What We Do

Meetings & Help Hours

Weekly Meetings

We meet on Thursdays at lunch. Once students get their food, we reasonably only have 15-20 minutes of face-to-face meeting time. As their advisor, I work with students to create the agenda and help them run the discussions.

We also use Google Classroom as our online platform for announcements, collaborating on projects, and having asynchronous discussions.

Help Hours

For the first few weeks of the school year, students staff the help hours table 4-5 days a week before school and during lunch. As the start of school rush dies down, we reduce our help hours to 2-3 days per week, only at lunch.

They run help hours from a small table they carry from my classroom and down the hall to sit in front of the library.

While at the table, students also sell small styluses for $.50 and large styluses for $1.00 (available in bulk from Amazon). This provides us some funds for club expenses, such as shirts, badges, and materials.

Viking Tech Crew table sign, including how students can help their peers and teachers.

Working with Students & Teachers

Students can come to the Help Hours table to ask questions. The table is especially popular the week before progress reports!

Teachers can request a Viking Tech Crew student via a Help Tickets Google Form. While we do not have an overwhelming demand for teachers needing help, our students love it when a Help Ticket is submitted and they are assigned to work with a teacher.

Students meet with teachers before school, at lunch, or after school.

Student teaching a teacher how to use Explain Everything, an iPad app.

Student teaching a teacher about settings on the iPad

Projects & Activities

Presenting at Faculty Meetings

Our students regularly present short 5 minute technology segments at our monthly faculty meeting. They model an app or a tool, and provide lesson examples and ideas. Then, they have their teachers try out the app. The teachers love learning from the students!

3D Printing

We had the opportunity to borrow a 3D printer for a few months this school year as part of a science & engineering grant. Our Viking Tech Crew students learned about 3D printing, then used the Hand Challenge template to participate in a 3D printing project that provides a low-cost prosthetic hand to a child in need.

Learn more about the Hand Challenge here!

Lunchtime Trivia

One of our students built us a carnival spinner wheel and we used a meeting to paint our spinner into segments.

Students researched about digital citizenship, wrote questions, and facilitated lunchtime trivia for their peers. Students came to spin the wheel, answered questions about digital citizenship and safety, and gave out candy for correct answers.

How-to Videos

Periodically, students create simple how-to videos for their peers on topics such as how to navigate our LMS, how to turn in homework online, and steps for resetting passwords.

Coming in 2017-2018

App Reviews

Students will review iPad apps, web tools, and other technology to provide reviews for teachers. These reviews will include an overview of how the app/tool works, lesson ideas, and student work samples (when available).

Below is the template we will be using.

App Reviews

Badges & XP

We will be ramping up our training procedures for the club to provide students with the opportunity to advance their skills and work with the club at various capacities. Students will earn XP (experience points) by attending meetings, working with students and teachers, and demonstrating proficiency on various apps and tools. We will use Google Sheets to track XP, and students will demonstrate proficiency on tools using Badge List.

Google Sites

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