Are you considering trying a STEAM-infused student-choice-driven product into a curriculum that is usually paper and pen based? Ms. Brown and I use these talking points to introduce Maker Movement STEAM-infused learning into her sevent grade English Language Arts class for a novel project.  



Here is the basic gist of how we introduced it together that you can adapt to suit your needs:

• Say:

 "A new project is coming."

• Show photos of maker projects from last year's Whirligig unit
  
• Discuss why each is special (use of Minecraft redstone to power, battery power instead of wind, recycled materials, artistic theme...)
  
• Ask students:
  

"Does each person in this classroom in back and in front and on side of you know what you are amazing at?" Does Ms Brown? Do you?

• Explain the Maker Movement and why you assigning a maker project in your class:

"The Maker Movement is something teachers are excited about in education because it gives you an opportunity to use your gifts that may not be traditionally gifts you can use or show off in school.
Now some of you are straight A students (is it cool to be straight A? Yes it is!) and for you writing might be your gift. You should choose to re write the ending. 
Maybe writing is your thing but you are usually a songwriter - then write a song.
Maybe you struggle with words but you are good at building. This is your chance to use that skill. Many people say that the future will need you to use your skills for entrepreneurship more than we had to in Ms. Brown and my's day.  So you need to know what your good at and how to sell yourself as a brand so people will want to hire you.  
Don't choose the art choice if you don't have still in drawing. Don't wait til the last day and try to draw something on the bus when you have no skill, haven't made it special. 
If you know what makes you special, then do that. If you don't know come see me in the media center and I'll help you choose. 
One skill that is becoming more and more important is the skill of videography. (Tell story of $75,000 Belk Video Contest) If you'd like to do a video trailer of the book, I will be back next week to show you how. You need to really tell the story with video. Make a trailer, but don't make a video that doesn't really speak to the book or show your knowledge of the characters.  
Maybe you'd like to create a 3D Object- Choose the whirligig building choice. If you know someone who is good with tools and that is something you'd like to do ask them to help you build with wood. You can also just cut paper and straws. But whatever you do make it great. 
One of the points of maker movement is to use skills we don't always give you a chance to develop in school.  You can code a whirligig in Scratch, engineer one to move, anything you want. But start work early so you have time to do a good job, or to fail and decide you want to change. Don't wait unitl the due date. Show off so I can post it and make you famous! Hopefully what you make will inspire other students to be their best and other teachers to try more projects like this. 

• Remind students of the content goal:
  

Don't forget to pay attention as your read so you can find themes and details to make your work amazing. 

• Offer support:
  

Don't be frustrated by false starts and prototype failures that are part of the maker process. If you can't start or get overwhelmed,  see me for help.


RELATED POSTS:
http://piedmontpd.weebly.com/celebrating-piedmont/whirligigs-an-example-of-maker-movement-in-education
http://piedmontpd.weebly.com/lesson-ideas/have-students-make-a-movie
http://piedmontpd.weebly.com/lesson-ideas/makerspace-resources4pbl
http://piedmontpd.weebly.com/celebrating-piedmont/love-of-learning-at-piedmont

The days of teachers spouting simplistic short-sighted shortcuts like " No citing .com's -they are not respected academically"  (shudder) or "Wikipedia can never be used for research" or even "there is nothing of academic value on Youtube" are thankfully over! This a lesson in credible sources relating it to real life scam awareness and digital citizenship on social media

Lesson Plan:

http://msgurthie.cmswiki.wikispaces.net/CriticalEvaluating

Game -Dig Cit  Forced Choices- both  in social media and in academics
Have you ever copied and pasted - words? -images into a slideshow?  Used an entire song? (show google  search by usage rights)
Started a project at the last minute?
Used easybib or other auto citation generator?
Did you see any drama this summer? You liked it? You spoke out against it?
Favorite social media site is instagram? etc
LOL'd at a Vine this summer? (which one?)


Living Life Online magazine 
The lap giraffe -discuss scams the sugar glider - real life animal but site is not credible- purpose

the tree octopus -discuss capow 

To prevent being scammed, go "CAPOW!" to knock out" a bad website.

Unlike "Kaboom!", "CAPOW" is an acronym to remind you to check a site against other reputable sites and google  for...

C-CURRENCY- is the info on the site recent? has it been maintained? You can tell by the "look" of it, by dates it has been updated, etc, by googling the info to see if it has been adjusted etc.

A-AUTHORITY- Is this website one from an authoritative institution? Is it peer reviewed? is it well respected source? Google the exact web address--what kinds of other sites refer to this site?

P-PURPOSE- Is this site trying to inform, persuade, argue? If the site is trying to sell you something, be aware.

O-OBJECTIVITY-Is this site covering all sides of the topic fairly? If not that is fine, you can still use it, but your research is not done-be sure to go to a site that supports other points of view.

W-WRITING STYLE: Misspellings, poor grammar, slang, are all signs that a site is not academic or may be a scam or a trick by someone not educated. If it is sloppy, it may have errors in its info or thinking as well.

LET's CAPOW these together right now in class:

 
DHM0 -discuss not taking the site's word for it and the difference between a lie and a bias
RYThospital -discuss not taking shortcuts

Emoji, hashtag webpage or superhero summary

Create your own emoji or Emoji Sentence or instagram hashtag summarizing the best advice of today.
#checkyourselfbeforeyouwreckyourself

http://msgurthie.cmswiki.wikispaces.net/Your+Digital+Footprint

Online your  digital footprint is like a footprint in cement, not like water or sand!

People WILL stalk your digital footprint and what you do never goes away. 
future schools
future employers
future sports teams
parents of potential bofirends and girlfriends

avoid negative and accentuate the positive

better to not make the mess than to try to have to clean it up.-nothing is ever truly deleted (wayback machine, cache, screenshots, stolen passwords etc)

Make sure that you are following digital citizenship guidelines so you can show off your best work as part of your digital footprint without a billl or a letter from a lawyer. Google image search, royalty free music etc.
More in the Olympic section below

This post was inspired by CMS's own Malik Richardson's (@mrich1191 on Twitter) tweet of this article:
http://www.edudemic.com/teachers-and-students-should-backchannel/
 
Ms. Burick (@NerdAlert497 on Twitter) devised a method of using backchannel in class with non-fiction reading that can work with any discipline anytime of the year. It also is a great first step at BYOT integration for teachers who are not sure how to use devices in class to increase learning. She simply opens a backchannel and projects it on her screen as student thumb through books on the topic she has provided. As students encounter facts they want to share, they post them for each other.  This can be done even with a textbook chapter, but students love to see a large selection of inviting library books in the room to pick from.

Not only does "Nerdalert Backchannel" allow all voices to be heard, Ms. Burick reports it motivates the students to read more as they challenge each other to come up with the "best" facts.  It allows sharing to happen at a convenient time for both the reader and the writer, so the entire class does not have to stop reading when someone wants to share a fact. Students can look up from their reading as they wish and contribute at their own pace. It also forces students to think through their thoughts a bit more than just raising their hands, and gives instant feedback for sharing in the form of "oohs and aaahs" from classmates!

Piedmont is featuring two all-school Olympics and Digital Learning Day events this February:

Digi Dine Olympics
 Schoolwide Digital Learning Day Activity

During Feb 5 's Digi Dine BYOT lunch (and recess), students will have QR coded Olympics themed questions on their tables, around the cafeteria and field.

Students who wish to participate will to use their devices to scan and research the questions and then submit an answer via  Google form - All Entries Must use their CMS (chomebook) login to drive (Pete Pirate's  would be Ppiratexxxx@cms.gaggle.net (x=last 4 digits of student ID #)

Digi Dine Olympics winners will be chosen from the Google form submissions and will receive a Gold Medal (chocolate gold-foil covered) and names on our Olympics Hall(s) of Fame Display near Student Services.


Olympics Halls of Fame (literally, get it?!)

Check Ms Stone's big Olympics map and rings in the main hallway outside the auditorium for more info. QR codes will be on display in Piedmont's hallways throughout the Olympics. Don't just walk through the halls, this month these halls are Olympic Halls of Fame- so bring your BYOT device and scan for links to to  amazing olympic feats !


Don't forget that teachers and students can check out Olympic lessons at NBClearn from school.