The past three weeks have just flown by, and we have already accomplished so many things in 6th grade!
First, the students showed a little bit about themselves while learning a new program called Canva. Canva is a graphic design software that can be used online and includes templates, images, different fonts and layout ideas. It is a great program that students can use when creating projects for other classes throughout middle school and even into high school. Each student had to create a poster about themselves adding images, text, and even small animations that told the story of who they are and what they like. I learned so much about all of them as they shared their work with me. Everyone did a fantastic job! Take some time to ask your student about their poster, and look at the wonderful graphic design work they completed while becoming Empowered Learners (one of our ISTE standards. The link is included here if you would like to review) and exploring a new technology.
Last week, the students again were able to become Empowered Learners by working in a program called PowToons to create an engaging slideshow about the 7 Habits for Highly Successful people. The students have been learning about the 7 Habits in their Norski and Advisory times. If you are not familiar with the habits, I have included a link to a resource here. We talked as a class how to use different resources and tools to learn new skills, and we used our best perseverance skills to trouble-shoot and collaborate. It was a hard task for the students, and there were many opportunities to learn how to ask a good question when they were stuck! Next week, I will be posting some great examples that the students created!
Finally, this week we started work on our Digital Citizenship projects. The students will be learning yet another presentation software that they will be able to use in other classes called Prezi this week. We will be working more on the instructions for Prezi, because it needs a lot more explanations. This platform will be used to show what the students are learning about being Safe, Respectful, and Responsible online.
As always, I am happy to answer any questions that you might have! Feel free to email, call or stop by. I am still looking for more parent volunteers as well. If you have the time, I would love to include you in our classroom!
