? Because the tracking portion of this program is online! You can sign up to be part of Cedar Valley's effort as a supporter. You can help your students track their progress. You can use this site as a resource to become a healthier you.

Eat healthy. Get Active. Make a difference.

Moore than Just Social Media

Ms. Moore's 8th Grade History class was caught "Fakebooking" in class! Thanks to Ms. Dowd and the yearbook editors for finding this great project. Here's what they had to say about Ms. Moore's project: "She is having her kids create a [Fakebook] page for a famous person from the Revolutionary War using a classroom learning tool that looks like Facebook...the project is a huge hit!" 

Take a look at some of the awesome projects that were turned in by Ms. Moore's class:

http://www.classtools.net/fb/1/QDSkdm

http://www.classtools.net/fb/51/NjRB4c

http://www.classtools.net/fb/82/YeL9AD

http://www.classtools.net/fb/82/34N2TX

Taking Polling to the People

Ms. Dowd's yearbook and journalism classes want your opinion. At least, that is what they told 6th grade dance attendees. In an effort to get more information straight from the horse's mouth, the yearbook and journalism classes are taking the polls directly to the Cedar Valley Student body. The 6th grade dance poll was the first of many that will pop up this year as the journalism students prepare for their submission dates to the yearbook. This week, 8th grade students cast their votes in a mock presidential election with a BYO Device in their US History Classes.

Poll Results from Google Form submissions to questions asked at the 6th grade dance.

Do you want to know the full results? You'll have to purchase a yearbook!

On the Prowl for Energy

Ms. Thomas's 6th grade science classes are on the prowl for examples of potential or kinetic energy. They captured their examples with Flip Cams and presented their findings to the whole class. Using technology allowed them to get out of the classroom and experience the types of energy in real world settings.

Ms. Thomas caught some of her class in action as they rolled down the ramp.

Remind101 in Action

Ms. Deitch is harnessing the power of a text message with her 8th grade math classes. Ms. Deitch used the information provided to teachers from this Tech Tip over Remind101 to get her classes signed up.

Check out some of the messages that help her class (or friendly neighborhood ITSs) come prepared:

Messages sent by Ms. Deitch to people subscribed to her class.

A digital portfolio in your pocket: BYOD in action

Ms. Ehman's project was turned in to Feature Me! by a fellow art teacher, Ms. O'Leary, who in turn stole the idea for her own class. 6th Grade art students were told that they could bring their electronic devices into class to take pictures of their artwork to create a digital portfolio to take home and show off. This is a great way to expose parents to what is happening in the class and allow the artwork to stay on display at school. Both groups benefit from allowing the students to bring in their own devices to capture the pictures digitally.

Erasing The R Word

Ms. Barker's Leadership classes made a bold statement as they presented to the entire student body during long lunches on March 7. They used a combination of technology skills as they prepared and presented.

Previously in the semester Ms. Barker's classes did Public Service Announcements (PSA) to send out to the student body about bullying. They used flip cams to capture (scripted) bullying incidents on tape and then what reactions should be. They brought some of these same videos and skits into their presentation to the student body.

They also partnered with Ms. Biven and some of the Partners in PE to put a CeVMS face to the cause. Take a look at the compilation that they made and showed to the entire student body.



During the presentation, students captured the performances on stage and the reactions of the audience members on tape. They haven't had time to edit it down, but hopefully, when they do, I can share that with you as well.

The Leadership students gave a charge to the student body asking them to take a stand and be the voice for someone who is unable or unwilling to speak for themselves.

You can join them and take the plegde to "Erase the R Word" too by going to http://www.sotx.org/ for more information.

Comercial Español

Ms. Ruiz de Chavez's class is at it again as they use FlipCams to practice their conversational Spanish skills.

Check out one of the submitted commercials. Would you take them up on their offer?

Bonjour, parlez-vous français?

I sure don't, but some of our Cedar Valley Jags are using technology to practice their French fluency with their pen pals. Madame Macharia's French classes communicate regularly with their pen pals from le collège de la Vallée in Avon, near Paris. For their most recent correspondence, students created video tours of Cedar Valley Middle School. Not only were students challenged by perfecting their French accents and looking good for the camera, but also by integrating technology components such as operating a flip cam, uploading footage to a shared folder, converting video files, and editing the video in Windows Live Movie Maker.

Here are some of the groups collaborating in the computer Lab:

Photos edited with http://www.picnik.com/

Take a look at some of the finished products:

Aren't they talented?

Au revoir! Until next time, Jags!