Time to Share

This week students will be sharing the presentations they have created. It has been a bit of a bumpy road for those students using "Prezi." For some reason, which we have not yet been able to troubleshoot, Prezi is not "playing nice" with Firefox. Students are having their Prezi's crash before they can be saved. We are also getting a message that "Adobe shockplayer plug in has crashed." Everything seems up to date in regard to add-on's and plug-in's. We have asked Mrs. Knittle to put it out to her strong on line community to see if others have been having similar problems. With all that taken in to account, many students will be prepared to share their presentations during our second class of the week. I can't wait to see this updated assignment.
On another note, about a month ago I shared a video created by our own B2B TV station. This broadcast featured BIS students and our superintendent. Students have asked how to see this video at home as many are featured and would like to share it with their families. You will need to check out the video at Vimeo where it is stored. This is the link: Superintendent Visits BIS.

A New Twist on an Old Assignment

With all of the up and coming changes in Massachusetts standards and curriculum, this week I am trying to get you prepared for your future.  Last week we worked on a "traditional" or "typical" assignment.  You were instructed to find a resource about a school related topic using our library databases and to paraphrase the information. The end product of that assignment was a well formed paragraph.  This week we are going to take the same assignment and update it; bring it in to the 21st century.  You will take the information your found last week, search for some images using the library databases again, and this time create a presentation.  I will not be assigning a specific presentation tool, but so recommend you use either your presentation tool in your Google docs or check out some of the others on the cooltoolsforschool WIKI.  The only other information I will give you is the following:
Topic:  same as the one you used for your paraphrasing activity
Content:  3-4 slides with images, text, backgrounds, and transitions
Sources:  must come from library databases
Sources:  must be cited correctly (not just URL's)

Have fun with this 21st century assignment!  I can't wait to see you present them in a couple of weeks!!