Week six and seven (Sept. 24 - Oct. 4)

Last week we began our GarageBand unit with an introduction to the basic layout and functions of the program. Heads were bobbing and grooving as the students began laying down loops for their tracks. Each day, more features were demonstrated - including the following:

• Solo a track
• Mute a track
• Split a loop
• Record your voice
• Volume control
• Cycle a segment
• Copy and Paste
• Use “track info button” to add effects to a track

Week 7

This week we are adding vocals to the songs and fine tuning our hits. We will wrap up production this Friday and I'll be sharing a few songs in next week's blog.

Augmented Reality at the Lego store in the Galleria

The Lego store has an augmented reality station in its Galleria store. If you hold up a box to the camera it makes the set come to life. We'll be doing a unit on this later on in the year where we make our own images come to life.

Introduction to GarageBand

Week five and six (Sept. 17 - Sept. 28)

Last week we finished our Google Docs unit. It was so nice hearing students talk about how the night before they had been working on an English assignment and decided to open up a Google Doc to utilize the chat and comment features to work in real-time with one another. Taking what we learn in technology and applying to other content areas - I couldn't be happier. (I've included a sample of the work completed below. Camila did an OUTSTANDING job!) On Thursday and Friday, the unit culminated with a quiz over the collaborative features utilized during the project. The majority of the students did extremely well; but for those who did not, they have the chance to redeem themselves with a make-up quiz this week. The two grades will then be averaged together.

Getting to Youtube

1. Make your video

2. Go to Safari or Chrome

3. At the top you will see a long bar, type the words “ Youtube.com “

4.It will then take you to a new page, you should see videos on there.

5.Login to your YouTube account

a. if you don’t have one simply go to sign in. You will then see a button saying Create An Account. Then, fill in all of the information required to make you account

6.  When you are in your account, you will see your home screen

7. On the top right corner of the screen is a blue button with the word “ Upload “, simply click on

8. It will then take you to a different page.

9. When in the new page, you will see a big box in the center of the page, and 4 little ones on the side.

a. The big box should be a large box with a white arrow inside of it

b. The boxes on the side should have

B1. a webcam

B2. a few photos

B3. a speech bubble with quotation marks inside

B4. a pair of scissors

a. b1.   b2.  b3.b4.

Uploading Your Video

10. Then open your files

a. the steps to opening your file depends on the type of computer you have

11. Before you upload your video make sure it is on the right privacy setting, it should  

     look like this

11. Then you drag the video to, a. in # 9 , the big box in the center.

     You can also simply press the button and it will open them up

13. At the top of the page there will be a link next to your video

14. Then highlight it

15. Later, press “command” and the “c” key

12. Then, fill in the information provided and press save

Making Your QR Code

15. Then, go up to the long bar at the top of the screen, as shown in #3 , and type in the words “ qrstuff.com ’’ .

16. You will see a page that is light blue that might seem complicated yet it is not.

17. Scroll down to the middle of the page where you see…

14. Under the number 1 there are many little circles with options next to them, such as:

15. Pick the 2nd one, or the one that says Youtube Video

16. Then, go to the # 2 and put your cursor on the little bar

17. Then, press “ command ’’ and “ v ‘’

DO NOT CHANGE ANYTHING WITH THE LITTLE CIRCLES, LEAVE EVERYTHING  ELSE ( UNDER THE NUMBER 2 ) ALONE!

18. Later go to the # 3 and pick the color you want

Downloading

19. Then, there will be a picture of what your QR code will look like, under that you will see a button which says “Download QR Code “

20. After downloading a picture of your QR Code, it will pop up. You can then duplicate,  or move to your desktop and so on.

Week 6
This week we are starting our GarageBand unit. We will tie this into the Mo Ranch trip by giving the students the objective of composing a team song for their advisory group. Students, who choose to do so, may submit their song to be voted on by their advisory classmates. The songs chosen by each advisory will then be burned to a Mo Ranch CD and unveiled on the trip.

Back to School Night

Thanks to everyone who made it out for Back to School Night. If you were not able to make it, here is a link to the video I made for the presentation.

The Bowtie Means Business

Week four and five (Sep 9 - Sep. 20)

Last week the students finished their Word of Mouth projects. The walls outside of the classroom are now wallpapered with selfies and dotted with QR codes. If you happen to swing by, feel free to use your scanner app to hear the kids introduce themselves and describe some of the things they love about Kinkaid.

On Wednesday, I introduced Google Docs to the students and its collaborative features. During a demonstration in one class, I opened a document that I had been working on with Mr. Jordan and he just so happened to be using the document at the same time. I started up a chat with with him and the next thing the kids knew, Mr. Jordan was making changes to the text up on the board right before their eyes. "How can he do that?!" one exclaimed.  We then opened a document together where we all worked simultaneously adding comments, chatting, responding to comments, and finally resolving flagged areas of text.

This week will be a busy week as the students will take their new-found knowledge and create a tutorial for the Word of Mouth project. This project is two-fold in that it helps me assess their understanding of the prior work they just completed, while giving them a chance to practice and demonstrate the collaborative features of Google Docs. Built into this project is also a HW assignment. One of the features of Google Docs is the ability to be anywhere in the world and be able to work in real-time with another person or group on a single document. To best illustrate this the students are being asked to spend five minutes at home working on their document with their partner.

Google Docs Introduction

Sample of finished Word of Mouth Project

Week three and four (Sep 3 - Sep 13)

Last week was a very productive week in technology. The students filmed their introductions using smart phones and emailed the files to their school Gmail accounts. They then learned how to upload their files to YouTube and alter the privacy settings. Using the website www.qrstuff.com, the students then created unique QR codes for their video url and then imported the QR code into Photoshop. There, they learned how to "select all" and then move the selected object to another file (their original self picture that included the smart phone box and text).

Week 4 - This week

This week we will be making any final adjustments on the Word of Mouth project and printing out the finished product. For the students who choose to do so (and have received parental permission to alter their YouTube privacy setting for this project to "unlisted"), we will be posting them around the middle school for all to enjoy. A sample of the finished project can be viewed above.

We will then be turning our attention to Google Drive and some of its user-friendly features. Students will be given an overview of Google Docs and will be ask to collaborate with a another student on a Google Doc that will tie in with the last project. The quiz over Google Docs that was scheduled for this week has been pushed back to the end of next week.

Word of Mouth project - Testing our QR Code links

YouTube privacy

There have been some questions about YouTube and how the students' privacy will be protected there. I thought I'd take a minute and address these concerns for everyone.

The students will have a YouTube account in conjunction with their school Gmail account. They will use their school email to log in but will choose a random screen name that will not identify them. The account will be used to post videos for projects that we are doing in class. There are three privacy levels on YouTube: public, unlisted, and private. We will be using private listings, meaning the video may only be seen by someone who has been sent a direct link from the owner of the video. If we do need to use a "public" or "unlisted" setting for a project, we will secure parental permission before doing so.

If you have any further questions about this, feel free to contact me. 

Recording videos for Word of Mouth project

Week two and three

The first three days of school went off without a hitch. We took care of some important housekeeping items: acceptable use policy, usernames, passwords, Veracross introduction, and for students on "A" days, the syllabus and technology survey. If you haven't done so, make sure and electronically sign the syllabus that was emailed home.

Last week we jumped into our first project, Word of Mouth. If you Google 'word of mouth,' one of the first hits you'll receive is from Wikipedia. Their definition is: the passing of information from person to person via oral communication. For our purposes, we will be passing information from person to person orally - but this will be technology's version.

The first step in this process required that the students take a self picture using Photo Booth. This picture was saved to their 'home' drive and then later uploaded into Photoshop. Once in Photoshop, students were taught how to change the image size, use the shape tool, add text, and manipulate the opacity of a layer.

Week 3 - this week

Coming back from a restful three-day weekend students will move to the video portion of this project. Using smart phones, students will film a short video outlining some of their likes, hobbies, and what they love most about Kinkaid. This will then be uploaded to Youtube through the student's school account.

The students will then generate a QR code that will link the video to their picture making it come alive right before their eyes - and yours.