Enzyme Cartoon

During the semester I am often puzzled by how I can get my student creatively involved. I have come up with a way to get the students to understand an enzyme/substrate reaction and get their creative juices flowing. I have students complete an enzyme cartoon. They are required to have an enzyme (never changing), a substrate and product (what the substrate is broken down into). The students usually receive a sheet of paper and I let them draw the cartoon out. The past 3 semester I have used powtoons and toondoo. I like toondoo more so I have used that more often in my classes. The students are able to express the concept and not worry about their actually drawing skills while still being creative. Below are a few ideas of how the cartoon works. The students are allowed to take the concept of and enzyme/substrate reaction and apply it to everyday/fantasy objects. Students remember the concept more if we do mini-projects like this than if I simply stand and present the facts. This is probably one of my favorite things we do in class.

Student Projects

Forensic News
This year I am teaching Forensics. To make things relevant and to follow current events; I have had the students research current trials within our state. There is a google form that the students must complete, they must also present. The form changes with the content we cover in class. My plan is at the end of the semester for them to build a scrapbook in Google docs.

Music Videos
Students use google docs to come up with lyrics to a song. The song must cover a topic we are currently working on and all lyrics must relate directly to the topic. For example, my students made music videos about cells. They used iMovies and Google Docs to complete the assignment.


Review Videos
My biology students really liked making videos. One of the first videos we completed were Paper Slide videos reviewing Photosynthesis and Cellular Respiration. Students were given one shot to film the video. They had a rubric of what must be included in the video. They used the camera to film and present to the class.

News Reports
 In our Forensic textbook we cover many cases that are relevant as we go through the chapters. Instead of having students simply read the cases, we report them. I have the students team up and assume the role as new broadcasters and "present" the news. This usually takes a day and the students have a blast doing it. We use iMovies, Green Screen App and some use WeVideo.

My Helpful Suggestions

In today's classroom, most teachers are pushing to use technology. I am among those teachers. I LOVE using technology in my class. As a Pinnacle Leader, I am often asked for suggestions or what I would do in certain situations. I have come up with some helpful suggestions that I often tell my fellow teachers.

1) Don't Stress!!! Technology is not meant to stress you out. Will every lesson you plan work out? NO!! I have planned amazing lessons, and on the day I go to use technology our server is down. Take a breath and relax. Like every wise teacher we have back-up plans. If it's stressing you out, take a step back. 

2) Enhance-This should be a tool you have that will help enhance your lesson. When I plan a lesson I always ensure that what we are doing will add to my lesson. Technology should not be used just because it's available. Really plan out your lessons!

3) Learn-Continue learning and allow your students to teach you. In some cases they know students can teach us more about technology than we can.

4) Have FUN with technology!! It's not always about test and quizzes. Come up with creative ways students can really display their knowledge!!

Case Files

Forensic Case Files

This year I was given a new class to teach: Forensics. I was and am really excited to teach this class. In my mind, I imagined doing all these amazing things in relation to forensics. One of the things my students like to do are video forensic case files. As a class we split up into smaller groups and record a news broadcast. The student will take a major court case that relates to our subject matter and act as a report for our make believe news station: WBCHS. The students use iPads to record themselves. We have worked with two apps: Green Screen and iMovies. The students can stand in front of our green screen and later they impose a picture of our local courthouse. Once the students have written a script they are set to record. I give them a time limit to record and a time limit to edit the videos through iMovies. The first time it took up two entire class periods. Now that the students take a class period to create, record, edit and showcase. The students really enjoy this project and it allows them to step in and put their own spin into the project. 

Lions, Tigers and Google!!! Oh MY!!!!!

A disclaimer: If you are not a Google fan, this blog might not be for you. 

Google, Google, Google!!! How I love thee. Why do I love Goolge? Well pull up a chair and let me tell you!!

     Google Classroom: Have you tried this out???? I love this and so do my students. It allows me to organize everything by class in neat, simple folders in my drive. Its ability to keep students (and myself) organized is AMAZING!!! Within one system I can accept assignments, provide feedback and return it to the student. I know some of you out there like Schoology or Edmodo and I was once one of you, but since our county has made a move to Google it only made sense to move here too!! Now is it perfect?? No, but give it some room to improve. It only came out in August! There are some features I would like to see added. For example, organizing my shared drive or allowing teachers to have a type with just a list of assignments. I continue to provide feedback and I will give them room to improve, but it's looking fabulous to me!!!

     Google Forms: So this might just be new to me but have you seen the SCRAMBLE option!!! I logged in this week to make an assessment and noticed the new option to scramble the questions. Helps eliminate cheating!! Also, there is an option to only allow one submission. I know before you could un-check the option to show a link to re-submit but we know students know how to just hit the back button to go back and re-submit. This eliminates that from happening!!! 

Hope this gets you excited about GOOGLE TOO!!!!

Andragogy

What is it? Upon walking into this session, I had NO idea what andragogy actually was. Sure, I had heard of pedagogy, but never andragogy in relation to teaching. At last my confusion and questions were answered. So what is it you ask....well its how adults learn. 

Why is this important? Like many people I get nervous when presenting to my peers. Put me in front of a class and I'm good to go; put me in front of a room full of teachers and here come the nerves. To me andragogy is important because it tells me how to address my peers. 

What did I learn? I learned to use my time wisely. As teachers there are a million and one things that we would like to do, so don't go into a presentation and waste their time. Keep it short and simple!! I also learned to read your audience. Learn what would drive them. And make sure to answer some basic questions: Why am I here? Why do I care? And What do I get out of this? So now I can take what I have learned and apply it to the many presentations I will do in the future.

The Fist

Ben Blooms Fist in a SMAR Glove

CHECK IT OUT!!!

    App Smashing is a relatively new area for me. While I have used apps in my class I have never paired multiple apps together to reach a goal. This article has helped relieve some of the stress. I now feel more confident in approaching app smashing. It was mentioned in the article that you should start with an end goal in mind. I normally start at the beginning, so this will be different for me. I do think that it will help with planning. I also like the mention that not everything is placed in neat little boxes, but that everything is equal. Most of the time we have the mindset that we have to do things a certain way or else; now I can look at everything on equal grounds. This article has given me the jumping start to try to emerge myself in the world of app smashing!