Looking for LOVE? A fun, creative, tech photo project for Valentine's Day

 

As Valentine's Day approaches, you may be looking for a cool project you can do with your students to keep you all motivated until vacation starts. Here's an idea that combines technology, creativity, collaboration, and higher order thinking skills. It will give your kids the opportunity to enjoy the unusually warm February weather and sunshine while engaging in a fun Valentine's Day holiday activity.

This is the "Looking for LOVE" photography collage project. It is fun and easy enough that you can get it done on Friday afternoon, and it doesn't even cause cavities.  You can have them do it individually, collaboratively with Buddies, or in small groups if you are short on iPads or Chromebooks.

Here is how you do it:

Feel free to use this Google Presentation to post in Google Classroom or make a copy to modify for your particular class. If you would like some help with this project, email Nicole Dalesio or any of the ToSAs, and we will come out to help you.

We would LOVE to see the creative collages your students make. Please share them on this collaborative Google Photos LOVE collage album and or tweet them out using the hashtag #usdlearns and #pics2love.

Most importantly, have fun!

Blogging in the Classroom Hangout On Air

Watch USD Learns: Blogging in the Classroom

Yesterday we had our very first Google Hangout on Air with a live Q&A about blogging in the classroom. There were a couple of hiccups along the way, but I left my office feeling very invigorated and proud to be working in a school district where teachers are willing to try new things beyond the walls of their own classrooms. This Hangout was a great example of that! I would like to send a huge thank you to Chanmi Chun, Kaitlin Klein, Todd Sinclair, and Jen Zangwill for spending the hour with me to talk about technology and pedagogy, in hopes that our stories can inspire others to try something new.

If you didn't get a chance to watch our conversation, the beauty of a Google Hangout on Air is that it gets automatically recorded and posted to YouTube. I invite you to watch USD Learns: Blogging in the Classroom. It is 53 minutes long, so just in case you're in a pinch for time, I did create a table of contents to help get you to the specific topics that we covered. 

If blogging is something that you are thinking about starting with your students, remember that you're not alone. The TOSAs are here to support you and we have amazing teachers, like Chanmi, Jen, Kaitlin, and Todd that are willing to take the time to share their experiences so that we can all learn from them. 

For more resources about blogging, including ones that we talked about in our Hangout, check out the Blogging Resources Page:

6th grade students in Mrs. Chun's Class learn about commenting from 2nd grade student experts.