FamilyConsumerSciences.com » Technology

Storybird Literacy Project

K.Graybill — Fri, 11 May 2012 08:00:12 +0000

This project encourages students to write their own children’s book using the STORYBIRD free website. They don’t even have to be artistic as templates from a variety of artists are available for use. After they write their book they create a VOKI to encourage others to read it. VOKI is also a free website where student create a talking avatar. Students can create books on any themes or you can assign a specific theme. The possibilities are limitless.

Time Frame: 1 block

Objectives

12.3.2 Analyze the role of communication on human growth and development.
15.2.1 Choose nurturing practices that support human growth and development.

Set

The Gift of Storytelling (Example)

Materials

Projector & Screen
SMART Board

Background for Teachers

You should sign up for these sites before class to familiarize yourself and create a sample Storybird to show the class. Also, if you are teaching a preschool class and want stories for each unit assign topics that the students should write the stories about.

Instruction

Write a digital children’s book using the Storybird.com website and then encourage a child to read it with a Voki book hook!
Create a Voki, a talking avatar, which gives children an exciting summary of your book without giving away too much information.
Instructions on how to sign up for each of these sites is in the directions attachment below.

Activities

Students will write and read a story that they create using the Storybird and Voki websites.
As a class watch/listen to all the stories that the class created.

Evaluation

Storybird and Voki are graded according to the rubrics in the project instructions attachment.

Attachments

Literacy Project Instructions & Rubric (Word)

Websites

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Sandwich Glog Project

K.Graybill — Fri, 21 Oct 2011 08:00:40 +0000

Tired of messy physical posters? Introducing Glogs–virtual, interactive posters that don’t take up physical space and are a blast to create. Use this new virtual poster technology with any subject! This lesson is a fast, fun way to teach students about sandwiches and incorporate technology all at the same time!

Time Frame: 1-2 blocks

Objective

Apply food selection and preparation guidelines related to sandwiches.

Set

Ask students to pair up and take out a blank sheet of paper. Give them one minute to list as many sandwiches as they can. The team that wins will get first pick for their sandwich project.

Instruction

After going through a lesson/ppt on sandwiches, students sign up for a specific sandwich.
- Po’ Boy
- Submarine
- Philly Cheesesteak
- Dagwood
- Cuban
- Gyro
- Sloppy Joe
- Tuna Melt
- Hamburger
- Hotdog
- Taco
- Runza
- Caprese
- BLT
- Muffuletta
- Lobster Roll

Activity

After researching the information required on the rubric about their sandwich students create a GLOG (a virtual poster) at www.glogster.com
Sample:

Extensions

Day 2: Various types of sandwiches can then be prepared in the lab to demonstrate different types of sandwiches as well as cooking methods. You can make this into a graded cooking demonstration or have every student make their sandwich, plate it then present how they were made to the class along with their glog.
Glogsters can be used to incorporate technology into the curriculum and can be used with any subject. Links to articles and videos can be embedded into the glog as well. Students really enjoy making these and they are much neater than paper posters.

Attachments

Sandwich-Glog-Project (Word)

Links

Websites

Gloster

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Edmodo: A Classroom Community Network

M.Sandoval — Fri, 14 Oct 2011 09:46:26 +0000

Good, free educational technology is a great thing. Create a private Facebook-like community for your specific class. It’s free to sign up and easy to use especially if you have used Facebook before.

Edmodo allows you to:

Post Assignments
Keep a class calendar
Continue class discussions on the “wall”
Contact parents & allow them to view the assignments
Post reminders & alerts
Create polls
Give out reward badges
Grade assignments
Students can view the class Edmodo on their smart phones (Yes, there’s an APP)
- Students who are absent can keep up with missed work

Feel like you might need help setting it up? Sign up for an Edmodo webinar

Drawbacks

The only drawback I can see with a program like Edmodo is your school’s policy on using their online platform. I would be less likely to use Edmodo if I was required to post stuff to a place like Edline already. Posting things twice is double the work and we’ll we all don’t have that much time. Keeping kids engaged in yet one more program that is vying for their attentions also means you must be committed to using it or students will not check it.

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Emerging Technology Project

M.Sandoval — Fri, 23 Sep 2011 08:00:50 +0000

Who will learn more you or your students? The verdict is still out with this lesson on emerging technology. Students work in groups to research emerging technologies and give a formal presentation to the class. This lesson is not only fun but informative and helps students with their research and presentation skills.

Time Frame: 2 blocks

Objective

Students will evaluate the pros and cons of technology on society and explore the newest technological advances.

Set

Watch a day made of glass video clip. If you can’t use YouTube here is a link to the video on Corning’s website.

Materials

Computer lab
Computer & Projector

Instruction

Put students in groups, hand out project instructions. Give students about 10 minutes to decide on the emerging technology they would like to research. Only one per class- no duplicates. Give students the rest of the class to research and put together their presentations.
Examples of emerging technology projects include: iPads, Kindle, Facebook, Twitter, Mobile Wallet, RFID, BlueTooth, Qcodes, APPS, teleconference, etc.
You may also want to go over how to properly cite research sources. Noodletools has a great free software for citing sources in MLA format.

Activities

Have each group present their emerging technology project.

Attachments

Emerging technology Project Instructions (Word)

Closure

Why is it important to keep up with the latest trends in technology?

Websites

GizMag

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Food Borne Illness Animoto Project

K.Graybill — Fri, 05 Aug 2011 08:03:51 +0000

This is an investigative project for students to research specific food borne illnesses in depth and then visually showcase them. In class we just talk about the food borne illnesses and briefly discuss why they are bad so this lesson goes beyond the discussion. This also brings technology into the Family & Consumer Science classroom which students love!

Time Frame: 3 – 43 minute periods

Set

Introduce the food safety lessons with a game that shows how food borne illness can spread and/or a case study scenario.
Case studies – articles can be found on FoodSafetyNews.com

Materials

Instruction

This project utilizes the Animoto, a website for making slideshow video presentations. Walk students through signing up for an account. *Note: Students work with the free Animoto segment for this project, however, educational accounts are available for a free trial for 50 students.
Assign students a (food borne illness) to research.

Activities

Use in class resources and the internet to fill in the information about your assigned food borne illness (FBI) on the “Most Wanted” form.
Use the information gathered to create an “Animoto” slide show about your FBI. It must be 12 slides (30 seconds) in length and include the following:
- FBI Name
- Photo(s) of FBI (even if invisible to the naked eye)
- Hideouts
- Crimes
- Prevention

Provide your email address for students to send their completed Animoto slide shows. Make sure they put their names in the message box so I know who created the Animoto.

Background for Teachers

I give students about 3 days (43 min. periods)–one to intro FBI/project and 2 to work on project with a partner. If you have less time you can always have students work on and/or finish the project at home since all they have to do is log in.
As far as the content for the Animoto slideshow, students use googled images. It’s best for students to create a folder to hold the pictures they think they want to use and then access them from there. Music is right on the Animoto site, the third step. Animoto also has a whole library of songs but students can upload their own too, but may have to do it from home.

Attachments

FBI-ANIMOTO-PROJECT (Word)

Websites

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Mint.com Personal Finance for the Technologically Savvy Generation

M.Sandoval — Fri, 29 Jul 2011 08:00:49 +0000

Teaching personal finance can be a challenge especially if you have all the old, outdated resources that emphasis doing just about all your budgeting, check writing, goal setting, etc on paper. Students start the eye roll as soon as you hand out the “how to write a check” worksheet. Granted, they should know how to fill out a check even if they only use their debit card now. The world is changing and we want students to be turned on to being good financial stewards. This means we need to help them find technologically advanced ways to keep track of their spending, budget, and set goals. One of my personal favorite free personal finance websites is Mint.com. Whether you can require it or not is your discretion but I definitely spend some time introducing students to sites like this that make all the stuff we do on paper so much easier and practical for this technologically savvy generation.

What the site does:

Connects to your checking account, credit card account, etc.
- Most students these days have their own check account and/or savings account. I believe as time progresses that more and more students will have electronic banking. Depending on your situation you may or may not feel comfortable allowing your students to use Mint.com for a class assignment. I usually give my students the option to keep track of spending in a journal or via one of the many online budgeting programs. You can also have their parent’s sign an authorization form so they are aware what their student is doing. This is also a good time to remind students to check the security of websites that they are giving their financial information to.
Allows you to categorize expenses
- Every transaction is listed and it categorizes most of the major retail stores, restaurants, etc. for you. The rest like checks, etc you can categorize yourself. You can be as specific or generic as you want. For example you can have a eating out category or an entertainment category.
Helps you set monthly spending goals & long term goals
- You can set goals for your spending and have an email alert you if you go over your spending goal. With all the smartphones available this information is instantaneous and helpful in making financial decisions even in the store!
- It also shows you the progress towards long term goals such as saving for college or a car. You can allocate money to that “category” and track your progress visually.
Recommends products to help you meet your goals.
- This is how Mint.com stays free – it sells advertising of financial services and products to companies. Then you can see in the recommendations tab things like credit cards that offer cash back, etc. I like to teach students about financial advertising as well. It is important to look into any financial offer, read the fine print, and investigate alternatives.

Video

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Where to get free clip art

M.Sandoval — Fri, 11 Feb 2011 08:00:56 +0000

With so many things needing pictures these days, I thought many of you would appreciate a place to get free clip art. These are some of the best photo and image sites. Use clip art to enhance your PowerPoints, website, and worksheets!

Some of these sites require free registration. All of these sites’ License Agreement clearly state that the images cannot be used for commercial use, or redistributed for sale. Please read all of the license agreements carefully and use images wisely!

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Family and Consumer Science Apps

M.Sandoval — Fri, 14 Jan 2011 08:00:10 +0000

We have come to a critical place as educators–to embrace technology or try to beat it down by forcing kids to keep it in their lockers or not bring it to school. While technology should not distract from learning it can enhance it if we let it. Here are some Apple App’s to aide in teaching Family Consumer Sciences.

Martha’s Cookie App ($4.99)

This is a beautiful cookie app from Martha Stewart. Get inspired by some of the best pictures and cookie recipes around.

Compare it ($.99)

Help your students compare the real cost of groceries by using this comparison App. “Compare It is a comparison calculator to compare pretty much anything with a price and a quantity, but is most useful while doing your shopping and looking for the best deal.”

Embroidery App (Free)

This App is great for those who want to learn embroidery. It shows you how to do different stitches and even has all the directions for left handed folk. Great tool for teaching students.

Food Additives ($3.99)

We’ve all wondered what does the long word in the ingredient list mean? Check it out with this food additive App that tells you more about the unidentifiable ingredients found on your packaging.

HarvestMark Food Traceability (FREE)

Ever wondered where your food comes from? If you have the iPhone you simply scan the produce’s bar code and it will tell you where the produce came from.

Houzz- Home Design (FREE)

This App has over 60,000 photos and 130,000 ideabooks, Houzz has the largest database of home design ideas on the net. Browse photos by style, room and location and save them to your virtual idea book — it’s the equivalent of clipping design magazines to a scrapbook — making ideas easier to search, save, and share. Experience Houzz.com as an iPad app and save your photos locally for offline access.

Quilt Block App

This innovative application features rotary-cutting directions for over 500 options for making traditional quilt blocks, plus bonus reference tables every quilter needs. The blocks come in 5 sizes.

AllRecipes (Free)

There are so many recipe Apps out there. This one looks the best so far….new ones come out all the time. Dinner Spinner is pretty neat helping stimulate your palate. Pro version available for $2.99.

Cram ($3.99)

Allows students to create flashcards to study for exams on their phones. It scores their practice exams and keeps track of their progress.

How can Apple products be used in our classrooms?

An iPad in every Classroom: Teacher Tested; Student Approved

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Penzu- Have your Students Journal Online

M.Sandoval — Tue, 10 Aug 2010 00:46:15 +0000

Cross “journal” off your list of school supplies -the world’s going paperless and so should you and your classroom! The newest way to journal is online. Online journaling has been around for a while but Penzu is a little different than its competitors in that it actually looks like a piece of paper that you type on. It is free to sign up and use. After students are done journaling they simply email it to you and you have their entry. I don’t know know about you but I am so done with lugging journals home to grade. They’re heavy!

To give it a try visit their website: www.Penzu.com (you can even try it before registering).

Lesson Plans that have Journal Aspects:

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Ratio App

M.Sandoval — Tue, 13 Apr 2010 23:28:10 +0000

I have a standing offer from my husband since the release of the iPhone 3GS to buy an iPhone but I keep turning him down because, “I don’t really need one.” How serendipitous is it that I stumble upon two iPhone apps in one day that I can use in the classroom? Is someone trying to tell me something? Well, here is my second favorite of the day- the ratio app. Every culinary teacher’s got to have this one!

This ratio app released by Michael Ruhlman, is based on his book titled Ratio: The Simple Codes Behind the Craft of Everyday Cooking

So if you have the iPhone or are trying to make a list of reasons as to why you need one, this is what that ratio app does:

It contains 32 Critical Ratios with the instructions such as doughs, batters meat preparations, custards, sauces (pasta dough and pizza dough, sponge cake and pancakes, fritters and crepes, stocks and sauces, crème caramel and chocolate sauce.
The Ratio App also can calculate how much of each ingredient you need
The Ratio App converts ounces to grams
Costs $4.99

Our students, the chefs of the future will soon consider the iPhone as an essential piece of cooking equipment! Who would have guessed?

For more information and to purchase the App visit Michael Ruhlman’s Website.

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