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Mr Youssef 's Brazilian Social Studies 9 class is learning about the first urban society that was developed in the Portuguese America. For this purpose, students have to analyze the urban characteristics of the main 17th Century cities of Minas Gerais, in order to identify whether the Portuguese colonists forced a urban pattern. The students have been on a school trip to those cities earlier in the year, so this activity is a follow up of the trip. Google Earth was chosen as a means to support such urban analysis, looking at different types of buildings and urban characteristics, including street design. In class, students learned the rationale behind their Google Earth activity looking through the SAMR model lens, as shown below. The class activity was at the Modification level. Substitution At this level, students could use a Google Map to individually draw/highlight street patterns and buildings. Substitution happens through a transfer from a paper map to an online map. Augmenta...

The idea of taking visual notes is spreading on the Internet. Sunny Brown has called it the Doodle Revolution , and it is supported by brain research that highlights the importance of images in learning. Students in International Relations, with Ms LaFrance, have been assigned different articles for reading and becoming experts on.  In order to share and contribute to the learning of others, students will produce Visual Notes in RSA animation or screencasting format. Ideas for applications for laptop and iPads are given at the Visual Thinking page within the HS Academic Tech Support site. Students were introduced to visual note taking strategies through a  MODIFICATION  level activity (SAMR Model by Rueben Puentedura). So instead of the traditional approach, students were actively engaged while the video was played in class, by collaboratively creating a Google Spreadsheet with main keywords from the video. Each student or group of students typed keywords in one c...

This is a cross post from Moving Up the SAMR Model . Ms Ange in Grade 9 Integrated Math I, has taken the challenge of having student create individual blogfolios to reflect on their math learning. As all students in Grade 9 have already created a Google Site Digital Portfolio that is being used in English and Visual Arts, so the students were taught how to link their Math blogfolio directly from the ePortfolio site under "Mathemathics". In this way, all their learning reflections are connected to a central hub. The challenge in a blogfolio is to create appropriate "labels" that will allow retrieval of posts according to learning goals. The thoughtful creation and use of labels is a great support to reflection, which is a Modification stage on the SAMR model. In the figure below you will see stages in the use of blogs for learning in Math. Those stages are described in more detailed below with emphasis on "Modification", which is the example described on th...

In PE 10, Ms Arcenas' class is taking the learning outside of the classroom and also outside of the "Unit" by recording fitness workout every week along the entire school year. Students will reflect on their own fitness plan and also on how it should be adjusted to provide the desired results and support other activities like basketball or soccer practice. In order to make this record viable, students will enter the weekly workout on a Google Form that feeds a spreadsheet where they will collect all the information to be used as a basis for reflection and review. The images below show how the Form looks like on a cellphone, and how the filled out spreadsheet looks like. Such use of cellphones to enter fitness data is interpreted at the Augmentation stage of the SAMR model. This is because the cellphone offers clear advantages to paper record. It allows better organization and more importantly, it allows easy record on the spot, avoiding imprecise recording at a later time...

This is a cross post from ePortfolios Development Spirals . Today we had a great meeting with the Brazilian Studies Department where Geoff and Jennifer Carpenter shared their experience with ePortfolios. Their presentation can be seen at Digital Portfolio Workshop , where the Reflect page was particularly emphasized. Other teachers in the audience have already started publishing student work in different formats like showcase portfolio webpages, student product page in a class site or even class blogs. Middle School has in fact started a focus on Blogfolios and 5th Grade students are creating blog posts with labels based on Graded's Core Values.  So in order to provide some context for ePortfolio experiences already happening and possibilities for growth, I created and shared the following Infographic describing ePortfolio development spirals as seen from different perspectives. Silvia Tolisano and Jennifer Peterson, representing Middle and Elementary School Academic Technolo...

 PFL IV - Projeto Sua Cidade e Seu País As part of learning Portuguese as a foreign language, students often create products that provide an insight into the culture that they bring to Graded.  There is therefore an untapped richness  of resources that relate to the idea of "intercultural competence" indicated in our mission statem ent. I believe that access to such products  can help our community better understand the different cultural experiences at Graded.                     PFL II - Projeto Roupas do Mundo Take a look at some of these projects below: Projeto Cidade Seul: Uma cidade dos nosso sonhos Cartagena: Colômbia Canadá Projeto Roupas Tradicionais Roupas Tradicionais India & Africa do Sul Coréia França, Estados Unidos e Brasil Argentina, Estados Unidos e Brasil

After publishing online newspapers, the PFL V class has now made available to the wider audience an online magazine with fictional news articles. The magazine is called "A Tela" which means "screen" in English, as a way to represent the different news you may see on TV or computer screens. The magazine has three separate sections:  Recent Events, Science & Technology, Culture & Travel. Anyone can read the articles and make comments by accessing the publication at the Issuu site shown below. The class worked collaboratively to develop the design style of the magazine and some students created the cover. A Google Presentation file was used to house all the articles under the same design, so each student was responsible for copying a master slide and adding his o her own content. A PDF version of this Google Presentation was then uploaded into Issuu, making the online magazine very easy to do. You can access the magazine below. A snapshot of students'commen...