May 16 - May 20

Students throughout the school are finishing up projects and papers.  This week I spent some time helping Mrs. Nowak's students do research using the GALE database, World Book Online, and Encyclopedia Britannica.  Students have been finishing up their independent novels and completing their reviews of the novels.  Mr. Chitwood's 8th grade math classes worked on video taping demonstrations to incorporate into their Google Slides presentations that they are working on in groups.

Some examples of the Digital Citizenship projects that Mrs. Jones' class worked on the past week are below.

Digital Citizenship   
Cyberbullying

Staying Safe Online with Social Media

May 9 - May 13

This week has been one of my favorite week's -  students have been selecting independent novels to read for their ELA class. It has been great helping students find books that interest them.  I look forward to reading the reviews they have of the books when they are complete.  Mrs. Jones students finished up their Digital Citizenship presentation using Thinglink on Monday and presented their topic to the class throughout the week.  I've been impressed with the information they gathered and their excellent presentation skills.

Below are some of the European commercials that Mrs. Honn's class created using Animoto.

Italy 
Malta 
United Kingdom
Norway

May 2 - May 6

Whew....what a busy week it has been.  Mrs. Honn's students have been working on creating commercials about European countries using Animoto.  The work they have done has been amazing. The research the students have done and the images they have found are impressive.  I've been helping Mrs. Serkowski's computer applications classes when the time allows with their technology innovations project.  They are using the program Buncee to explain how technologies have impacted our world, for better or worse.  They also have the option to choose a technology leader to focus on. The students have chosen some interesting topics and are off to a good start with the program.  Lastly, Mrs. Jones' Communications students have been in this week discussing digital citizenship, what it means, and why it's important.  Students are now working on creating a presentation relating to the a variety of topics that encompass digital citizenship to present next week.

April 23 - April 27

This week ends state Forward testing, so I'm excited to get into some fun projects with students next week!  Mrs. Honn's class will be in researching and working with Animoto to create commercials for a European country.  This is a project that always excites students.  Mrs. Jones' Communications class will be working with me on a digital citizenship lesson.  We'll be incorporating Nearpod into the introduction.  Students will be doing a simulation where they will see how your digital footprint makes an impact both good and bad.  To finish up the lesson students will create a Thinglink on a topic that focusing on digital citizenship which they will present to the class.  As times provides next week, I'll stop in to Mrs. Serkowski's class to see how students are doing on creating a buncee presentation that focuses on a technology, person in technology, technology company, or cyberbullying.

The Maker room will be showcasing A- MAZE-ING MAY with our new Sphero ball.  There will be mazes throughout the library that student will need to code our Sphero through using the Tynker app. There is a lot to look forward to in May.

April 11 - April 15

The majority of this week students were in the library completing their ELA testing for the Forward test.  During the times that were open students came in during study halls to finish up projects and get daily assignments completed.  We also had students work on book page poetry and book spine poetry to support our efforts in promoting National Poetry Month.

The library received the two Sphero's for our Maker Room this week so a few students started figuring out how they work.  Our next step will be to make a variety of mazes for students to complete by coding the Sphero through them.

Google Expeditions

How lucky was Park View to get the opportunity to participate in Google Expeditions?  Well, after seeing over 400 students participate and hearing the excitement coming from them, I would say we were pretty lucky.

Google Expeditions is a new product, not available to the public yet, that allows teachers to take their classes on virtual field trips.  These field trips bring abstract concepts to life and give students a deeper understanding of the world beyond the classroom.  The trips that students take are a collection of virtual reality panoramas that are annotated with details, points of interest, and questions that allows them to be incorporated into the curriculum already used in schools.

Our World Geography teachers and Spanish teacher took their classes on Expeditions such as Machu Picchu, coral reefs, Burj Khalifa, Moscow, Barcelona, and Greenland just to name a few.  It was a great ways for student to have the opportunity to learn about places they may never have the chance to visit in person. Overwhelming students thought this experience was unique and allowed them to see places in a unique way that helped them understand the area better.

We thank the Google Expeditions team for stopping at Park View and giving us the opportunity to explore the new technology that is coming.

April 4 - April 8

With spring break just finishing up we were able to come back to Park View with Google Expeditions.  Monday was spent exploring various places in the world through virtual reality.  Teachers were able to take their students on Expeditions to a variety of places by guiding them with a tablet.  It was a fun day and the students had a great time.  There were a lot of "wow's" and "oh my's" throughout the day.  We are very grateful that we had the opportunity to test drive the Google Expeditions and we look forward to the future of this new tool.

Mrs. Turk's class was in to check out independent novels later in the week.  It's always fun helping students find a book that interests them.  It's was also wonderful to see the students talking about books they loved with their fellow classmates, guiding them in some of their decision making.

On Thursday, we began Forward testing and finished up the week with testing.  So far, Mrs. Horne's students have completed their first Language Arts session.  Eighth graders will start their testing next week.