Embedded Files
05/11/19
05/11/19
Wow! What a program! For the last 4 years, my sister who is a MERIT 2014 grad has been encouraging me to apply. Then I got to know Lisa DeLapo who strongly encouraged me to apply. After working with KCI this past year, I just had to do it and am excited to become a part of the MERIT family. My mind is starting to spin as I start to wrap my head around what’s ahead. Exciting and intimidating at the same time. What have I gotten into? Where is this going to lead? How will I get all of this done while working as a full-time teacher working on transitioning from teaching middle math & engineering to teaching middle school computer science, math and engineering? It will somehow all work out in the end and I’ll become a better person through the experience and process.
07/08/19
07/08/19
Day 1
Day 1
I was warned that it would be the proverbial “Drinking water from a fire hydrant!” The morning session was with Brian Briggs covering Google Docs and Slides. Not only were we given tools but also quick short practical exercises putting them into immediate practice. The best learning comes from doing! The afternoon with Jonathan Almerido covered not only EduProtocols but did so in the context of Inquiry and Social Comprehension with Social Emotional Learning. KCI thank you for giving us copies of "EduProtocol Field Guide" by Marlena Hebern & Jon Corippo and "Start With Why" by Simon Sinek.
Wired Magazine CoverComic Book - Ben G.07/09/19
07/09/19
Day 2
Day 2
The learning continues! The morning was a stretching experience in starting down the road of sketchnoting with Jonathan Almerido. Getting beyond personal insecurities about my ability to draw helps me to empathize with students’ insecurities about doing something uncomfortable that others might see. To help us get going, Jonathan demonstrated on a whiteboard and shared a ton of resources to get started from the 5 basic shapes. My growth mindset is definitely challenged! Text, images and structures are the basic concepts to keep in mind when sketchnoting. How can this be applied to math and computer science? That is the challenge!
Quick made a Flipgrid bio video introducing ourselves. One of those “it’s good enough” rather than “perfect”. Video messages from by MERIT 18 were an encouragement!
Full on afternoon on Google Slides with Brian Briggs! Never would’ve thought of using Google Slides for creating newsletters, a school yearbook, comics, memes, games, etc. Useful apps such as Prisma, BitMoji, lunapic.com, etc. It’s not just getting the how to but putting it into practice with short exercises. Learning by doing! Feeling kinda overwhelmed but in a good way!
Music _ Made with Code _ Project.mp4
Teacher Manifesto Ben G. MERIT19.png07/10/19
07/10/19
Day 3
Day 3
Morning with Jonathan Almerido introducing us to “Thinking Symbolically”! Emoji Stories & Flipgrid to get the creative juices going.
TACOS: Topic + Ask + Communicate critical thinking creatively + Own your originality + Share
Things got more personal around the theme of “Regret” as applied to the lyrics from the musical Hamilton’s “Satisfied”.
Personal reflection and creating a word cloud using https://www.jasondavies.com/wordcloud/.
Creating visual pieces about “Regret”.
Creating music about our personal journey working through “Regret”. https://www.madewithcode.com/projects/beats
Brian Briggs excellent Google Photos presentation. Using photography principles of SCARE: Simplify, Closer, Angle, Rule of Thirds, and Even Lighting, we created a personal collage representing MERIT19!
Lisa Guardino’s presentation on HyperDocs also included a great personal reflection piece about "happiness". Excellent YouTube videos to get us thinking!
Alan Watts: What do you desire? The Question
The Holstee Manifesto: Lifecycle Video
We experienced doing a HyperDoc where we created our own personal Teacher Manifesto as we experienced working through the Manifesto HyperDoc as students. Looking forward to more!
Day 4
Day 4
07/11/19
My brain is SO FULL!!!
Just a few notes to help me remember! (Will finish this reflection later...)
Morning: HyperDocs Part 2 with Lisa Guardino. Create a HyperDoc: Explore, Explain, Apply. Started on BBC micro:bit HyperDoc. It would've been more helpful to have perhaps a little more step-by-step instruction. For example, choose a HyperDoc in your subject area and remix it to teach a lesson in the coming school year. I understand that is the usual practice when creating HyperDocs.
BrightBytes is a web based service for data analytics for educators.
Afternoon: EduProtocols with Brian Briggs. Eduprotocols is a lesson frame that allows for repetition of the same task with different content. It hits the sweet spot intersection of technology, pedagogy and content. As usual we get hands and created an Iron Chef EduProtocol about EduProtocol! Two other classmates and I created and presented an Iron Chef EduProtocol about EduProtocol!
Day 5
Day 5
07/12/19
Place holder reminders for writing a more in depth reflection...
Merve Lapus from Common Sense Media. Got us to REALLY think about social media use by our students! This is an area where I can sometimes feel quite conflicted. Just finished "Digital Minimalism" by Cal Newport where he makes a strong case for rethinking our relationship with social media. He points out how companies such as Google, Facebook, SnapChat, etc. are very intentional about social engineering through the "likes" and other attention getting tricks used in their user interfaces. It's the first time that I've heard "digital attention economy" used to describe the situation. Phone and device addiction is very real! So this is where Common Sense Media comes in with the resources for educators and parents.
Rich Math Tasks with Tobi Nielsen
Pear Deck
3 Act Math finding area of an image of RD-D2 made with Post-It Notes from watching a YouTube. Observe, Wonder, Solve giving the area of the bulletin board and the area of a Post-It note.
Christina Bustamante: Choose Your Own Adventure
Google Slides and Google Forms
Google Forms: Aha moment: Branching Using Sections
Google Slides: Aha moment: Linking slides to other slides in the slide deck.
Resources!
Brian Briggs VR & AR
So coooool! Given not just Virtual Reality and Augmented Reality consumption but tools for creating such as https://cospaces.io/edu/. I will certainly have to explore this more before the school year starts! I've got to get my hands on the Oculus!
Day 6
Day 6
Monday 07/15/19
Place holder reminders for writing a more in depth reflection...
Video! Vertical Video Syndrome! Rule of 3rds!
Pre-Production: Plan, Plan, Plan, Storyboarding
Production:
- Extreme Long Shot
- Long Shot/ Full Shot
- Medium/Waist Shot
- Close Up
- Extreme Close Up
- Over the Shoulder Shot
Post Production: Putting it all together. Editing.
Application:
Your name, school and subject matter you teach,
Describe your MERIT experience so far.
Give one example of what you are most excited about in bring back to your students as it relates to the integration of technology. “I think what I’m most excited to explore with my students is…”
Made a fun “Rushing to MERIT” video clip. My group videoed and edited two of us getting out of the car and running after a 3rd student.
Afternoon was Screencasting with WeVideo with Brian Briggs. I chose this over Screencasting with Apple products since WeVideo will work on any platform and my school is 1:1 Chromebooks.
BenGuansingMERIT19VideoFinal.mp4Day 7
Day 7
Tuesday, 07/16/19
Edpuzzle = YouTube + Questions
Quim
8 out of 10 students go to YouTube to learn something new.
Students can watch videos at own pace and respond to questions. Student differentiation.
Powerful tool for engaging and assessing students as they watch a YouTube that you assign!
Given time to play with edpuzzle.
Live mode
There was some confusion about the Marketing Challenge. I felt that we were helping edpuzzle with marketing the Live Mode to elementary school teachers rather than learning more about how to use edpuzzle ourselves.
The afternoon was spent finishing our interview videos. What a way to learn video pre-production, production and post production! Having only done one so-so take of the interview, I was pushed to get creative with the editing. I ended up doing a voice over with text to help better communicate the interview content. Whew!
BenGuansingAppleClipMERIT19.movBenGuansingWhy.movDay 8
Day 8
Wednesday, 07/17/19
Morning:
- Exploring what you can do with Adobe Spark. Templates galore for creating almost every media type of presentation whether web or print based.
- Finished the 6 Word Story which reminded me of creating a Japanese haiku!
- My mind was blown by Apple's Clips app! What a creative tool for making show videos clips! Made two clips.
- Who are you? What do you plan to bring back from MERIT19?
- What is your "Why?" (That really got me thinking about what keeps me going as a teacher! Ooops...there's a typo in the Live Text that I didn't catch.)
- Got some much needed work time or space for about 45 minutes before lunch! Time to think. Time to allow my brain to process. Time to work.
Afternoon:
- More time to work! Yeah!
- Green screen fun with Brian Briggs! The Doink App!
- Green screen in WeVideo.
- Podcasting with Brian Briggs. The walking classroom. Listen while walking! A classroom while students walk. We did a podcast walk listening to the "Why?' of student podcasting. Don't have to worry about how one's physical appearance. The students are more vested in producing the content. Ownership. You never know who is listening!
Day 9
Day 9
Project Presentation Day! I blanked out and was the proverbial deer in the headlights when doing mine. A lot of good presentations which were difficult to choose the top three for middle school! As a cohort member later commented, it was a good experience to see different styles of presentation.
Mia Gittlen presented BookSnaps where we created a BookSnap about "Start With Why" by Simon Sinek. What a great way to get student engagement using the tool of choice or SnapChat!
Advice from Karl a MERIT grad. My take-away is that the “magic” happens at the edges of your comfort zone! Your comfort zone will grow.
iMovie trailers
We started creating an iMovie trailer our MERIT19 experience using the Romance template. We may not finish it, but we’re learning A LOT about making iMovie Trailers!
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