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