KTI

Leave a comment Posted on by Dominic Salvucci Class Updates, class work, Cool Stuff, Extra Credit, Lessons and Teacher Things, Student Projects, Student Stuff

Our Second StickTogether

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.

You can read more about StickTogether here.

A screenshot of the completed  activity is below:

Leave a comment Posted on by Dominic Salvucci Lessons and Teacher Things, Random Musings

This Year’s Focus…2023-2024 School Year

So, another school year is upon us, and Summer disappeared in the blink of an eye, or so it seems.  Every school year I try and add something new to my class in an attempt to keep up with current trends in education and prevent myself from becoming stale.  This year is no different, there will be several new websites and apps utilized throughout my courses, however, my main addition is not a website or an app; it will be INTENTIONALITY.

Intentionality is completing actions with a specific and/or deliberate focus.  This addition is not just meant for myself, I hope to instill the concept into my students.  I made this the focus of my upcoming school year after numerous discussions with my PLN, Professional Learning Network, within PAECT and KTIs, Keystone Technology Innovators.  The focus of a podcast I am honored to co-host, the PAECT Pod has been interviewing various members about our week-long KTI Summit at Shippensburg University in July, and the term Intentionality kept entering into the conversations.

The more I thought about it, the more I realized I need to not just introduce my students to new learning opportunities, new concepts, new ideas, and new tools to utilize, but I also have to help instill a purpose for all of this new information.  The previous sentence seems like it is an overly obnoxious run-on, but so be it.  I need to instill the thought in students that their actions, no matter how trivial they may seem, reflect back upon them and therefore are worth their best effort.  Hopefully, this concept can then be carried forward after they move on through school and life.  This post s not meant to be some sort of melodramatic declaration, it is more of a correction based n self-reflection.

My PAECT Pod co-host Eric Verno and I have mentioned the need to keep current and sharp since educational technology changes so quickly, think AI in Education.  Eric has mentioned his efforts to keep from getting complacent.  That is when I realized that in a way, I continually work to keep current with new ideas in education, but I do not always communicate the why f new tools and concepts to my students.  I push out the information, but sometimes I lose focus as to why we are doing things or using various tools and websites.  This year, I will do my best to not only communicate the why to my students, but to instill the concept of INTENTIONALITY into their everyday actions.

 

 

Leave a comment Posted on by Dominic Salvucci Class Updates, Cool Stuff, Lessons and Teacher Things, Random Musings, Student Projects, Student Stuff

StickTogether

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.

Let’s ALL StickTogether!

Leave a comment Posted on by Dominic Salvucci Lessons and Teacher Things, Random Musings, Student Stuff, World War II

January 4: Another New Skill

I have owned a Livescribe Pen for a number of years.  I earned, or was rewarded with my first Livescribe Pen for attending the Keystone Technology Integrator’s Summit at Bucknell University.  I cannot remember if it was as an attendee or a staff member that I received the pen.

My students use the Livescribe Pen to take notes in class, the Livescribe is referred to as “The Magic Pen.”  The notes are pushed over to an iPad and then uploaded to Evernote.  Once in Evernote, the .pdfs are embedded in the class wiki so other students can access the notes if need be.  A written copy is printed for the students who take the notes for the class.

In my quest to take existing skills and tools and apply them to more situations, I decided it was time to learn how to create pencasts with the Livescribe pen.  Needless to say, there was a learning curve for me.  The first couple attempts…or so did not work our so well.  I ended up with an audio file, but no corresponding video to see what was being discussed.

Long story short, I was “pushing” the wrong virtual button with the Livescribe Pen.  I was “pushing” the record button in the notebook, I was supposed to just “push” the little square button on the iPad.

Leave a comment Posted on by Dominic Salvucci Random Musings, Student Stuff

Baseball Dad?!?!?!

Today one of my students said I looked like a baseball dad…I have no idea what that means or meant.   When I inquired as to the meaning, the students who were sitting there whispered amongst themselves then replied, “We don’t know…like a dad who likes baseball.”

I have no idea if the comment was complimentary or not.  It is dress down day, I have on jeans, my KTI Golf Shirt, tenna shoes (in my best Pittsburghese), and my $1.00 reading glasses on top of my head.  No full selfie to go with the description, I thoroughly dislike the angle needed to show the entire pic, but here is part of me…

 

Later I overheard the term “Soccer Mom” being used by these same students.  It was not directed at me, but knowing how many of these terms have both positive and negative connotations…I must expand my culturally aware vocabulary.

Until next time…

 

 

Leave a comment Posted on by Dominic Salvucci Lessons and Teacher Things, PETE&C

#Sal308 Volume I

I am still sifting through information from PETE & C 2016 and implementing ideas into my professional self.  One idea that I especially liked was from George Couros, whom I follow on Twitter and via his blog, Connected Principals.

The idea was to daily Tweet something you or your students do in your classroom, adding a hashtag so you can easily track your Tweets.  I have started that process, which is not very difficult to accomplish; there should be tons of ideas that can be promoted in your day if you just pay attention to what is going on…I am using the hashtag #Sal308.

This is my first weeks’ effort archived via Storify.com.

 

Leave a comment Posted on by Dominic Salvucci Cool Stuff, Lessons and Teacher Things

Storify from TRETC November 4 2015

TRETC, the Three Rivers Educational Technology Conference was held at Bethel Park Senior High School this year.  TRETC is an excellent educational conference held in Western Pennsylvania every year, it has been growing regularly since I began attending them back in the early 2000’s.

Below is a Storify of the event, I collected Tweets and here they are: