Day 38 - Bryan Strange, Burlington High School Senior

Workflowy app review:

Ever find yourself unorganized and flustered with daily tasks?  Your problem is solved with Workflowy, an online tool to help keep your life organized.  Workflowy has also developed an app for all of your IOS devices for on-the-go!

Workflowy allows you to make a list of any tasks that need to be completed.  For tasks that have multiple steps, you can make sub pages for each item and add greater elaboration.  For example, if your daily tasks include grocery shopping, mowing the lawn, and cleaning the house.  You simply create the list.  After creating your list, select the task you would like to add and Workflowy allows you to add individual steps to make sure that all of your tasks get done right and on time.



As you can see above I have a list that is titled “Mow the lawn” which is my main task.  A detail for that task would be “get gas” which is indicated on a sub menu.  Then the third task is to get the right gasoline which is indicated in another sub menu.  This app is a great app for keeping your thoughts in line and organized.  This app is also a great tool for note-taking and being able to organize your notes into single subjects. For instance, you could add a list called "mandatory assignments" and then clarify the steps it would take to complete the assignments.

Day 37 - John Middleton-Cox, Burlington Public Schools Music Coordinator

"Presenters who went after I spoke, mentioned Burlington High School as having an amazing program," said John. "It feels great to be recognized by the greater Boston community of professionals."

Burlington High School is making an impression at Boston Music Schools. John Middleton-Cox presented at a symposium at the Berklee College of Music. The topic was producing Musicals on a shoe string. Mr. Middleton-Cox was chosen to represent the High School age. During his presentation, he showed a 20 minute video montage of the past 10 years of musicals at Burlington High School. 

While the audience watched the video (below) in the background, Mr. Middleton-Cox reviewed a typical budget and how to pull it all together. The growth and development of the program was so evident to all. From "Damn Yankees" in 2001 - "Kiss Me Kate" in 2011, the ticket sales and budget has tripled.

Alumni Patrick Hanafin is now a freshman at Berklee. He performed Brush Up Your Shakespeare from "Kiss Me Kate" to help represent the Collegiate age group.

 

Day 36 - Alexis Dwyer, Fox Hill Elementary School Counselor

Sometimes the Fox Hill children and staff call me "The One," which I can tell you is not true because I am not the best at anything. ‘The One’ is based on Kathryn Otoshi’s book titled One, which was the inspiration for Fox Hill’s school-wide initiative focusing on standing up for yourself and others in a respectful and responsible way.

This story teaches us about accepting each other's differences and that it sometimes just takes one voice to make everyone count. Our first school-wide assembly in November was devoted to the theme of “Be the One.” This assembly included some 5th grade children and me interpreting the book on stage as a way to introduce the theme and bring the story to life (See the video below). All the children who were part of the show did a fabulous job designing costumes, acting out a character or narrating the play.


one from Mr. Murphy on Vimeo.

Once the children understood the idea of our school theme, they were asked to consistently practice the positive message behind the main characters actions.It was important to set behavioral expectations and for the children to be rewarded with a sticker for showing "Be the One" behavior that is depicted in the story. Some examples of behavioral expectations or criteria include, when a child stands up for a friend who is left out of a game at recess or uses kind words to tell someone how they feel. Children are earning stickers to be displayed on big “One” cutouts in their classrooms. Since we are asking the children to embrace this motto and buy in to its powerful message, it makes sense for us to practice what we preach and behave as we believe.

I believe in being the “One” to make everyone count and be accepted, even if it’s not always the most popular option. Hopefully the children will continue to call me “The One" because I’m doing my best to send this message and not because I wear a huge green “One” costume in school regularly to remind everyone of the importance of standing up for what is right. Sometimes all you need is "The ONE."

Day 35: Sean Musselman, Burlington Science Center Staff

While many fifth graders at the Fox Hill school were off on their overnight field trip to Camp Bournedale, a group of young scientific minds stayed behind and participated in “Camp Foxy.” After the first day, in which students watched a live webinar with astronauts from the International Space Station, we dove deeper into rocket science with a project aimed at bringing all the STEM disciplines together answering one simple question: “What angle should we launch a rocket to make it travel the furthest distance?”

At what launch angle will the rocket travel the farthest?

Students were asked to predict which angle they believed would launch their rockets the farthest after sharing what they already knew about the topic by considering how they throw sports equipment such as baseballs or footballs long distances. They were then put to work assembling their own rockets to experiment with! When all rockets were ready the students democratically selected a launch site. The weather was good so we went out to the school’s front walkway to experiment.

Constructing straw rockets!

Students were very excited to try their rockets out and experimentation did get a bit messy! It was great to hear students deliberate over whether launches were “fair.” One unexpected problem we faced as teachers were some unexpected results! Despite the students’ short statures there was enough height provided to the initial launch point that students frequently fired their 20 degree launches further than the 45 degree angle, leading to puzzled reactions from some students when their results didn’t match up with their ‘sure-thing’ predictions.

Measuring launch to landing using metric measuring tapes.

After lunch we added a third goal by asking students to communicate what they had learned and how they had learned it via a short “Show Me” presentation using some iPads available in the school. The Show Me app leaves some to be desired in the way of editing work and their was a limited amount of time remaining in the day for kids to brainstorm, outline their presentation, and then make the final work. That being said students gave their best efforts.

Sydney’s Rocket Presentation



Eric’s Rocket Presentation


Sonny’s Rocket Presentation Part 1 and Part 2

Teachers were learning during the activity as well when it became apparent that an elevated launch point (as a results of students standing during their launch!) eschewed data and led to some puzzling conclusions for students who started the day with “sure-thing” predictions. Fortunately, some discussion was had between students and teachers about how “fair” or valid the results were. These were conversations that helped the students better understand their results while giving teachers valuable experience to reshape the lesson for future classrooms!

Using the “Show Me” app to communicate our results.

Day 34: Melissa Parnell and Karen Hoyt - Pine Glen Kindergarten Staff

We love sharing what is going on in our classroom! Recent posts on our blog include photos from our trip to the zoo, Thanksgiving and more. Be sure to see our Animal Research Project video! Thanks to special hep from our LTC teachers Mrs. D'Elia and Mr. Callahan, we were able to research specific animals, draw them on our ipads and then record a voice over of the facts we know about them.


Pine Glen Room Kindergarten Room 101's blog can be viewed at www.pineglenroom101.blogspot.com

Day 33 - Tara Olshaw, Memorial School Grade 4 Teacher

We are so lucky to live in Burlington where we learn in so many different ways. Every year the Science Center helps us to learn about flight. We learn not only how to make a rocket but what science is responsible for making it soar. Check out the pictures here on Animoto as we are waiting to blast off ...

 

Thanks Ms. Pavlicek and Mr. Musselman

Day 32 - Todd Whitten, Burlington High School Social Studies Department Head

Going to a conference is a lot like the old saying about weddings: “something old, something new, something borrowed…” This past week, I had the chance to attend the National Council of Social Studies annual conference in Seattle, Washington.  I may, perhaps, be somewhat unique in that I very much enjoy attending conferences of this sort, in part because it takes me out of my normal routines for a few days, in part because I get the chance to meet people with whom I only have a virtual relationship (I’m talking about you, #sschat!), in part because I have the opportunity to take two days and reflect on my practice in the company of people who do the same thing I do, and in part, because, let’s face it, I’m a history nerd.  I emerge from the experience feeling exhausted (jet lag and days that run from 7am to 9pm) but invigorated, and that saying will help me to explain why.

From this conference a sampling of what I took:

Something old:  I used to use more music in my classes.  I don’t really know why I don’t do as much any more, but it has faded out of my practice.  A session led by Mr. Steve Hoffman, a history teacher at Middle College High School in San Pablo, California brought music back for me.  His first career was as a session musician for reggae bands, and, as he put it, “When [he] decided to grow up, teaching just was a good fit.”  Needless to say, his classroom is full of musical influence.  So, for his presentation, he pulled together a selection of music that he uses in his classroom, from Gregorian Chants to Underground Railroad Code songs to Led Zeppelin, Metallica, Nas and (of course) Bob Marley, all of which help his students to find connections to, inspiration from and interest in the dry, boring, dusty history that he teaches.  He does not teach in a 1:1 environment as I do, so he uses his own devices, his own speakers and his own musical abilities to inspire his students.  It was a great reminder of something old that has fallen and needs to be picked up again. I started planning new lessons halfway through his presentation that I’ll be working in to my classroom.

Something New: I had no idea that you can embed a link in a YouTube video that you can then click and go to another video.  In this way, I can make a choose-your-own-adventure video project.  If I use an app called Explain Everything, I learned that I could create a video that will encompass moving images, still images, text and sound.  And it can all be done easily and quickly.  This presentation opened up a whole world of possibilities, not only for how I can deliver content to my students, but also for how they can show me that they are understanding the material.  The presentation from Greg Kulowieck opened new paths for me as we work to incorporate the iPad into the classrooms of BHS, and gives me another way to help my students learn not only the content, but a usable skill.

Something Borrowed: One of the great things about teachers is their willingness to share.  At the end of every workshop, there were web-links, QR Codes, handouts, materials of all kinds.  And every teacher said, “Take them, alter them, use them however you like.” Unlike lots of professions that worry incessantly about copyright, ownership, profit, the education industry works best when it incorporates sharing.  I have snippets of lessons about how to integrate the Common Core (You are all going to be hearing a lot more about that very soon), how to read texts better, how to teach current events better.  All freely given, all happily borrowed.

Oh, and the only “Something Blue” would be my toes for lack of circulation during the cross country flight. Those seats just aren’t built for those of us over 6 feet tall!

The conference featured more than I can post here (and probably more than you want to read!) But having the opportunity to hear Justice Sandra Day O’Connor speak about the importance of civics; to be moved to tears by holocaust survivor Gerda Weissmann Klein’s story; to witness a citizenship ceremony in the aftermath of a nasty election that helped to remind all 4,000 of us that we live in the greatest country in the world; to participate in round-table discussions with the Department of Education; and to build bridges to colleges and universities from around the country, are all going to come back to my classroom, my department, my school and my district in countless ways.  I’m already looking forward to next year!

Day 31 - Liz Bonavita, Burlington Early Childhood Center Instructional Assistant

The Burlington Early Childhood Center is a place where “Learning Every Day” is not always academic.  The environment that we as educators have worked hard to create at the BECC is one of nurturing, safety, and positive social interaction while embedding a beginner academic curriculum, and life skills.  Going to school for the first time as a 3 year old can often be a daunting situation, especially if you have never had play groups and experiences outside the immediate family.  Many of our students have other challenges to overcome.  English as a second language in the home is one such obstacle.  Others have disabilities ranging from mild to severe and are often scared and lack the communication skills we take for granted.  Being placed in an environment that recognizes the above challenges while offering a safe, and comforting place with understanding and experienced adults, is crucial toward making this first experience of school a positive and healthy one for all the children at the BECC. 

Our first priority is to make sure the transition between home and school is smooth and comfortable for all (including moms and dads).   Next we teach the life skills that carry us beyond preschool, such as kindness, sharing, empathy, acknowledgement, respect, and the importance of friendship.  These lessons are often entwined with the academic curriculum to prepare for the next level of learning.  The integration of classrooms strongly reinforces tolerance, acceptance, parallel play, and learning of all students at the preschool.

Many times our students “teach” us important lessons in their simplest and purest form.  One such time was when I felt overwhelmed by the day’s events as it was a busy and “mentally challenging” day. One little boy saw me sitting during playground time.  He simply walked over, sat next to me, patted my back and smiled.  He didn’t say anything but his actions spoke volumes.  I learned that these are the moments that make a day more special and my job more rewarding. This is the type of learning that occurs every day at the Burlington Early Childhood Center.

Day 30 - Krystel Anderson, Pine Glen Grade 2 Teacher

At Pine Glen School we decided that it would be really kind to help the people who live in the areas that were hit hardest by Hurricane Sandy. The Pine Glen Community is collecting items such as non-perishable foods, new blankets, new linens, new clothing, toiletries, cleaning supplies, etc. in the lobby area of Pine Glen School until Wednesday, November 21st. All the students at Pine Glen are excited to help and are extremely empathetic to the struggles people continue to endure on a daily basis. In addition to donating needed supplies my class has written ideas on how you can help. Please consider joining the efforts of the Pine Glen Community by donating to this worthy cause to help our fellow Americans who have experienced such devastation. This is great character education, especially at this time of year, and all of the Pine Glen students have shown such empathy towards these families.  

Here are the ideas that the amazing children in 210 thought of to help the people of New York and New Jersey!

• You can help the people who don’t have anything by giving them pillows and blankets - Grace
• You can give them food so that they can stay healthy and alive – Hannah 
• I will give them some yummy food – Joseph D. 
• One way you can help is you can donate warm shirts and pants – Thomas 
• You can give those people very warm velvet clothes – Seema
• You could donate socks to keep their feet warm – AJ 
• We could donate money for the people who don’t have money – Jack 
• I think we should send letters and make something they would like – Shreya 
• You could give them money to build a home – Connor 
• You could help by giving them new clothes to wear – Liam 
• You could give them some food like cans of soup – Lera 
• You can help by giving them non-perishable food – Caitlyn 
• We can donate stuff for babies – Layla 
• You can give them scarves to keep them warm – Joe C 
• You can donate shoes to the people who don’t have shoes – Cecelia 
• I will donate hats that will keep their heads warm and gloves to keep their hands warm - Tristan

Day 29 - Nicole DePiano, Fox Hill Grade 1 Teacher

My first grade students have been learning how to write a report as part of informative writing. We worked together to create a class report about birds, which was our science topic during the month of October. I made this quick video of my students to highlight the learning process they went through for report writing. The kids had fun being the stars of this movie!

 
Writing a Report from Mr. Murphy on Vimeo.

Day 28 - Andrew Mullen, Marshall Simonds Middle School Music Teacher

I have always been a fan of traditional music - both as a listener and performer, and have made it part of my life's work to keep the tradition of playing folk music alive, by passing this on to my students - both children and adults.  

When I got to Marshall Simonds in September, I found a great band and choral program, but saw no opportunities for kids to participate in this often under-looked art.  I asked around, and eventually found a student who played violin.  I asked if he would be interested in learning THE FIDDLE.  "What's the difference?" he asked. Ah, sit down, my son, and let me tell you a tale.  Daniel and I started meeting Wednesdays after school. 

One student on violin eventually turned into two, and after a few weeks of "shaming the vibrato out of them" we started to have a nice sound as a trio!  

Then, it turns out that my colleague, Marcia Medvitz, played "one fiddle tune," as she described it, and began joining us in our Wednesday sessions.  Another student named Neil plays piano, so he recently began joining us, as well.  There are rumors of other students and faculty who are threatening to join our growing band, as well.  

So, what began as two people playing through some fiddle tunes after school, has turned into a weekly, intergenerational hootenanny of American and Irish traditional music: hoedowns, jigs, reels, hornpipes, polkas, waltzes, and the like. You'll find fiddles, banjos, guitars, accordions, and even some singing.  

We are learning one new song every week, and then play through our old tunes, discussing style, and working on our tone and increasing our speed to dance tempo!  We currently have a repertoire of about 10 songs.  We will be having our unofficial debut at the Thanksgiving Assembly on November 20th, playing an updated version of the traditional song "Old Groundhog" (with updated lyrics called "Turkey Day!") with the MSMS Select Chorus.

The video above is of fthe our of us playing through "The Swallow Tail Jig" this week. 

Day 27 - Yash Kamani, Burlington High School Sophomore

MASSCue Reflection

A few weeks ago, we, as members of the BHS student help desk, were presented the opportunity to visit and present at Masscue 2012. This conference was held in the club suites inside Gillette Stadium. The help desk crew got to go down on the 24th to give an hour long presentation on our help desk course and how it works within our school.

Our presentation lasted about an hour in one of the suites on top of Gillette Stadium. We made our presentation a panel discussion type event. At the beginning, our instructors, Mr. Andy Marcinek and Mr. Tim Calvin presented a small keynote to the audience describing the course. The keynote lasted about fifteen minutes and we then made our way into the panel discussion with questions from our audience and answers from us, the students.


The whole event was well organized and the Mass Cue team was very helpful. There were a variety of cool and helpful tools available from different vendors. The event was mainly vendor based with different vendors attempting to sell their ideas, tools or technologies. There were quite a few interesting ideas that I thought would actually be very useful. At the same time there were ideas and tools that seemed unnecessary and costly in any learning environment.

This was my first experience at any education conference of any sort. Overall I really enjoyed it. There was a formal atmosphere at the conference, but the events and people really made it seem casual and comfortable. A Patriots Practice sighting made the day all the more better. I would strongly recommend students attending a Mass Cue Conference sometime in the future for anyone interested in new ideas or technology in the education field.

Day 26 - Xin Zhang, Burlington High School Junior

Apple is losing it

“Do you want to spend the rest of your life selling sugared water or do you want a chance to change the world?”

That was 1983. There were no iPhones, no iPods, no iPads. Apple was in its 7th year of existence. Steve Jobs wanted to hire John Sculley, then-President of PepsiCo. This was Jobs’ pitch. This was also Jobs’ vision.

In 2012, Apple has officially lost it.

This is not meant to be a diss; the Jobs-led Apple succeeded in changing the world. A decade ago he introduced the iPod, which changed the music business. 5 years ago, not many people had a smartphone in their hands, then came the iPhone and now its the norm. 2-3 years ago, tablets were virtually unknown; now iPads and other tablets are everywhere. That string of ground breaking innovations has stopped following Job’s death, however.

iPhone 5. The new iPad. The new new iPad. iOS 5, 6. Siri. Apple Maps. They’re just not game-changing products. They’re follower products. Not that they’re bad; they’re great little playthings, but it’s just not matching the competition. There’s nothing new anymore, its just minor improvements that other devices already offer for a higher price. Siri and Maps, on the other hand, awful, awful apps.

You have to wonder how long Apple can go on just making incremental upgrades on their existing products. Take a page out of Google’s playbook: they’re doing that and more.

Day 25 - Emma Jones, Burlington High School Sophomore

I am a swimmer for the Burlington High School Girls' Swim Team and this year we have been incorporating the use of iPads into our practices. The idea of using iPads during practice was brought to our attention when our coaches discussed what our themes for this year were going to be. Our first theme was unity and we were able to accomplish this through team-building activities such as pasta parties and team sleepovers.

Our other theme was the “science of swimming," a way for each member of the team to develop as swimmers.  In order to accomplish this theme split practices were implemented. Every Wednesday practice was split in with one half of the team practicing for the first 45 minutes and the second group practicing for the last 45 minutes of the practice. During the half of practice where swimmers were not in the pool, we use the iPad video cameras to film our strokes so that we could have a visual of what we were doing correctly and what we need to work on. The ipad’s use during practice has overall proved very helpful and has helped everyone to improve. More advanced swimmer’s have been able to perfect their technique and newer swimmer’s have been able to get the basics down.

Day 24 - Hannah Lienhard, Burlington High School Sophomore

A brief MASSCue Reflection

BHS Help Desk Students at MASS Cue 2012 

MassCUE was personally the first major conference I had been to. Not that it was particularly large, it was merely the first conference I had been to that was almost completely vendor oriented. At BPSCON 2012, we were gearing up for the coming school year by nipping off problems at the bud, where at MassCUE, we were expected to almost sell our concept of a help desk to a large group of teachers.

The idea behind a conference presentation in and of itself was simple enough – to tell a body of people your experience with this particular class, and share our opinion or two about being a student in a 1:1 learning environment. That said – no amount of facts will prepare you for the social interaction segment of an interactive presentation. It is one thing to know the facts as they are, and another to present them in an appealing way that reflects your opinion on the subject, while still remaining professional. To add to this, we chose an open forum, question and answer style of presentation, adding to the pressure of an accurate and informed response.

In general and despite the pressure it was an informative and, dare I say, fun experience. It was fascinating being in a community of educators who, for the most part, just want to enrich the lives and learning of their students. 

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Day 23 - John Lyons, Pine Glen Elementary School Principal

4th Grade Rocket Day

The fourth grade teachers, students and parents had a great time today at Rocket Day (check out all of the great pictures below).  With help from Ms. Pavlicek and Mr. Musselman from the Burlington Science Center students learned about such concepts as gravity, thrust and force.  Fourth graders also learned about Sir Isaac Newton (One of Mr. Musselman's favorite scientists).

Students greatly enjoyed launching their rockets and using their iPads to record the event.   Students walked away from this hands-on learning experience telling me that science and learning is fun.  The fourth grade teachers and I learned this first hand as we had a 'blast' launching our rockets.

Day 22 - Jake Moreira, Burlington High School Sophomore

The Importance of Passwords

In class today, the topic of passwords came up and we were talking about how there were 72 different options for a one character password.  I though it was fascinating so I did a blog post on it to share what I found

Everyone in the world has a password whether it is to log in to facebook or to unlock your iPhone. The only thing that is stopping you from identity thieves and hackers is a word or a sequence of numbers.There are 72 options for a one character password, the equation for finding the possibilities of you password is 72 ^ x   and x being the amount of characters in you password. Most of the time the minimum of characters that are required for the password is 6 characters. That means that there are 139,314,069,504 combinations, that sounds like a lot but hackers use multiple computers  and that amount of combinations would not take a very long time. This link explains passwords very well http://www.commoncraft.com/video/secure-passwords 

If you don’t want to watch the video, basically it explains that passwords keep people out that you want out. Your password should not be something close to you like you dogs name or a significant date. Your password should be something like a phrase that is had to figure out. Then you can put  numbers and characters in it to make it harder. An example is “In God We Trust” take the first letters in each word to get IGWT,then make it 1GWT. Then take that and modify it to something like 1GWTfb for facebook and and 1GWTtw for twitter. Passwords are important make sure yours are safe.