Today we took the "Know it" assessment to end our unit. We had reviewed these terms and ideas so many times that the high scores were not a surprise. If your student didn't get the score they wanted, as long as they have all their assignments turned in, they can ask me for a retake. Just a reminder, though, the quarter ends Friday!
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Today was all about reviewing and getting ready for our upcoming assessment. First, we started with a bit of competition by playing Quizizz. The students could take it as many times as they wanted within the 20 minute window to try to get the highest score possible. There is a bit of luck involved with the power-ups, so even getting 100% didn't guarantee a top spot, which of course got candy or tokens. Then the students took the "Know it" review that includes the actual test questions for the multiple choice. Granted, there was not a candy reward, but seeing the test questions ahead of time is still a pretty good deal! To finish class, the students had time to complete and submit any missing work. Since the quiz is close to the end of the quarter, we won't have much time to retake if necessary. And if there's missing assignments that have to be done first, it might not work out. But of course the best option is to just ace the quiz to begin with. We finished our note-taking about computers today by talking about binary code, prefixes (kilo, mega, giga, tera), and software. The students even decoded a message written in binary code just for fun! (Okay, it was tedious, but a great learning experience to appreciate our input devices which do it for us). After the notes, we took a few minutes to clean up and organize our Google Drive accounts. We created a 2023-24 folder for this school year and then created a folder for each class before moving all the files into their respective folders. An easy but necessary task. Finally, we also had time to work on the Computer Buying Guide. Next class is our catch-up/review day so if they didn't finish this today, they can show me next time. Today we started our new unit about how computers and software work. This is a basic introduction, and the students will learn more next year in Exploring Computer Science. For our day's lesson, we learned about what a computer is, how input and output devices get data to the CPU, the tools the CPU uses to process the data (algorithms, loops, and conditionals), and the role of RAM, ROM, and storage. The students filled in an organizer as we talked about it and one lucky group even won some candy. (Note: the students on Friday used the video to fill in the notes (most started last class) because we had very short classes due to an assembly.) After the lesson, we started the multi-day assignment, Computer Buying Guide. The students are creating a flyer to help an unknowledgeable consumer decide what type of computer they should purchase. The flyer focuses on what the various components do and provides suggestions as to what to look for. We'll be working on this for chunks of time over the next two days. Today we took the unit assessment: create a Keynote/Google Slideshow about pandas. I provided the instructions, information, and the the type of image they needed to find. The students needed to include everything and make sure the whole slideshow was automatic. For a "4", the students needed to replicate a panda drawn from circles within Keynote (the same one to the left). It seemed like most of the students got the score they wanted. For those classes on Wednesday, we also started our next unit (Computers 101) because we have an assembly on Friday, meaning very short classes. This way we won't fall behind. Today was used mostly as a catch-up day - the majority of students needed a bit more time to finish their "Awesome Story" since they are doing such amazing work. I've really enjoyed what I've seen so far! For those students who didn't finish today, they can still submit it to Canvas. There was also a "review" component to the day since next class is our assessment. For the first time this quarter, the unit has only a "Do it" part (skills) and not a "Know it part (vocabulary and concepts). The students were excited about this, and if past performance is correct, that means they will all get great score next class! As for the review, it was a list of the required skills plus the challenge of having to recreate a penguin made out of circles and triangles! For our third assignment, we are using Keynote (some students can't access it and are using Google Slides), although in a different way than most students have used it. We are using the shapes to create some of our own pictures, using images as backgrounds, and making the whole thing automatic. The goal is to really push the creativity by utilizing the advanced Keynote skills. The assignment is called the Awesome Story (we work on this for two days) and has the students retell a story (book, movie, TV show, fairy tale, etc.) using the advanced Keynote features. They can also make up a story up or tell me about something that happened in their life. I love this assignment because I get to talk and relate to the students about different shows and movies we like (I watch quite a bit of TV!). Or I get a glimpse into things they are passionate about. Plus, anytime students moan and complain because class is over, that is a good day for the teacher! We tried another cloud-based presentation app called Canva. Most of us know Canva as an easy place to create graphics (I've used it for birthday invitations for almost a decade!) but they've been expanding. Now we can use the tools to create a very cool slideshow with little effort. The topic of the slideshow was about the student's perspective on three questions:
For each question, we talked with our tables and then shared out to help the students formulate their thoughts on the topics. Then, either independently or with a partner, they created a Canva slideshow. The requirements were the basic things (text, pictures, animations, etc.) and I saw some great insight and fantastic presentations. Today we started our new unit (Presentation Software) by using Google Slides. Google Slides is like a scaled-down version of PowerPoint/Keynote, which limits our options within the creation process. But it is still a useful tool for three reasons: 1) Your presentation is cloud-based. You can move from a PC desktop to a Mac laptop and still access and edit your presentation (or to a phone, tablet, etc.) 2) Collaboration. Two or more people can work on the same presentation at the same time. Collaboration is an essential skill for our students and Google Slides is another tool that makes this possible. 3) Easily shared. All you need to do is send someone a link or embed the presentation within your own site. The content of our presentation was four tips for staying safe online. I provided a list of tips they could choose from but the last tip needed to be one of their own. And then, the best part, the students had to use images, shapes, and animations to demonstrate the tip. I saw so many creative ways to show someone being blocked! Today we took both our unit assessments: the "Know it" and the "Do it". Since this unit was "self-paced", I will be looking at the scores very carefully and comparing them to last year's to decide if this approach was effective. After talking to the students, they liked the freedom, but we need the scores to be comparable to the traditional method to make it a permanent way to complete this unit. And so far (after one day), the scores are great! Almost every student scored a 4/4 on the "Do it" and many scored at leas 3/4 on the "Know it". s( ^ ‿ ^)-b |
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April 2024
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