This post was written by WISD’s culinary teacher and head volleyball coach. I am really excited to see how she is going to utilize technology in her classes this year. Please read her thoughts and give us feedback. We are looking for ways to use Google Cardboard in the culinary classes.

Google Cardboard ideas- Michelle Weichert

 There are lots of things for science

Rollercoaster (Physics)

Jurassic (Biology)

Sea World (Biology)

Gravity Pull (Physics)

Discovery VR (Science in general)

Fish Schooling (Biology)

National Geographic Wildlife (Biology)

View Master – Space (Astronomy)

VR Safari (Biology)

Molecule VR (Microbiology, Chemistry)

Chemistry VR (Chemistry)

Cardio VR (Athletics, Anatomy)

5d Planner (Interior Design)

Driving simulators

Public Speaking (english)

Virtual tours (History)

Several different locations, Paris, London, etc

Earth tours

I did not find a lot on cooking.  It would be a GREAT supplemental to lessons as this technology grows, and apps come on board.  The fact that it’s cheap, I would be willing to buy a class set.  Many of the apps are free, but are limited, but with anything new, kids would love it!  

Strengths

• Great at keeping kids occupied when you have down time
• Cheap, free apps
• Cardboard is relatively cheap
• New technology, very lifelike.

Weaknesses

• Kids may not have phones
• Rollercoaster is NOT FUN lololol
• Still pretty new, not a lot of educational apps
• Number of google cardboards available
• Durability, oil stains from faces, sanitary issue

Questions

• Does it work with any phone?
• Will the district buy this?

I’m not sure HOW I would integrate it into classes that I teach, but I can see (no pun intended) how it can be very useful to other subjects.  I feel that older kids would find fun in working with some virtual reality things, and can really supplement lessons.  (For example, biology studying sea life, can see schools of fish, competitions to identify species of fish, see animals and sea life they may have never seen before)

It could be used as a reward, as there are many games available to use.  It is very lifelike, which really is the point of virtual reality.

Mrs. Abby Paben – WJH Tech Champion 2016-2017

Overview & Purpose

The purpose of this lesson is to engage students while utilizing technology to describe their surroundings in vivid detail. This, in turn, will help students develop more effective sentences in their writing.

Education Standards

1. Students will use a variety of complete sentences to convey their message clearly to the reader.

Objectives

1. Students will lift off to outer space and then recreate the experience in detail through their writing.
2. Students will write an expository essay detailing the event as it happened.

Materials Needed

1. Google Cardboard
2. LiftOff VR App
3. Notebook Paper/STAAR Lined Paper
4. Writing Utensils

Verification

Steps to check for student understanding.

1. Monitor students as they journey off into their virtual reality.
2. Ask students questions once their adventure is complete to trigger certain details that stuck out to them on their experience.

Activity

Describe activity that will reinforce the lesson.

Students will brainstorm, draft, and write a final expository essay detailing the journey they took through LiftOff VR. Students will spend a day reading their essays to the class to see if we can recreate the adventure through our words.

Today I officially announced all of my Tech Champions for the 2016-2017 school year. The WISD Tech Champion program will focus on integrating technology seamlessly into classrooms to enhance student learning. I presented each teacher with a surprise right off, which happens to be their first challenge. They were gifted tape and Google Cardboard. They have to figure out how to put it together on their own (not easy) and then come up with a plan to use it in their classroom. In true teacher fashion I assigned them a due date. On May 27th be looking for some pretty cool ideas on how to use this tool in your classroom. How do I know that the ideas will be awesome? My Tech Champions have already started messaging me ways to incorporate Google Cardboard into their class. Let me say, I may just go back to school and be in their classroom. If anyone else is curious about Google Cardboard please reach out to any of my Tech Champions!!!

Congratulations Crystal Fea, Michelle Weichert, Natalee Foret, Sara Moore, Abby Paben & Kristen Elliott. I know that you will do great things.

Mrs. Fea, 1st grade teacher at Fred Elementary, sent me this audio book that one of her students created. This is such a great idea for the student creating the book because they are recalling and using skills that they have learned to help others. This is also wonderful for the student listening because hearing other people model reading and fluency is an incremental building block for new readers. Another aspect that I love about this is the ease in which the 1st grader used technology to curate a learning tool that other children can easily use to help them become successful readers. Read the short blurb sent by Mrs. Fea to see what they did:

“I am so excited to share this audio book that one of my 1st graders created today. I wanted my students to create audio books to share with kindergartners. My students were only allowed to create a book if they could read the book fluently. Getting them to reread for fluency can sometimes be a struggle, but today they worked harder than ever.  They were so eager to use this new app.  I introduced the app Puppet Edu today and students were able to use it with ease.  I used QRstuff to create the QR code.  I can’t wait to have students make more audio books and use this app in new ways.”

*This is a poster that I created with Canva. Please feel free to use it in your class.

Love God. Love your neighbor.  Mark 12:30-31

It does not say to love your neighbor if they are white or if they are black. It doesn’t say to love them if they are female or if they are male. It doesn’t say to love them if they agree with your opinion or if they disagree with your opinion. It says to love them as yourself.

People are hurting. Emotions are flying. Laws are being changed. We need to pray. Pray for people whose hearts and minds are hurting, confused,and searching for answers. Pray for our lawmakers because they have tough decisions to make – all while people are publicly slandering and judging their every move. Pray for them like you pray for yourself. Pray for them like your pray for your children. Just pray. Let’s pray to get along. Let’s pray that when someone doesn’t agree with our opinion that we can be ok with that. Let’s pray that we can disagree like “adults” – so that we can model the correct and appropriate way (not calling names, not pointing fingers, not shaming one another) to express our feelings, emotions, and opinions for our children. Because they are watching how we react, and that’s how they will react

Let’s pray. Let’s pray like the sinners that we all are. Let’s pray like the broken hearted human beings trying to survive life that we all are. Because being a human is hard.

Let’s pray. Because when we pray we will move mountains. Mark 11:23

*Disclaimer- I do have my own thoughts on all the political unrest that is happening in America right now. If you would like to ask me about them face to face I would love to chat. And if you don’t agree with me I will still love you. And I hope that you will still love me , too. 

This year has been challenging to say the least. Almost daily I would look at Cherie and say, “Is it too early to put my Failure Face on?” The joke has been that we had to wait until at least 9:30 am. I always said that if I were to become an Instructional Technologist that I did not want to be a “Mrs.Fix It”.  I wanted to be in the classroom with teachers doing what I love – integrating technology into curriculum while watching children thrive. That didn’t happen this year. This year was one of constant learning, and for the most part I was a “Mrs. Fix It”.  Ironically, I  actually learned to like that part of this job – because when you fix something for a teacher it makes them smile. It calms them down. It takes away the anxiousness that their lesson is not going to work, and that is a big deal. It’s huge, and I like helping people. Although, I ended up learning a ton about networking shenanigans and a ton about the backbone of the school – I did not get into classrooms like I envisioned, and that has weighed heavily on me. Honestly, it has just made me feel sad. Like I have failed. The last few weeks I have realized that it’s ok. I needed this year to learn. I needed to be able to grasp networking, IP addresses, domains, wires, troubleshooting, etc. Because this part of technology, the intricate details that make it all work, has never been easy for me to comprehend. I have had to work really hard the past few years to just “get it”.  When people say that it comes easy to me…well, just ask Cherie.

A few months back I attended a Google Academy put on by Region 5 where I sat and listened to a few teachers talk about how they changed their classroom environment by integrating more technology into their lessons. They went through a Digital Champion Program in their district that the Instructional Technologists put together. Do you know how cool it was to watch those teachers present, with excitement, the  projects that their students had created throughout the year? These were teachers that were not really utilizing technology, and now they were presenting to other teachers. It really lit a fire inside of me. I began emailing Marla, one of their Instructional Technologists, and she immediately began helping me start on my journey of implementing this program at my school. Y’all, I am so pumped right now. I took their information, tweaked it to our needs, and then presented it to my administration. They are all on board. The coolest thing that happened from this process so far is the email that I received from Marla today. It reminded me of where I started – a teacher so afraid of technology that she rolled the SMART Board out of her room and refused to use it. A teacher so scared of not teaching to the test that no real world projects or learning was happening. A teacher so scared of change that she did the same thing year after year after year. A teacher whose passion was sparked one night on Twitter and she never looked back. A teacher that made a huge change for herself and for her kiddos. Guys, this can be you. If I changed – anyone can, and that’s just the truth. I will absolutely be blogging about this whole process. I am so thankful to Marla and her colleagues for sharing and helping me to remember who I am and what this is all about. The following is the flyer that I made to introduce our new program to the teachers in my district. I am so excited about next year and the chance to get into classrooms and really help teachers infuse technology into their daily routines. I am excited to tailor lessons to specific grade levels and content. I am excited to see students grow and thrive with the world at their fingertips. And I am even excited to fix some computers, restart servers, and troubleshoot any technological issue that may come my way.

Again, I took the information that Marla sent me and tweaked it to meet the needs of my district.

Technology does not have to be fancy, and it does not have to be a new learning curve for the teacher. It is especially wonderful when you can intertwine it seamlessly into your lesson using other forms of exploration and creation as well. The final project of this history lesson was a poster. A simple poster just like we used when we were in school, but the students had to use a little technology to get there. Searching on the internet for facts is much quicker than digging through an encyclopedia. Don’t get me wrong, I love books. However, when you only have a certain amount of time to get all your TEKS covered you will use the quickest and most viable means possible.

A lot of hard work went into this junior high history project.  What better way to research Texas History than by using iPads or the computer lab at the school. Students are fluent in “Google” and can easily search for any information that they need. One of the most interesting aspects to me about this project was the fact that the students had to be able to figure out the right time span of when things were happening so that they had the correct flag and slogans for that time period. That took a lot of going back and forth and making sure things aligned.

Here are the basic instructions/criteria for the project that was completed:

Basically, students used the computer lab to do their research on their topic, either the Texas Army or Mexican Army. They had to have a minimum of three slogans and three reasons to join their army.  They also had to have photos or some type of artwork to go along with their poster.