Crazy Weather

We are trapped in quite a crazy weather cycle.  It has felt more like winter in March than it did in January or February.  Mother Nature couldn't seem to make up her mind on Sunday.  Every time I looked out the window yesterday afternoon the form of precipitation had changed once again.  It was definitely a good day to stay inside.  I hope you all stayed warm and dry!!
Today you will finish the presentation you started during your first class last week.  Most of you missed your second class last week. Please be sure to read all text on slides and associated documents carefully and completely.  If need be, please be sure to read again.  You should have all of the resources you will need.  You should be very familiar with this process and I am sure you will do a great job.
Link to Website Evaluation Activity
If you should finish the final slide of this presentation before the end of class, you should get a book from the back table and read silently at your workstation.
Please be sure to take your time and do a great job on this assignment.
If you had both sessions last and finished this presentation, you will need to work on your blog.  Please create and edit a new post.  Then work on your design.  If you should complete this grab a copy of the book from the back table and read silently at your workstation.

2 Sides 2 Tech Revisited

The month of December is flying by very quickly.  I don't know about you, but I can't wait for our first snow storm.  Don't get me wrong; I'm not looking for a snow day.  As a matter of fact, I don't want any snow days!!!!  I like getting out of school early in June.  I am looking for some of the white fluffy stuff.  Do you like snow?  How do you feel about snow days?  I have heard the forecast is predicting a very stormy and snowy winter.  If nothing else, we need to at least have a "white" Christmas.  Coincidentally that is the title of one of my favorite Christmas movies.  Do you have a favorite holiday movie?  Maybe your favorite is on the AMC Top 20 Christmas Movie list.  I suppose we can wish all we want for snow, but it won't make it happen.  We should all probably be sure to keep mittens or gloves in our backpacks just in case.
During our first class this week we will revisit the "2 sides to our digital lives."  Let's take another look at this video.  You have only one class to complete a group task.  You will create a "poster."  Yes, you heard me right.  We are going "old school" this week.  You and two other classmates will create a poster showing the two side to your digital life.  Any exemplar posters will be hung throughout the hallways of our school.  You must get this task completed in one class; so you will need to work quickly.
During class two, you will do the final revision of your first blog post and complete your blogger profiles.  These both need to be completed by the end of class two so we can upload them next week.  Be sure to use the packet in your Workstation Resource folder.  If you have any time at the end of class two, you may also dig in to your blog design some more. **
I know many of you are gearing up for our vacation, but it is still a couple weeks away.  Please stay focused and keep working hard.
Have a super week!!
**If you are in the December concert and miss class two due to rehearsals, you need to make up this missed class and complete your first blog post.  Please come and see me to get your most recent feedback.

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More Website Evaluation

Let it snow?!!!!  Our first "snow day" of 2016, and hopefully our last!  Mother Nature has given us a "one-two punch" of sorts in these past 4 days.  It started with the storm on Friday, punch number one, and continued with Monday's storm, punch number two.  The Boston Globe shared the following on line report.  Check it out.  The forecast predicts lingering snow flurries for most of this week, and plummeting temperatures. There goes out mild winter.  How do you feel about this weather?  Does it remind you at all of last year?
This week we will move forward with website evaluation.  I also need to collect your blog URL's so I can create a sheet for sharing with classmates.  I have assigned a new "announcement" and a new  "assignment" in Google Classroom.  The announcement shares a link to a video about website evaluation.  I am using a new tool, "EdPuzzle" with this video.  Gone are the days of sitting motionless watching a video.  You will have a variety of questions pop up while you are watching the video.  Be sure to think before answering.  I am so curious to see how this new tool works and more importantly how you like it.  Before "opening" the assignment, you will need to get a "mystery" QR code from me.  You will use the information from this "mystery site" to complete the Website Evaluation Activity Form you have been assigned.
I hope our week will not be cut in half by Mother Nature, and we will only miss one day.  Please be sure to get your incomplete assignments turned in to me by the end of the week.
Have a relaxing and safe vacation!!!
   ~Mrs. White :)

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Let's Give It a Whirl

Let's see if we can make it through a week without a snow day or snow delay!  Unfortunately we do have a half day on Friday.  Teachers will be getting together to do some work.  I actually got together with some teachers on Saturday.  Many teachers from BIS attended the 6th Annual Homegrown Technology Conference.  It was a super day.  We investigated Google Docs and Google Classroom in our lab.  I learned a lot and had a great time doing it!  Maybe next year I will ask some of my students to help out!
This week you will turn in your Blog Design Assessment Part 1 assignment in Google Classroom if you did not get to it last week.  I will be grading and returning these to you over the next week.  Once you have completed this assignment, we will take a look at Diigo.  This is a super bookmarking tool.  You will be able to use it on your iPads and your workstations.  It is cloud based, so you can find your bookmarks anywhere.  You will create a school Diigo account.  This will come in very useful when you are doing your research.
Once you have created this account, you will finally begin your research.  Start looking for website, evaluate the sites, and then begin collecting data from the reliable ones.
Have a super week!
                          ~Mrs. White :)

Here We Go Again....

February Vacation has officially begun (well it actually started at 2:45 p.m. on Friday!)  I am sitting at my computer watching the wind whip around the snow outside my window.  It is actually snowing sideways!!  I understand this won't be "Nemo II" the sequel, but high winds and measureable snow are forecasted for us.  Therefore I am scrambling to do anything requiring the use of electricity in the next couple of hours. 
Before we lose power, if we should lose power, I wanted to take a moment to comment on the excitement I was feeling in my lab before vacation.  I'm not talking about the, "vacation is almost here" excitement, but about the podcast script writing excitement.  My students are really taking this assignment seriously.  As I looked around during one of my classes I noticed students not only accessing sites which had come up in their searches, but also using Pinterest because they had created a "board" and "pinned" resources at home earlier!!!  One group was typing their script on their workstation and using a Kindle to bring up their pins.  The range of "How To's" for this podcasting series is wide and extremely interesting.  Students were up out of their seats pretending to swing baseball bats as their partners hastily keyboarded the sequence of moves.  It will be very exciting when we begin our recording and then move to editing.  I am sure my students will master Audacity quickly.  I am doubtful they will lose their enthusiasm over vacation.
I hope all of my hard working students enjoy this week off from school.  I know some are traveling while others are sitting at home watching these flakes soar sideways.  I will be thinking of them all if we lose power.  I remember how bored they were last weekend when Nemo took it away for a while. 
Let's keep our fingers crossed that we will stay "connected!!"

Digging Out and Charging Up!!

WOW!  Nemo left quite a mark for such a small fish!!  The Blizzard of 2013 will be remembered as one of the worst storms to hit our area.  I consider myself very lucky to have only lost power for 50 hours or so.  My house is intact and my family is safe!!!  I am sitting with my students, okay maybe half of a class, who are blogging themselves.  Our schools are open, though many of our students were not able to make it in today.  Parts of Cape Cod are still without power.  Many extraordinary stories are unfolding.   I feel as though our crews, both town and utility, did an unbelievable job to get us back to "normal" or as close as we currently are this morning.  I heard a chain saw running at 1 o'clock this morning!! YIKES!  I give those workers credit.  Can you imagine still going at that hour?!!!!  It was amazing to see the out pouring of help from local businesses.  For those of us who could access social media such as Facebook on our devices the posts inviting people in to businesses to "charge" up devices, and get warmed up were abounding.  Some local business owners were providing coffee, breakfast, and even pizza for lunch- free of charge!!!  I love it when Cape Codders pull together like that!!
As for my students who are missing school today.......we are working on our blogs; adding another post.  If you are sitting at home and have Internet, I'd love to hear about your experiences.  Remember to be careful about revealing too much personal information!  I hope all of my students are safe, warm, and dry.  I know for some of you it was a tough couple of days.  I am sure some of your homes sustained damage from the storm.  I hope to see you in school tomorrow morning.  I especially hope you and your families were the recipients of some of that good old Cape Cod neighborly assistance along the way!

Image Link:  http://www.capecodonline.com/apps/pbcs.dll/article?AID=/20130211/NEWS11/130219964/-1/NEWS