"Dot or Not" Dot Day Project

Dot Day 2021 found me pushing into 18 different classrooms on a cart. I wanted to plan something for Dot Day, but I wasn't sure where to begin given my situation at the time. What we came up with is something I think is worth sharing - even if it has taken me almost a year to do so! The theme I used was "The Little Things are the Big Things."

First, I partnered with the research team at my school. We are a K-12 school, and they have a truly state of the art facility in the high school building. While many of the elementary classes toured the lab during the year, it was going to be hard to take all of my  elementary classes during the first couple of weeks of September. So after talking about types of microscopes with my students, we took a virtual tour of the Owls Imaging Lab. This was a huge hit! With one-to-one devices, I was able to let my students explore the virtual experience independently. They loved that they got to choose what to look at first.

After viewing the lab, I read Do Not Lick This Book to my classes. This book was popular with students of all ages. We talked a lot about the difference between macro and micro images. I emphasized how things can look quite different when magnified. Most of the images in the book were taken with imaging tools. I introduced the idea of macro and micro photos of the same items.

Then it was time to start the project. I told the students that the art teacher and I had picked a few items from her room. We were wondering what they would look like under a microscope. With Dot Day coming up, that led us to ask the question, "Dot or Not?" 

Each student chose an art supply and predicted whether they thought the images the imaging lab took would contain a dot. I recorded the names and each hypothesis on a spreadsheet like this one. I made a big show about how these items were going to be imaged in the actual lab that we had virtually visited. 

The next week, I shared the image folder. The research team used the best tools for each item, so not all items were viewed with all tools. There was great excitement. 

I did this project with K-5, so different grade levels shared their results in different ways. I worked with the art teacher to have each student make a large dot with the words DOT on one side and NOT on the other. We used these to record green screen videos to share whether or not the micro image had a DOT for Dot Day.

(My then-kindergartener)

(My then-4th grader)

My younger students used Seesaw to tell about their project. They completed most of it themselves, and I added our green screen videos after they turned in the assignment.

(Click to view)

My older students first used Google Slides to share their results. I found out as we were working on this that using Adobe Spark (now Adobe Express) was an option for the local science fair. To show that you can share information multiple ways, the upper grades also created an Adobe presentation with the information. They LOVE this presentation tool.

(Adobe Express Presentation)

This project ended up going into November, but it reinforced a lot of the tech skills I wanted to go over with my students.

(Photo taken right before Halloween)

We were also creating things as we went along and dealing with quarantined classes. I expect this could be recreated in a multitude of ways and not so drawn out.

Links:

Dot or Not Spreadsheet Template (Force copy link to spreadsheet I used with my students)

Link to FAU HS Owls Imaging Lab Virtual Experience

Folder of Images from FAU HS Owls Imaging Lab

The Owls Imaging Lab research team has put together the watermarked photos in a folder and gave me the okay to share them. I'm excited to see what others come up with using these tools!

Exploravision, Cart Life, and Green Screen Summit

I am working on another post about my new favorite project from this school year, but I realized as I worked on it that my "occasional blogger" status means that I hadn't updated on things in a while.

First, my students won 2nd place in the 4th-6th grade division of NSTA/Toshiba's Exploravision competition. We are one of eight nationally recognized teams that will be heading to DC for an awards celebration next month. I am SO proud of The Replenishanator team and all that they accomplished! 

In other good news, we have 10 days left of school. Due to the pandemic and then to construction on our new building, I've taught from a cart for the last two years. Last year I pushed into classrooms and my cart had an extra monitor connected to the students at home on Zoom at the same time. This year everyone is in person, but I lost my classroom when others were relocated when the portables were removed to make way for the new building.

While this year has been just a little less crazy than the last, I think this video is still relevant. Look out for my specials team. We are the unicorns pushing carts at the 1:39 mark.

Speaking of summer, If you happen to be looking for a fun virtual PD opportunity during your time off, I suggest the Green Screen Summit.

I attended last year because one of my edtech creative heroes was presenting. I was absolutely delighted when she asked if I would present this year! Whether you are a newbie or a green screen addict, you will love this virtual event! Early bird pricing ends 5/15.  The event this year is July 20-23, but the sessions are recorded so you have flexibility in viewing. If you do sign up, please use my affiliate link so I get credit for it.

I hope that the end of the school year goes smoothly for you!

FETC 2019 Reflections

In my bio, I call myself an "occasional blogger." I supposed that blogging about a conference months later just reinforces that point!

This year our school sent a team of teachers to FETC. Towards the end of the trip, the elementary team was sitting at dinner and I brought out a notepad and pens. We each sketchnoted something that we learned about that we wanted to try in our classrooms.

Many of the ideas overlapped. (Cara was mad that I wrote down the Alexa Skill Blueprints before she could do so.) What was fantastic was the fact that no one batted an eye when I suggested the sketchnote. We had meaningful conversations about Flipgrid, OneNote, Kinful, Loom, Immersive Reader, thyng, Merge Cube, and Alexa Skill Blueprints. We brainstormed ideas for using these tools in the classroom. It was one of my favorite moments of the conference.

I also got to meet Paul Reynolds. We recently purchased Fab@School from Fablevision Learning for the STEAM Lab, after years of trying to find funds for the purchase. I love the STEAM focus of Fablevision Learning and the STEAM books that Paul Reynolds has written.

I am a huge fan, so it was wonderful to have some books autographed. I also talked with Peggy Healy Stearns, who created Fab@School, about ideas for using the program.

This conference was not all fun and games. Cara and I presented a two hour workshop called Bringing Learning to Life with Green Screen & Augmented Reality. It went well, even though we got an email from HP Reveal the FRIDAY AFTERNOON before we left letting us know that HP Reveal Studio will soon stop working. That is not news you want to hear before you present a 2-hour workshop on how to use green screen (DoInk) and AR using HP Reveal. (I'll blog soon on our recent replacement)

I also presented a lecture session on STEAM in Action. I had only 30 minutes between sessions, so one of the ladies in my session made this meme for me.

We also got to cheer on Nicole.

It was a wonderful few days of learning in Orlando. Many of the ideas we learned about have already been applied in our classrooms. Thyng has been the biggest find for me so far, but that will be a blog post of its own. I hope to make it to #FETC20 in Miami!

ISTE 2018 Resources and Reflections

I've been back from ISTE for a week now and *almost* had enough time to reflect on the experience.

 It was a very busy few days, but it is still one of my favorites! Chicago was fun. It wasn't my favorite conference set up, but the non-conference food/fun was top notch.

We started with the pre-conference Seesaw Connect event. The opening Ignite Sessions were great and we made some great connections. Cara and I added several ideas from the opening session to our annual plane ride home list of ideas. (More on that later!)

If I present a session, my school will let me attend the conference. Knowing the ISTE conference acceptance rates I decided to submit multiple proposals. As luck would have it, all my proposals were accepted. It made for a hectic few days!

(Photo credit to @madbenjenmar)

Cara posted the link to resources from our AR + Green Screen = App Smashing Success session on her new blog. Be sure to check it out!

She also made this video for our session. It gives an overview of two of my favorite STEAM projects and collaborations.

I finished off Monday afternoon at the Tynker booth and then at the Google Teacher Lounge.

Here is the Tynker and Google Classroom: A Perfect Match! presentation I did with Daniel Rezac. Google had someone sketchnote each of the session in the Google Teacher Lounge. Post conference Google for Edu has been sharing a few of the sketchnotes on Facebook and Twitter each day. I cannot wait to see the sketch from my session!

Debbie and I presented Special Project Enrichment Courses: Giving Elementary Students a Choice in Learning on Tuesday. The resources are available here. After that poster I ran into Leslie Fisher in the bathroom. I overheard her talking about the next session she was presenting. I was disappointed that I didn't make it to any of her sessions this year due to my schedule, but I sent Debbie. Wouldn't you know it, she shared a good music resource for the session I recommended to our music teacher. 🎶

I had only 30 minutes between poster sessions. I was exhausted after 4+ hours on my feet, but I met some wonderful people. STEAM in Action is always one of my favorites to present.

I have to say one of my highlights was getting to see Nicole Rubin present during the Young Educators Ignite Session. This is just the first few seconds of her Ignite. I was in charge of recording and got a notification on my iPad that covered the time stamp at the top. I panicked and thought it was not recording when in fact it was recording. Oops! So for now the video is in two parts. Sorry Nicole!

I spent most of my time presenting and did not make it to many sessions, but I still have a list of takeaways. Last year Cara and I planned all the LEGO SPEC courses that we then presented this year. Here are our second annual ISTE reflections.

Links mentioned: 

Googsmacked  * Flipgrid * Merge Cube * Ozobot Certified Educator * LEGO Master Teacher * Certified BrainPOP Educator Program * Embed Code in Book Creator

Links mentioned:

TAG - Seesaw Ignite by Sophia Garcia Smith

Links mentioned:

Wonder Projects - Seesaw Ignite from Michelle Flicek

Everyday Excellence - Seesaw Ignite from Andy Leiser 

We also wrote out two pages of plans for our next big project ideas, but those aren't ready to share yet. Hopefully those will be blog posts of their own in the next year.

Another of my favorite parts of ISTE is meeting people and making connections. This year I got to meet some of my favorites IRL.

I've become a big fan of the #ShukesandGiff podcast.  I was the one that took this picture for them at their poster. I may have geeked out about about meeting them. I'm still disappointed I missed their Ignite sessions, but I think the idea behind their poster session may be a good fit for my school. We've been talking about documenting/sharing what we do using Google sites and their district has done a great job of doing just that.

I've long admired the projects that Tricia Fuglestad has shared on Twitter. I was thrilled when I got to talk to her at our AR + Green Screen poster. She even posted about one of my projects in her Ten Takeaways from #ISTE18 blog post. I have already tried out her idea for drawing with Keynote for iPad. I also have plans this summer to try out the DoInk Animation app. My 8-year-old has seen me playing with both of these tools and is begging to have a turn.

It was a busy few days, but I loved it. I've made new connections and am already making plans for next year!

ISTE 2018

It is just after midnight and I should be in bed, but I'm at ISTE! I just finished putting the final touches on the poster I am presenting with Cara tomorrow. No matter how early we start we always seem to find ourselves making last minute additions and tweaks the night before. I love working with her.

I actually have FIVE presentations scheduled in the next two days. This is what happens when you put in extra proposals to be sure that you will be selected to attend the conference. I'm excited to get to share my ideas with like minded educators.

If you are at ISTE, be sure to stop by and say hi! If not, I will be posting links to resources as soon as the conference is over and I can catch my breath!

First Grade Gardens: Using Green Screen and AR to Put Students IN their Artwork

"Our First Grade Gardens" has become one of my very favorite projects in the STEAM Lab. This week was our annual gallery opening and I realized that I never properly shared the project here.

My friend Cara started this project in her first grade classroom.  It started as a mother's day project. When Cara got a grant to expand the project to the other first grade classes, I got involved. While it started with painting the canvases in the STEAM Lab, I came back with a "what if" that would have sent most people running, and Cara worked with me to sort out the details.

Cara and I will be sharing a poster session called AR + Green Screen = App Smashing Success at #ISTE18 but here is an overview of this particular project. (Photo credit to Cara for the awesome posters!)

Each first grade class read the book "My Garden" by Kevin Henkes as part of their author study project.

In the classroom the students designed their own themed garden and then paint their imaginary gardens on canvas. The awesome first grade team delivered the sketches to me and my part of the project began.

In the STEAM Lab each student used his or her sketch to paint the design on a canvas using tempera paint. Students used paint pens and glitter glue to add the details.

Using Google Slides, students typed up their gallery descriptions. These were printed and posted in the gallery next to each painting.

I used the PhotoScan app from Google to take a good picture of each canvas. Using the Green Screen app by DoInk, we recorded a green screen video using the picture of the canvas as the background. Our green screen is a green bed sheet that we hang using clothespins. We drape a second green sheet over chairs to give the illusion that students are sitting on an object in the painting.

Using HP Reveal Studio, I set the photo as the target and the green screen as the aura. The auras are saved to a campaign that is shared with the parents.

The end result is something like this:

This year we were able to work with FAU's University Galleries to display the student work at the Ritter Gallery. It was AMAZING!

We had a family help us with the set up. Both parents are artists and had the skills and equipment that we lacked. They met us at the gallery last weekend to hang all 54 canvases.

Tuesday night was the big night. Our student artists got dressed up and came with their families to view the art in the gallery. It was the third year we have done this, and each year is better than the last. The venue was spectacular. We have already reserved a date for next year.

It was a lot of work, but it was a lovely way to celebrate our students!

First Grade Garden Preview

It is hard to believe that it has been almost a year since my last post! I've been busy with these darlings.

I went back to work just before winter break. Working full time with three kids has been an adjustment, but it is going well. The baby is already 8 and a half months. My oldest finishes kindergarten in just a couple of weeks. Time flies!

I have some posts planned for this summer, but I wanted to share this video before then. I worked with the first grade team on an amazing project the last couple of months. This was the promotional video we put together before the big culminating activity.

I plan to share more of the behind the scenes once the end-of-school craziness dies down, but I couldn't wait to share the preview!