Day 42 - BHS Anatomy Teacher Julie McKinney Goes Digital with Book Creator! - Jenn Scheffer - Mobile Learning Coach

This post first appeared on the BHS Help Desk Blog

October’s Teacher Profile is Science teacher Julie McKinney-Carey. I’ve had the pleasure to work with Julie over the past two years and have seen her curriculum and instruction become more digital during that time. Last spring, Julie first started experimenting with curating digital resources to build her own Anatomy textbook. With the help of her students, Susan DiSanto our Librarian, and the integration of the Book Creator iOS application, Julie’s students were able to use databases and other online resources to create 25 chapters of a digital Anatomy textbook. Julie’s experience with this project was so successful that she decided to adopt Book Creator once again for her Anatomy students. Specifically, Julie has her students document their year long cat dissection projects digitally versus using a traditional paper journal. Using Book Creator has enabled Julie’s students to create interactive journals with multimedia content including images, sound, and video. Students are also able to combine their original illustrations in their journals which makes the integration of the Book Creator technology meaningful and personal. The journals consist of eight major parts including:

1. External Observations
2. Muscles
3. Bone
4. Respiratory
5. Cardiovascular
6. Digestive
7.Urinary
8. Reproductive

Each section has its own due date and students upload their completed sections to Google Classroom. Julie is able to quickly assess each section of the journal and provide students with useful feedback. The video below provides you with a glimpse into Julie’s classroom. It highlights how students are using a variety of resources, both digital and analog, to create content for their Book Creator Cat Journals. You’ll also hear from Julie as she explains what contributed to the transition from a traditional paper journal to a digital format and how that has improved her efficiency as a teacher. Finally, you’ll hear from a student who shares a few pages from her journal, her perspective on using the Book Creator app, and how she submits her journal sections via Google Classroom. If you would like to learn more about how you could incorporate Book Creator into your curriculum, please contact me via email or schedule an appointment to meet with me at jscheffer.youcanbook.me.

I’d love the opportunity to work with you and your students and feature you on the BHS Teacher Profile page!