Stop Motion Science

8Science students collaborated in the creation of a LEGO Stop Motion Video to demonstrate their understanding of substances and different types of Elements. They created a story line that included MONATOMIC ELEMENTS, DIATOMIC COMPOUND and TRIATOMIC COMPOUNDS!

New Blakers!

Welcome Dash and Dot! AfterSchool Coding Club members are test-driving the new robots which will soon be integrated into the Science curriculum.

Digital Learning Day 6th Discussion Panel

Medfield School District held its 3rd annual Digital Learning Day Conference filled with over 60 workshops for K-12 teachers in district and from schools out-of-district. Wellesley 6th Grade teachers joined Blake's 6th teachers and students for a discussion on their initial year of having 1:1 iPads in the classroom.

A Shout Out to Medfield HS/MS Student Volunteers

Our Digital Learning Day Conference wouldn't have been possible without the support of our wonderful Medfield HS Students and Blake MS students. This photo was taken at the beginning of the day, during a briefing with Neal Sonnenbergy (HS Tech Integration Specialist)

Look out for these future App Developers

This group of Blake MS girls are entered into the Global Competition, Technovation to design a mobile app that solves a community/social issue. Wish them Luck! The final pitch is on May 1st @ Microsoft NERD Center!

Took the Show on the Road

Blake MS Principal Nat Vaughn and 8Science Teacher Jason Heim presented about the Blake iPad Initiative at the LearnLaunch Conference, Harvard Business School.

Green Screen App Smashing

At our final EdTechTeacher Workshop, 6th/7th Grade Teachers explored their creative side by layering green screen videos over images for engaging instructional videos. It was total fun!

Convert Smells to Energy = Smellergy!

Nicolina is changing the world one nose at a time! Her entry was clearly on track with dreaming, designing, and delivering an energy-saving idea into the Blake Energy Invention Contest!

Sometimes the Ideas start here

Planning and drawing out a story board before the creation of an Explain Everything project is an essential step in the process!

4.21.2015

Digital Notes on Friday, April 17th (delayed)


Here's a semi-weekly technology update from Blake MS featuring the latest app updates, new professional development events, google and iPad tips, Coming Attractions and a new Shout Out Showcase to share what's happening in your classrooms!

Updates to your iPad
iOS 8.3
  • Adds a lot of image faces with better organization, skin tone modifiers, and a bunch of flag, phone, computer, and watch Emoji. 
  • Siri has gained some new languages, plus the ability to make phone calls using the speakerphone.
  • Passbook now separates Apple Pay credit cards from other Passes. 
  • iMessage has the option that will allow you to separate messages from friends from messages from strangers. 
  • And one of my favorite new features removes the annoying requirement to enter your Apple ID password when you are downloading free apps!
Google Docs- this update brings editing to TABLES!
Explain Everything-the update includes new features of flipping objects and auto-group option in Draw, Shape and Text Tools pop-out menu.

*if students are not able to update due to lack of storage, please visit the Spring Cleaning Tips.

Professional Development Opp
Education on Air is a two- day online event, May 8th and 9th by Google for Educators with keynote speakers and topics such as, empowering student learning, digital storytelling, collaboration, digital citizenship and much more. Sign up today!

Wanted: Notability is seeking Beta-Testers!We are looking for beta testers that are willing to consistently test our new features and give constructive feedback as often as possible. Click Here


Shout Out Showcase #1
Introducing a new feature to give you a peek into the classrooms for grades 6th - 8th.
The first thing you'll notice is many of our student creations incorporated the use of a green screen (green table cloths) and two apps: TouchCast or DoINK.  

Mr. Heim's 8th Grade Science class found it worked perfectly to bring in actual footage, graphs, maps and facts into their Plate Tectonics research. Mrs. Alland's 6th Social Socials class were put to the task of creating an Infomercial on a specific cause/issue. Students were able to change the background image to reflect their message as they were presented as a team! And lastly, Mr. Gavaghan's 7th English students created a story trailer to show the changes the main character goes throughout the novel.

 Mme. Buckman's and Mme. Wellings' French classes also loved two apps: VoiceThread and Explain Everything that capture audio recordings of students speaking french! Listen into conversations about their favorite breakfast foods and watch their animated presentations to demonstrate a culmination of their learning this year!



Try-Outs
SMORE- is a website where you can create digital flyers. When Mrs. Gumas' 7th Math class began their unit on percentages, she was looking for a tool that would let her create her own weekly advertisement or flyer to help students apply those skills to real-life situations. Smore.com did the trick! She included her own videos, images and linked directly to their google spreadsheet for recording and submitting answers. **The free version limits you to five. But, that just may be enough! Check out her the Now and Then Flyer!

Emaze- calls itself the next generations' online presentation tool! Accessible via the web on any device, users can select from several professional templates to create slideshows, video presentations and 3D presentations.Give it a try and let me know your feedback! Click Here!

Coming Attractions
With our discussions about Student Digital Portfolios as a school, I held two workshops on how to setup and use Youtube with students and how to develop their digital portfolio using Google Sites. I know some teachers were not able to attend and asked for tutorials and resources. Stay tuned, as those are in progress and will be shared shortly!

Be sure to visit next Friday for more digital notes!

4.06.2015

Spring Cleaning Tips for your iPad! Sweep up those Photos!



Spring is the perfect time to clean things up including your iPad. As a BYOiPad school, students often have a big learning curve when it comes to managing their own device and its storage space.

 We learned that lesson with the last big update iOS 8.0. Students were constantly stopping by to 
get help with updating their iPads due to running into this very problem..

So to get ahead of the game before iOS 8.3 arrives (which plans to be another big one) by cleaning up storage space now. The best place to begin is by doing a clean sweep of your old photos and videos.  See the tips below. 

**Not sure how to perform that step?  The images contain hotspots for added support!
Be sure to click on the play buttons for How-To screencasts! 





This should get you off to a good start until the
 next installment of Spring Cleaning iPad Tips when we tackle your 
closet full of APPS!