Activity #2: Engaging Pears and Movenote

First of all, anyone have any great ideas about how the Pear Deck people came up with that name? I mean, I like it, and let's be honest, the icon is super cute, but why Pear Deck? All I can think of when I hear the name is this:

I suppose it will become another one of life's mysteries! :) 

One of our activities in Minnesota History pretty early on in the school year is a wild rice celebration. After studying Minnesota's Early People as well as the importance of wild rice to the Ojibwe we have a Wild Rice Celebration. We like to have students learn a little more about the process of harvesting wild rice as well as taste it.

This past school year, I took a previously used presentation and created a Pear Deck. You can access the link here. I like Pear Deck in that you can encourage engagement while teaching. This is different than something like kahoot which demonstrates recall rather than new learning. I also like that you can stop responses so that students have a window to respond but aren't distracted by changing their responses throughout your teaching! Honestly, I think this feature is key!

I checked out Movenote as well. I like the concept of it, but it feels very much like screen casting which we are able to do without any extra steps. Is there something you have found to push Movenote beyond just basic screen-casting?

As with any interactive technology tool, I think that moderation actually ends up being super important. Our students are always needing new ways to engage, but if every presentation becomes a Pear Deck and every class period is followed by a Kahoot, I feel we run the risk of demonstrating to our students that the only way to stay mentally engaged is to have a screen in front of them. In my teaching, I prefer to have these interactive presentations be kick-offs or wrap-ups to units, mid-unit check-ins, etc. That balance is something I struggle with and I think is such a new frontier in world of teaching. I would love to hear your thoughts on this!

That's all for now, I am off to enjoy a juicy pear and sit on my deck! :)

Activity #1: Gadgets, Novels, and Orphans

I feel it a great success that it only took me two weeks into the summer to get back into "work-mode" enough to complete this first activity. Already, I have made great use of my summer, taking a cruise out of LA to Ensenada, Mexico and then celebrating my grandmother's 85th birthday.

Doesn't she look great??

Anyway, after celebrating the first two weeks of summer like a champ, I now have my mind on technology for my classroom. Next year I will be teaching Minnesota History. This will be the first time in my 6 years of teaching that I am full-time social studies, and I am excited to focus solely on social studies. I see great opportunities in this non-standardized-tested area to really incorporate cross-curriculuar teaching and integrate technology in many ways. 

Often times Social Studies gets a bad rap for showing too many movies, but I find it incredibly valuable to show short clips of videos as introductions to topics or as kick-offs to discussions. Christina Baker Kline recently released a novel called Orphan Train. Amazon says: "Moving between contemporary Maine and Depression-era Minnesota, Orphan Train is a powerful tale of upheaval and resilience, second chances, and unexpected friendship." I haven't read the novel yet, but I know that this storyline and information will be incredibly engaging for my students when we talk about the Great Depression in Minnesota. I am looking forward to learning more and found this video clip of a 98 year old woman who tells her story of riding the Orphan Train to Minnesota. Unfortunately, the CBS website doesn't link videos well to blogger so here is the link. 

An additional video with history of the Orphan Trains is embedded below: 

Beyond videos in social studies, I am excited about using blogger in my classroom. At Highview we use blogger for our teacher webpages and I have found it to be an incredibly useful tool! I spend a fair amount of time throughout the year keeping my website up to date and I am excited that my students will be able to have computer access in my classroom throughout the entire year. I will be able to use my website to an even greater extent. In the past, I have had students create blogs for different activities, however, I find that blogs are actually a bit cumbersome for students to create for a project, there are many other interactive technologies out there that are easier for student use. For myself however, my communication with kids and parents, and the linking of assignments and resources, I LOVE blogger.

As far as my gadgets and pages go, I love the idea of a weekly poll on my website to encourage students and parents to visit my page. The page I created includes novels about Minnesota. It's a great way to keep kids thinking about Minnesota outside of my classroom. The credit for the created list goes to Tara Hupton, who spent time putting it all together!

I think that's all for now!