Mrvaudrey

Category: Ed Tech

  • 20% Project Presentations – November 2013

    After 11 weeks, 15 class periods, 3 software updates, and 5 topic changes, the 20% Projects were finally presented to an audience on November 15th. In attendance were Ms. Fay, the Principal; Ms. Garcia, the Assistant Principal; Ms. Smith, the science teacher; Ms. Zipper, the instructional aide; and Mr. Cumbow, the network administrator for the district. Add to that a couple dozen parents, and you have all the makings of a large–yet respectful–audience.

    This project started here, with the help of several other teachers across the country that are doing this same project.

    My favorite moments:

    • The crowd’s “whoa” when Andrew showed his own drawing.
    • Dylan’s encouragement to “Be grateful for the little things”
    • Two female students changed their topicB the day before, and still nailed it.
    • Jerel chose to research Dodge because “the car represents muscle and speed… like me”.
    • Victor, Herson, and Ramiro using carbon-fiber cleats “because they’re cheaper”
    • Malea looked up what a Popshield was, so she could explain how it’s used in the studio.

    Next time:

    • Have more formal declarations of topic and guiding question. Many questions changed during the course of the research, and they would be closer tied to the topic if they had tattooed it somewhere.
    • Put a sign on my door that says “Please wait for applause before you enter” or just prop the door open.
    • Turn down the brightness on the projector so it shows up on video.

    ~Matt “It was actually more like 27.3%” Vaudrey

    P.S. This is the first post in which I use students’ actual names. In the past, I have used (and will use, in the future) pseudonyms, and confirmed with Ms. Fay that it’s legal for me to use their names here. Parents, please call if you’d like your student’s name removed.

  • Stage Presence, Google Drive, and Twitter questions.

    Noted teacher, Tweeter, and recent real-life colleague Robert Kaplinsky asked about this tweet today:

    There’s a lot happening in and around my class, specifically with regard to the students’ 20% Projects, so how about I just tell you what I told him.

    The TED talk notes on Stage Presence were in conjunction with prepping my iPad class on their 20% projects. I got the idea from Kate Acker, who had her seniors watch TED videos on mute, making observations on stage presence only.

    As you may imagine, about 20% of the notes were potent (a fitting ratio), but it led to a good class discussion with a few students declaring their intent.

    “I’m gonna make sure to look at the audience!”
    “Can I walk around the room? Sweet!”

    What I neglected to mention to Robert (until now) is how the shared Note-taking thing worked (and how it worked out).

    Shared Note-Taking

    1.) This class has 1:1 iPads. They had previously downloaded the Google Drive app and logged in with one of my Gmail accounts (created specifically for this purpose).

    2.) All students open Google Drive and open the spreadsheet that I had previously created for them. As you can see, student names run down the left, name of the speaker runs across the top.

    3.) With 17 students all active on the same spreadsheet, it gets a little glitchy. Toward the end, some students are getting frustrated, insisting “Franz deleted my note!”.

    4.) Only 17 students (out of the 22) are participating on their iPads, because two students have theirs confiscated pending a parent conference. One is absent, and one is lazy; she sits vacantly at her seat until I poke her with a pencil, at which point, she mumbles, “I can’t log in.” Super.

    5.) The resulting notes (spread over a couple days) give us fodder for a class discussion on stage presence. I highlight a few boxes that interest me and we talk about them. Hopefully, they’ll take them to heart when we do a rehearsal next Wednesday.

    As long as I’m hoping for things…

    bigassburger

    ~Matt “100 by 100” Vaudrey

    *It’s also notable here that I first heard of shared note-taking at the CUE conference in a session by Bill Selak.

  • Teacher Report Card – Google Form

    UPDATE 2018 March 7: There are now copy-able Google forms for Teachers, Coaches, and Administrators.

    I went big this year.

    My usual “Teacher Report Card” has been put to Google for quick data analysis.B

    Here’s a copy that you are free to save to your own Google Drive, if you so desire.

    Stay tuned for the data analysis. I’ll be posting the spreadsheet hereB unedited, because too many people are thinking I’ve got my act together, and it’s time to set the record straight. Here’s a paraphrased quote1 from Dave Burgess:

    Looking at my classroom, some think that creativity just comes easy to me. This isn’tB easy for me. There were dozens of times I’ve brought new ideas to the class and they’ve bombed terribly. No, the reason teachers succeed is because they failB so often, and it’s usually messy.

    In truth, good teaching is making lots of grand mistakes2, then fixing them. (Michael is a fine role model in this regard.)

    In teaching, you rarely notice you’ve made a mistake until it’s too late.

    More on mistakes with the follow-up to this post next week.

    ~Mr. V

    Also, here is a hard copy for download, in case a digital survey isn’t plausible in your class:B Teacher Report Card – Hard Copy

    1. English teachers, I know those two terms are contradictory.b)
    2. See Daniel Dennett for more on this.b)

  • Cheese Crackers – iPad Pics

    There was one more tech integration on the Cheese Cracker Square Root Showdown.

    Students in the iPad class were prompted to explain (via picture) the lesson to the next class.

    They took a picture, edited in Skitch, then uploaded to the class DropBox folder. Some of them are pretty sweet.

    Photo upload tip:

    Have students put their name on the photo somewhere. They are very sad if they have to re-do the whole thing.