Project Prep Proceeds

I hope you all enjoyed your long weekend.  I spent most of mine driving with my daughter from Tennessee. She is home for a quick visit so it was nice to get the extra time with her and Tallululah (her golden retriever) in the car.  Any guesses as to how long it takes to drive from Nashville to Cape Cod?

Before we start class today we need to do something for our school community.  Mrs. Finnemore and the Yearbook Club would like us to take the 2016 Pop Culture Survey.  The results will appear in the yearbook this spring.  Please answer the questions honestly and be sure to submit it when you have finished.

After completing this survey, please check you email on your iPad (or workstation.) There is an important announcement in Google Classroom everyone must read!!  After you have read the announcement you will start with the work listed below.

This week you will continuing "prepping" for your first group meeting.  You need to ready so you will be a productive and effective group member.  You will be taking notes, searching for more sources, and taking more notes.  Keep your question in mind, and more importantly keep thinking of a possible solution or answer.   You will need to print out your research if you took digital notes. (Don't worry, I will hang on to the hard copy for your!!)

Once you have finished your research, you will do a quick Spring Cleaning of Your Digital Life .  Please use the resource I have left at your workstation or open the link above.

The final task of the week is to explore and select a "mind mapping" tool.  I have a couple of app options and Google Drawing.  Mind mapping is a very cool way to make your thinking visible.  This will be another piece your will bring to your first team meeting along with your research.

Project Based Learning.....Here We Come!!!

Happy Spring?!!  The weather doesn't seem to agree with the calendar.  Oh well, I guess if we look back a year, we would see over a foot of snow on the ground.  So I guess we shouldn't complain.  Why does Spring begin on a Sunday in March anyway?  The Farmer's Almanac shares a great explanation of this change of seasons.  Be sure to take a look.

This week we will bring together all of the skills we have been working on over the past month.  You will select a project to work on.  You will find the choices and other necessary resources in a book I have created for you.  I have left a hard copy of instructions for downloading this book into your iBooks library.  Please follow them carefully and let me know if you have any questions.  I cannot wait to see the end results of your work!!

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Grinding Out Citations

I know this is going to be a tough week; adjusting to the time change.  UGH!!  It is a little bit of a bummer to wake up and have it be dark.(sad face emoji)  The flip side is how light it is at night now!(hands in the air emoji)   Here are fun facts about Daylight Savings.
We will continue with our EasyBib Activity in Google Classroom.  I have been struggling with a way to make you understand how much simpler it is to use EasyBib than to be hand writing out citations.  I figured it out.  I am going to make you hand write out a citation.
You will end the week by creating and publishing a new blog post.  The final twist is you will be doing a self-evaluation of your blog.  As you can see, our week is very full.   We can get through this together.
  ~Mrs. White :)

Hello Opeartor

Here we are in the first full week of March.  This weekend marks an important event.  Do you know what it is?  On this Sunday, March 13th, we will have to change our clocks.  "Spring Ahead" as the saying goes.  Why do we change our clocks?  What is Daylight Savings Time all about anyway?  If you would like some answers then check out this site.  Be prepared to be a little sleepy on Monday morning as we will lose an hour.  UGH!!

As for our learning this week, we will take a look at some more tips and tricks for improving our searches.  This week we will talk about the "7 Operators."  You will also be introduced to EasyBib and find out a quick and easy way to create proper citations.  This is a great guide for using this tool.  We will also take a look at adding an "extension" from the Chrome Store and download the app on your iPads!  Some very cool stuff.  Let's start by watching this introductory video on citations.

Enjoy your week and rest up!!!

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