Hour of Code 2019: Dance Party!

It seems like “DaNcE pArTy” is the common theme to celebrate this year’s Computer Science Education Week (otherwise known as “Hour of Code”)!

December 9-15, 2019 is the official week that is designated as this year’s Computer Science Education Week, but of course you can host an “Hour of Code” ANY TIME with these free resources:

From Code.org:

Say hello to Dance Party 2019
With the Hour of Code only a few weeks away, we’re excited to unveil the latest additions to one of our most popular activities, Dance Party! You can look forward to new backgrounds, new coding blocks, and new music from artists like Lil Nas X, Nicki Minaj, Panic! At The Disco, Jonas Brothers, Pedro Capó, and Katy Perry. There’s even a brand-new Dance Party character designed by middle schooler Genevieve P from Edison, NJ! Read more on our blog.

From Apple’s Everyone Can Code:

Excerpt from https://www.apple.com/newsroom/2019/11/apple-expands-everyone-can-code-to-bring-more-coding-resources-to-teachers-and-students/  

"New Everyone Can Code Curriculum

The new Everyone Can Code curriculum builds on existing interactive puzzles, guides and activities to make learning to code even more approachable and connected to students’ everyday lives. Everyone Can Code Puzzles is an all-new student guide to Swift Playgrounds where each chapter helps students build on what they already know, experiment with new coding concepts and creatively communicate how coding impacts their lives. A companion teacher guide supports educators in bringing coding into their classrooms with helpful ways to facilitate, deepen and assess student learning.”

This year’s Hour of Code Facilitator Guide features Dance as students program a virtual MeeBot character to dance and then make a video of it. The new Swift Playground activities to accompany this activity are featured in the Swift Playgrounds library. You could even purchase an actual robot that you could build and then program to interact with your code. Even without this purchase, students can have hours of coding fun with dance moves and the virtual robot inside of Swift Playgrounds. 

And so, Let’s Dance with Code!

Code, Create, and Connect with Community

Code, Create, and Connect with Community.

All powerful aims for today's classroom. Yet the first two without the third leaves learning in a void.

It is exciting to see a renewed interest in Challenge Based Learning​ following last week's Leadership & Learning event put on by Apple's Community Engagement Initiative team.

During the Academy, educators and school leaders used the CBL framework to guide their work as they developed an app prototype to address a community challenge. 

Participants ENGAGEd in the Challenges presented by expert guest speakers, they INVESTIGATEd the issues by asking Guiding Questions, participating in Guiding Activities, and analyzing the results, and they ACTed by creating a solution in the form of an app prototype and sharing their work in a massive app showcase to gain feedback.

Even more importantly, educators thought about how they could transform their learning communities through Challenge Based Learning. 

 "We spend time on engagement, but engagement is fleeting. Ownership of the learning should be the goal."

For a supporting workshop we created the attached resource and we'd love to share it with others as well. It is an interactive hyperlinked presentation that only runs by tapping the images and icons on the slides. Download from the dropbox link, open in Keynote, click PLAY, and "choose your own adventure" through the wealth of curated resources and examples it contains. 

Herbert Spencer said, "The great aim of education is not knowledge but action." CBL allows us all to take action and make a difference. Join us for new and greater challenges to come!

                                        http://bit.ly/cblconsiderations

2019 Digital Citizenship Week - for Teachers

This week, October 14-18, is Digital Citizenship Week. Digital Citizenship Week is a good time remember to incorporate DigCit lessons into our classrooms and school culture. However, like with other similar campaigns, we shouldn't limit our students' exposure to this important topic solely during this week. The following are some current resources to jump start DigCit activities this week and throughout the school year.  Use the latest films from ILovePublicSchools to spur discussion with students and faculty. The Mind Inside: Episode Two was released just last Friday and it tackles a highly sensitive topic (suicide) and the implications of social media on today's kids. If time or nature doesn't allow viewing of the full length film, then perhaps watching the 3 minute trailer would be enough to launch healthy discussion with our students about their digital device usage in today's world.  There are two sides to every issue. DigCitCommit is a new coalition working to promote the positive side of digital citizenship. Included on the site is a DigCitCommit Challenge where prizes can be earned for classroom projects.  Also, the following links take you to additional Digital Citizenship resources for teachers: Free Lessons from Nearpod and Flocabulary Common Sense Education's Digital Citizenship Week Update Google's Be Internet Awesome curriculum — including 26 ready-to-teach #digcit lessons powered by Pear Deck, 6 Flashcard Factory vocabulary lists, family resources, and more. Free (online) DigCitSummit this week from the Digital Citizenship Institute. Register for a time slot ASAP.

2019 DigCit Week - Student Creations

Students from ESU 8 who attended this year's Nebraska Digital Citizenship Symposium created positive campaigns to take back to their school and community for DigCitWeek 2019.

O'Neill High School

8th grade students from O'Neill High School created the following video PSAs to share with students at both the Elementary and High School buildings.

In addition, this O'Neill High School Digital Citizenship team appeared on Eagle Eye Broadcasting- Daily Announcements during DigCit Week and shared their message. 

West Holt High School

7th grade students from West Holt created a social media campaign with graphics shared on their school twitter channel all week long. 

Ewing Public School

6th and 7th grade students from Ewing Public School organized a TikTok challenge for Digital Citizenship Week. 

Thank you, ESU 8 students, for showing all of us how we can each "Be the One" to make a difference online. 

Topics and Trends in Tech Integration (ESU 8 Newsletter article)

Topics and Trends in Tech Integration

By Katie Morrow, ESU 8

The following are current technology integration projects and practices that ESU 8 schools have been busy with recently. Remember that the invitation is always open if you see something from this list that you would like to try in your classroom. Contact us at ESU 8 and we would love to help get something planned in your school!

• Digital book creation: A digital book is so much more than a book. Rather it is a container/organizer for all kinds of learning! Use a digital book as an investigation journal, a portfolio, a class collection of pages on a larger topic, or even a way to document a school event. Publish and share with the world without wasting any printer ink!
• Creative media production: Whether a quick project like the greenscreen “Wormhole Challenge” or a class project like content area student-produced videos, students can practice interview skills, speaking skills, editing and creativity. Videos are a universal way to share what is being learned in the classroom with the rest of the world!
• VR and AR: Virtual and augmented reality can bring content to life. Students can experience apps to take them places they couldn’t normally go: for example the inside of body systems or underneath the ocean floor. Also possible is students creating their own VR and AR creations with tools such as Google's Tour Creator, AR Makr app, or Blippar.
• Digital resources for research: Utilize World Book online, Learn 360, or Virtual Field Trips to connect your class with first rate global resources- all with virtually no cost. Avoid simply going on a Google search and use higher quality resources for whatever your next educational project may be.
• Blended Learning and PBL: Here’s a framework or a learning methodology to make your next project more student directed. Student agency empowers learners to be responsible for choices impacting their productivity and understanding of content. Make your next unit more personalized by blending in some project based learning or station rotation experiences.  
• Gamify with assessment tools: Use technology for your next classroom review session and make learning fun! There are so many readily available formative assessment tools that you can choose a new one each unit so students don’t grow tired of any of them. Even some traditional tools have new features, so ask about ways to gamify that next class review session. 
• Learning Management System tools like Canvas or Google Classroom: The easiest way to take technology integration to the next level in your classroom is to employ a system of content delivery and student interaction. Even Apple Classroom has updates to make their newest technology more manageable for all. Work with us to uncover ways your LMS can allow for more productive learning environments. 
• Coding: Expose students to computational thinking by integrating some analog "intro to coding” activities. Or give them time to explore Swift Playgrounds on iPad or the code.org website. Or bring the Sphero programmable robots to your school for a coding kick-off activity. Once you get kids hooked, the sky is the limit for their future!

For additional ideas and examples from ESU 8 schools recently, be sure to check out my Instructional Tech at ESU 8 blog at: https://esu8tech.blogspot.com  

Be creative to help get "back in the groove!"

Back to School time around ESU 8 was filled with new facilities, new personnel, and new expectations for an amazing school year. Many of the activities incorporated a hands-on activity powered by educator creativity.

The following are some of the examples. Can you think of how each activity could be modified for use in your classroom?

Creative Portraits

Expedition Map

Expedition Team Flags

Expedition Team gifs

Strike a pose! @esu8 pic.twitter.com/VINkHFJ89x

— Corey Dahl (@iCoreyDahl) August 8, 2019

We are tough! @esu8 pic.twitter.com/B9BRxt0VHZ

— Corey Dahl (@iCoreyDahl) August 8, 2019

Just keep swimming! @esu8 pic.twitter.com/4GPycofRNn

— Corey Dahl (@iCoreyDahl) August 8, 2019

Here we go! @esu8 pic.twitter.com/0YH1QvTUrZ

— Corey Dahl (@iCoreyDahl) August 8, 2019

Wormhole Challenge

Read more at https://esu8tech.blogspot.com/2019/08/the-wormhole-challenge.html

Clips Video Highlights

Spooky Science

Mrs. Shirley Rossman and several of her 4th grade students created a Halloween-themed story to share their learning about physical and chemical changes in Science.

The team brought their ideas to life with a green screen, iMovie, and extra touches with Keynote.

The video was shared at West Holt Elementary's October assembly during Jr. Husky Highlights so all could share in the learning!

Congrats, ladies, on a creative, "creepy" project!

Digital Design class getting creative with dSLR camera

Mrs. Kristen Evans's Digital Design class at Neligh-Oakdale High School has been putting industry-standards gear into their classroom practices.

Through an intro to digital photography they have been exploring basics of dSLR cameras as well as general principles integral to mobile photography as well. 

Students use their creative "mind's eye" to MAKE photos and not just TAKE photos.

There are so many great resources available on digital photography, many which are free.
I recommend the following for sure:

• https://books.apple.com/us/book/digital-tools-for-the-visual-arts/id535801517 Digital Tools for the Visual Arts by Harry St. Ours
• https://books.apple.com/us/book/design-secrets-revealed/id814087040 or https://books.apple.com/us/book/design-secrets-revealed-teaching-students-principles/id858545713 Design Secrets Revealed by Keri-Lee Beasley
• https://books.apple.com/us/book/stories-through-the-lens/id1039622883 Stories through the Lens by Dave Caleb
• https://books.apple.com/us/book/basic-photography/id795960902 Basic Photography by Jeff Curto
• https://books.apple.com/us/book/everyone-can-create-photo/id1434898103 Everyone Can Create- Photos
• https://books.apple.com/us/book/perfecting-portrait-photography-better-photos-in-classroom/id861080885 Perfecting Portrait Photography by Rick Connors
• https://books.apple.com/us/book/photography-inspired-writing-using-ios-photography/id844648918 Photography Inspired Writing by Jim Harmon

https://books.apple.com/us/book/stories-through-the-lens/id1039622883

https://books.apple.com/us/book/basic-photography/id795960902

But the most important element to successful photography is simply to look, notice, wonder, and capture LOTS of shots. 

This class is well on their way to developing their craft and putting it into practice in the community around them. 

Monster Character Maker

Mrs. Jenny Alder's 4th grade students at Stuart Elementary were kind enough to help me create some monster characters!

Using the brilliant activity from Laura Wright's WrightStuff Interactive, airdropped via Apple Classroom, students got right to work creating unique monster characters in Keynote. 

http://wrightstuffinteractive.com/2019/08/16/monster-character-maker/

What resulted was a diverse conglomeration of mostly-friendly monsters, complete with name and the artist's autograph. 

Now the 4th graders will employ their creative writing skills to bring their monster characters to life in writing!