Becky Perkins

It is now October. We have been in school for a month. What have my kids done so far? Well, all of the benchmark testing and progress monitoring has significantly limited the time I have to spend on my techie tools with my very eager class of 27 students, but I was able to introduce them to Google Drive and iMovie.

We have used Google Presentation to discuss character traits of the main characters in the book Wonder by RJ Palacio.
We then created an iMovie trailer for the book.



We also used Google Forms to generate a list of traits for each character that will be used within a Tagxedo word cloud. Yeah, we rock!

My students used iMovie to create movie trailers at the end of the year.



They had to write a script and create a movie. These videos were created entirely independently without any technical support from me.

Google Docs and iMovie
Check out some of my students' projects!












I will post the rest as soon as they are done.
The kids selected the groups they wanted to work in, created a storyboard to layout their videos, created title pages and slides to explain the videos.

It was the first time they used iMovie. I had very little input in the actual creation of the final videos.

I have been trying all year to implement a Flipped Classroom and have had limited success. However, February has been a hectic month and due to some extended absences, I believe I might be getting the hang of this Flipped Thing. I am far from mastering it, but because I did not want to put an excessive amount of pressure on my substitute while I was out for almost two weeks, I began adding to my class website, mini lessons and short videos that she could use for instructional purposes.
Here is some of what I was able to do.

Embed Video Clips (Math and Social Studies)
Post Assignments
Add Files for download and printing
Post audio clips of the novel we are reading aloud in class.

If you are interested in checking out my class website, here is the link. BLPERKINS CLASS WEBSITE Let me know what you think.

This was one of the harder posts I have had to create.
What are my top ten reasons for joining Pinnacle? Well, the more I think about it, the more I realize there aren't that many reasons for me.  I became a Pinnacle Leader for my students. Everything I have done, learned, and brought back into my classroom has been for the benefit of their education.

Growing tired of the same routine all year, I am obsessed with trying to flip my classroom, I don't quite foresee the kinks that Common Core will throw at me. I struggle with the new curriculum and introducing technical applications.

I am not an impostor attempting to drown education with a flood of technology.

In the movie The Nightmare Before Christmas, the Pumpkin King is bored with his old routines in Halloween Town. He gets a glimpse Christmas Town and decides it would be much better to be Santa Claus. He hatches a plan, kidnaps Santa and tries to step into his shoes.  Jack Skellington is shot down as he rides a coffin driven by skeleton reindeer across the sky. In the end, Jack is not successful, but is happy with who he is, and Santa holds no hard feelings.

My re-write, would change the ending.  Because ultimately, I want to be successful in my endeavors. (I want to be the King of Halloween Town and Santa too) However, to be successful, I will really have to integrate a great deal of content across multiple subject areas. I will have to utilize what is already out there and be willing to collaborate and sometimes step outside of my comfort zone.

I have since started doing more project based learning, approaching instruction as a unit of study rather than an individual lesson. I think it is easier to integrate a variety of subjects within projects. I can incorporate, all areas of language arts, science, and social studies within these projects. (Which currently seem to meld better with the Common Core Curriculum Guides) My students are able to utilize technology as a tool for researching, learning, and presenting. I hope my class will be able to understand how technology can make them more efficient learners.