Do Ink Green Screen App!

This app is incredible. I have had so much fun using it so far. It takes a few minutes to figure out, but after about thirty minutes of playing around on it I feel like I have it under control.

I used green bulletin board paper for my green screen and hot glued it to the wall.

Next, I went to google images and took screen shots of images I wanted to use for my demo presentation you are about to see.

I downloaded the $2.99 Do Ink Green Screen app and I was ready to roll.

The online tutorials on YouTube are great. This video that I made isn't a tutorial, rather than just a start up video to help you get the wheels turning on the strong capabilities of this app.

Expeditionary Learning Fellowship

The Expeditionary Learning Fellowship is a tremendous opportunity to participate in professional learning and construct engaging science inquiry based lessons build around the natural spaces in our area. I will be helping develop these lessons with science teachers within the KVEC region and they will be constructed around the NGSS Evident Statement templates that will be aligned directly to the KSS.

KVEC is piloting an exciting new initiative this spring, Expeditionary Learning Fellows, which provides teachers with a tremendous opportunity to participate in professional learning and construct engaging science inquiry lessons built around the natural spaces in our area.  These lessons will be developed in collaboration with select teachers within the KVEC region and will be constructed using NGSS Evidence Statement templates to ensure congruency to the Kentucky science standards.

This is an awesome opportunity to get out in the woods and streams of Eastern Kentucky.

This fellowship will last until December and will be my third one of the year! Super pumped!

KEA Fellows Made a Difference Today

Today was an awesome experience. All of the KEA Fellows chipped in some cash as we went to local grocery stores in Frankfort to buy groceries for customers of our choice. It was a heart touching experience to say the least.

I'm so happy to be a part of this group of Fellows this year.

IPEVO IW2 Wireless Interavtive Whiteboard

This thing is awesome. $120 for an interactive whiteboard. My review:

Customer support, ease of use, shipping time, website tutorials, and durability are all great.


Key points to remember: It does not require Wi-Fi.. and, its wireless. It can easy be moved from classroom to classroom if you wanted to share or use it from presentations at PD's.

email me any questions at john.watts@letcher.kyschools.us

Haloween 2015

Bossy R Music Video

This is becoming a yearly thing for us, and the kids love it. I used the same directions as last year, same software and everything. Next year I am thinking about using Windows Movie Maker though, just because I have heard great things about it.

Classroom Design Fellow

Spending $1000 in a classroom sure didn't take much time. Below are final pictures of the classroom. Also, big thanks to DonorsChoose.com for helping us get a 40" flat screen for the classroom.
The "wobble chairs' are actually ERGO Seats and they are amazing. A set of six ran us around $400 but they are research based to improve focus and they really work well.
The yellow chairs (18) were a huge improvement in my opinion. They are much easier on tile floors.


As shown in the pictures from the last post, we made our own dry erase table tops. Those have come in very handy.
I still have a few essays to write to complete the fellowship, along with a training and a presentation in Pikeville. It has been a great opportunity.

                                

Classroom Design Fellow: The Beginning

During the summer I found out that I was getting to be part of a Classroom Design Fellowship through KVEC (Kentucky Valley Educational Cooperative). This is basically a fantastic opportunity for teachers to redesign their learning spaces to better fit the learning styles of todays students. I was given $1000 to spend and I want to share how I stretched the money to make my classroom a little more engaging for the kiddos.

The first thing I did was make my own dry erase table tops. A dry erase table goes for around $300 if bought new. We made our own by going to Lowes and buying some dry erase board ($16 a sheet but they were very nice and gave us a 50% discount since it was for school use). We bought polka dot duct tape to tape the dry erase board to the table tops. We laid the dry erase board on the tops of the tables and crawled under them to trace out the table with a pencil. We then used a skill saw to cut out the table and duct tape to tape it to the edges of the table. No glue was involved at all, therefore, no damage done to the tables. $50 pretty much covered all 5 tables in my room. 4 tables are shown in the picture below, We came back and did the 5th one a few days after this.

 So if you want some dry erase table tops and don't want to break the bank, here is a cheap and productive way to go!

Classroom Doors

 

Here are some classroom doors that I have made during my first years of teaching. I also have all of these on my Pintrest page. You should follow me!