We are creating so many wonderful things in my room that it’s hard to focus my thoughts for this post. As a CTE (Career and Technical Education) teacher, I have MANY diverse classes. I teach Scratch 6 and 7, Keyboarding 6, Computer Solutions 7, Entrepreneurship 8, 3 levels of Technology/Engineering, Media Tech 8, and even get to be in the studio for our morning video announcements, called WLHW. Every one of my classes is making something cool!
In my Scratch classes, we are participating in a “Hacker Challenge” that is open to all Albemarle County students. I have dozens of games that have to do with Walton and Wildcats and our school … in some, the Wildcat is fighting bullies or hornets or bears … while some are more teacher-centric, with Mr. Vrhovac or even me running around the screen.
My Media class is participating in the Walton Film Festival, based on the Virginia Film Festival’s guidelines. They have interviewed new teachers, added a streaming flag for use when WLHW leads the Pledge of Allegiance each morning, and plan to start creating new Intros for our video announcements.
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| James Socol |
My Keyboarding, Computer Solutions, and Entrepreneurship classes are researching the founders of modern startups, like Yahoo! or Firefox or gmail … my Entrepreneurship class got a special treat when James Socol, inventor of Today’s Meet, stopped by to discuss his experiences with Mozilla, bit.ly, and of course, Today’s Meet.
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Caption: We’re still in the planning stages, but Dan Brown up at Monticello HS has been a huge help!
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My Technology/Engineering classes are the most exciting for me right now. In the 8th Grade, we have partnered with the S.P.C.A. with their H.O.W.S. program to build 5 doghouses to help friendly canines survive the cold winter! In the 6th grade, we’re staying more “local” and working to help improve our building, fixing and making things for teachers and for school use. One group is planning to build an authentic New York Subway-style bench for our pickup loop!
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Caption: image from http://www.wnyc.org/story/286491-buy-your-own-authentic-wooden-subway-benches/
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Finally, I’m hoping that my WLHW crew will begin uploading some archive “episodes” of our show on YouTube soon!
It’s been a great quarter in my Technology Lab … looking forward to 3 more!
-Jon Barber
CTE (Career/Technical Education) Grades 6-8
Follow my Blog at http://hoosjon.blogspot.com
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