Where in the World Will You Go Today? VR Experiences

Have you ever wanted to dive deep down into the ocean and explore the coral reefs or hike the Yellowstone National Park?  Students and staff celebrated Earth Day with a virtual reality tour of our earth by taking a guided tour with virtual glasses and seeing realistic 3D images.

Some of the tours students and staff experienced were:

Coral Reefs

Take a tour of some of the most biodiverse areas in our oceans. Coral reefs have all types of marine life.

National Parks

Experience the majesty of America's vast terrains and beautiful landscapes through trips to three of its most prestigious national parks.

Antarctica

Antarctica is Earth's southernmost continent, and contains the geographic South Pole. It is situated in the Antarctic region of the Southern Hemisphere, almost entirely south of the Antarctic Circle, and is surrounded by the Southern Ocean. It is the coldest, driest, and windiest continent, and has the highest average elevation of all the continents.

Galapagos Islands

The Galápagos Islands, a volcanic archipelago in the Pacific Ocean, is a province of Ecuador, lying about 1,000km off its coast, and considered one of the world's foremost destinations for wildlife-viewing. Take a trip into the historic and beautiful island.

BMS Staff check out this powerpoint presentation to help you get started with Virtual Reality in your classroom!

Red Ball Challenge

iEngineer students took on the Red Ball Challenge! 

If you’re interested in trying this out with your students, here are resources below that I used to help me get started.  The YouTube video was really helpful!  This would be a fun activity during testing season!  An iEngineer student can also come help lead this in your classroom too! Students could start creating these on their iPads but would need to have computers/laptops to run the final animation together. 

YouTube Tutorial Video

Red Ball Challenge Directions

LAUNCH Passion Project Reflections

Since BMS has started the group iEngineers, these students have been challenged with working on a passion project, a project that incorporates something they are passionate about and taking the initiative to learn more about on their own with support.  This year I have the privilege to work with these students everyday to share my passions and resources on technology we have here at BMS.  Being able to work with them everyday, has challenged me to try out new things with this group.  I'm excited to share with you a design process called LAUNCH.  I learned about this process through my reading of John Spencer's book in my TIS group.  I created a LAUNCH passion project reflection using this design process,  to share with my students to use for their evidence and journaling of the process of learning about their passion idea.  Here are some of the resources I have shared with my students and encourage teachers to check them out to see how you could implement this LAUNCH idea into your classroom. 

Comisar LAUNCH Passion Project Reflection Example

Comisar LAUNCH Passion Project Template- I used this template to share with students and as part of my PGP the students helped me to SPICE it up with Google Slide features.   Here is the hyperdoc I used to share resources to make a Google Slides presentation even better. 

The STEAM Creativity Fair, which is during conferences, is Thursday, April 25th.  Please come see and support the AMAZING passion projects that will be on display that the iEngineer students have worked on so hard this year.  Think about how you can incorporate more STUDENT VOICE into your classroom using this LAUNCH approach! 

What Will You Make?! Makey Makey Interactive Poster

Makey Makey is a fun educational tool that students can use to make something more interactiveand hands- on. To get students excited, we watch the Intro Makey Makey Video and students are WOWED by how it works.  Check it out for yourself!

 In a 6th grade math class, students are working to create their own word problems to become interactive with the Makey Makey.  Here is a sample I created to show the students how it will look when they finish.

Students will learn how to program the Makey Makey controls (on the back of the poster) with the website Scratch.  When students interact with the problem, here is the program that will show them if the answer is right or wrong by touching the copper mathematical symbols: Scratch Interactive Word Problem.  

Other ways students have used Makey Makey:

• In music class to create their own keyboard to make sounds/music.  
• Interactive Maps in Social Studies
• Interactive Art Project 

SPARK IT UP with Adobe Spark Post

Most of us are familiar with Adobe Spark Video but have you heard of Adobe Spark Post?!  Adobe Spark Post is another creative app/website included in their bundle EDU package.  I'm really impressed with all of the different platforms and creative features of their apps and websites! 

 

Adobe Spark Post reminds me of Canva, where you can create graphic designs and they look professionally.  The Adobe Spark Post app is pretty simple to use and their are many templates to choose from.  It's similar to Pic Collage but looks more professionally and they have quite the collection of templates to choose from.   I discovered that I will be doing my family Holiday cards on this app next year =).    Here is a sample of a collage I made in a couple of minutes using an already created template and just added my own text and images.  There is a category labeled "School" where there are shared templates to use for different subjects.  This could be another way students create their assignments using digital art media!  

No Green Screen Needed

This is a GAME CHANGER for teachers who have searched and searched for a free app or website to use a green screen feature! It's as simple as going to https://www.remove.bg/ and uploaded an image.  YES, it does work on iPads and mobile devices!  You can see my EXCITEMENT below with my original picture and how the website removes the background! MAGIC!

                                             

BOOM!

The finished picture I created on Google Drawings on my Chromebook by finding an image background and inserting my photo.  If you're on an iPad or mobile device, you can create a background using the app Pic Collage.  Try it out!  Watch out- it's addictive!  

#oneword2019

HAPPY NEW YEAR BULLDOGS!  

My one word for 2019 is JOY!  I want to find the JOY in life and embrace it- running, reading, spending time with my family, being outdoors, working, etc.

What is YOUR one word for 2019?!

Check out the twitter #oneword2019 hastag feed for some fun lessons to share with your students like flipgrid, pic collage, etc.

This is a hyperdoc I found below on Twitter that would be FUN to share with students!  Click on the hyperdoc link to make a copy of the template and to make it your own like I did.    I will be sharing this with my advisory students on Monday.