New Resource during Research Season

'Tis the Season to Do Research, Fa La La La La....

And so it begins! As always, the changing of the leaves, the smell of pumpkin spice, and the myriad of all things pumpkin (and all that early Christmas stuff thrown in) everywhere heralds the time of the great research migration of classes to the media center.

With old topics (and new!) coming to the media center, I have learned of a new resource as I help teach and guide students on their start of the different projects. Many students have never used databases or e-books for research (i.e.: freshmen) while others have forgotten their Boolean search techniques so I tailor each lesson for the particular project's requirements. With topics on prejudice during the 1920s-40s, genocide, world religions and so on, this gives a huge juxtaposition of presentations.

Thanks to one of our science teachers, I learned about a resource that has helped make these lessons interactive: Pear Deck. After creating my google presentation, I upload it into my peardeck.com account. Then I can add question slides. These can be short answer, yes/no, and multiple choice answers. With the questions imbedded in the lesson, students use their phones, the iPads, or chromebooks to follow along and participate in the lesson. What I really like is that the answers are saved with their names (they log in with their school email) so I have data from each presentation. Now I know who "gets" the Boolean search part of the lesson, especially important with freshmen who have never searched a database before. Everyone puts in a practice search on their topic and it appears on my iPad in real time. This is incredibly beneficial because I can give instant feedback.

Pear deck has a free and a paid account. My principal paid for teachers to have accounts, and we are so very fortunate he did. Thank you to Mr. Jones for sharing this resource, and thank you to Mr. Daniels for purchasing it for us! It has been wonderful to use!

Minion Invasion!

When someone mentions to the entire staff that I can handle technology issues while they are out (watch it, Mr. Wall!)...and then they mention the possibility of flames, noxious fumes or.....MINION INVASIONS of the computers, well, you never know what might happen!

AAAAGGGGHHHH!!

Open up a cart and what do you find?

Trying to hide behind the Smart Panel?

3-D Minions?

No More Copies of Minions!

Who ya gonna call? More Minions?

You can have the laminator. I'll give you that.

 They are everywhere!

Uh-oh!

Who made that mess in the server room? 

You'd better not mess with my microwave!

Time to call for copier repair! 

Look out! 

 They've gotten ahold of the master phone!

Looks like one is planning on impersonating Mr. Wall! 

Don't feed the minions!

They invaded alright! In fact, Mr. Wall, they seemed to have invaded your desk and all the technology in the library! (They can have the laminator, but they need to leave the microwave alone!)

Fun and Patriotic Times

We had a lot of fun with the Preamble Challenge. Thank you to our sponsors for helping make it a success! A shout-out once again to Char-grill of Clayton, Sheetz in Clayton, Dairy Queen in Clayton, Wendy's in Clayton, Subway at Flowers Plantation, and Bojangles of the Triangle for donating the prizes.

To begin, the history department, some members eagerly and others slightly hesitantly, joined the JROTC instructors in advertising our Preamble Challenge with a commercial. This collaborative effort earned praises from central services staff and looked great! Of course, I think Colonel Stallings and Sergeant McLaurin had the most fun based on the bloopers reel! You can judge the final product for yourselves:

Preamble Challenge Commercial #1

As the challenge approached, I decided I needed a second commercial. Because I filmed during the block with no media assistants, I had to start and stop the filming on my own, making my own bloopers reel rather interesting. The final product looked great...although I was walking on water...

Preamble Challenge Commercial #2

Finally, the Challenge Week was here! We had great participation from many students. Even some teachers joined in! While some students stumbled a little, for the most part everyone did a fabulous job. In fact, the 4th block Theater Arts class performed a musical version, arranged and accompanied by Mrs. Nixon on guitar. It was wonderful. Although I can't put all of them together into a video (it would be WAAAAAY too long!), here are some highlights of the challenge!