Learning in the Lou

We were at Dressel today when my friend gave me three of these amazing chocolates. I ate two almost instantly and left the third in my car for a few hours Just before I reached for it I suddenly stopped and thought about dinner last night. I made a batch of banana chocolate chip pancakes, mostly because plain pancakes are gross. I accidently dropped a chip near the hot griddle and when I went to grab what I thought was a solid chip all I got was chocolaty fingers.  Back in my car I hesitated picking up the Dove because I didn't know if it was solid or not. How is this STEM? What makes chocolate hold its shape even when it pretty much melted. Is it due to the Dove and chip where undisturbed and once a little force was applied they would collapse? Maybe the chemical structure of chocolate can withstand higher temperatures? A quick Google search could answer this right away and stop me from thinking about it. I wonder how many different solutions I could think of before I l...

Source: https://mojang.com/2016/01/announcing-minecraft-education-edition/ A great feature of Minecraft: Education Edition is the ability for the teacher (or a student) to host a game for others in a closed Minecraft world.  There are a few basic requirements we will need: All computers being used have Minecraft: Education Edition installed All computers are connected to the internet on the same wireless network (LindberghBYOD, for example) Note: teachers will need to turn off LAN just as they might at home or their local coffee shop All computers have a mouse connected (recommended) All students are logging into Minecraft with different account IDs The hosting computer has the desired Minecraft world loaded onto it If you are ready to go, follow these steps: All computers should launch Minecraft The hosting computer should launch into the desired Minecraft World Students who wish to join that game should find their hosting friend in the middle tab ...

Source: https://mojang.com/2016/01/announcing-minecraft-education-edition/ This is the sixth article in a special series on Minecraft: Education Edition .  We have been covered the process of downloading and installing Minecraft, adding and creating worlds, and playing through the first three parts of the world, Tutorial: Volume II.  Now we are ready to walk through Stage 4, which will explore a number of features found exclusively in Minecraft: Education Edition.  If you are interested in viewing previous articles in this series, head to the bottom of the page where you will find the links. So far in this series, we've been exploring the basics of playing Minecraft without talking about what teaches can do to design and maintain worlds that promote learning.  Questions that we will address during Stage 4 include: How do I edit the world I am sharing with students? What are some ways students can document their learning and creations? How do I kee...

Source: https://mojang.com/2016/01/announcing-minecraft-education-edition/ This is the fifth article in a series on getting started with Minecraft: Education Edition.  To see other posts in the series, go to the bottom of this article to find those links. Stage 3: An Open World So, you've made it this far, but there is a ravine between you and the next set of tutorials.  Select the dirt in your inventory and build yourself a bridge.  If you need help, watch this quick video.  The dirt is in the first inventory slot, so I press "1" before right-clicking on the spot where I plan to build my bridge: Once you cross the ravine, you enter a small village where Stages 3 and 4 can be found.  To follow along with this walkthrough, notice important instructions related to mining directly in front of you and on the wall to the left.  Build a stone axe before continuing forward to build torches.  On your left is a cave to mine in.  Use...

Source: https://mojang.com/2016/01/announcing-minecraft-education-edition/ This article is the fourth post in a series on Minecraft: Education Edition .  Links to earlier blog posts can be found at the bottom of the page. Ok...Minecraft is installed...I know how to create worlds...What's next? Play!!! Let's get some essential steps out of the way: Plug in your mouse Open up Minecraft: Education Edition and log in Select Play Select Create New Open up the world called  Tutorial: Volume II The rest of this blog post will summarize the key ideas found in the tutorial.  They will be presented in order so that you can reference the blog as you work your way through the tutorial.   Stage 1: Basic moves Moving around the minecraft world requires a little coordination and practice.  Place your left hand fingers on the A, W, and D (and sometimes, S) keys.  These keys move your character: A : left S : backward D : right ...

Source: https://mojang.com/2016/01/announcing-minecraft-education-edition/ This is the third video in a special series on Minecraft: Education Edition.  Earlier articles can be found at the end of this post. Creating Worlds We're finally here!  Let's start exploring Minecraft: Education Edition.  Open up Minecraft and log in using your Microsoft account. Let's create our very own Minecraft world.  Follow along with this video to learn more: So, creating a new Minecraft world is pretty easy.  Here are a few key options you need to consider when creating a new world: Gamemode Survival -- players need to eat, gather food, mine, and build shelter to maintain health Creative -- focused on building, players have access to all block types to create anything Difficulty Peaceful -- no harmful  mobs , including skeletons, zombies, etc.  Animals abound. everything else has mobs Cheats (recommended) Always Day -- ...

Source: https://mojang.com/2016/01/announcing-minecraft-education-edition/ Welcome to Part 2 of our series on Minecraft: Education Edition.  If you followed the instructions in the introduction, you have received your Microsoft username and password from Technology.  Let's begin by downloading what we need: How to download Minecraft: Open educationstore.microsoft.com Sign in using your Microsoft account After the Lindbergh store opens up, download and install Minecraft: Education Edition Optional downloads found on the Minecraft: Education Edition website include Classroom Mode and Code Connection . We will cover Classroom Mode in a future blog post. Did the download work? Are you ready to try out Minecraft for yourself? In Part 3 of our series, you will learn how to create and download worlds and the basics of Minecraft. Links to our other series blog posts: Introduction to Minecraft: Education Edition (1) Creating Worlds (3) The Basics +...

Source: https://mojang.com/2016/01/announcing-minecraft-education-edition/ This article is the first in a series of blog posts all about introducing Minecraft: Education Edition in your classroom.  We'll walk you through downloading and installation, basic commands, getting your students online, creating virtual worlds, and more. Minecraft is an immensely popular MMORPG ( massive multiplayer online role playing game ) that started back in 2009.  The gameplay invites users to explore, build, collaborate, and flourish in a virtual, expansive world.  Keeping in mind this is a preview, sit back and watch: As you probably already know, Minecraft is hugely popular with kids (if you're ever in a room with kindergarteners and they ask you what your favorite game is, just say "Minecraft" and you've won).  So, it makes sense that in 2016, in the digital age of 21st century skills and the 4 C's, Minecraft: Education Edition was born.  This version allows...

Did you notice a new icon in your Google calendar?  1. Click on the big blue button . 2. Click Upgrade now . (Just do it! Software upgrades are always awesome!) The biggest improvement that I can see is the new, softer colors. Adding a new event is pretty easy, just look in the lower right corner. 1. Add a title, date and time. 2. I like to add a notification so something pops up on my laptop and phone ten minutes before the event. 3. You can change which calendar the event belongs to. 4. Click Save. Of course you can just click on a time slot in the calendar to pull up the quick entry menu. This is very similar to what you had in the classic calendar view. To access the settings click on the gear icon in the upper right corner. Then click settings. Look on the far left side of the screen. Click on the calendar you want to edit. Scroll down in the center of the screen to find all the options. 

This post was created to support the LHS FACS students as they create video masterpieces.  We stumbled upon this app a while ago and it just keeps getting better. We thought it would be a great time to update the post to help you hone your video creation skills. This post was used in LHS FACS to help guide the video creation process. The goal is to give you the key elements and ideas for creating video projects on mobile devices. WARNINGS We would advise you to have a minimum of one gig of free storage on your device before you start creating your project. Trust us, we learned the hard way. Use Google Photos to back all your images and videos up. Do not delete any files off your device  until the project has been uploaded YouTube and submitted for a final grade. 1. What do you watch now? This question helps us frame our thinking around the videos we watch and why we watch them. What videos do you watch now? Are there any themes you have in common with your cl...

Anchor charts! A week ago we posted about our first Lunch and Learn centered on the topic of #booksnaps. During a walkabout this week we stumbled upon a few anchor charts in Shannon Roe's classroom at Long. These take the idea of #booksnaps and mashed it with Seesaw enabling the students to create greatness. The whole process starts with capturing what is being read using Seesaw. I love this chart because it helps the students with the production process. Check out step 2, voice to text! The kids don't need to type, just click the microphone icon on the keyboard and start talking. I see my 6th grade son do this all the time, great way to get all your ideas out quickly. Do you have students that get stuck when they are creating something? Check out how this chart give them just enough to get moving and really focus on what they need to be recording. I believe this chart will help the students look deeper into the text and allow them to pull out some deeper un...

Parking ramps can be a little sketchy. I didn't want to park here anymore. I was on my way downtown for the NCTE conference and was unsure where to park. Sarah mentioned this app she used to find and pay for a spot before she ever left home. If that isn't enough it was half the price of the other spots! I'm thankful for Sarah's advice, it saved me a ton of money. Start by downloading the SpotHero app on your device and create an account. I searched for parking near the convention center.  Clicked on the $5 spot. Click reserve spot. It automatically charges your card. I was shocked when I saw the kiosk in the parking lot, it was charging $10 for the spot!

This post was created as a reference for a presentation given at NCTE 2017. I was the teacher with a million different systems to keep all my notes organized. My first strategy was a clipboard with a note card for every student taped to it. I was kinda slick except I would forget it at school, outside or in a different classroom. I never had my notes when I needed them. That system fell apart way too fast. The next was Post-It notes. I'm sure you know how that ended, tons of money spent and notes all over the place. Evernote was awesome but I always found it hard to use. The one part that was sweet, audio record right in the note. That might be the killer feature that separates Evernote from everything else. Google Forms was OK but reading words on a spreadsheet is maddening. I was at a loss. Nothing was working well and I was chasing the elusive productivity monster. A year or so ago I attended a Google edcamp and stumbled upon an add-on for Google Sheets , this cha...