It's raining weathermen!

Algonquin was so fortunate this week to be able to skype with 2 notable weather people!
 Lorrie Zanini and Aimee Selby's chemistry class Skyped with Danielle Vollmar from ABC.  The students really appreciated her willingness to connect with them and describe her experience and background.  She was so easy to talk to and did an amazing job answering all of their questions.

At the exact same time as the chemistry students were connecting with Danielle Katie Salt and Maura Morrison's public speaking class were skyping with Eric Fisher from CBS.  He was so personable and gave the students some great advice.  I would like to share a quote from Maura... "After the Skype with Eric Fisher, we debriefed as a class and it's clear that this was a memorable Public Speaking experience and a heck of a 1st period doubs."  I am sharing a short video clip below so you can see what the experience was like.  I would highly encourage you all to give it a try. 

In other ARHS tech news, I am pleased to announce that a few teachers have decided to use the new green screen wall for some upcoming projects.  Thank you to Jen Sousa, Monique Cloutier, Sara Stein, Steve Godbout, Felicia Rutigliano, Lorrie Zanini, and Aimee Selby for their creativity, courage and willingness to tech it out!  I will share the finished results with you in the next blog post.  Allowing students to create digital projects such as videos will enhance the learning experience immensely and provide our students with those necessary 21st century skills that will make them college and career ready.  Speaking of videos, at a recent workshop that I attended I learned how to make YouTube videos interactive.  To see an example of something I created check out this compilation of videos created by Brian Calnan for his flipped Algebra 1 class and then let me know if you want to learn how to do it.  Also a big shout out to Mary Rose Steele for creating a an amazing flipped lesson for her PreCalculus students.

As I mentioned in my last blog post Infographics are another way for our students to show what they know and produce digital content.  Above is an example of an infographic about cyberbullying created by students in Cathy Griffin's Computer Essentials class.  The Applied Arts Department are trying some new things in the Computer Essentials classes and they are also  looking for feedback from teachers about what technology skills we would like Algonquin students to learn.  Please contact Mary Beth Pappas if you have any suggestions.  

And let's not forget about Explain Everything which is another great tool for our students to show what they know.  Nancy Hart and Cathy Carmignani are in the process of assessing their Integrated 1 students on solving systems of equations using the ipads and Explain Everything.  "People become better problem-solvers when they are asked to explain how or why a solution is correct".  See more at http://www.parentingscience.com/kids-learn-math-and-science.html.

Well hopefully you have been inspired by your colleagues to try some technology that will enhance your curriculum.  The big question is what do you want your students to know and produce and how can technology help.  I am excited to help you explore some options and I know that any of the teachers mentioned above would be happy to discuss what they are doing.

Have a great weekend, and as always I welcome any comments you have on anything from this blog post.