TED Talk #18

Hi Everyone, 

Our talk today comes from a girl who is right about your age.

McKenna Pope's younger brother loved to cook, but he worried about using an Easy-Bake Oven

— because it was a toy for girls. So at age 13, Pope started an online petition for the American toy company Hasbro (based right here in Rhode Island!) to change the pink-and-purple color scheme on the classic toy and incorporate boys into its TV marketing.

 In a heartening talk, Pope makes the case for gender-neutral toys and gives a rousing call to action to all kids who feel powerless.

I hope her her talk will motivate and inspire you all.

Enjoy, 
Mrs. Roberti

Sample Genius Hour Presentations

Hi Everyone,

Here is something I made in Powtoon (my new favorite tool!)

The presentation will introduce this document.  I wanted to show you that a Powtoon is an entertaining way to present material and is pretty simple to use (it took me about 20 minutes to make this).  I bet some of you would enjoy using it for your Genius Hour presentations.

I hope it helps,

Take care,
Mrs. Roberti

TED Talk #17

Hi Everyone, 

Volunteer firefighter Mark Bezos tells a story of an act of heroism that didn't go quite as expected — but that taught him a big lesson: Don't wait to be a hero.

Here is our next TED Talk

Enjoy!

Mrs. Roberti

TED Talk #16

Hi Everyone,

This talk involves an aspect of technology that I am quite new to: emoticons.  Even though most of you, I would bet, are very fluent in the "developing language" of emoticons, I, myself, basically rely solely on the smily face to punctuate my emotions :).  If you had asked me before, I would say the need for elements of punctuation to represent emotions only shows that our writing lack power and strong description; however, after seeing this talk, I think I'm jumping on board!

Performance artist and storyteller Rives has been called "the first 2.0 poet," using images, video and technology to bring his words to life. Full bio

A Junior Varsity Cheerleader!

His Ted Talk A Story of Mixed Emoticons is creative and engaging.  It is a typographical fairytale that is "both short and bittersweet."   It's a whole new type of storytelling!  

I encourage all of you out there to let this unique, but creative, TED talk plant seeds of creativity in your imagination as you consider how you can take storytelling and art to the next level.  Let the technology in your hands be the vehicle to create something amazing! 

Enjoy! 

Mrs. Roberti

Lights, Camera, Action!

Hi Everyone,

No, we are not quite ready for Hollywood, but as we are nearing our Genius Hour Presentations, I thought it would be helpful to share about the app - Movenote.

One of the smartest new web tools and mobile applications for screencasting is MoveNote. Students can create powerful presentations.

MoveNote, which comes with a mobile app, allows users to add webcam narration to uploaded slides or pictures. MoveNote makes it easy to upload Slide presentations (I uploaded over 60 slides in minutes), PDFs, or pictures from your computer/mobile device. Plus, you can take pictures while in MoveNote and create the presentation as you go.

Once your screencast/webinar is complete, you can share it to your drive, email it or embed it on your blog or web site or social media. Imagine the remarkable presentations you can create with MoveNote with your Smartphones, computers or tablets. 

This video demonstrates the ease of use of MoveNote.com. 

Here is a screencast that I made about it.

I think a lot of you will find it useful.

Take care, 

Mrs. Roberti

#extracredit2

Hi Everyone,

I recently overheard a conversation (fight?) going on between two students.  The topic of conversation seemed to beg for an extra-credit to be done.

So, here is our next twitter extra-credit with a Hashtag discussion!  (If you don't have a Twitter account then see me and I can help you).

Your discussion prompt is:  Who is better at math?  Boys or girls?
Your hashtag to use is: #robertimath  (REMEMBER TO USE THIS IN YOUR RESPONSE)

You must write at least one response to the discussion question and reply to at least two of your peer's tweets on the discussion.

You have until Monday 6/15 to get your tweets in.  Remember to make sure I can tell who you are (in order for me to give you credit)

Please let me know if you have any questions.

Take care,
Mrs. Roberti