The Cabeza Chronicles

The Real World is In Your Classroom

Visualize a small group of kids huddled in a middle school flex space, Expo marker in hand and video camera staged in front of them, confidently drawing shapes and lines on the whiteboard as they explain the steps to solve an equation. Picture students, who otherwise avoid math, passionately debating the best place to ask a question: is it before or after an example? Can you hear them, animated, discussing the best way to teach someone about complementary and supplementary angles?

This was the scene in Jennifer White’s math class at Pike Middle School when she challenged her students to create Edpuzzles that teach other students new math concepts. Determined to engage her students in rigorous and authentic learning, she asked them to design video lessons that would be used as warm-ups and tutorials in other classes.


If you don’t know, EdPuzzle is a video platform that lets teachers turn any video into a lesson by embedding questions, comments, and/or audio. Teachers then assign their video lessons to students and collect formative data, like who watched the video and what they understood. Because the videos are self-paced, students can re-watch them as many times as they need, and even share them with others.

For this project, in teams of 2-3, students chose a topic from their next unit of study. Before creating their video lessons in EdPuzzle, they explored resources, researched their topics, and planned what comments and questions would best help their audience learn the concepts.

White gave students a choice to either find an existing video or create their own to use in the EdPuzzle. Some were excited to make their own videos using their Chromebooks. Giving choice helped her differentiate for students who needed more time during the ‘discovery phase’ and for those who needed an extra challenge.

Before publishing and sharing their work with their audience, students gave each other feedback (using Google Forms) about how they could improve their lessons. Mrs. White gave students time to apply the feedback they collected. This step also worked to expose students to all of the terms they needed to know, and to reinforce the concepts they would eventually see in class.

In the end, this whole project took 3-4 days, provided a whole department with student-created peer tutorial resources, and gave students the chance to learn with a purpose. You can see examples of student work here: Example 1 & Example 2

It is hard to imagine what authentic learning looks like in practice because there isn’t a ‘single right way’ to approach it. John Lamar, with bie.org, put it simply, “In fully authentic work, students are doing work that is real to them... [it has] a direct impact on or use in the real world. (The “real world,” by the way, could still be school, which is a very real place for students.)”

It’s easy to get caught up in preparing kids for the future, but don’t forget: to our students, the real world is here and now. The real world is in your classroom as much as it is outside of it.

One of Mrs. White's biggest takeaways from this project was that students owned their learning throughout the entire process. That happened because she gave students a purpose and audience for their learning. Students were proud to contribute to their immediate environment and motivated knowing that other people would see and benefit from their work.

Ultimately, when educators design authentic learning opportunities they empower students in the present. Instead of hoping students will become leaders, creators, and good citizens one day, teachers can give students the chance to be those people today, to contribute to their real world in the here and now.

Say “Oui!” to Performance-based Assessments

If you’re anything like I was as a classroom teacher, you’ve spent many nights drowning in papers to grade. You understand the time spent in coffee shops, trying desperately to get caught up. And yet, if you’re anything like me, there have been times that, after all those hours and lattes, you weren’t satisfied that your students’ grades actually reflected their knowledge and ability. Where was I going wrong?

I assigned and graded vocabulary worksheets each week, but students were still scoring low on their diction in writing. I graded reading quizzes that assessed plot and character knowledge, but in the end some students couldn’t talk about the major themes of a novel. Between what felt like wasted class time and weekends spent grading, it never failed that when it turned out an assignment didn't actually tell me whether or not my students truly “got it”, I was left frustrated.

I understood that traditional assignments and tests work to show if students “know” something, but quickly learned that they fall short as an indicator of whether or not students can actually use that knowledge. Of course there is a time and place for each, but it is important for teachers to challenge their students with performance-based assessments if they want to know that students can apply their knowledge in meaningful ways. Northwest High School’s French teacher, Madame Blanc (Mrs. White), made this shift in her classroom this year, away from traditional tests and towards a performance-based method of assessment -- and it seems to be paying off.

Each six weeks, Madame Blanc gives her students both creative tasks and opportunities to apply and demonstrate their learning through student-created products that are ultimately shared through their ePortfolio, a personal and digital collection of their growth and learning. As a basic example, she asked her students to create an article for a French magazine that explains an American holiday and custom as a way to assess their application of many language skills they are working on.

French student Elise Reuman recounted one assignment where she and her classmates were asked to create a video that described their partner’s family as a way to demonstrate their ability to use adjectives in French. Using Adobe Spark video, she described her classmate's family. Elise reflected, “...using the vocabulary in a way that applied it to a likely scenario really helped to ingrain the information. Projects like this usually only require the [written] portion of the vocabulary… [but] Mrs.White, went a step further and required a vocal response as well. This really solidified some of the pronunciation and helped me become more comfortable with actually speaking the French language.”

As Elise shared, performance-based tasks engage students in more authentic opportunities to practice real-world skills. It’s important to note that, in a performance-based classroom “teachers do not have to “give up” units of study or favorite activities” (ASCD). According to ASCD, it’s because these “authentic tasks are rooted in curriculum” that “teachers can develop [assignments] based on what already works for them.” It’s ultimately through small changes in how teachers ask students to learn that “assignments become more authentic and more meaningful to students.”

For example, in another assignment in Madame Blanc's class, students were challenged to learn about multiple perspectives, including the likes and dislikes of French teenagers. They had to go further to compare/contrast these perspectives with those of American Teens. Students interviewed their peers (some opting to collect data through Google Forms), graphed and visualized the data they collected (through Google Sheets), and then wrote of summary of their findings in both French and English, finally sharing their work through their ePortfolio (a website created on Google Sites). Assignments like this require students to be strong in their content knowledge, but more than that, they develop skills outside of French language studies -- skills like the 6 Cs: creativity, communication, collaboration, critical thinking, character education, and citizenship.

Watching performance-based assessments work for Madame Blanc has reiterated what hindsight and experience taught me: It was when I focused on creating rigorous and authentic learning tasks for my students, rather than assigning simple checks-for-understanding for grades, that I best served them. It is through rigorous, performance-based learning tasks that we can empower our students to think critically and create, and that we can most accurately and authentically assess their learning.

There are Actually Three Sides to Every Story!

6th grade students at Tidwell MS will not forget this year's triangle unit! This unit was not only informative, but also hands on and  engaging. Students started the unit by learning how to use Geogebra to create triangles. Then, students created a product of their choice (book, comic strip, brochure, etc.) that would allow them to share their learning of triangles with others. Another neat aspect of this project was that students learned how to construct and build triangles from other students. Students in the 6th GT math class created video screencasts showing how to use Geogera and how to create triangles with the correct angles. They compiled their videos on a Padlet wall that was shared with the rest of the 6th grade math classes.

Taidghen, Taylor, Elijah, and Yaleiza from Mrs. Lahit's class got a lot out of this project. "I really enjoyed creating the triangles on Geogebra," said Yaleiza. "I learned that triangles are more than just a shape with three sides. There are many different types of triangles, but you only know the type based on the angle sizes. I also learned that you can not have two obtuse angles within a triangle, or two right angles." This project made students think about triangle properties during creation. Elijah points out, "The most difficult part of the project was making the equilateral triangle in Geogebra because you had to make sure to get all of the sides the same."

Creating Specific Triangles in Geogebra

Taylor and Taidghen loved the choice and creation aspect of the project. Taidghen comments, "I liked making my project stand out. I came up with statements for my book that would help others understand triangles in kid friendly words." Taidghen enjoyed Book Creator as his creation platform because it gave him plenty of options such as inserting images and shapes, as well as choosing specific fonts, backgrounds, and colors. Taidghen even utilized the drawing feature to point out matching and opposing angles within his book.

Projects were turned in on a Padlet wall, which allowed students to see each other's work. "I enjoyed seeing how other students used Book Creator differently than I did," said Taidghen. Yaleiza added, "I enjoyed looking at the Powtoons that some of my other classmates created. The Padlet helped us see all of the ways that we could have shared our knowledge."

All four of these students agreed that next year's 6th graders should complete this project. Taylor mentions, "Next year's class should do this project because it's a chance to be creative while learning." Elijah concludes,"This is a great project because you really learn about all of the triangles and the theorems."

• Taidghen's Project Link
• Yaleiza's Project Link
• Elijah's Project Link
• Taylor's Project Link

Student Created Tutorials for Using Geogebra:

Student ISTE Standards:

Creative Communicator: Students communicate clearly and express themselves creatively for a variety of purposes using the platforms, tools, styles, formats and digital media appropriate to their goals.

• 6a:Students choose the appropriate platforms and tools for meeting the desired objectives of their creation or communication.
• 6c: Students communicate complex ideas clearly and effectively by creating or using a variety of digital objects such as visualizations, models or simulations.
• 6d: Students publish or present content that customizes the message and medium for their intended audiences.

Empowered Learner: Students leverage technology to take an active role in choosing, achieving and demonstrating competency in their learning goals, informed by the learning sciences.

• 1c: Students use technology to seek feedback that informs and improves their practice and to demonstrate their learning in a variety of ways.

Student Choice & Content Creation - Not So "Foreign" After All!

Learning a foreign language can be, well, foreign sometimes! On top of mastering new vocabulary and verb conjugations, students in Pre-AP Spanish II are also learning the difference between two past tenses, preterite and imperfect, and then identifying the corresponding verb conjugation for that correct past tense - whew! In Spanish, you must differentiate between the two types of past tense shown the below table.

	Preterite Tense	Imperfect Tense
Definition	A completed action in the past	Ongoing, repeated, or past actions without implied specific beginning or end
Example	“He put his hand through the car window.”	“The birds sang.”

It’s been said that mastering preterite and imperfect can be done through repetition in that the more you do it, the better you will get at it. While this skill can be sharpened through worksheets or practice sentences, this concept is a difficult one that gets solidified in memory when it is applied. Language is developed through speaking, listening, reading, and writing, so what avenue is best to facilitate this language acquisition?

Asking a high school student to speak in front of their peers is scary enough, add on top of that the factors of the language not being their primary one, compiled with a new and super challenging concept as well as one that requires much thought before the actual sentence is constructed. Listening and reading are both effective in learning the content, but both of these depend on teacher-facilitated content consumption rather than student-driven content creation.  So, two Byron Nelson Pre-AP Spanish teachers, Matt Condon and Isabel Greuling, created the perfect project to get the best mix of language development through product creation with appropriate scaffolds to facilitate student success. Students were tasked with writing their own Spanish Children’s Story Book!

To communicate clear expectations, students received this Rubric, Requirements, and Rough Draft document which contains intentional planning tools such as separate boxes to pre-write two sentences per page, a space to plan vocabulary that will be used and its translation in both English and Spanish, and instructions to highlight verbs and grammar. To facilitate effective story development, students also completed this StoryStarter questionnaire to help students develop the concept prior to developing the language used to describe it. To gain quality peer feedback, students reviewed each other’s rough drafts using this Peer Edit Guiding Questions. Lastly, students constructed their final draft using the online story creator site: Story Jumper; those who are more artistically advanced or who prefer to work offline also had the option to creating a physical book that meets these same requirements.

Below are a few exemplars. Click each image to view the full version within Story Jumper.

Pedro, Carlos, y Los Perritos Calientes

Teacher Feedback: Jackson did a fantastic job of using the preterite and imperfect correctly throughout his book. This book contained very few errors and had a wide range of varied vocabulary covered in Spanish 1 & 2.  Jackson terrifically demonstrated his knowledge and mastery of grammar and vocabulary concepts from the last few chapters.  

Los Peces y El Taco

Teacher Feedback: Dylan exceeded the project’s expectations on this activity by creating a funny, original story with a surprise ending and using correct preterite & imperfect usage to narrate the book.

Rico Y Los Ratones

Teacher Feedback: Adriana's story is very original, and she uses multiple concepts we have learned this year very well. 

Additional student exemplars: Samuel el Sapito and La Mofeta Triste

Students were able to extend the project a step further in creating an audio file of them reading aloud their storybook; thus, refining the skill of speaking the language. In doing so, students can practice pronunciation using a familiar text that they personally constructed which again sets the student up for success. This optional additional audio file can be embedded on the first page of each Story Jumper book.

“I don’t teach a foreign language, so how can this concept be applied to my classroom?”

This project has multiple elements of "good teaching" that can be applied to all ages and content areas.

Highest level of Bloom’s = Creation

• Are you providing time for your students to apply their learning to their own student-driven product?

Student Choice

• Students were able to choose their own setting, characters, and script providing multiple opportunities for student buy-in and student-selected opportunities to demonstrate success.

Scaffolding

• Appropriate planning documents and class time were provided to allow students to pre-write and get peer-feedback for revising and editing.

Cross-curricular

• Since Spanish is a language, incorporating ELA elements lend itself easily to this task. Rather than simply saying “Write using appropriate grammar,” this project reminded students of multiple literary elements such as setting, character development, and climax which are concepts currently being studied in English I-IV.

This activity meets ISTE's Student Standard of being a 'Creative Communicator' in which "Students communicate complex ideas clearly and effectively by creating or using a variety of digital objects such as visualizations, models or simulations.." (6c)

Why You Shouldn't Be Afraid to Replace a "Tried-and-True Method"

Tired of the same old pen-and-paper, drill-and-kill nature of test corrections, Algebra 2 teacher Mrs. Kubacki at Northwest High School wanted to shake things up and to make math a little more engaging for her high schoolers. Of course, her existing method was working just fine; students were completing the corrections and often showing growth. Still, she wanted to take a risk.

Quiz corrections are a staple task in her classroom because they give her students the opportunity to earn back missed points on tests. Many of her students rely on them as a way to boost their grade, and she relied on them as an important step in assessing her students progress in advance of a test. She wanted to ensure that when she replaced a tried-and-true method she would still end up with meaningful evidence of learning, so she turned to an tool that is rising in popularity: a video discussion platform.

Tools like FlipGrid and Recap are becoming more renown, but with any new tool, it’s how you use it that truly matters. Though a great tool for virtual classroom discussion or Vlogging, Kubacki instead challenged her students to create with it. She wanted to see student-created tutorials, to be shared with the class.

Using Recap, also known as Let’s Recap and Recap That, her students created video tutorials for one another solving the questions they had originally missed on their quiz. Prior to filming, she gave them clear-cut, high expectations: they had to show their work, use and even define academic vocabulary words for their audience, and show their work step-by-step so their peers could better learn from their video. As a class and before they first participated, they created a list of video norms and best practices for their tutorials. (This list included rules like: No filming and walking. Eliminate as much background noise as possible. Rehearse your video before filming...)

It's probably worth mentioning that many students did have reservations at first; a selfie generation who constantly Facetime, SnapChat, and learn from YouTube are afraid to be on camera. Just like many adults, they were nervous to document their learning and share it with an audience. Anticipating this, Kubacki did not force her students to be on camera, but instead gave them a choice. She also artfully paired students up for the task, sure to consider their personalities. And since she knows it’s helpful when a leader takes the first risk, she was sure to create her own video first, modeling the class-created expectations.

On the day students finally created and published their video tutorials in class, their teacher was both mobile and available to help anyone in need -- this is one of the many benefits in giving students tasks of creation; the teacher can move out of the driver’s seat and into the passenger’s seat. In the event a student did get stuck, they were expected to create a "point of confusion video" --to post their problem step-by-step, up to the point of confusion, and to finally ask their peers for help. Because she expected students to comment on each other’s videos (they established norms for this too), students were able to get help on their corrections and were able to get immediate feedback from both their peers and their teacher.

Of course, Mrs. Kubacki could have stayed with her tried-and-true method of pen and paper, but what would her students have missed out on? Would they have felt as challenged? What academic or even personal growth might they have missed out on? By instead asking them to create video tutorials through Recap, she gave students a platform where they could immediately share their personal growth with a community of learners who could also benefit from their hard work. Taking this risk gave a larger purpose to students' time and to an otherwise mundane task such as quiz corrections. Even more, these students were empowered to own and share their learning by creating something that would help others.

*This blog has been corrected to clarify that the assignment, quiz corrections, was designed as a formative assessment tool leading up to a final summative grade.

Create Your Own Adventure Books: Real Authors with Real Readers

Authors in Mrs. Bass' 5th grade class at Hughes elementary recently published work for an authentic
audience at their own school! 1st grade students were learning about Caribou while 2nd grade was studying Christmas traditions around the world. Knowing their needs, Mrs. Bass allowed her students to write both fiction and nonfiction stories that the younger students could learn from. These were not ordinary stories. Students used their knowledge of story elements and plot to write create your own adventure books. The beginning and middle of the story was written collaboratively as a class, while the ending was written by each individual. Students choose a unique ending and a picture icon that symbolized what their ending was about to hook the reader and give them a hint.

Zoe, Aubree, Lainey, Hailey, and Terrance got a lot out of this project. When asked what they enjoyed most about the project, Aubree stated, "I loved that we got to write to younger students. We knew lots of people would be reading our work. I also enjoyed getting to read other people's stories and seeing how creative they were." Haliey added, "I loved that every ending was completely different." Some stories ended in Canada, while others ended in Hawaii, Times Square, giant homes, and even Krusty Krab's House.

Terrance explained the project in his own words, "At first we wrote as a squad and then we went solo. I'm glad we got to choose between fiction and nonfiction stories." Terrance is new to Hughes this year and said that he learned a lot about Google docs and how to format documents. He has also noticed that he got better at typing the more he wrote. This project allowed students to learn about writing, while simultaneously learning technology standards. Lainey comments, "I learned that every story needs to have a problem and a solution." Aubree adds, "we also learned how to get a shareable link for our Google Doc and copy and paste shortcuts such as Ctrl C and Ctrl V."

"The hardest part of this project was deciding on the beginning of the story with the group," states Lainey. "We all had ideas and had to choose which one would be best."

Perhaps the best part about this project was getting to share writing with others. All of the stories were published on a Padlet wall for readers to not only read the books, but also give them a 1-5 star rating. "My mom loved me story," said Hailey. "Over Christmas break I read everyone's story from the class. They were all so interesting." The class hopes to have the Padlet bookshelf available in the library for others to read. They are hoping that more people read and rate their stories.

Terrance concludes by saying, "I hope next year's 5th grade class gets to have as much fun doing this project as we did. We learned a lot about writing, but we had a lot of fun at the same time. This project was good for everyone, even the students who are shy because we start in a group, but then get to finish on our own. We all got to show our creative side."

These students are excited to present this project at EXPO 2018 in February!

Read and Rate Student Created Stories Here:
https://padlet.com/cbass5/ReindeerWriting

Highlighted Student ISTE Standards: 
Students communicate clearly and express themselves creatively for a variety of purposes using the platforms, tools, styles, formats and digital media appropriate to their goals.

• 6d Students publish or present content that customizes the message and medium for their intended audiences.

Students use digital tools to broaden their perspectives and enrich their learning by collaborating with others and working effectively in teams locally and globally.

• 7C Students contribute constructively to project teams, assuming various roles and responsibilities to work effectively toward a common goal.

From Pages of Policy to Personal Practice

Students in Mrs. Wilsie's Tech Apps class at Tidwell Middle School were recently challenged with the task of not only understanding the nine page AUP (Acceptable Use Policy), but also working together to create a resource for other students that would help them understand and apply the AUP as well. Students started the unit by creating norms for group collaboration using Spider Scribe. Next, they used the Google Docs Outline tool to create an outline for the AUP as they broke it down into sections. According to Casen, narrowing down the information was one of the hardest parts. He comments, "At the beginning we felt overwhelmed because there were nine pages of the AUP and we had to use three types of multimedia to show how to follow it."

After understanding what the AUP entailed, students used the Tools that Make IT Click Blog to choose the platform they thought would best relay their information to other students.

A Screenshot of Masongo, Keller,
Madeline, and Logan's Blendspace.
Click HERE to View

When asked why her group chose to use Blendspace for their project, Madeline commented, "I was looking at Tools That Make IT Click and I really liked how Blendspace was orgnanized into boxes. We noticed that we could add links, pictures, and box off information off for our audience." Casen, Soniya, Benaiah, and Fatou decided to use Google Slides so that they could collaborate. They embedded videos, animation, and a Kahoot quiz so that students who viewed their presentation could test their knowledge. Maggie, Corbin, Jacob, and Blake created a newsletter using Tackk. They utilized the "button" feature in order to create a series of hyperlinks to send viewers to various student-created resources. Blake pointed out, "Our favorite part was the skit that we made about AUP. We used Screencastify to record our video."

After starting to work on their presentations, classes had the opportunity to connect with, and interview a few professionals via ZOOM. The video conference allowed students to see that the AUP is a part of the 'real world' and that it impacts adults in the workplace everyday. Students talked to Brooke, who works remotely with IBM in sales and Carrie, the Human Resources Director at Fidelity Investments.

After seeing the capabilities of ZOOM, one group decided use ZOOM to connect with each other even when they weren't all in class. Blake added, "ZOOM was easy to use and we were able to work even outside of class. I liked that you can message each other during the conference, so that we don’t interrupt each other."

At the end of the project, students used Google Forms to give their teammates a rating on collaboration and teamwork. They also shared their final product on a Padlet wall for the class to view and leave feedback.

Students walked away fom this experience with a clear understanding of the AUP and how to apply it to their daily digital lives. They also learned a lot about collaboration and teamwork. Maggie points out, "When we started as a group it wasn’t that smooth, but we got better as we worked together. Team work wasn’t easy at first." Casen sums up the unit by stating, " It would be helpful for other students to view our presentation. We made something that would benefit the whole school."

Casen, Soniya, Benaiah, and Fatou's Final Product

Maggie, Corbin, Jacob, and Blake's Final Product

View A.U.P. full version on Tackk
Create your own customized Tackk page

Real Life Triangles

Using Thinglink to Make Triangles Interactive

Triangles don't simply make an appearance in our textbooks, they're in nature, architecture, landmarks, and everyday life. 5th grade students in Mrs. Basinger's class at Hughes Elementary chose different triangles from all areas of life to explore. After learning about the properties and attributes of triangles, students were given the task of finding an image that represents one of their triangle types. Then, they used Thinglink to make their images interactive. They included the type of triangle, definition, properties, and other places that they would find that type of triangle.

Emilie and Celeste both got a lot out of this project. Emilie comments, "I enjoyed getting to chose my own image. I chose my image because it had many different triangles. I thought it would be neat to tag all of the triangles, not just one. I knew that the building I found was in Australia and Googled it to find out that it is called the Sydney Opera House."

Celeste points out, "I chose a piece of wood barbecue I thought it would be interesting. One of the questions we had to answer was 'where else would you see this type of triangle?' My dad uses wood to build things, so I starting thinking this little triangle could be a part of something bigger." She adds, "I enjoyed using Thinglink for this project because everyone came up with something different to show the class. I also noticed that I could label my angles with letters. I had two acute angles so I labeled those both B."

When asked what the most difficult aspect of the project was, Emilie said, "I had to learn how to find and save images. I also learned how to copy and paste the link for my audio comment using Ctrl+C and Ctrl+V." Celeste thought that the most challenging part was identifying the name of the sides of the triangle and thinking about other places in life that she would see this type of triangle. 

Emilie concludes, "My image is interesting because most of the shapes in the architecture that I chose were curved. If they were all straight lines it would have been true right triangle. I explained this with text and in an audio comment on my image." Emilie and Celeste using vocaroo to add audio to their image. "I'm going to notice triangles everywhere now," concluded Emilie. 

Hover over Celeste and Emilie's Thinglink Projects:

  

Students design logos for real-world applications

At Northwest ISD, we strive to provide real-world experiences for students to enhance their learning and ensure they are future ready. NISD's 1:world website was recently in need of a logo, and students in the Business Management and Entrepreneurship (BME) Academy were contacted to utilize their design and technology skills to design the new logo. Students were given the requirements, including the NISD Branding Guidelines, and used Adobe design software to provide several options to choose from. After a formal business meeting (ran by the student team leader), the chosen logo was provided in digital format to the 1:world webmaster. As a result, the logo was then incorporated into the website, which is seen by the NISD community, including students, educators, and parents. Not only does the 1:world website have a creative, student-designed logo, the students also have another digital product to add to their design portfolio.

The impact of the student-designed logo doesn't stop there. Due to the success of the 1:world logo, BME students are now working on a logo for an NISD campus library. The library logo will be displayed in the library itself, as well incorporated into a t-shirt design in which librarians will wear to represent NISD at a national librarian conference.

The next time you need a creative, digital product, consider tapping into the most creative resource we have available to us: our students.


For more information on NISD's 1:world experience for students, educators, and parents, please visit http://1toworld.nisdtx.org.

For more information on NISD's BME Academy, please visit http://www.nisdtx.org/Page/58348. 

For more information on all NISD Academies, please visit http://www.nisdtx.org/academies. 

Our Amusing Parks

Group Research and Models

Learning about the five themes of geography just got real for 6th grade students at Tidwell Middle school. These students didn't just memorize the five themes, they explored them by creating their own amusement park! Mrs. Neiswender and Mrs. Valentine encouraged their students to work in groups and collaborate together on the presentation, commercial, and ad for their park. Each group was asked to describe the relative and absolute location of their park, justify their location, explain the geographical factors, and identify ways that the new park will modify the physical environment.

Brooke, Lilly, and Caroline came up with an especially unique idea. "We choose to build our theme park in Nashville, so that we could have a music theme," stated Lilly. "Since Nashville is a music city, we named our rides examples such as "The Jazzy Jungle" and "The Elvis Express."

This group explained that Nashville was a town of tourists, which would be good for business. They also wanted to incorporate an educational theme through music, so that visitors could learn about different time periods and styles as they experienced the rides. By looking at Google Maps and doing some research, the group found that they would need to clear an area for the park. They woud not have to cut down many trees since they were already in a trafficed area. The group writes,"We are planning to build our theme park next to Nissan Stadium behind the Cumberland Park. Nashville is also known for having the second largest landmass in the nation." Doing research about real locations and getting to choose their location made this project relevant.

According to Brooke, "The most difficult part of this project was not using word or power point."  We ended up using Google Slides and found that it was similar to power point, but allowed us to all work from home together. This was good becuase we messed up several times in class and were able to work on it together from home." Caroline added, "I enjoyed trying something new. Next project I would like to try something else so that I know other ways to catch my audience's attention." This was a big project and the team learned that even though there were several of them on their team, they had to use time effectively to get everything done. "We all had good ideas, but we had to decide on the best ideas and then split up work or we would not have finished."

Brooke, Lilly, and Caroline's Presentation:
Music Around the World 

A Global Perspective with Blendspace

Having a global perspective is essential for today's learners. Students in Ms. Nolan's class had the opportunity to explore professional etiquette in different situations and to identify strategies for dealing with differences in ethnicity. Student's used a tool called Blendspace to create a way to communicate their learning and to allow others to learn from their research.

Blake explored etiquette as it relates to Indonesian culture. He found that a man should never extend his hand to a woman and he should always wait for her cue. He also discovered that finger pointing is considered inappropriate. 


Audrey focused her research on etiquette tips for Saudi Arabia. "The left hand is considered unclean or unpure and reserved mostly for hygiene. Also, avoid gestures with the right hand. Do not point at another person directly and do not eat with the left hand. The "thumbs up" gesture is offensive and rude. Furthermore, try not to cross your legs when sitting and never show the bottom of your feet. It is common and proper to remove your shoes before entering a building or a person's home. Follow the lead of your host."

Blueprint Gone 3D

Written by Jacob Suchors, Ridge Hanson, and Brandon Fryer
  
     The Junior and Senior students in Mrs. DeLong's AutoCAD class recently completed their Guest House Project. The unique aspect of this project is that the students are designing a real house for a real client that is actually going to be built in Van Zandt County! The client that the house is being built for is Libby Turner, a woman who owns a plot of land in East Texas. When asked about how students reacted to having an actual client, AutoCAD teacher Mrs. Jacqueline DeLong, explains how, “By actually having a real client it motivated the students to work harder because each team wanted to see their design become a reality.”

    The students worked in teams of 2 to create the house. They used a more advanced AutoCAD program called REVIT, which allowed the students to show their design in 3D. Tucker Chaka states that, “I like Revit a lot more than the original AutoCAD because it makes everything so much easier…You can select Door, Window, Wall, etc. and place it wherever you want, whereas in AutoCAD you have to draw everything individually which makes things much more complicated and time consuming.”

    The project was designed to exploit each student’s talents in creating a home in REVIT. The situation was very real world with a real client and client wants. The students met with the client weekly and discussed ideas, the budget that was $70,000, and had the client check the progress of their designs. Having a real client added to the whole idea and helped prepare students for the real world.

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