Day 60 - Chris Herren Returns to BHS to Share Amazing Story - Mark Sullivan, BHS Principal

This post originally appeared on the Burlington High Principal's Blog

Chris Herren Speaks to BHS Students

BHS students sit through a number of assemblies over the course of their high school years, but rarely do they make an impact like today's assembly with Chris Herren did. Mr. Herren, a former high school All-American from Fall River who went on to be a star in college and eventually play for the Celtics, shared his struggles with addiction and his road to sobriety in a talk that had students captivated.

Chris Herren with Senior Max Bressi after the assembly

Chris Herren, the focus of an ESPN Special titled Unguarded (check out a clip below), and the author of the book Basketball Junkie, got many positive reviews from students.   He opened the presentation by sharing a short video of his journey through Durfee High School, his college years, his professional career, his battle with addiction  and his road to recovery.   He spent time recounting his high school experience when speakers came into his school to talk about drugs and  alcohol and thinking "come on man, I don't need this." He followed by recounting his unbelievable journey from hoop star to drug addict to today where is closing in on almost 6 years of being sober.

One of the most important messages that Chris shared was to be happy with who you are and the need to "not be somebody different on Fridays and Saturdays". He encouraged students to have the courage to be happy with who you are and not turn to substances to be cool, tough, or fit in.  Chris also focused on how students could help their friends who may be struggling with addiction, self-harm, or other dangerous behaviors by speaking up.  "True friends will knock on doors, I wished someone knocked on my door and said, hey Mr. Herren you better help Chris".  "The code for me growing up was not to rat on each other, but that's Hollywood, true friends step up and intervene, they don't just standby."

Herren also mentioned a project he has started called Project Purple. PP encourages students to stand up against substance abuse and to also preach acceptance for students who do the right thing. He wants to help put an end to environments where students who make good choices and get mocked by classmates. "It's not right that kids run their mouths because some kids are going to do the right thing." 

Thank you to Health teacher Amy Doughty and Associate Principal Deb Deacon for their hard work in bringing Chris Herren to BHS and for also promoting and running our Be Smart Program that consistently hits on the following themes throughout the year:

The power of respect and responsibility
The impact and consequences of our choices and decisions
The issues of bullying, peer pressure, and drugs/alcohol
Appreciation for our abilities and the people in our life
The courage to believe in oneself
The power we have to reach out and make a difference

I am hopeful that the positive energy from today's assembly will further promote positive decision making and broaden our levels of acceptance.

Day 59 - We've Published Our First Book! Irene Farmer, Francis Wyman Elementary School

This post originally appeared on Ms. Farmer's Blog 

Below you can view our very first published book!  Each child brainstormed and chose a favorite moment from the farm field trip.  They then wrote, revised, illustrated and published a short three-page story with a beginning, middle and end.  Final drafts were typed into the Book Creator App on their iPads. 

Upon finishing their writing, the children then went onto their iPads and created illustrations to go with their words on the Drawing Pad app.  Their artwork was saved to their camera roll and then uploaded into their Book Creator app.  The individual books were then compiled into one big class book.

Take a moment to look at the book here.  Have your child read his/her entry to you personally! 

(To get rid of the side bar on the left, just click on the arrow on the top left hand side and the sidebar will collapse). 




Below are some photos of the class drafting their stories, editing them and publishing them onto their iPads:

Day 58 - Age of Exploration in Grade 5 - John Lyons, Pine Glen Elementary Principal

This post appeared originally on the Pine Glen Principal's Blog

Fifth graders in Mrs. Fitzpatrick's Class today were working on making An Age of Exploration Museum.

Students are learning how exploration changed culture and the world. Above are pictures of students working on different exhibits.

Day 57 - Cyber Bullying - iMovies, Mrs. Scheffer's Digital Literacy Class at BHS

This post appeared originally on the BHS Digital Literacy-Web 2.0 Class Blog

For the past several weeks, Digital Literacy students have been hard at work creating their cyber bullying iMovie trailers. The trailer I created to serve as an example can be viewed here. For this project, students had to select a trailer theme, create a storyboard, and produce their very own iMovie trailers. For many students, this was their first experience using the iMovie iPad app. They are excited to use the app again and continue developing their skills in planning and organizing high-quality videos. I am very proud to share their creations!

Day 56 - Google Visits Mrs. Volpe's Classroom - MSMS Blog

This post originally appeared on the Marshall Simonds Middle School Blog

MSMS is fortunate to have NetText professional Andrew Cunningham on hand one day a week to aid in the digital adoption of curriculum and resources. On this special day, Andrew brought representatives from Google to see how Burlington educators use NetText in a 1:1 technology classroom. Mrs. Volpe’s lessons demonstrated how she uses Google products in conjunction with NetText. They were very impressed with the student motivation, engagement and the fluidity with which the lesson worked as well as how the lesson focused on the necessary skills needed for the real world.

About the Lesson

In Mrs. Volpe’s grade 8 World History class, students collaborate in small groups to learn about various topics such as Islamic Civilization and its impact on the world. With the aid of NetText, a digital resource curator,  Mrs. Volpe prepared materials with NetText’s Digital Textbook. The students’ lesson included a Jigsaw activity which is considered to be an educational Best Practice. It trains students to become subject experts and then teach their peers.

The classroom was divided into five “expert” groups. Each student was given a headphone and the groups were asked to watch one of five different videos and transcripts from United Streaming. Each video delved into one aspect of the overall subject.

When students finished viewing, each expert group was asked to answer discussion questions specific to their video. Then students moved into the other groups where they peer-taught what they had learned from their expert groups. Everyone was then given a second set of discussion questions which covered the information in all five videos. This put all the pieces of the lesson together and ensured that everyone participated in learning and teaching and understood all the subject matter. But that was not the end of the lesson.

Using Chromebooks, Google Graphic Organizer and the knowledge that they received in their collaborative learning groups, students completed a shared Venn Diagram

They then projected their finished product using Airplay on the whiteboard.  Students took snapshots of their Graphic Organizer with their iPads to use for review and homework. At the end of the lesson students had to complete an Exit Ticket which was a review on NetText, that was submitted to their teacher. These  questions pertain to the day’s lessons and help evaluate knowledge learned.

The lesson for the day was that not only is technology fun, but it streamlines education and engages students on a personal and in-depth level. The guests from Google, who included  educators, were extremely impressed with the level of technology integration and the amount of work that was covered in a short amount of time. The students were enthusiastic about the lesson and motivated to complete the assignments. In all, it was another successful example of technology blending with education to benefit students.

Day 55 - Sweet Sixteen Playlist: Dr. Nassiff - BHS Devils Playlist

This post, which is part of a series where BHS staff members share their top songs from when they were 16, appeared originally on the Burlington High School Devils Playlist Website.

Here is what Dr. Nassiff, Head of the Science Department and advisor to the amazing BHS Chess Club, was listening to when he was sixteen:

 1.    ”I Can’t Help Falling in Love With You”–Elvis Presley  

As a young teenager who just broke up with his girlfriend, this one tore at my heartstrings!  Wise men say, “Only fools rush in!”  I recommended this for my son’s wedding.

 2. “Duke of Earl”–Gene Chandler  

 I loved the bass man.  A good bass man was essential to Rock-n-Roll in my era, and this is the best. My friends and I used to try and imitate him. Bom de de Bon…

 3.”To the Aisle” -The Five Satins

Romantic and what teenagers of my era dreamed about. Where I grew up, not many went on to college; many married right after high school.                                            

 4.”Play Those Oldies, Mr. DJ” –Anthony and the Sophomores

This one has snippets from popular Rock-n-Roll songs that were often our requests.

 5. “Chances Are” –Johnny Mathis

Romantic and fun to dance to at the sock hop.  As one sage said, “Dancing is 90 degrees away from sin!”  Johnny Mathis was very popular for his slow-dancing tunes.

 6. “When We Get Married”–The Dreamlovers

Fantasize on what a wonderful life is circa the 1950′s.  See #3.

 7. “Blueberry Hill”–Fats Domino

Classic early Rock-n-Roll.  The Fatman could really croon.  Note the lack of instrumentation.

 8. “Great Balls of Fire” –Jerry Lee  Lewis

Jerry Lee really put on a show with his pounding of the piano.  Really got us going.

 9. “Hound Dog” and “Don’t Be Cruel” (B-side) –Elvis Presley

 The first 45 I owned. I was fairly poor so a 45 record was a big deal.  I recall it cost a buck.  A buck is what I earned per hour in a summer job. The reason both songs are together is that both were on the same 45 and both were #1 hits.

 10. “Rama Lama Ding Dong”–The Edsels  

So what is an Edsel?  Look it up. This says a lot about the song. I love the rhyming nonsense lyrics. Also mentioned in #4.

 11. “Up on the Roof”–The Drifters  

As a teenager, I had problems with rejection and this is one group’s answers to how to deal with it.

 12. “Those Oldies but Goodies Remind me of You”–Little Caesar and The Romans

Little Caesar (Carl Burnett) was one of the best lead singers of the era.  You needed a strong tenor voice with a good backup.

13. “Johnny B Goode”–Chuck Berry

Loved this song.  Berry was famous for his duck walk and is mentioned (sort of) in the movie “Back to the Future” when Berry’s cousin’s band played at the Enchantment Under the Sea sock hop. I saw him live when I was in grad school. He was quite an entertainer. Berry was one of my favorites and had many hits

 14.”Summertime Blues”–Eddie Cochran  

This was my theme song as I tried my hardest to find a summertime job in Sioux City to help pay for my college tuition.

 15 “Peggy Sue”–Buddy Holly

Buddy Holly and Eddie Cochran died in the same airplane crash.  But that is too bad because I really loved “Peggy Sue.”  As A teenager I would sometimes sing this with my latest crush’s name.

 16.”Bye Bye Love”–Everly Brothers  

Don and Phil had a bunch of hits but I liked this one the best.  Summed up our teenage emotions when a couple broke up.

HONORABLE MENTIONS

“Little Darlin’”–The Diamonds  

Who can forget the clanging cowbell at the start, and the ay-yay-ay-yay. It is etched in my memory.

 “Earth Angel”—Penguins

One of the earliest Rock-n-Roll songs, but I still like it

 “Get a Job”—Silhouettes

Dip-Dip-Dip-Dip, Boom-Boom-Boom- Boom Get a Job

“Lonely Teardrops”–Jacky Wilson

Late Rock-n-Roll, but I loved Wilson and the song.

 “Poison Ivy” and “Charlie Brown”–The Coasters

A very popular group.  Fe Fe Fi Fi Fo Fo Fum Who’s that  smoking in the auditorium?  Charlie Brown!

 “Transfusion”–Nervous Norvus

The words are a gas. See what happens when you drive fast?

THIS IS WHAT DR. NASSIFF IS LISTENING TO NOW:

My wife and I have season subscriptions to the Boston Symphony Orchestra, and the Handel and Hayden Society.  I also love opera. I went to the Met Opera last year, and almost always go to the HD presentations in theaters.  I always loved classical music but never had a chance to listen to it seriously until I got to college, and then married a cultured lady. So there you have it.  This is how we spend our entertainment dollars.  Classical music and opera.

Day 54 - Violin Info and Assignment - Jennifer Rzasa, Memorial School Music Teacher

This post originally appeared on the Memorial School Music Blog.  

Today's lessons were fantastic!  Here is the assignment for the week, and please also check out the important information below!!

• Bow Exercises
• Bow tube practice (just a few minutes each day)
• Pages 8 and 9, pizzicato

To Hold the Bow:

Start by making your little "shadow puppet," making sure to place the middle fingers over the thumb.

Following the steps I taught in class, hold the bow as shown below- the trickiest part will be that pinky!

In addition to the windshield wiper exercise we practiced today, please watch these videos and give them a try:

These exercises should be fun, and also count towards your minutes of practicing! :)

When using the bow tube, please be sure to hold it firmly with your left hand on your left shoulder, and to place the bow inside carefully.  Keeping the proper position of your right hand on the bow, pretend to play the violin through your tube.  Your right hand wrist should be flexible to bend up and down as you bow.  To make it more fun, you can listen to some music while you practice!

Day 53 - Screencasting Tools for the Mac - Xin Zhang, BHS Senior

This post originally appeared on the BHS Student Help Desk blog.

Xin Zhang, Class of 2014
Click on the image to visit Xin’s blog

Senior Help Desk Blogger, Xin Zhang once again provides us with an insightful (and always critical) analysis of the latest in educational technology. In this post, Xin reviews four different sreencasting tools: Quick Time, Screencast-O-Matic, Screenr, and Jing. Be sure to watch the excellent screencast at the conclusion of this post on how to customize your Google apps using the Apps Launcher Customizer Extension. 

QuickTime
This is the quick and painless option. QuickTime comes with OS X, unless something crazy happened to your Mac, not much time should be spent on setting up a screen recording with QuickTime. Simply open it, click “File”, and then “New Screen Recording”. Off you go.

The caveat with QuickTime is there is no caveat. You get as much time as you could possibly want, simply click “Stop Recording” when you’re finished, and the recording will show up on the desktop. Edit it in iMovie if you need to. After using QuickTime you start to wonder why other developers even bother.

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Screencast-o-Matic
Setting this one up was…interesting, to put it nicely. SOM comes in two different packages; either a Java Applet that runs through your web browser, or as a .dmg that feels like it’s much bigger than it should be (~65MB). So obviously I went for the applet, and turns out the Mac I was using didn’t have Java, and that took another 5 minutes to figure out. After Java was installed, I had to close about 27 dialog boxes asking me if I wanted to run this application. You’d think a computer will understand what you want after about the 17th try.

Once it finally loaded, I’m greeted with a black/white striped box, a record button, a microphone button, a webcam button, and a list of resolutions I can record in. So already you know what SOM is trying to do: make their screencasting tool more customizable than QuickTime and the others. It somewhat succeeds, but once you realize the considerable lag this app brings, recording or not recording, you feel compelled to throw this app in the trash and run crying back to QuickTime.

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Screenr

Go. Away.

Screenr is like SOM except it stays exclusively online. It also runs on Java, and its main calling is the ability to share the screencast directly to any major social media website. Except who wants that? What if I messed up in the middle and wanted to cut it out? Although I supposed if you really were in that kind of a rush to do something, you’d forego the editing process. Other than that Screenr offers nothing much, except for that insufferable lag whenever you use it, just like with SOM. The interface looks too similar to that of SOM’s, as well.

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Jing

Jing is possibly QuickTime’s only worthy opponent. Unfortunately for it to be truly better than QuickTime, you’d need a subscription, and I ain’t paying for Jing. Jing does its job quite well, just install their app, its not particularly big, install it, and it’ll hang out on the top right corner of the screen until you want to record something. Jing lets you record single windows or dialog boxes, or any part of OS X. It sounds useful, but once you give it some thought, it’s absolutely useless. I’m not interested in seeing a square on my widescreen display, or even worse, the OS X menu bar where I can count sheep until the time jumps from 11:44 to 11:45.

That being said, Jing is a lot less laggy than Screenr or SOM, and that makes it more useful. However, unless you’re entertained by Inception jokes, the fact that Jing records its own dialog box in a screencast is something that will bother you.

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In conclusion, we have a native screencasting app that no one should ever have an issue with, two completely useless apps, and another decent app that might’ve been the best if I had paid for the pro version. Personally, I’d go with QuickTime, just because it’s native to OS X, there aren’t any time limits on the recording, and it gives me the best quality without any noticeable lag. The others just aren’t good enough.

Here’s a screencast I’ve made with QuickTime:

If you are looking to make a short screencast, no more than three minutes, check outQuickCast for for OS X 10.7+.

Day 52 Using Book Creator To Create Food Journals in Family and Consumer Sciences - Delaney Woods, Grade 8

This post originally appeared on the Marshall Simonds Middle School Blog

 

Click here to check out Delaney's Book!

In Mrs. Molina’s Family and Consumer Sciences class students have been evaluating their nutrition habits based on their calorie, fats, sodium, and sugar consumption.  Students also learned to identify one of their packaged food items that they consumed frequently and explain why the item is or is not a healthy snack based on analyzing the calories/calories from fat, % daily value, and the ingredient list. The app, MyFitnessPal as well as Food Tracker on the ChooseMyPlate.gov website were used to analyze nutrition intakes and then the data was compiled into a food journal using Book Creator.  

Day 51 - Field Trip To Lowell Mills - Aimee Warford, Memorial School Fourth Grade Teacher

This post originally appeared on Aimee's Classroom Blog

We has a great time on our field trip to Lowell Mills two weeks ago. Students worked in interactive workshops, exploring the lives of the Yankee and Immigrants who settled in the city of Lowell.  Students even got their own passports and has to pass and entry test through Ellis Island!

Unpacking Immigrant Luggage

Going on a scavenger hunt to learn about the Yankees. 

Reenacting an actual town meeting in Lowell. 

Passing inspection through Ellis Island. 

Day 50 - Teaching the Constitution: Superheroes and the Branches of Government - Michael Milton, BHS Social Studies Staff

by Michael K. Milton

This post originally appeared on Michael's Blog

As a new teacher to both the US History I curriculum and to teaching 9th graders, I was struggling teaching students about the difference in the branches of governments. I tried a variety of ways to do this: I gave an overview of each branch, students completed a graphic organizer for the branches, students sought answers to questions using the Constitution [ex. Can Mr Milton run for President? Why/Why not?*], and I created a board game to show the arduous quest for a bill to become a law. Still, I did not feel that it connected to my students. I felt like my job of bringing the Constitution to life was not yet finished.

During a free period, I popped into a colleague’s classroom to discuss the Constitution. It was here that she said one phrase that really sparked my brain into gear. Let me preface this by explaining I have recently been thinking quite a bit about superheroes and supervillains – particularly how they carry out mundane things like grocery shopping or online dating**. My colleague said, “…powers of the branches.” Obviously, my mind immediately jumped to “superpowers of the branches” and went into overdrive. I explained the concept to her and collaboratively we came up with the Super Branches of Government!

From my colleague’s classroom. This student focuses solely on the Commander in Chief role of the President.

Super Branches of Government!

The Prompt: What if each branch of the US government was a superhero? What would it look like? What superpowers would it have? What weaknesses would it have?

Use the US Constitution to create the new American hero!

Part 1: The Creation of a Superhero

Brainstorm and create a superhero. What powers would it have? How would you represent the powers?

• Students were put into small groups, given a large piece of paper, an assortment of markers and colored pencils, and given their branch!
• I guided them slightly, mostly reminding them to use the tools we had developed [notes and graphic organizers] as well as the Constitution itself.
• I attempted to help students focus on the powers of the branch and how to best represent them.
• I did add to my initial instructions for students to make a key to explain what the elements represented.

Part II: The Switch

Switch with another group and examine the superhero they created. What powers are missing? Add them! What limitations does the hero have? Add them to the image.

• At first, students were reluctant to add to another’s image. However, most groups seemed to embrace playing with a new superhero.
• I may not do this step in the future. I am currently discussing this with colleagues who added the limitations to the first part of the project. For me, the purpose of this part was for students to interact with all of the branches of government but I am interested in finding an alternative.

Part III: Discussion 

Examine the superhero for the branch that you did not help create. Then, if you had created a superhero for the remaining branch, what would it look like? What powers would it have? How would you depict it? What would you include that was not included in the one you just examined? What limitations does it have? How would you depict it?

• I am currently at this point in this project.
• Students will use Canvas, a student management system, to write individual answers to this prompt in a discussion forum.
• When completed, students will comment on two of their classmates posts.

Overall, I have been pleased with the discussions of the groups. My favorite impromptu discussion between students in rival groups discussing which superhero was stronger. I was beaming but remained silent during this exchange as it is something as a society we still wrestle with. I am really looking forward to the debrief discussion!

Alternative: Two of my colleagues are in the process of doing this activity and chose to have students solely responsible for one branch of government and for the students to present it to the class.

So that is one way that I am teaching the Constitution, how are you doing it?

Next Week: Teaching the Bill of Rights using improv!

* I cannot. Article II Section 1 states that you must be 35 years old. I can, however, run for US Senate.

**I imagine this exchange between a superhero and supervillain at the grocery, “So, I know we’re sworn enemies and all but my cart is pretty full…fight tomorrow? Oh, I have an extra coupon for those paper towels! Here you go!”