10/3/2016 October 3, 2016 During last week's class students had time to work on 003-7, a Google Drawing map activity dealing with the six locations featured in the World's Largest Lesson. See previous week's post for information on that activity. As of today there are still 5 students who have not submitted the assignment and will have a lateness deduction. There will be an open lab on Wednesday, October 5, if anyone still needs help with this activity. We will be moving into a discussion of digital citizenship relating to copyright and use of Creative Commons resources. Our next activity will blend the theme of the Global Goals with image searching and appropriate ways to credit image sources. Image credit: Creative Commons Logo used under CC BY 4.0
9/23/2016 September 23, 2016There are still 5 students in 7A and 2 students in 7B who have not submitted 002-7 which focused on an introduction to the Global Goals. This is a participation assignment, meaning there are no right or wrong answers (except for no answers at all). Students were told in class on Wednesday that I will still accept the work until today, Sept. 23, for the opportunity to have it be considered on time. After this assignment there will be no second chances for late assignments. It is very important to meet deadlines. How to remember these deadlines? 1) Check this website! 2) Check your Google Classroom Calendar, which is available in your Google account. You can even download the Google Classroom app for your Android or iOS mobile device! View this video to see how to find your Google Classroom Calendar if you do not recall the demonstration in class. The current class assignment is 003-7 World's Largest Lesson - Key Locations. In this assignment students are focusing on the six specific locations presented in the World's Largest Lesson 2016, locating their geographic coordinates and placing them on a map. The map will then be submitted as a PNG. This is reviewing some of the geographic topics worked on in sixth grade projects as well as working with Google Drawings and creating a PNG file. The due date is Wednesday, September 28. There will be some class time available to finish up and some students have already completed it, but the activity must be completed by that date. Students who miss a class due to absence or some other reason are responsible for checking the calendar to see current assignments and also to email me if they have any questions. Global Goals logo via Wikipedia CC BY 3.0
9/18/2016 September 18, 2016During our last class students viewed the introduction to the World's Greatest Lesson, which is an introduction to the Global Goals or the Sustainable Development Goals. We will be using these goals as the foundation for a number of social studies/technology activities throughout this year as part of the World Geography curriculum for 7th grade. In assignment 002-7 they worked with their computer lab partner to choose one of the 17 goals and search for 3 websites that had something to do with the focus of the goal, for example: poverty, inequality, climate change, etc. There are a few people in each group who have not completed the document. DUE DATE: September 20, which is the day before our next class. Scoring for class assignments such as this that do not really have a right or wrong answer (the only wrong response is no response at all) will be considered a participation grade. The will be entered as G if the assignment is completed in its entirety and on time, S if the assignment is completed but late, and N if the assignment is incomplete. In order to generate a letter grade which is given for special subject areas, it is necessary for the teacher to enter a numerical value. Therefore I will enter 89 to generate a G, 84 to generate an S, and 74 to generate an N. Image Credit: UK Dept. for International Development under CC BY 2.0
9/7/2016 September 7, 2016Welcome back 7th grade! Yes, this is the link you need to copy for the survey! The comment above was for seventh graders completing the technology kick off survey in which they logged into accounts or reported if the log in was unsuccessful, and also made their way to some account locations that they should be aware of but are often overlooked, this page being one of them. It was also a way to get back into the swing of submitting assignments in Google Classroom.
During our first class students joined Google Classroom for either 2017A or 2017B. Parents should stay tuned for information regarding how you can be notified of events in Google Classroom, a feature just added this August. Important: Please sign the Internet permission form that is being returned to you. Instead of starting all over with a new form, this year we are asking parents to sign and date at the bottom of the existing form. New students will need the form filled out in its entirety. Google Apps forms filled out previously are still on file and only need to be completed by new students. When the forms are all in and sent to me, I will put a check mark in PowerSchool indicating it has been received. 6/12/2016 June 12, 2016Much of the second semester was devoted to our research on and presentation of the Sustainable Development Goals, or the Global Goals. Since the 7th grade curriculum in social studies focuses on world geography and social justice is part of the religion curriculum, it makes sense to step out of our comfortable existence to take a look at real problems facing the world and realize that you, today's students, are tomorrow's leaders and decision makers. There is so much to learn and understand and so many problems that are begging for solutions, and 7th grade is not too early to begin to learn about these situations. I hope that your awareness of the need to end poverty, combat climate change and fight injustice and inequality will lead you to make some changes, even small ones, that will make the world a better place. Even though some students did not take the project as seriously as I had hoped and just threw something together at the last minute, a number of you demonstrated that you had indeed learned something worth sharing and acting upon. I hope our discussion and sharing will stay with you and have an impact on you in the future. Google accounts will be suspended for the summer beginning June 17 and will be reactivated in August. Feel free to write in your blog if you have something you would like to share such as an interesting trip or a great book or any summer experience. I will check periodically over the summer for any submissions. I wish you all a safe and happy summer vacation. Image: Map Hands by stokpic via Pixabay in the Public Domain
6/5/2016 June 5There are a number of scores not yet posted in PowerSchool. The reason it is taking such a ridiculous amount of time is that there is a ridiculous number of students who did NOT SUBMIT the requested documents with the assignment. Some students did not do slides 4,5,6 until right before the presentation (and then received no comments or suggestions in time to make adjustments) and then left the slide show and the checklist back in the first assignment instead of submitting with the second and the third assignments. It is difficult to evaluate slides when they were NOT SUBMITTED and I have to go searching for them. So please be aware that what you may see midday on Sunday, June 5, is NOT your final score. No presentation score has been entered yet because I am still searching for slides. 5/19/2016 May 19, 2016We have run into a serious problem in the fact that many students have neglected to complete the various sections of the Global Goals assignment on time and are not ready to present their 2 minute 40 second slide show. On May 18, 7B should have begun presentations but only one student had completed everything and was ready to present. (Open labs have been offered at various times but there have been very few students who have come in to work.) 7B students will need to finish up and be ready to begin presentations on Monday, May 23, as Mrs. Criscuolo has agreed that the presentations can take place during the gym period since we do not have technology class on a Monday.. Students in 7A should have been ready by May 18th as well (see comments on previous post) but the official 7A presentation date will be May 25 in class, with overflow possibly on June 1. I have shared strategies on use of full size images for impact, minimal text, symbolic graphics that will trigger talking points, and the importance of spending time reading about and really understanding the issue being presented. For the citation format at the end of the presentation I not only demonstrated in class but made a video (see previous post). When I mentioned in class that the video was on the tech web page, a student asked, "How do you get to your web page?" So obviously despite my reminders throughout the year what I write here is being ignored by many. Students who have not completed slides 4, 5, 6 as of today have an Incomplete in PowerSchool. I will be reviewing the last slides and the presentation links this weekend and having the shared links ready for the students to click and begin their presentation. If a link is not shared with me via the 009 document there is no way the timed slide show can be presented.
Time Passing by FRITS AHLEFELDT is licensed under CC BY ND 2.0 5/4/2016 May 4, 2016Students have spent the last couple of weeks investigating their assigned Global Goal and narrowing the scope of the goal to one focus they would like to present. I modeled a presentation for each group on Goal 12 Ensure sustainable consumption and production patterns with a specific focus on textile waste. (See sample timed slides.) Slides 4,5,6 (008-7) were due this week with quite a few students not yet having submitted those. I have been trying to make suggestions but if I do not see anything until the last minute it is difficult to offer help. I have also explained 009-7 in which students will complete the last 3 slides (information sources in citation format - see video below) as well as submit the document containing their published link for sharing. I have demonstrated how to easily generate a citation in a Google doc using the Research Tool. I have been offering open lab times but almost no one takes advantage of those times. All work needs to be submitted by May 13 because presentations will begin on May 18. 3/22/2016 March 22, 2016By now the research chart should have been submitted for whichever one of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals a student had been assigned. We are moving on to a presentation of the goal, drilling down from the official goal title, to the specific targets to achieve that goal, to finally one target to be presented to the class to represent the urgency of achieving this goal and a way we can become involved in working toward that. Students will be completing 3 slides at a time for the presentation which will be given in a Pecha Kucha format. March 30 is the due date for the first 3 slides for 7A, and April 6 for 7B. Each step of the project is being modeled for them. 2/17/2016 february 17, 2016
Today during our whole group session I presented the sample project for 006-7 in which students are investigating one of the 17 Sustainable Development Goals. In a previous class the organizer document was explained and students began taking a closer look at their randomly picked goal. A number of the areas on the chart are simply copy and paste but in the L section of the KWL chart they are actually researching this goal in more depth. To assist them with the process my sample chart was shared in Google Classroom and is available to them as they work. Because I am away at a conference next week the 7th grade will have whole group health class on February 24. The due date for the chart is Friday, Feb. 26, which means there will be some out of class time needed for this assignment. Some students are almost finished and two are completely finished after the class time today. Open lab is being offered this week for students who are starting late due to being absent or who would like some additional in school work time. Information gathered in this process will be used for an upcoming presentation to share the goal with the rest of the class. Below I have embedded the Google Classroom calendar for 7th grade.
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