Data! Data! Data!

Data! Data! Data!

In our lesson on data what started as an overview on ways we collect, organize and share data, grew organically into a lot of great conversations and sharing of ideas. Check out our data review Slide which we used with PearDeck, more data collection! Take a close look at the student generated Word Clouds in slides 6-9 that we made with WordClouds.com.

Our conversation started with a previously used Google form and response sheet as we reviewed student data on Hour of Code activities. Review of the response worksheet lead to some conversations about how quickly a computer can sort through lots of data in fractions of a second, unlike us humans.

We continued looking at other collected data, how it is represented and ways it might be interpreted. All the while PearDeck was collecting their data, sharing it anonymously during the live presentation and also compiling it into a Google Doc for my review afterwards.

On Deck!

Students are learning how to screen record to show what they know. Stay tuned!

Their Constitution

Fifth & sixth grade students, the Founding Students, just finished work they started before the break and finally voted and signed the Innovation Lab FAB Constitution. A big shout out to my friend, fellow digital coach and computer science teacher, Zak Kolar, for sharing the script that made capturing student signatures on our digital document. 

Every student in both fifth and sixth grade contributed to the creation of this document in part of our unit on "My Classroom, My Learning." Sixth grade students completed this work last year so they reviewed our FAB articles with a new lens being careful to consider our new remote and hybrid learning environments when listing and sharing ideas.

Their input was entered into a Google Form and later used to create word clouds. Word clouds show the frequency of responses in a culmination of words usually in the form of a shape, see 2 examples from our data collection below. The more frequently the word or phrase occurs, the larger the word or phrase appears in the shape. You will learn more about our work on data collection and representation in a future post.

Before each student signed this document they considered its contents as well as the ideas shared within their groups. Sixth grade students decided that no amendments were needed at this time. Although the tools they use may not be the same and they may learn differently, they believe that a positive learning environment should include and be FAB!

Click to enlarge.

Avatars, File Management & Google Slides, Oh My!

Avatar PNG Files from Google Slides

This week students completed their work building avatars with Google Slides. I can't wait for them to use these creations in upcoming projects. Some are even using their creations for projects in other classes, like Social Studies to show what they know about the American Revolution or Neolithic Times. So exciting!

While making avatars, students explored toolbar buttons, menu bar dropdown lists, tried a few right-click options and utilized some shortcut keys. There are many means to the same end. Check out the graphic below to see the objects and the tools that we explored. (From an earlier post.) 

Short descriptions of some of the favorites are included here:

Zoom for narrowing in on small details or to see the big picture. 

Paint Format, a hidden gem lets you copy the properties of one object (a shape or text) and apply them to another of the same kind. 

So many Shapes, the rectangle oval, trapezoid, callouts and donut shapes. Spoiler alert! You can enter text directly into any shape. You DO NOT need to place a text box over the shape. Word Art yes, text, not necessary. 

Line button. It takes some practice but the curve and polyline tools are a big hit! My goodness they are creative.

Crop (and Mask) to manipulate the image sizes using gutters to make them fit like a true comic. 

Fill Color & Borders were helpful for our avatars when making hair, tie-dyes, and other materials.

     

Check out our digital avatar poster or view our Zoom classes below to see the work that has been submitted thus far. Bookmark it to check in for some late arrivals as some students are still fine tuning their creations. We close each class with an exit ticket. Most days it includes sharing with me using the Zoom chat. Students are always asked to 1) share something that they learned or 2) tell something that they wonder. See some of their actual comments in the "chat" window.