My classes participated and completed our second StickTogether as an OPTIONAL ENRICHMENT ASSIGNMENT, It went well and more students worked on completing this activity than the first StickTogether. Once they work on the activity they are to take a screenshot of their work and submit it to me via email or messages in Schoology so they can be given the points they earned. At times I put the activity on the big board, the interactive TV, in the front of my room. Students could come up and click squares to complete the puzzle.
Well, my first attempt at a StickTogether for my Honors class can be considered a success. It was completed quickly…by one student. I am rolling out another StickTogether, however this time I am limiting the number of attempts per day to give others a chance to participate.
So, this spring I was introduced to StickTogether, a puzzle/digital puzzle tool. The concept of digital puzzles and activities for my students intrigued me. I wanted to try out the tool in my classroom, however, the year was just about over and the students were worn down. The project trial did not get out of the gate.
This past week for two days I attended the PAECT, Keystone Technology Innovator Summit at Shippensburg University. The Summit is five days in length, but I was there Thursday and Friday. Once again I came across the StickTogether resource.
I decided by executive fiat that we will try one out over the Summer to see how it is received by the students. I signed into my account that was created earlier in the Spring of 2023. I perused the various premade digital puzzles and pushed one out as a virtual Stickerboard.
Since Schoology, our district’s LMS is not active over the Summer I am hosting my activity here on Edublogs. You can access the activity HERE.
I am hoping my students embrace the activity and I can build it into a component of the Choice Boards in my courses. I will keep you updated on the project as time goes on.
Here are the Directions on the Website:
Welcome
Just click on a letter in the panel on the right to select a color. Then click on the corresponding letter in the grid to fill in that color.
To ZOOM click on the magnifier icon and then click again on a section of the image.
I am typing this a bit facetiously…I have not posted a blog in many, many, let’s just say an extremely long time. Chat GPT and other forms of Artificial Intelligence (AI) have sprung up for public consumption since my last post. This is my declaration that I will not be using AI to write posts on this blog.
I make this declaration since I have read online at Business Insider that many books are showing up on Amazon that have been written by AI. As a once-inspiring author, that does depress me a bit. I like the concept of the human mind and imagination firing up stories that excite and hold our attention. I may just be getting old and falling behind the times, or I may be a bit bitter that someone with a sentence or two into a website has completed a manuscript that I haven’t been able to complete as of yet. The jury is out on where I fall.
In the meantime, I want to reassure my dedicated readers, thank you Mom, that the words that appear here and on my personal podcasts will be my own and not those of any Artificial Intelligence entity.
This past week in class I had my students begin preparing for a Discussion Board assignment: straightforward, direct, rather basic discussion board assignment: they were going to respond to a classmates’ initial discussion board post.
There was one catch…they had to get approval from me as to whose post they would be responding to. As I suspected, they all wanted to respond to their best friend’s initial post. I shot that idea down and made them choose another student’s post to respond to. That is when CHAOS reared it’s mischievous head. Students asked for the same friend a couple of times, others asked for their “other BFF” from class, several tried to argue/debate the reasons why they should be allowed to respond to their friend, others inquired repeatedly as to why they could not respond to their friend, and other students went back to their seats and sulked.
The purpose for my not letting them respond to their “BFF’s” initial discussion board post was to get them out of their comfort zone and to have the interact with other students. Being able to comfortably, confidently, and appropriately interact and respond to others is a necessary skill. And in my not so humble opinion, it is becoming a lost art. I attempted to explain this to the classes, unfortunately my message was not making much headway.
A number of students then wanted me to pick the post they were to respond to. That was also something I did not want to do. The students were encouraged to read over the initial posts again and choose a post that they connected with. Just not a connection based upon being friends with the student. They were to focus on the message, not the author. It took some coaxing, but eventually they came around and chose another post to respond to, even if it was only grudgingly.
In the end the students overcame their angst and the CHAOS settled down. Students used this GUIDELINE to form their responses and overall did a great job for their first attempt at responding to others in a discussion board format.
Day Three Assignment. ALL SUBJECTS. The video directions are embedded below the written directions.
For today’s assignment,, we are going to try and have a little fun. We have a multi-part assignment:
First, how confident are you in moving forward with content in the course? Give me a detailed answer and explain why you feel the way you do. Your answer should be several sentences to a paragraph in length. By content we will move forward with readings. I will give you reading guides along with Google Docs and the online text. I can add video notes/short descriptions to explain topics to go along with the readings.
Second, what has been your favorite (school appropriate) song over our most recent break? Go to YouTube and grab the share link from your favorite song. Once again, please make sure it is school appropriate. I want to create playlists from your submissions.
As with Day One please submit your reply to this assignment via email or in Edmodo by noon Friday.You may reply to this email, or send me a separate email, or respond in Edmodo.
Type: DAY TWO ASSIGNMENT across the top of your email.
