World of Research

Second grade students at Beck elementary recently explored the world! This cross curricular unit allowed students to learn about other cultures, as well as expository writing and communicating their ideas. Mrs. Moses and Mrs. Jeffcoat opened student's eyes to global communication by contacting families around the world and having them post videos about their Christmas traditions on a padlet wall. The project consisted of four parts: Learning about other cultures, writing an expository essay over research, creating a poster of facts to present to the class, and making a video using Shadow puppets to highlighted a chosen country. 

When asked what they learned about other cultures, Morgan commented, "I learned that in Italy they

eat eel for Christmas and they call cake figgy pudding, it looks really good!" Colbie and Reed added, "I wish that we opened Christmas crackers like they do in England."  

One of Mrs. Moses' students (Ben) lived in Italy for three years. Ben and his family made a video about Italian Christmas traditions and put it in the padlet wall to share with the class. They used Shadow Puppets for this video. Ben comments, "I choose Shadow Puppets because my sister used Shadow Puppets for a 5th grade report and I liked it."

While this project was fun, it was also challenging at times. "The hardest part was presenting the information and working with our table," said Sam. "We had to try to spell everything correct and everyone wanted to draw at one time without talking about their idea first," expressed Reed. They added, "We did rock paper scissors to decide who got to write first." Colbie and Morgan pointed out, "It was kind of hard working in a team. We were both managers for our team, so we had to give everyone something important to do." The essay was also challenging. Reed commented, "The first draft was challenging because we had to have a hook and write about all of the things that we learned."

All of the students enjoyed using Shadow Puppets to make their video. "I like picking out the photos for the shadow puppet video and working with the special effects," said Sam. "We used smiley faces, snowflakes, stars, and other emojis to make the video more fun for others."

Morgan and Colbie summed it up well, "We loved this project because we got to learn facts about what other cultures do." They both agreed that next year's class should do this project. "I think they’ll have fun," said Morgan. "They will have to learn to be friends with others. I think every class should do it."

Come check these projects out at Techno Expo 2016. You can also view these student's videos in the padlet, or by clicking on the links below:

Created with Padlet

Morgan's Video Exploring Italy

Colbie's Video Exploring England

Sam's Video - Exploring Mexico

Reed's Video - Exploring 

Ben's famliy video about Italian traditions 

How to Succeed in Virtual Business Without Really Trying

This year in Northwest ISD marked the opening of V.R. Eaton High School, and with it the Academy of Business Management and Entrepreneurship (BME).  This means this is the last year for the flagship Virtual Enterprises International (VEI) class to be held at Byron Nelson High School.  Since this class deals with the creation and management of a "real" business in a virtual world, it will be moving to the BME Academy after this year.  VEI is a program where students learn about business by creating their own business in their classrooms, as shown in their video below:

About Virtual Enterprises International from VE International on Vimeo.


At Byron Nelson High School, currently the only school in Texas with a VEI course, Mr. Browarski's class has taken to this task like a fish to water.  They have taken a vision of a business and made it a working machine.  From payroll to HR, social media accounts to corporate webpages, marketing to online virtual marketplaces, their company Salubre has grown in leaps and bounds.  Check out their story and success at www.ve-salubre.com.


What this group of students has done is more than just create a website.  They have created a business plan based on market research and models.  They have a team divided into departments to handle all the responsibilities a real company would have to face.  Students Ethan Langley and David Ryan, the Salubre Financial Team, discuss some of the intricacies of their company.  "Essentially there are all the facets of a real life company.  We keep track of the finances related to running our business, from sales and shipments to operating costs such as food, insurance, and utilities."  The work each group in the company has assigned to them is not random, as David explained. "Each department has a specific set of tasks to perform during the course of the school year, including using our personal pay from the company to invest in or buy merchandise from other VEI companies (schools) around the country to keep their companies in business."

The creative and marketing team members describe how they went about creating all of this.  The amount of software applications and skills that the team members have had to learn, often on their own initiative, is staggering. "We had to create logos, banners, catalog designs, web designs, all kinds of stuff," said Nathan Sokul from the creative team. "Primarily we use Adobe Illustrator, Indesign, Lightroom, and Photoshop.  If we didn't know how to use something we had to figure it out for ourselves.  I learned most of these during class by looking up video tutorials on YouTube or Lynda."  Hayden Rivers, part of the marketing team, said they used Wix to create the website and then linked it to Google Analytics to continuously assess their company's exposure.  "We have to do industry analysis by checking out prominent companies and looking at our VEI competitors."  They also use Google Docs and Google Drive to organize and collaborate within the company.  "Honestly, without this type of instant collaboration, this couldn't be done" says Hayden.  "With the plethora of videos and guides available to teach yourself, and such easy access to free and cheap software, it makes all this possible."

Mr. Browarski's class is special.  It's special because it isn't really a class at all: it's a business. A business developed and run by students.  A business that is connected to and collaborates with other businesses both locally and globally.  A business that has taught them life-long lessons by helping them to develop skills they can use as they enter the real business world.  A business that has taught them how to succeed.

Crazy and Unpredictable Weather Right Here in North Texas

In Mrs. Briseno’s 2nd grade class at Justin Elementary, students are learning just how extreme and unpredictable our weather can be.  

"Our teacher gave us a choice of weather topics like flash floods, tornadoes, hurricanes, and heatwaves.  We brainstormed different avenues to collect our research using graphic organizers.  We were also charged with how are we going to share our knowledge with a global audience.  When our information was presented in class we asked for feedback from our class peers.  Mrs. Briseno then posted the projects on her class Twitter to share."

Project 1 -  Grey wanted to showcase his learning using the graphic organizer about Tornadoes.  He chose the app on the classroom iPad called Corkboard.  He found his free educational images on Google.  Grey states, “Did you know right here in Justin, TX, we are in what is called Tornado Alley? The weather trackers find the storms and send the data back to the news or home base to protect the people in our community.”

Project  2 - Tyler and Gracie wanted to learn about Flash Floods.  Their collaboration and research began with several questions: How do flash floods form?  How do they stop? How can you protect yourself if you are in a flash flood?  They chose to culminate their research in a document with images that were converted into a flipbook using a tool called FlipSnack.  

Click here to see the book in action

Tyler mentions that Oklahoma, Mississippi, and China are more prone to flash floods due to their weather habits and the soft land.  Gracie stated that her dad is always looking at his radar on his smartphone when bad weather is approaching.  He is a paramedic/policeman and he needs to protect people.

These are just a few examples of projects that will be showcased at Night of No Limits in May.  

This post was written in collaboration with Grey, Tyler, Gracie, and Mrs. Briseno

Simplifying the Principles of Newton's Laws

Student Rachel Hopkins, 8^th grader at Wilson Middle School, embraced a challenge from science teacher, Mrs. McCown. The challenge: show other students a creative way to learn about Newton’s Laws.  Rachel describes to her audience the properties of motion with her unique approach to create a project that makes the concept understandable for her peers.  Newton’s laws are useful when people design airplanes, trains, cars, sports equipment, toys and many things that have to do with motion.  Some people have trouble understanding Newton’s laws without any applicable examples that relate to everyday life.  Rachel addresses these misunderstanding through filming and then using video production software to best address the learning needs of her audience. Her completed video was uploaded to YouTube to broadcast to a global audience so that she not only made a difficult concept understandable to her classmates but learners around the world.

"Sir Isaac Newton (1643-1727)" by Sir Godfrey Kneller - http://www.phys.uu.nl/~vgent/astrology/images/newton1689.jpg]. Licensed under Public Domain via Wikimedia Commons - http://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Sir_Isaac_Newton_(1643-1727).jpg#mediaviewer/File:Sir_Isaac_Newton_(1643-1727).jpg

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."

Webquest Wizardry in Math

written by Shenna Anderson, 6th Grade Math, Pike Middle School

There are a variety of ways to teach the same concept and a plethora of ideas and resources available to differentiate instruction, in an effort to reach as many learners as possible.  Webquest, an inquiry-oriented lesson format in which most or all the information that learners work with comes from the web, is a platform that can do just that. 

Mrs. Anderson's 6th Grade math class at Pike Middle School used Webquest platform creating a lesson through zunal.com over a particular mathematical concept to teach others.  The product that was produced by each student redefined learning in the classroom.  Students considered their audience and created a product that others could easily understand and learn, while meeting the learning objective at a mastery level. The Zunal.com webquest allowed students to step away from traditional instructional methods and products. The product took learning and collaboration beyond the walls of the classroom.

Selected students showcased their Webquests at the district Techno Expo. In addition to a global audience via the internet, Techno Expo provided a face to face audience including peers, students, teachers, parents, community members and administrators.  The products in Mrs. Anderson's class inspired other teachers to incorporate this style of teaching and learning in their own classrooms.  Additionally, on the night of Techno Expo one parent specifically said that, “this actually makes me want to do it.”

(click on image to go to webquest)

(click on image to go to webquest)

The students enthusiastically took on the role of teacher and enjoyed being able to help others learn what they had learned. The impact of the product went well beyond the walls of the classroom in addition to inspiring the use of Webquests for student product in other content areas. The most exciting results of this effort for the students were when Mrs. Anderson’s class webquests were used by other math teachers across the district as a tool for intervention and additional instruction.