Two New Student App Review Videos

Here is another installment in our classroom project of creating student video reviews of apps.



SketchBook Express
A student who is very proficient at this app made this review with our campus EdTech, techchef4u.




Explain a website from the makers of Explain Everything

Hill Country Welcomes State Leaders to witness iPads in the Classroom

Hill Country Middle School welcomed leaders in education from across the state on December 11th to view our classroom use of iPads.


Over 30 educators and education leaders came to our school and classrooms to see how we are using iPads in the hands of every 8th grader.   A group of about 8 educators rotated through four of our classrooms to observe the iPads in action.   Following this, they attended a teacher and a student panel discussion of our iClassrooms.   Here you can see the teacher panel where I am one of the teachers.

Please click on the link  "See Event Details" below

Westlake High School and the Superintendent Visit My class

Members of the Westlake High School TV program and our Superintendent, Dr. Nola Wellman,  visited our campus and my classroom to see how the 1:1 iPad program is working with our 8th graders.   See our classroom on this video.

Digital Parent Pannel

In an attempt to bring greater communication and understanding to our community regarding the use of technology, particularly iPads in the classroom, a panel discussion was planned by Mr. Carl Hooker and his team.  

He invited me to participate and I gladly accepted.  The panel included parents from the community, educators and a University of Texas Professor.  Each participant was asked to describe the use of technology in their professional and personal lives.  Many of the members of the panel were also parents of students in Eanes ISD.

The event was recorded and can be viewed here.  Please click on the "See Event Details" link below:

A Video for Teachers--C5

Last Spring as a member of our campus Technology Vision Committee, I was asked to make a video to share with teachers at Hill Country Middle School to help alleviate some of their initial concerns over placing iPads in the hands of middle school students.  The committee came up with the name C5 as our campus theme for the iPad initiative.  The words are theirs and are the vision that group had for iPads in the classroom.

I worked with an amazing group of students to make this video.  I shot all of the footage with my school provided iPad and edited it on my personal MacBook Pro.   The students wrote their own scripts and brought in their own pictures.    It was a great success and really fired up the campus for our 1:1 iPad initiative.

8th Graders as Teachers

In the beginning of this year, one of the things that most excited my students was the idea of connecting with younger students.   We watched the anti-bullying PSA made by students in the district, and it really sparked their interest in being more involved in our community.

Before the Winter Break, an opportunity presented itself for us to collabortate with a nearby elemenaty school, Cedar Creek Elementary.   It is within walking distance which would make the legistics much easier.

After letting my students decide what they wanted to do to connect with younger children, they elected to teach a lesson on the American Revolution.  We used the state standards for the American Revolution as our starting point.  In Texas, 5th grade social studies has very similar standards to those in 8th grade.   Additionally, the 5th grade at Cedar Creek Elementary had a 1:1 iPads in their classrooms.  Our goal was to make several mini-lessons on a variety of topics and then compile them into a iBooks Author eBook to share with the 5th grade.

I formed homogenous groups. Then as a class, we viewed the standards on the projector screen and students chose the topics of their interest.   Once the topics were assigned, student groups were to decide what they believed would be the best iPad medium to explain their topics to 5th graders.

Some groups chose to make Puppet Pal shows using the characters of their much beloved "Liberty's Kids" show.   Others would make Nearpod presentations to share on their iPads. 
 Still others decided to make Keynote presentations with You Tube videos embedded.  All of my classes worked on these projects until the Winter Break began.

After we returned to school in January, my students were very excited to resume working on their projects and it was decided we would go in two groups to Cedar Creek to share in our work in rotations.  In order to trouble shoot in advance, we did mock presentations of our work to each other.

I created this form for students to record their evaluations of each other.


Please use this form to complete your evaluation.

Saratoga FLIPPED

Lets start our flipped class with a great movie on the Battle of Saratoga.

Here is the video:


Battle of Saratoga