A PSA is a video created to raise awareness and change public attitudes and behavior toward a social issue. PSAs often have a powerful message that sticks with the viewer, sometimes becoming part of society’s collective psyche. Middle School students are working collaboratively to write, direct, and produce their PSA assignments.

Effective PSAs: 

• are short (usually 60 seconds or less and 150 words long)

• present one single issue 

• inform the viewer of key, relevant, and accurate facts 

• have a clear call to action (usually indicated through text on screen)

• aim to leave a lasting impact (compelling point of view)

Pass It On

Students are following a high school digital editing syllabus this term. Students were asked to take several original photographs, to airdrop or share the original photographs to their personal accounts, to create a digital graphic/image that enlisted the following skills(Working with Selections & Working with Layers), and last, to share their work with me.

WORKING WITH SELECTIONS

1. Make selections using various selection tools.

2. Move selection contents.

3. Save selections.

4. Transform a selection.

5. Edit a selection.

6. Combine the use of selection tools.

7. Fill a selection.

8. Add a stroke to a selection.

9. Crop an image within a selection.

10. Erase within a selection.

I. WORKING WITH LAYERS

1. Create a layer.

2. Rearrange layers.

3. Create a text layer.

4. Merge layers.

5. Apply layer styles.

6. Flatten an image.

Fifth students are learning about photography and specific domains; Portraiture, Landscape, Action Photography, Still Life, Candid Photography, Monochromatic Photography, and Indoor Photography. These pictures were taken by the students and were not edited in any way. Some of their photos have been published on our social media pages.

We will begin to learn how to use basic techniques of lighting, basic photo composition including Rule of 3rds, Leading Lines, Framing Subjects, etc.), basic photo editing involving the use of layers, the use of HDR, and the use of the knowledge of pixels, megapixels, DPI, and PPI to create innovative original artworks.

Registration is still OPEN!

Registration for TechKNOW Camps 2021 is now open.

Hello, World!

Has your teacher ever asked you if you want to play video games during class and then let you? Well, this one does, as long as you make them. We are beginning to learn how to design our own video games.

Video Game Design using Bloxels is a STEAM-based learning experience that is a hands-on, brains-on, creativity & technology experience that uses both sides of the brain by merging physical and digital worlds to help integrate learning cross-curriculum, including math, science, language arts, and history.

Today we explored the result of Bloxel video games only to find out that we are all so very excited to learn how to make our own!

https://wagoo.sched.com/event/ay9x/video-game-design-with-bloxels-google?iframe=no

Middle School Technology students are beginning to design their individual websites using Google Sites to display photographs they have captured with iPhones and Android phones.

You can explore these sites by clicking on the separate buttons below.

This week we have been working with Silk-Interactive Generative Art. Silk allows students to create beautiful masterpieces and digital images. Students chose the colors they wanted to use as well as, the number of points they wanted to work with. Practicing their mouse skills and learning how to save their work to their Google Drive were important skills that the Prekindergarten students mastered this week.

Created with WeVideo and Silk

We are learning about photography and the art of taking pictures. The following are unedited examples that students have taken during classes. Please click the following link to view their photos.

Second grade students are becoming the directors of their own movies! They were given a storyboard and a pile of lego and asked to create their own personal stories. They had to included characters, themes, backdrops, sets, scripts. We are in the beginning stages of shooting our films so be on the look out for the RED CARPET releases!

We are using Khan Academy for Kids in our Technology PK Classroom to

add variety and choice to our learning continuum.

“Khan Academy for Kids is a 100% free application that “personalizes a learning path and dynamically adapts, ensuring each child is presented with activities, books, educational videos, and creative lessons that allow them to learn at their own pace, creating an individualized experience for every learner.””

— https://khankids.zendesk.com/hc/en-us/articles/360004559231-Welcome-to-Khan-Academy-Kids

Khan Academy for Kids is offered free on the Apple Store, the Google Play Store, and the Amazon Store. It will never show any adds or ask you to purchase a membership. As a teacher or as a parent, you can control the amount of time the app is used. For static activities, worksheets in every area are offered for free to print and reinforce learned skills.

Students in 7th grade science students are using the QuiverVision 3D app to explore cells. Thank you to Nicole Ayers for sharing your classroom photos.

All of our Kindergarten students received their own personal learning devices. Both Kindergarten classes opened their boxes and began the process of personalizing their devices. We also reviewed safe online practices and acceptable use policies.

Our 7th and 8th grade girls are enjoying learning to fly drones. We spend a couple of hours a week learning fundamentals of flight and drone safety. They are shooting amazing footage to add to their websites. The websites will be published during Winter Break.

Today, two members of the SJDS Drone Leadership Team, Elle Floyd and Abbie York, worked with the 4th grade students and demonstrated several flights with our drones. Each student was allowed to see their environment from the “Drone’s Eye View”. It was an amazing experience and a valuable learning event.

This semester, students who signed up for the Robotics Programming, Engineering & Design elective have begun to work on their VEX IQ robot design. Using the engineering design process, the students create a design, build the design, and test the design on the VEX IQ playing field. Many times the initial design needs improvements so the students go back to their original design to re-evaluate it for improvements, make the desired modifications to improve their design, and then test their designed bot. This process repeats itself until its design works perfectly. It is amazing the amount of GRIT and DETERMINATION our students have!

Cora Jane Williams

Rosie Jordan

Adan Orr

We are practicing learning to click and drag on a mouse to develop fine motor skills and learn better mouse skills. For more practice, please go to this link.

Mrs. Tracy’s and Mrs. Lisa’s classes are official directors! We formed characters for their movies out of clay. We used Stop Motion Studio to take over 450 individual pictures to create each of the movies. We had a real blast learning how to make the characters, how to take the pictures, and how the green screen worked.

Mrs. Tracy’s Class Movie

Mrs. Lisa’s Class Movie