We also completed an assignment about interpreting charts. I created a slideshow that has several charts and tables for the students to find specific information in or interpret what the chart is supposed to show. Being able to create charts is great, but we also need to be able to figure out what a chart means.
There are a few times I miss using MS Excel in class and creating charts is one of them. Google Sheets does an adequate job of creating the basic types of charts, and does so pretty easily. But what is missing is all the fun ways to format those charts once they are created. The students created one of each type of chart we learned (column, pie, and line) based on both new spreadsheets and previous assignments.
We also completed an assignment about interpreting charts. I created a slideshow that has several charts and tables for the students to find specific information in or interpret what the chart is supposed to show. Being able to create charts is great, but we also need to be able to figure out what a chart means.
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Now that we've mastered entering data into a spreadsheet and executing basic formulas and functions, it was time to make our spreadsheets look good. Google Spreadsheets is severely limited in the ways we can format our data and spreadsheets, but we were able to do enough to make some good-looking tables. If you want to see some incredible formatting, do a quick search for "Excel Art" in Google. Amazing! We also learned to sort our data. Reordering the data might not seem like a big deal until you've spent thirty minutes entering data only to find out it was supposed to be in alphabetical order! As long as the students remembered to highlight all their data, sorting was an easy task. Some of the assignments today built on the assignments from last class, so those who are caught up got a little break from the data-entry side of spreadsheets. This might make me a geek, but I LOVE spreadsheets! They are so versatile and powerful. I created my own interactive spreadsheet for my household's budget and love it more than any of the Quickens-like software I've tried. Typically we would learn Excel in this unit, which is the most powerful and popular spreadsheet program out there, but since the students don't have MS Office, we are going with Google Spreadsheets. The two programs are very similar and, actually, using the scaled-down version that Google provides can be a benefit to those students new to spreadsheets. Today we learned five basic functions (sum, min, max, count, and average) as well as how to create basic formulas (ex: =(A1+C1)/2). With these simple skills the students can create all sorts of spreadsheets that perform a variety of tasks. The students also choose between two pathways through this unit: Blue Path (the teacher-led demonstration and small daily assignments to practice) or the Black Path (student-led, independent learning and completing two large assignments over the course of the unit). Most chose the Blue Path, which is appropriate, but the few that chose the Black Path will, hopefully, enjoy a little independence. Today was the unit "Know it" assessment, covering intellectual property, copyright, and licenses. This was a short, Canvas quiz that most students aced. But in case they didn't, the students who want to retake need to make sure they've turned in all their assignments for the unit and then send me an email. After the quiz, we watched the video PSAs as a class. It was fun to see what direction the students took their topics and watch them cringe at their group's acting abilities. As long as the PSA had the required information, I was pretty lenient with the grading. But for those missing a critical part, they can re-edit and the resubmit and I'll regrade. Even though most of our time was spent on the PSAs, the "Know it" assessment is about intellectual property. So to refresh our brains about those terms, we completed a crossword and turned it in for our day's assignment. We also had the "Know it" review on Canvas (which actually uses test questions) which should guarantee the students at least a "2" on the test (next class). After the reviews, the students had time to finish and submit their PSAs. Next class we'll be watching them, so now is the time to get it to me! I'm super excited to see what the students have been filming for the past two weeks. :) With most of the scenes filmed, the students focused on editing their video, music, and text into a compelling PSA. Most groups used iMovie (since everyone has access to it) but others used an app on their phone or a computer at home. Unfortunately, this meant that only one person could work on it at a time. So we had a lot of dividing up the various tasks and Air Dropping music and pictures. Because of the absences and poor planning, not all groups finished and submitted today. That's completely fine - as long as they can get it done and submitted in time for the class viewing, we'll be good. With the plans in hand, the students set out to film their scenes. We'll be filming for two days, so if someone is absent, there is still an opportunity to film their scenes. Most students are using their phones to record their video, so getting the footage into iMovie is an important step that might cause a few problems. AirDrop isn't reliable with our school laptops, so if the students have Google Drive on their phone, they can upload it there and then access it on their laptop to use in iMovie. Speaking of iMovie, students need make sure they have it loaded on their computers, and if not, get it from Self Service before class (it will take a while). Based on the smiles and hustle, I think they're enjoying this assignment and I'm excited to see the finished projects! Many of us (parents) grew up before the digital devices and constant internet connection so we are able to see the difference between our childhood and our students', as they are growing up with these things. But, like most things, with the positive impacts comes some negative. In order to address some of this, I combined the issues into three categories: Cyberbullying, Digital Balance, and Media Manipulation (which also fit nicely into our curricular requirements). The students formed their own groups and then I assigned (randomly selected) one topic per group. That way we'll all get to learn all the topics. Regardless of the topic, I provided some questions that the students needed to research to hopefully guide them in a useful direction for the content of their PSAs. This information need to be explicitly referenced in their video, but for some reason, every group is also trying to figure out how to incorporate some sort of bullying into their topic. As long as they also have the required information, it'll be fine. Since this unit is all about digital media, the PSAs also need to include: video, images, audio from speech, and music. There are many ways this assignment can be completed and I'm excited to see what the students come up with. If they want to score a 4 on the assessment, though, they will need to create something that stands out from the rest of the videos. Friday/Monday was used as an end-of-quarter catch-up day. There were a few students that still needed to take our latest assessment and several others who wanted to retake one of the others. Students could also use it to complete last class's assignment (if they were absent) or catch up on keyboarding (15 lessons due by the end of 4th quarter). But many students have been keeping up as we go (which is the preferred method!) and ended up with some free time. We started a new unit today, all about digital media. But before we can start creating amazing videos, we need to learn about the laws and protection for those things we create. Instead of a lecture, we rotated through six "stations" to get the information with our groups. The stations included: 1) Patents, 2) Trademarks, 3) A video about trademarking colors, 4) Trade secrets, 5) Copyright, and 6) Licenses. Once we had gone through all six stations, we submitted our notes and then played a game of Kahoot to see if any of the information stuck. The first part dealt with the notes, but then the second part was seeing if the students recognized slogans and logos of a variety of companies. It was a fun way to end the class! |
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April 2024
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