Friday 22 May 2020

May 19th and 20th

Here are a few of the things we did... This Week In Gifted!

Hands Up!

The big excitement this week (ok maybe it wasn't THAT exciting) was that you can now raise your hand in a Teams meeting!  When students want to add to the discussion, it can be hard because we can't see everybody at once.  Now there is a 'hand' icon that you can select which allows everyone to see that your hand is up.  Neat.  We were also able to see more than 4 people at one time, which was great.

Getting Creative

Each week in our Teams classes we do a short game.  This week we played 'When Suddenly...', a storytelling activity where we each take turns adding to the story.  You have to listen well to what others have already said, and carry the story forward.  We had some very interesting and fun stories! 

Scratch

The students have all been creating in Scratch and picking up new coding skills.  Please check out our Studio here.  Click on any of the projects to try them out.  You can go full screen and you can also select the 'See Inside' button to see the computer programming that went into creating each project.  Many of the projects make great use of audio, so don't mute your mics!  Some of the projects are complete and others are still in progress. 

During our Teams classes students have sought help on how accomplish different tasks in their programs and they've shared successes.  Some resources that were shared this week:
  • Tutorials -- the Scratch site has tutorials on how to animate a sprite, make your own Pong game and much more.  You can access the tutorials here.
  • The question was asked: how do I end a game when a specific number of points is reached?  This page offers some ways to approach the problem.

Lesson Slides

Below are the lesson slides for this week, in case there is anything students or parents would like to refer to (link).


For Next Week

I've asked the students to continue to explore Scratch.  If they have a larger project they've been working on, great, they can continue to add to it.  If they would like to try some of the other activities that I've loaded in CS First they can do that, or they can check out the Scratch tutorials mentioned above and try something from there.  The key is to learn some more coding skills and have fun :-)

Next week we will have our last class for this year.  Normally we'd have an in class celebration with goodies, but alas, not this year.  I've suggested the students celebrate though by wearing something 'suitable' -- a crazy costume, goofy wig or glasses.  If dressing up is not their thing, how about bringing along a favourite stuffy or item to add to the celebratory vibe.



Friday 15 May 2020

May 12th and 13th, 2020

Here are some of the things that we did... This Week In Gifted!

Lesson Slides

Each week now I will be posting the lesson slides that I've gone over with students in class, so that students can refer back to them if need be and that parents can check out if they have questions.  Below are this week's slides (link).



Scratch Projects

It has been great to see the class studio in Scratch fill up with the projects students have been working on.  You can check out the studio here

If students encounter issues with Scratch, please let me know as soon as possible.  Some students have reached out to me directly in Teams with their questions and so have some parents.  You can also e-mail me.  In some cases, using Teams, I've been able to have students share their screens with me which has allowed me to see what they see and then problem solve the issue.

Students are encouraged to continue their learning in Scratch this week.  They can add to a project they've started, or explore some of the other coding activities on the CS First site.  Based on student feedback, I've added a section on CS First on Game Design.  Students are not required to do all of the activities on the CS First site.  They are available for students to explore, to hopefully learn some more coding skills and to have fun.

Looking Ahead

I plan to wrap up our online classes at the end of May.  Normally this week would have been the wrap up week and today I would be recovering from eating too many cupcakes and other goodies from the wrap up celebrations!  In June I will be sending home year end progress reports and arranging to meet, likely virtually, with parents for the year end inclusive education plan (IEP) meetings.  

Thank you for checking in to see what we've been up to.  Please don't hesitate to contact me if you have any questions. 

  



Wednesday 6 May 2020

Lesson Slides

Here are some of the things that we've been up to... This Week In Gifted!

Wow, this whole learning and teaching from home has been interesting!  Thank you to students and parents for being patient as I've worked on different ways of engaging with the students.

Weekly Class Meetings
Moving forward my plan is to continue meeting with students once a week on Teams.
  • Giant's Head Group: Tuesdays at 1pm
  • Penticton Morning Group: Wednesdays at 10am
  • Penticton Afternoon Group: Wednesdays at 1pm  

 I will aim to keep the sessions to 30 - 40 minutes in length.  In the sessions I have been:
  • providing the opportunity for students to share any updates on what they are doing
    • we've met family pets and we can't wait wait to meet a new puppy next week :-)
  •  going over the Scratch projects students have been working on
  • playing a short game -- this week it was "What's the Difference".  Students were on camera, then went off camera to change one thing about their appearance.  When they came back we had to guess what was different.  Usually it was something subtle, but one student came back looking similar to this guy!

Guy in an Air Dancer Costume -- Amazon
Lesson Slideshows
Starting this week, my goal will be to create a slideshow for each class in Teams, that I can then share here.  That way the information and links that I've shared with students are also available to parents.

This week's Tuesday and Wednesday afternoon classes (link):


This week's Wednesday morning class (link):


I am also continually updating this document with links to "How To" videos for what we've been doing in Scratch.  Students (and parents) are encouraged to get in touch with me if they have any questions.  Questions can be e-mailed to me, or posted in Teams.  I will try to respond as soon as possible.

Thanks for checking in to see what we've been up to, and I look forward to seeing the students again next week!