Upcoming Foreign Language Projects

Last month I worked with a few Spanish teachers to introduce them to Google Classroom.

We are planning a lesson for next week using the following:

1. Using Chromebooks to join the Google Classroom (by Class Code)
2. Introduce the YouTube Upload  feature by activating the account/channel and show students how to allow the Chromebook - WebCam to record and publishing to school YouTube.
3. Introduce Padlet  by creating a classroom wall to students to post information and or their video.  Create individual walls with recordings and collect the address using a Google Form (and/or posting to the Classroom stream/assignment.
4. IGoogle Forms to collect assignment locations for padlet and recordings
5. Google Presentations and Chrome App (ScreenCastify) to record presentation.

Future projects and incorporate using Chromebooks and WeVideo.

Updates to Google Classroom and WeVideo this week

A few program updates this week that changed while I was in the middle of using both programs with students.

1. Google Classroom has been updated and you can now modify your theme.
   Checkout the blog for more details.
   I loved this new feature!  I was working with a class to invite them into Google Classroom, Monday morning and the teacher asked me if she could modify the theme for her cooking class. I told her unfortunately that was not possible.  Later that date I saw a tweet stating Google had updated Classroom features to change themes.  The students had made mozzarella and we changed the theme to reflect the class.   In addition, many students installed the Classroom mobile app and took pictures of their work and added to the classroom.
   
   Last week I planned a project and materials for a Poetry Project using WeVideo, halfway through the project this week WeVideo made changes to their online editor. See below for more details.
   
2. WeVideo makes updates to their online video Editor
   The latest updates to WeVideo's online video editor consolidated the features of the "basic" and "advanced" editors into one product. In combining the two editors into one WeVideo made it easier to edit the tracks in your video productions. You can now simply click on a track to edit it. The other big update to WeVideo is the new option to preview your visuals while recording a voice-over at the same time. (blog post)

While working on the Poetry projects I converted the rubrics into a Google Spreadsheet and hope to introduce Classroon with Doctopus and Goobric to streamline the grading process.  We collected all the published Poetry Projects links using a Google Form for multiple classes. This is going to allow teachers to streamline their evidence and collaborate on assessments.

It's great working with teachers to integrate into the classroom but it can be a little tricky when updates happen midway through the project.  We were able to adjust and I am so please to have streamlined this project with teachers.

Planning a Project

This week I am gearing up to work on one of my favorite projects with several sophomore classes. The Favorite Poem Project.  I have done this over the years using PC's/MovieMaker and the students have created amazing projects.  This year we are shifting the assignment allowing the students to use their "BYOD" device along with a choice of programs (WeVideo, MovieMaker, iMovie or any other tool that is available on their device).

Students will select up to five poems that has specific meaning or a connection to them and state the reason they have selected the poem.  Once approved (see assignment and process posted by the teacher). students will be required to use a Storyboard to plan their project.  I have provided students with google doc/storyboard templates along with paper/pdf files for planning.  Today, I noticed a StoryBoard Challenge on twitter link  focusing on why storyboards important and a few examples. This will serve as a great discussion topic with my teachers.  Student are required to follow Copyright when working on the project.  I have used the "Copyright and Fair Use Guidelines for School Projects" adapted by Kathy Schrock.

Some of the students plan on using WeVideo connected to their Google Accounts. The project was altered to include video of the student discussing their connection to the poem.  Students may use their phone to record video and also explore the web-cams on the chromebooks.

I will be creating a Google Form to collect the student names, poems and project links.