Tuesday, June 30, 2015

My Students Top 5 Favorite Thanksgiving Games

On my class website I have separate pages for online games that are related to a specific holiday. During the school year I open the page dedicated to that holiday the week before and allow it to be open for the rest of the school year. This being said, there are not a lot of Thanksgiving games on the internet. If you know of any please share!

Below are my students favorite 5 Thanksgiving games on my site:

Warning: Sites may provide advertisements before game play. 

5. Thanksgiving Dinner
Seat people at the dinner table based on likes/dislikes
4. Monkey GO Happy Thanksgiving
Find the Thanksgiving turkey
3. Dinner Panic
Help prepare a good Thanksgiving dinner by selecting food
2. Online Coloring Pages
Select from an array of coloring pages
1. Turkey Run
Help a turkey from being part of dinner
For all the Thanksgiving games my students play please visit my class website at
http://msfojan.weebly.com/thanksgiving.html

Sunday, June 28, 2015

My Students Top 5 Favorite Halloween Games

On my class website I have separate pages for online games that are related to a specific holiday. During the school year I open the page dedicated to that holiday the week before and allow it to be open for the rest of the school year. This being said, students don't have access to any holiday games until Halloween. The first 2 months of the school year the students are getting familiar with my class requirements, NWEA testing, and basic skills (i.e. typing, Google Drive, logging in, etc).

Below are my students favorite 5 Halloween games on my site:

Warning: Sites may provide advertisements before game play. 

Younger elementary - mouse skills
Students should be able to read to play this game
Younger elementary - mouse skills
Fun for all ages :)
Warning: scary game & not recommended for younger students


For all the Halloween games my students play please visit my class website at http://msfojan.weebly.com/halloween.html

Thursday, June 25, 2015

Summer Professional Development

This summer I have already started looking into Professional Development opportunities in the area. Brighton Area School's Share Time Program requires all their teachers to complete 30 hours of PD each year. There has been a big change for this coming school year though. I will be required to complete 30 hours that provide SCECHs or are provided by the school district. Luckily, they give us $95 towards this. I have a few options:

  1. LearnPORT SCECH courses
  2. U of M Online PD 
  3. PD that offers SCECHs 
I like going to conferences and workshops in person because I am able to be more active in my learning and also meet new teachers. Below are the PD I am already signed up for this summer:

July

August

  • Brighton Area School Summer Tech PD
    • Classroom Website - Using School World and Weebly
    • Promethean - How to add interactive strategies to your lessons
    • Promethean - How to add advanced interactive features to your lessons
    • Chrome Browser Accessibility for Struggling Learners - add ons, apps, extensions
  • Brighton Area Share Time In-Service
  • IHM-St. Casimir Catholic School Differentiated Instruction Workshop 
  • IHM-St. Casimir Catholic School NWEA Data & Curriculum PD
If you know of any PD in the Lansing or Metro Detroit area that provides SCECHs please let me know! 

Tuesday, June 23, 2015

Examining the Ozobots

I opened my first pair of Ozobots to observe the contents of the package today. I haven't turned on the Ozobots yet and will explain what they are and how they function in a future post.


 One of the reasons I purchased this coding robot for my classroom is because of the size and flexibility of use. You can't tell by the case, but the hand on the left is swiping on a tablet (Apple or Android devices) and the hand on the right is drawing on paper. I work in 3 schools that use different mediums of technology and needed something that could be versatile to meet my needs.

I purchased them on Amazon for $89.99/pair with free shipping and handling. If you plan on having students work on paper I suggest also purchasing Sharpies as well.
In the case you will find 2 Ozobot robots secured in their case. I really like the white one because it is easy to see the inner workings of the robot through the clear casing.

The image below shows how small the Ozobots really are. You see the top view of the white one and the side view of the black one.
                     
Once opening the bottom part of the package, I found an array of extra components. My new Ozobots can be fashionable with their new space inspired suits or be protected with their very own hard case with yet another matching space inspired garment.
      

To end my exploration of my Ozobot package I found their universal charging cords. The length of the "cord" seems a little short to plug in. That is the only part of this package that I don't believe was created with full functionality in mind. The gray sections are act as gribs when you are trying to unplug from the Ozobot or computer. 
      

Sunday, June 21, 2015

The Beginning

Hi Everyone! I am going to start blogging about my journey as a technology teacher, the constant joy and struggle of working in 3 schools, and creating a technology curriculum. It is summer break right now and I will be doing a little bit of traveling, but I am going to bring my work with me. During my vacation I will be playing with the Ozobot robots I purchased to integrate into my Quarter of Code I want to have in my curriculum. I will discuss in further details what my ideas are and my experience with the Ozobots. Stay tuned for more exciting news!

Priscila