Podcast469: Reflections on Immersion Day January 2020

01/20/20 • 39 min

Moving at the Speed of Creativity Podcasts

Welcome to Episode 469 of the Moving at the Speed of Creativity podcast from January 18, 2020, a show by Dr. Wesley Fryer (@wfryer) focusing on digital creativity, media literacy, digital literacy, digital citizenship, instructional technology integration and engaged learning both inside and outside the classroom. This episode features a conversation with 3rd grade teacher Shelly Fryer (@sfryer) about the second "Immersion Day" at Casady School in Oklahoma City. Immersion Days are half-days for students which focus on a special theme or topic. On January 17, 2020, the theme for the Casady Lower School students (in grades 1 - 4) focused on Inventions, coinciding with Kid Invention Day (KID). A wealth of fantastic resources about the design process and STEM / engineering for young students are available on nationalinventioncurriculum.org as well as other websites. Check out the podcast shownotes for links. Casady 3rd and 4th graders were able to videoconference LIVE to start the day with Payton Robertson in Florida. Peyton is now a senior in high school, and has been an inventor since elementary school with over six patents to his name. He met President Obama in the Oval Office to share one of his inventions after winning a national contest, was a guest on the Ellen DeGeneres Show, and will be continuing his career and learning journey as an inventor next year as he starts college at Stanford University. In the afternoon, 3rd graders talked with Dr. James W. Long, a local guest speaker physician and engineer who co-created a magnetic heart pump, featured in the new Amplify Science curriculum the students are using this year. One of the parents of Shelly's students is a heart surgeon, and invited him to join in the third grade Kids Invention Day learning! In the podcast, Wes also shares some reflections on the "Animate Your Curiosity" lessons which he co-led for middle school students yesterday, using Scratch to create basic animations. Students watched and discussed several animation focused videos (including "Animator vs. Animation" from 2009 which has over 42 million views on YouTube) to find inspiration for their own animation and coding projects. If you haven't checked out "The Science Behind Pixar" (sciencebehindpixar.org) in person or online yet definitely do! Also check out other resources on the "Animation Inspiration" website Wes created for this week's Middle Division Immersion Day. Follow Shelly Fryer on Twitter @sfryer and Wesley Fryer on @wfryer. Wes' Digital Literacy and Media Literacy Curriculum for Middle School Computer Classes is available free on mdtech.casady.org.

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Podcast468: Reflections on Blended Learning Techniques with Google Sites, Slides and Social Media

Welcome to Episode 468 of the Moving at the Speed of Creativity podcast, a show by Dr. Wesley Fryer (@wfryer) focusing on digital creativity, media literacy, digital literacy, digital citizenship, instructional technology integration and engaged learning both inside and outside the classroom. This episode includes a reflection by Wes about some of the techniques he is using in fall 2019 teaching Digital and Media Literacy for 5th and 6th graders at Casady School in Oklahoma City, as well as the adult Sunday School class, "Curiosity and Questions: Jesus and Science" at First Presbyterian Church in Edmond, Oklahoma. These techniques include using Google Sites to share lesson slides, videos, resources and links publicly (mdtech.casady.org and followjesus.wesfryer.com) each week. Refer to the podcast shownotes for referenced links. Feedback on this podcast episode is welcome!

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Podcast470: Sharing and Learning About the 2020 U.S. Census - Statistics in Schools

Welcome to Episode 470 of the Moving at the Speed of Creativity podcast from February 18, 2020, a show by Dr. Wesley Fryer (@wfryer) focusing on digital creativity, media literacy, digital literacy, digital citizenship, instructional technology integration and engaged learning both inside and outside the classroom. This episode features a special interview with the U.S. Census "Statistics in Schools" Manager Victoria Glazer and Teacher Ambassador Emily McMillen, discussing the 2020 Census in the United States and the variety of FREE resources provided for PK-12 teachers to use with students. Disbursement of millions of dollars for our communities from the U.S. Federal Government depends on the Census! All of us as teachers and members of our communities can help both educate students and families about the importance of participating in the census, but also provide real-world, multi-disciplinary learning opportunities using existing census data via the resources shared on the "Statistics in Schools" website. Visit census.gov/schools for more information, and also refer to the podcast shownotes for more direct links.