Category: Teaching

February 24, 2016

My First Experience with Google Cardboard

Today at NCCE 2016 I got to play with a cool new technology, Google Cardboard. They were on display at today’s Google Summit and again this evening at the GEG Washington meetup. These virtual reality glasses are made of cardboard and cost less than $20. Once you stick a smart phone inside and put them on, you are immersed in a 3D environment. They were on display through the Expeditions Pioneer Program, a team of people who bring Google Cardboard to schools so students can travel virtually to far distant...

Catholic Education / Teaching / Travel

February 24, 2016

Top 5 Skills Taught in Today’s Catholic Schools?

Today I was at a presentation by Richard Achée of Google, and one of his slides showed the top skills currently needed in today’s workplace according to The Economist: The top five are: Problem solving Team-working Communication Critical Thinking Creativity Are these are the top five skills we are teaching in Catholic schools today?

Teaching / Technology

February 23, 2016

MinecraftEdu Rendition of the Church of the Good Shepherd Beverly Hills

As I wait to board the plane to NCCE 2016 in Seattle, I have some time to post screenshots of the great progress two 8th graders working under the name “AandL.” have done in MinecraftEdu. They chose to reproduce the Church of the Good Shepherd in Beverly Hills, California. Here is what AandL have to say about the church: Welcome to the Church of the good shepherd in Beverly Hills, California. It was created on December 12, 1923 and designed by J.J. Donnellan. It has been around for...

Teaching / Technology

February 5, 2016

Catholic Schools Week Fun

It’s Catholic Schools Week, and the Student Tech Committee helped set up a Wii system so the 5th-8th grade classes could compete against each other in Mario Cart at recess:

Teaching / Technology

January 21, 2016

One of Our Catholic Parish Churches Rendered in MinecraftEdu

The eighth graders are continuing to build their Catholic landmarks in MinecraftEdu. Peyton and Dylan in particular have done an amazing job recreating Our Lady of Fatima church. Our Lady of Fatima is one of the three parishes that our school serves, so they’re both very familiar with it. While most groups began by working on the outside of their buildings, Peyton and Dylan began constructing from the inside and worked their way out. The video below shows how much detail they have put into their work. But...

Teaching / Technology

January 7, 2016

Catholic Landmarks in MinecraftEdu

One of the most enjoyable projects I’ve watched the students work on this year is the Catholic Landmarks Project in MinecraftEdu. Working in groups of two or three, eighth grade students have chosen a Catholic landmark and are constructing it in MinecraftEdu. Some of the landmarks are famous, like St. Peter’s Basilica, the Cathedral of Notre Dame, or the statue of Christ the Redeemer in Rio. Some of the landmarks are of local interest, like their parish church. Once the building is completed, students will construct information kiosks...

Teaching / Technology

November 11, 2015

The Wonderful World of Humanities in MinecraftEdu

Yesterday the sixth grade began using Eric Walker’s Wonderful World of Humanities in MinecraftEdu. The World of Humanities is an advanced installation of MinecraftEdu that allows students to explore and learn about ancient civilizations. This world is a perfect complement to our sixth grade social studies curriculum. Even though we are running MinecraftEdu on older MacBooks, the students really enjoyed themselves and were excited to interact with people from ancient Rome and Greece. After initially trying to create and build, as they are used to doing in Minecraft,...

Prayer / Teaching

January 5, 2015

Prayer for Teachers and Students Returning to School After Christmas Break

Heavenly Father, Thank you for the blessings of this Christmas Break. Since last we gathered in this classroom, we celebrated the birth of your Son, we rang in a brand new year, and we watched the magi give their gifts of gold, frankincense, and myrrh. As we meet in school again, help us celebrate your Son’s presence in every moment of every day; inspire us to use this new year to draw closer to you; and grant us the desire to give our most precious gifts to those...

Poetry / Teaching

January 4, 2015

Poetry Video Project Using Chromebooks, Librivox, and WeVideo

When school starts up again this week, one of my Tech classes is going to begin learning about video editing with a free online tool called WeVideo. Students will browse through public domain poetry at Librivox.org and find a narrated poem they like. They’ll download the mp3 narration of the poem to their Google Drives and then search for accompanying images. I’ll be showing them how to use Google’s image search to find images that have been labeled for “reuse with modification,” so that they use the images...

Teaching

December 12, 2014

Can You Solve this 30 Year Old Mystery?

About thirty years ago my mom brought home a puzzle that someone had given her at work. She worked for Montgomery Ward, the now defunct department store chain, and on her lunch hour she and her colleagues would work on these little brain twisters that people would bring in from time to time. She would then bring them home for us kids. Little did my mom know that I would keep all of those puzzles and use them with my junior high students over the years. I’m not...

Humor / Spirituality / Teaching

August 29, 2014

Genesis of the Catholic School Year

This year I was asked to lead our school’s retreat. This was the opening I wrote for it. Genesis of the Catholic School Year In the beginning God created the school year. The school year was without form and void, and darkness was upon the face of the classroom; and the Spirit of God was moving over the summer vacation. And God said, “Let there be fluorescent lights”; and there were fluorescent lights. And God saw that the light was good. And there was evening and there was...