Google Art Project Combines Art, Life and History

Google Art Project is a collection of digitized art from around the world.  The Art Project provides users with 738 collections from around the world including 13,106 artists and 245,009 items showcased in the collections. Users can search by Collections, Artists or Artworks as well as by featured Projects such as Art Projects, Historic Moments and World Wonders.

For example, search Art Projects, Collections and choose MoMA, The Museum of Modern Art. The Collections gives users a description of the museum, any available Exhibits, a Museum View which allows users to virtually walk through the museum, and all Items available in the digital collection.  The first piece shown is "The Starry Night." When the user chooses the artwork, the artwork appears, a description is available in the details as well as any available videos and audio files and a map of where the artist lived. 

Another example, search World Wonders, and navigate to the Grand Canyon on the map.  The collection will open to show scenery from the area in Street View as well as images including paintings and photographs from the location.  

If you have not checked out Google Art Project we strongly recommend doing so. It is a powerful way to connect art, life and history.

Using E-Portfolios in the Classroom

For years teachers have displayed their students' work on school walls and bulletin boards. However with the new digital age and more schools going paperless student work has become more easily shareable, accessible and more easily organized.  

Both students and educators need to share their achievements and to reflect on what they learn. Portfolios provide them with the ability to quickly and easily collect, organize, and share their work with others.

Schoology makes this feature fun and streamlined with their new e-PORTFOLIO feature. Located in your Schoology personal profile, portfolios make it easy to showcase students’ work, interests, and talents.

Above is a sample collage of items that were easily shared in the student’s Schoology portfolio. 

If you would like to try the ePortfolio feature but would like a help getting started, please contact your EdTech Integration Coach.

EDCITE Digital Content Reviews Are Now Published at SpotOnReviews.org

During the 2014-2015 school year, over 70 Westerville teachers participated in EDCITE:  Evaluating Digital Content for Instructional and Teaching Excellence project.  The intent of this Straight A grant funded project was to address the critical task of transitioning Ohio's school districts from print to digital curriculum. Through the EDCITE collaboration of five school districts, we were able to develop reviews of 300 core course products that will help educators make informed content selection decisions.

After wrapping up the EDCITE grant, we have transitioned to SpotOn™ The Classroom Content Selector (www.spotOnReviews.org). SpotOn is an initiative of The Ohio State University’s College of Education and Human Ecology, and is separate from the Ohio Resource Center, who we worked with primarily during EDCITE. SpotOn will use the reviews and rubrics developed during EDCITE and will continue reviewing digital content through academically validated methods. By fall 2016, SpotOn will host reviews of many types of K-12 digital content including paid and free material, ranging from core-courses to games and apps.

You can see the reviews today at www.spotOnReviews.org. We are adding new reviews continuously so be sure to visit the website often to find ideas for new resources for your classroom. SpotOn is continuing to contract with educators to perform reviews. If you or a certified educator you know is interested, please contact the Director of Professional Learning, Tanya Parisi at parisi.17@osu.edu.  

Look what Alcott Elementary 2nd Graders are Creating!

Check the fantastic projects Mr. McQuown's 2nd Graders are completing using Google Drawing. The first project the students created was an Arctic Animal Fact poster. The students worked in pairs to plan and create their poster.  They opened Google Drawing, inserted a background, an arctic animal clip-art, and a call-out cloud before typing their animal fact.  After completing their poster, each student shared their work with Mr. McQuown who then posted the work to an Arctic Gallery on his web site for parents to see.

The next project the students worked on was a Beginning, Middle, End story plan.  After reading one of the Magic Tree House books, Mr. McQuown shared a Drawing template with the students and asked that they each add a picture, a call-out cloud and type in the beginning, middle and end of the story in their own words.  

Finally, this week Mr. McQuown created an -ou and -ow Spelling Sort. The sort was shared with each student who then had to type in their -ou and -ow words and add an example photo of one of the words.

WCS Trash to Fashion Show- Coming to Starry Night on Sunday, April 10!

     Attention:

Creative students with an eye for fashion and a love for the environment!

Trash to Fashion

The Trash to Fashion competition is open to all students in Westerville City Schools.   This contest is totally voluntary and is meant to inspire student’s innovation and creativity.   

THINK “PROJECT RUNWAY”!

Each participating school will select TWO winning designs to compete in the district competition to be held at Nationwide Children’s Starry Night event on Sunday, April 10^th, 2016 at Westerville North High School from 2:00-6:00pm.  Additional details and the entry form can be found at:

www.trashtofashion.weebly.com

Digital Learning Day- February 17, 2016

Digital Learning Day 2016 is February 17, 2016

On February 17, thousands of schools and local communities will celebrate the fifth anniversary of Digital Learning Day and, more importantly, will take part in the exciting transformation of teaching and learning powered by technology. It may not be the only day where educators and students go digital, but it is a day that challenges everyone to be actively involved in reimagining the education system. Getting there is not just about using digital devices, it is about using them in ways that promote deeper and more engaged student learning. It is also about making sure that all students have access to those opportunities, not just those fortunate enough to attend the best schools. On February 17, celebrate education innovation by sharing how you will reimagine learning in your classroom, program, school or district. This could involve pairing up less experienced educators with more experienced ones to do a joint digital lesson or trying out new ways of using technology in classrooms. Whatever you do—however small—makes a difference!

How will you celebrate? Official registration for local Digital Learning Day events is now open. Registration is easy and only takes a few minutes. Share how you plan to celebrate the day and your event will be added to the map of events across the country (and the world).

Hour of Code Week is Over but Coding Never Ends

Thousands of Westerville City Schools students enjoyed exploring coding activities during Hour of Code Week.  It was wonderful watching our students work through self-paced modules learning and discovering code or at least the building blocks of code.  If you missed this opportunity, no worries, the modules are still on the Hour of Code web site.  With Friday, December 18th being our last day before break and the opening day of the Star Wars movie, it might be a fun learning experience for your students to work through the Star Wars coding module. The modules are self-paced, easy to navigate and best of all you do not need to know code to enjoy working through the activities.

If you decide to introduce your students to the site for the first time, have them choose to build with Blocks. The site provides all the directions and navigation from there on. Have fun learning!

https://code.org/starwars

Revised Ohio Technology Learning Standards are open for public comment

The revised Ohio Technology Learning Standards are now open for public comment. Please click here to participate in the online review of the draft standards. Ohio educators from all content areas and the public are invited to participate. The survey will remain open through December 31, 2015.

We appreciate your feedback!

Connecting Outside the Classroom

How Tech Tools Help Us Learn Together Globally

A Walnut Springs student conducts an interview with a researcher at the Scott Polar Research Institute in Cambridge, UK.  See below for the 7th grader's comments on the project and click the link to watch the interview.

In looking for an interview for my National History Day 

project, I contacted the Scott Polar Research Institute in Cambridge, UK.  I spent 30 minutes in a Skype Interview.  We used an iPad, a microphone, and a camera to record the session.  Through this process I experienced a connection from halfway around the world and I met a professional in the field of my research.  She shared interesting facts that I would not have found otherwise.

Brendan Smucker

7th Grade

Walnut Springs Middle School

Click here to view the interview:

Brendan Smucker conducts an interview with the Scott Polar Research Institute 

#WestervilleWay

If you are not using Google Maps to teach Geography, why not?

I found this short article, "Explore Machu Picchu in Google Maps and the Google Cultural Institute,"from Richard Byrne about Google Maps and more specifically Google Street View.  If you go to Google Street View you will find 360 degree views of locations from around the World.  If you have not looked at this, it will amaze you.  There are image collections from over 65 countries including Loch Ness, Northern Lights in Finland, Taj Mahal and even under the oceans of the World.  It is a phenomenal collection and paired with Google Maps a powerful resource to teach Geography.