This past week, I created a lesson for my students which had them examining videos, excerpt from a book, and a picture in order to find evidence to prove that the Big Idea was true.  In almost everything that I do, I incorporate the GATE Thinking Tools.  But because I only have my kiddoes for one semester, I have to pick and choose which ones I want to concentrate on because there’s not enough time to thoroughly cover each one.

For our Feudal Europe unit, I used to have students examine a picture, write details, and find evidence to support the Big Idea.  But this year, I decided to incorporate videos and an excerpt and I put the whole thing on My Big Campus.  I figured, why not try a new tool in the process?  After all, with the cancellation of our school’s license for Discovery Streaming, I had to find a new way to show my students the videos that I used to use.

It’s amazing how many videos are already available on MBC for teachers to use.  The very videos that I used to use within Discovery Streaming (for an Internet-based lesson there) was easily recreated in MBC.  What’s even better is that I was able to easily make the connection to objectives and standards.  Not that the kiddoes ever read those, but at least it’s there.

On Thursday and Friday, I watched my students (via ARD) work their way through the various resources in the Feudal Europe Bundle on MBC.  They were taking notes, filling out their Top Ten List, and for some, actually beginning to formulate their answers to support the Big Idea.

What’s the Big Idea, you wonder?  The Big Idea was, “Life on the manor was…(harsh, difficult, busy).”  Students were able to choose which adjective they wanted to prove.  They have to find four pieces of evidence from the resources to support their Big Idea and write it on the graphic organizer.

The Big Idea is due this Tuesday.  I’m really looking forward to what they find.  On Tuesday, I’m going to have them meet with peers who chose the same Big Idea and compare answers.  =)  So far, I really like this lesson…it pushed all of us outside of our comfort zone as MBC is new to us and the Big Idea was new to my students.  We fumble and work our way through new things because I like to experiment and I want to give my students as many opportunities as I can to explore and use technology because I don’t know when they’ll have another opportunity to do so.

It’s time for the semester technology project:  ethical issues wiki project.  I just finished creating the usernames for my students.  Those have now been uploaded and are ready for them to play around with tomorrow.

I love the ethical issues wiki project.  Some students really struggle with delving deeper into the material, but for the high achievers and the gifted students…this is really their time to shine.  I have quite a few students who are brilliant thinkers and it sometimes just takes my breath away when I read their responses.  So, yes, I’m very much looking forward to reading their take on the ethical issues on killing and death.  Like I’ve done in the past, the students have to relate their responses to our current unit of study:  Japan.  But I plan to expand the subsequent tasks to incorporate the idea of holy war (Europe Unit) and human sacrifice (Early American Civilizations Unit).  All 195 7th graders will be collaborating with students who sit at the same table throughout the day.  This gives them the opportunity to discuss issues with students who have World History in a different period.

To accommodate for the fact that some students do not have Internet access, I have reserved the mobile laptop cart for two days a week for the next three weeks.  Luckily for me this year, about 85% of my students have Internet access at home.  So I’m assuming that quite a few of them will be working outside of the school day.  I love it.  Taking learning outside of the confines of a traditional school day.  What a novel idea.  =)

This whole flipping my lessons has kept me on my toes.  My video files are too large to post on my class website or Edmodo so I’ve resorted to putting them on YouTube.  The problem is that the students cannot access the videos because YouTube is blocked by my district and I still have about 30 students who don’t have any kind of Internet access at home so they have to be able to see the videos while at school.

Last night I decided to just jump in with both feet.  I haven’t had any time to explore My Big Campus except for the workshop I attended during ISTE.  But I figured…what the heck?  If the students are industrious enough, they will find the videos.

All I have to say is that I’m glad that MBC is pretty easy to use.  I’m not ready to chuck Edmodo since my students are already used to it.  Next semester maybe.  But next year for sure.  I think that MBC, because it better mimics a LMS as opposed to Edmodo, it will end up being more useful for what I have in store for my students.  =)

I’m excited.  I’m exhausted.  But I’m ready.  Bring.it.on.