The Sun and Publishing Student Created Books

He is making uv bracelets with the class.

Personal Connection

At the end of the school year, my son came home with a project. He was asked to design and teach a lesson to his kindergarten class.

We spent time talking about the things he knows a lot about. My son knows a lot more about the sun than the average kindergarten student. I'm not talking about facts like the size or temperature. He has to apply sunscreen 30 minutes before he goes outside, wear a hat, and wear long sleeves daily to keep his body safe. He is very sensitive to ultra violet rays.

Together, we worked on a book writing project. He read the story to his class and created uv bracelet kits to try out a few challenges with his classmates.

Here is his book, The Sun, on iTunes.
Here is his book, The Sun, in BookCreator On-Line.

The Sun

Click to read this book, made with Book Creator

https://read.bookcreator.co

Sharing with Teachers

During the summer, Kirsten and I shared the process of publishing student created books with the Book Creator App. You can view our examples and others that we discovered while preparing for our session. You'll also find a collaborative book that was created by our teachers during the session. They are so talented!

EPISD Blended Learning Conference

This summer I had the opportunity to teach and learn at the EPISD Blended Learning Conference. Blended learning is a blend of face to face and on-line learning that allows students some control of the time and place, their learning path and pace. Essentially, if you begin small, blended learning can give a teacher more time for small group targeted instruction, allow for personalized instruction, can foster student agency, and the opportunity for students to have authentic audiences.

Catlin Tucker was the Keynote for our district Blended Learning Conference, organized by the Instructional Technology Team. We were so excited to have her, because she relates well with teachers. She is a teacher!

Catlin Tucker agreed to meet up for an on-line interview. We shared a few of the videos with teachers leading up to our conference to create a little excitement about her visit to EPISD. I've linked them below.

Getting to Know Catlin Tucker 1
Getting to Know Catlin Tucker 2
Getting to Know Catlin Tucker 3
Getting to Know Catlin Tucker 4

Catlin Tucker Interview Question 1
Catlin Tucker Interview Question 2
Catlin Tucker Interview Question 3
Catlin Tucker Interview Question 4
Catlin Tucker Interview Question 5
Catlin Tucker Interview Question 6

I've challenged myself to Sketchnote this year. Taking the time to go back to my notes and finish up a Sketchnote after a Keynote has been a great way for me to review and organize my thoughts. Here is the Sketchnote I created after listening to Catlin Tucker inspire our teachers.

I'm still learning all about Blended Learning. The books I'm reading are Blended Learning in Action and Blended Learning in Grades 4-12. Notice, that Catlin Tucker is the author!

To read more about the EPISD Blended Learning Conference, read  Blended Learning conference draws hundreds of teachers, EPISD Community Engagement.

Please share your feedback, blended learning ideas and tips in the comments below. :)

Back to Blogging

I haven't published a blog post for a very long time. I don't want to make excuses, but life happened. There were so many other commitments that began to take priority. I will not apologize for taking care of my family first.  I've climbed to the top of the mountain and things are looking pretty great from here. It's exciting.

I've really missed blogging about the things that are happening in my technology integration world. During my time away, I've encouraged great teachers to blog and share what they are doing in the classroom. Teachers have amazing ideas and the world should know about them! I made a deal with one amazing teacher, I will blog if you will. She did!

This teacher shared a blog post with me over spring break, Blank Pages, by @TechNinjaTodd. You should read it. It's our "get back into blogging" inspiration from Todd Nesloney. I want to share what inspires me and what frustrates me. I want to keep learning and striving to improve. When things do not work out as planned, I want to be human and share the experience and what I've learned.

Recently, a teacher and Todd inspired me to return to blogging. Who inspires you to blog or want to begin a blog?