Scholas Project Updates

With recent world events still fresh in our minds, it is more important than ever for us to continue to challenge ourselves to think, care, and prayerfully answer the call to be stewards of God's love. In fact, one of my takeaways from this week's homily was the request that I "go forth to be the whisper of love   in the world."

Our Scholas yearlong project is all about challenging our beliefs about other places in the world, and learning what it's like to live in developing countries, in order to provide opportunities for sports, arts, or technology to young people.

The first phase of our research was to look at developing countries in comparison to developed countries. Students were asked several follow-up questions using a Google form, which makes it easy to see trends in their answers, and spot places where students are thinking along the same lines. The purpose of this project is to help our students start asking questions - and not accepting information at face value.

Students were asked to look at information related to education, living conditions,

Picture courtesy of Pixabay

and general elements related to population. They were asked what information surprised them...perhaps challenging their ideas about places so far away, but maybe not that different from us. Here are some of the most inspiring responses. Challenge your assumptions; which countries do you think are mentioned here?


How do the people in { } only go the school for 8 years
and still live their daily life?


I was surprised that all of { } has clean water.


I learned that in { } , you go to school for a LONG time


Why is the drinking water source of { } for people is much lower than other countries?


Why do { } and { } have such a low rate of physicians/ 1,000 population?


Why is the school rate so low in some countries?


Why is the life expectancy rate in { } so low?


Why is the life expectancy in { } higher than in the United States?

These are just a few of the answers that show critical thinking, analysis, and an awareness of our world. Next, we will have students choose one developing country to focus on for their projects, and use databases to gather primary source information. Stay tuned for more details, and if you have questions about this project, or want to get more involved, contact Mrs. Cadran at teachtech@stmm.net!

Parents, if your child is using the Snapchat, please be aware that the app has recently changed is privacy policy settings. 

"Snapchat on Wednesday released a new update for its app, and with it, a new privacy policy that dramatically changes what the social network can do with the images users post," according to MarketWatch.com. Read more here.

BitsBox - Monthly Coding Projects for Kids!

Are you looking for a different kind of Christmas or birthday gift? Do you have a child who is curious, and interested in why things work? Consider a Bitsbox - a website for kids as young as seven who want to learn computer programming. It is also a monthly subscription box that comes with complete coding activities!

All kids need is a computer with a full keyboard, and a web browser (they recommend Google Chrome.)

Let's get coding!

Scholas - Connecting Students through Sports, Technology, and Art

Did you know that Pope Francis created his own educational entity in 2013, with the aim of bringing together students from around the world, especially those living in developing countries?

That organization is called Scholas. Drawing on the connected platform of web-based communications, Scholas works with governments, non-profits, and other groups to create, fund, and carry out project ideas for real schools, all around the world. The aim is to give students everywhere the chance to experience sports, technology, and the arts.

 Our middle school students will have the chance to submit a project idea to Scholas, as the result of a yearlong technology and research-based project that will be carried out mostly through their Skills class time. This project will become an authentic, real-world way to learn and apply technology and research skills. You can find more information below, in a snippet of the parents letter that was sent out today:

 This project will incorporate technology and research skills, with a varied focus each quarter. In the end, students will create a research project proposal that directly ties to the mission of both our school and Scholas, an educational initiative founded by Pope Francis.

 Their projects will have the goal of helping students in developing countries. Students will develop a topic focus based on this essential, or driving question: How can we connect, educate, and inspire young people around the world through sports, technology, and art?

 Related Links:
Please read more about Scholas here: http://www.unicef.org/media/media_81638.html 

The Scholas website can be found here: http://scholasoccurrentes.org/

Scholas Social has links to current projects: http://scholas.social/

Watch this official video introduction to Scholas: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=MZPctI7oUow 

StMM’s Introduction to our Scholas project: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=M8ZF69­Me2k

Diocese of Raleigh Information and Technology Curriculum Page: http://dioceseofraleigh.org/offices/catholic­schools/curriculum 

 Important Dates: By the start of Quarter 2, all students in grades 5­8 will need access to a family public library card with a PIN number (from any NC county) to access NC Live’s database system for research: h​ttp://www.nclive.org.​Students may put this information into a Google Document on their Drive account, come to Skills class prepared with the information, or ask a parent to e­mail it to Mrs. Cadran. This will be used for a variety of research­related projects for Quarters 2,3, and 4.

Thank you! Keep posted for more information about this exciting project!

Recommended Apps for Younger Learners

It can be daunting to figure out which apps are right for your younger learner. Here are a few that come highly recommended! If you use one of these with great results, please share with us at teachtech@stmm.net!

iPad Apps by Content/Skills Area

Math:

Dreambox– DreamBox Learning Math empowers students to master elementary math key concepts, increase achievement, accelerate student learning, and boost long-lasting confidence in math. All kids—even struggling students—can become mathematicians within our competency-based, intelligent adaptive online math learning environment at school or at home.

DigitWhiz – DigitWhiz is a foundational math program where kids master skills needed for pre-algebra and beyond using adaptive games.

Front Row Math – Front Row is the only math program made for the iPad by teachers, for teachers. Front Row provides over 15 thousand common core aligned questions that are graded automatically and given to students based on their level.

Tenmarks- Although web based, app coming soon, this is a tool we use in stations multiple times a week. Students have username and passwords already.

Xtramath.org – This is a web based tool that you can use on the iPad to practice addition, subtraction, multiplication, and division facts.  Our classroom code is JFKDV3

Sushi Monster – Meet Sushi Monster! Scholastic’s new game to practice, reinforce, and extend math fact fluency is completely engaging and appropriately challenging.

ELA/Literacy:

Scholastic News App Link-Now you can read Scholastic Classroom Magazines right on your iPad®! Flip through the latest issues, watch videos, play games, and do so much more with this exciting app designed just for students!

Scootpad – ScootPad is an adaptive & personalized learning platform for Grades K-5 covering Common Core Standards (Math, ELA/Reading, Writing, Spelling/Vocabulary)

Raz Kids – Online guided reading program with interactive ebooks, downloadable books, and reading quizzes.

Kidblog – Kidblog is designed for K-12 teachers who want to provide each student with an individual blog. Students publish posts and participate in academic discussions and connect with others around the world!

Grammar Wonderland – Fly, swim, feed, and toss your way to grammar mastery. Who knew grammar practice could be so much fun?  Lead your character through many wonderful adventures as you practice using nouns, verbs, adjectives, and more!

Content Consumption/Creation Apps:

Educreations – Educreations turns your iPad into a recordable whiteboard. Creating a great video tutorial is as simple as touching, tapping and talking. Explain a math formula… Create an animated lesson… Add commentary to your photos… Diagram a sports play…

Haiku Deck – Haiku Deck is a completely new kind of presentation software — it’s simple, beautiful, and fun.

Edmodo – Edmodo provides a safe and easy way for your class to connect and collaborate, share and create content, and access homework, grades and school notices.

Tellagami – Tellagami is a mobile app that lets you create and share a quick animated video called a Gami.

i-nigma – Easily scan QR codes

ANDROID Apps by Content/Skills Area

Math:

Front Row Front Row is the only math program made by teachers, for teachers. Front Row provides over 15 thousand common core aligned questions that are graded automatically and given to students based on their level. This means no writing worksheets, no grading, and differentiated teaching made easy.

Content Consumption/Creation:

Lensoo Lensoo Create turns your Android tablet into a virtual whiteboard with voice recording, video and smooth digital writing.

Edmodo Edmodo provides a safe and easy way for your class to connect and collaborate, share and create content, and access homework, grades and school notices.

ELA/LITERACY

Raz-Kids Online guided reading program with interactive ebooks, downloadable books, and reading quizzes.

Kidblog – There is no native app for Kidblog on Android devices. However, their mobile site is formatted to work fluently on tablets.

Filtering Image Searches with Google and Safe Search

Welcome back to another installment of Google search tips! As we've mentioned before, always make sure that if you're using Google.com (and not our stmm.me account) to search for images, turn on Safe Search - That can be found on the Images search page:



Learn more about Safe Search here: https://support.google.com/websearch/answer/510?hl=en

After you've conducted an image search, it's time to filter your results so that you can get closest to the picture you've imagined.

Here's an example: I searched for the Durham Bulls in Images.

I want more action shots, so an easy way to do this is use the "color" search tool. I choose to filter by green because most action shots will include the field. My new results are below:

Or, I can filter by "type" and choose from the options there. This is the result for "line drawings."

Happy Searching!