Henrico Staff Development

Mrs. Martin’s science class created Facebook reports on African American scientist and inventors. Once they completed their research, they posted the information on the Facebook template to share. They included important facts and a  picture of the person they researched.

Mrs. Jones’ 7th grade history classes created posters of various artists of the Harlem Renaissance.  They used iPhoto and Microsoft Word to make their creations.

Ms. Landis 8th grade Creative Writing Class created their own magazine publications, which included a variety articles along with other basic magazine fillers such as horoscopes, book reviews, star interviews, and games.  This lesson reinforced English Standard’s of Learning that student’s cover in 6th, 7th, and 8th grade as well as giving students a real world experience of creating their own magazine.  Allowing the students to be creative and design the theme of the magazine and relate all of its contents to that theme develop creativity skills and give students a personal connection to the assignment.

The articles were created by the magazine’s authors and then edited by other students in the class, which also enhances student’s collaboration and grammar skills.  Research was done through a variety of sites and personal information.  Graphics were also located and downloaded from the Internet for student’s to organize into a power point presentation that was later printed and bound just as a magazine would look.

Miss Foley’s 7th grade social studies classes created talk shows and interviewed special guests, Andrew Carnegie or John Rockefeller (USII3.d).  This assignment strengthened their research skills as they found information on their “special guest.”  (research & information fluency)  The students worked in groups and each assigned a different task.  They had to learn to collaborate and rely on each other to get the job done in a timely manner.  The roles included a web designer, video editor, and writer. (communication & collaboration)

The talkshows were video taped, uploaded on the student laptops, and edited by the students using iMovie.  Once complete the videos then embedded onto a web page created using iWeb.

In conjunction with their unit on The Diary of Anne Frank, Mrs. Hunnicutt’s advanced 8th grade English students researched and studied The Holocaust and other instances of genocide as a way to bring to life the idea of promoting dignity and respect among all people. For this unit, students completed a learning contract that offered a wide variety of topics of study topics and a wide variety of ways to demonstrate learning. Students were asked to utilize critical thinking and reading skills as well as a myriad of tools to create traditional as well as multimedia artifacts that demonstrated their knowledge and creativity.

Mrs. Hunicutt was consistently amazed and impressed by the depth of knowledge and feeling that students  demonstrated in their projects from vodcasts about The Trail of Tears to original songs composed and recorded on Garageband, to scripted chapters of Elie Wiesel’s Night, to interviews with Holocaust survivors, to community service projects, to paintings and collages that profoundly communicate the pain and suffering caused by intolerance.

The SOLs covered by this project are as follows: 8.1, 8.2, 8.4, 8.6, 8.5 8.7

My Own Memory – Original Music Score

[audio:http://teachers.henrico.k12.va.us/byrd/bostain_k/myownmemory.mp3]

Why? – Original Music Score

[audio:http://teachers.henrico.k12.va.us/byrd/bostain_k/why.mp3]

In Ms. Brouillier’s 6th grade English Classes, students had the assignment to write a script for a public service announcement about a selected disease.  Topics ranged from pneumonia and allergies to poison ivy and warts. Students spent time in the library and the henrico county database researching the chosen topic and learning how to correctly site the sources.  Students then used Garageband and the library of sound effects to create an enhanced podcast about the disease.  Students then were able to write comments to one another on the class blog page.  Additionally students ranked how well they liked each other’s enhanced podcasts after listening to the PSA’s.  Click here to view the webpage of all projects from this class. Be sure to read the comments and how well students collaborated and communicated with each other on this project. 

Mrs. Sharpe and Ms. Saunders 7th grade English classes did research projects about mammals.  They spent the week researching, both online and in the library, the animal of their choosing.  Once they had the required information, students were able to begin designing their webpage.  Students used iWeb to design a webpage about their animal.  Most students did a bio page from the viewpoint of the animal.  Students used videos from Discovery Education and embedded them within the website.  In addition to the webpage, students were required to turn in their research and a complete outline of the information on the webpage.  Once all pages were complete, they were complied into the teacher’s webpage.  Students then went on the pages to view the research about each other’s animals and rate them on information, visual appeal, and creativity.  Click here to visit Mrs. Sharpe’s website.

The students in Mr. Conway’s 7th grade social studies classes were asked to create a presentation using the free online application- VoiceThread

Their assignment was  2 part.  First, they had to to recite the preamble and find pictures that appropriately represented its meaning.  All of this was recorded into VoiceThread.  Then, they listened to each other’s presentations and commented on them through text, audio recording and video recording.  Here is an example: