Grade 7s! Welcome back! We have applied for a technology grant for $15,000 … AND got it! And now you get to use the technology. iPads, Nikon digital cameras, professional microphones. Just wait! It's going to be amazing! The first project that was put forward to the Board was to create professional Read-Aloud books for our Primary students. Say WHAT???

You guys are going to research and check out read-aloud books that are out there on the internet right now and figure our what makes them really rock - (you're hooked and want to listen to the whole thing) and what really sucks or loses your attention before you get half way through. Once we have figured out what is going to make amazing Read-Alouds, you will each get to choose a favourite book from when you were a kid and YOU are going to become a film maker and create one of these read-alouds that we will publish on our YouTube channel for the world to see but also make a QR code for all the Primary Classes at Murray to have at their disposal to read at the listening centres they will now have with the iPads for their classrooms! Man. Long sentence!

 Down to BUSINESS!  Go to any of these sites. Read Alouds 1, Read Alouds 2, Read Alouds 3, Read Alouds 4, Read Alouds 5

Choose any of the Read-Alouds and start brainstorming on the Popplets on the Smart Board. Popplet is just a web brainstorming tool that does the "bubble organizing" for you!  Click on any bubble. Click on any of the grey and white dots and you will get a subset bubble that branches off from the main idea. Make sure you read the posts that are already there. Don't write down the same thing twice! Add to the posts if what you have to say is related!

Any great feature - add it to the "So COOL" map. Any feature we should avoid in our read-alouds, add to the "So NOT" mind map.

Good luck! I've started you with 3 categories. Let's see what you get!

L'Histoire 7: New France and British North America 1713-1800

Wonderful 7F of the 7/8F combo. Here are some links to sites that will help you inquire and wonder about life in this country now called Canada. You can form your own opinions about how Canada came to be from a historical perspective. Start wondering!

Grade 7s take on "Future Goals", a program sponsored by the NHL to create a digital understanding for you lot!

OK. Grade 7s. This is your task for the next few weeks. EverFi, a digital learning platform, has gone to the NHL and asked them to fund a game that helps students in middle school really understand computers and digital life. You're going to play this game by going to the www.everfi.com login which is live linked right HERE!

You will be registering on the first day so you will need to SIGN UP first but once we set up your accounts, you will just log in with your school username and password!

Word to the WISE!
Make sure that you listen to all the videos and answer all the surveys! You just wreck your chances of doing well in the game later on if you try to skip them and things don't make sense!
Good luck with your "Future Goals"!

Grade 7's - Time to Blabberize!

By now, you have had a lesson on finding images on the web that are:

1. the appropriate size for this project - between 300 and 800 megapixels
2. copyright free - either from Creative Commons or other sites that show you have permission to use the image
3. able to be saved to a place on YOUR hard drive that you can find again. :)

Remember. 
Open an image by clicking on it and having it open in it's own tab
Click on "View Image"
Once the image opens up:
Right click 
Click on 'Save picture as' 
Click on "Computer" on the left hand side of the pop up box 
- find the blue line with your username above it and click on that 
Open "My Documents" or "My Pictures" depending on what you are saving 
GIVE THE FILE A NAME** - like 'Dear Diary image' 
- and click "Save"!

Your pictures will be waiting for you on any machine in the school now, including the netbooks!

Today, it's time to import that photo you saved into a Web 2.0 tool called Blabberize.
It will make your animal share your Dear Diary entry for the rest of the class to hear. 
Next day, we'll give you some descriptive feedback about how well you covered the success criteria for this assignment!

Check out the success criteria on the wall and then click here to set up your account.

 Blabberize - Dear Diary here we go!

Have fun! 

Borrow a headset with the microphone to do this project.
You must plug it in (at the front) BEFORE you start your Blabbering!
It takes about 2 minutes for the computer to recognize the software as well!

At the end of class, wrap the cord loosely around the headset and put it back in the box at the front.
 TRES important!!!!!

And so it starts....

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Created with Padlet

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