Middle East Project using Pinterest and Blogger

This quarter,  students will work on a MIDDLE EAST - Pinterest and Blogger Project.

Using GRASPS, this project will look like:

GOAL:
The goal is for students to learn to use social media apps and sites such as PINTEREST with an educational purpose.

ROLE:
Students are going to act as political journalists researching about the current situation of the Middle East countries and the terrorist group ISIS or ISIL.

AUDIENCE:
Other students and teachers around the world and immediate community.

SITUATION:
The political journalists will research about ISIS in the M.E and the implications of ISLAM  looking to answer: how it is affecting the world.  Students will use Social Media to track down recent events and statistics to write about it and later, discuss the topic in a Socratic Seminar.

PRODUCT:
Each journalist owns a Pinterest account in which they keep track on ideas, articles and news about ISIS in the M.E. They also own a blog in Blogger in which they will create entries about the units researched. They will draw conclusions and express them during a Socratic Seminar.

STANDARDS:
This will look like individual Pinterest Boards with pins directly linked to their blogs. The blogs will contain articles with facts and statistics about ISIS in the Middle East Countries and the implications of ISLAM.

First:  Create a Pinterest Account.

Second: Create a Blogger Account  (I took this video from YouTube, I do not own its rights)

Third: While researching, pin articles, images, videos, websites and more to your Pinterest Board.

Fourth: Write complete articles about the research topics and pin them to your board.




The rubric Here:

RUBRIC Pinterest- Blogger Assessment

Green screen and iMovie Tutorial

Hi again!

I recently decided to try out a HOME MADE green screen. I bought  2mts of green fabric to hang on my classroom's wall and recorded a video using them.

The product was amazing!

iMovie does all the work for you, it even has an option for you to just OVERLAP VIDEOS OR PICTURES.

This is very easy to do. Just follow this steps.

1.- Record using a Green Screen. It is very important that the objects or people you are recording are not wearing anything green.
2.- Download a video you would like to use as a background.
3.-Open iMovie.
4.- Import your green screen video and background video.
            File- Import Media- Select your file(s).
6.- Drag and drop your GREEN SCREEN VIDEO in the first row.
7.- Drag and drop your BACKGROUND VIDEO in the second row.
8.- Select your GREEN SCREEN VIDEO from the first row and on the upper part of the "preview screen" there is a button that has 2 squares being overlap. Click and choose GREEN SCREEN from the drop down menu  and VOILÁ!!!!!!!!!!!!

My next project will definitely include a Green Screen element!!!!!!


Here is the final product: https://drive.google.com/file/d/0B53WxaRRYL2zR2FJYmNmMUwwWEE/view?usp=sharing




Comment, share and +1


Gina

Google Slides- collaborative tool for Social Studies

Hello again!

This week  during our Social Studies class, the students worked in a collaborative environment using Google Slides. We have been studying the Ancient Greeks and their Architectural Elements.

For this purpose, I used a Google Doc with the instructions for session. This way, every time they had a question about -what to include in their slide?-  they were able to re visit the Google Doc and clear doubts.

I really liked how this worked with my 6th graders and they LOOOOVE working with Google Apps.

Please SHARE, +1 and comment!!!!

Gina

Differentiated Instruction in Project-Based Learning

This is one of my LEARNING GOALS.  Struggling with engaging students into topics and classwork is hard. Differentiation and PBL can actually work together.



I have been trying lots of strategies and yet, I have not found one that I can say it is the best. But definitely PBL works. I created a lesson plan for a Performance Task with my 7th graders and included a differentiation component.



As the article states, by "giving students a voice" the engaging process and at the same time the learning environment changes.  Therefore, I decided to come up with a "MENU project on History of Nuevo Leon" Students were able to choose what they wanted to use to show and apply their knowledge and understanding about a sub topic.

I made a menu and a checklist that included what each project or item should contain to exceed expectations. I also handed them a rubric with the grading criteria.



This was something that I really enjoyed because they had the chance to be creative and also choose what suited them best.



For this reason I will continue looking for options and research articles about PBL because it WORKS!!!!!



I am sharing with you a copy of the Menu project, so you all can have an idea.

This site is really useful: 6 Strategies for Differentiated Instruction in Project-Based Learning: Blogger Andrew Miller offers six simple, effective approaches to differentiated instruction in project-based learning.