Dr. Rachel Holbrook

The Wright Way to Showcase Appalachia

Approximately 75 students in my language arts classes will photograph the Appalachian community in which they live. Students will select photos that they feel showcase positive attributes of Appalachia to use as inspiration for creative writing pieces. After composing, revising, and editing pieces, students will then print both their writing and selected photographs to display in a gallery exhibit for our school. The gallery exhibit created by my students will then be used to generate a video to document the innovative endeavors occurring in our school and district. By merging digital photography with the writing process, students will not only write for an authentic purpose and audience, but they will also have the opportunity to explore their own artistic expression through photography. My goal is for students to showcase meaningful images of Appalachia paired with authentic and personalized writings in an effort to promote the innovative advances happening in Appalachia and share our work with the world.

We’re 1:1 – So, Now What?!?

To address the problem of practice that students are utilizing the 1:1 devices they were issued by the school but are not interacting with them to their fullest potential, I plan for the 75 students I teach in 7th grade language arts to partake in a series of interactive lessons and presentations throughout the year which will increase their engagement with technology in hopes of deepening student learning and improving knowledge retention. By using and creating interactive lessons through Nearpod (an interactive presentation tool controlled by teachers and streamed to students in real-time) as well as broadcasting interactive animated videos from BrainPOP, I anticipate student engagement and interest to increase and result in an improvement of student understanding. As a flipped classroom begins to evolve and students master the content presented in class using NearPod and BrainPOP, I will then encourage students to share what they have learned by researching and creating presentations to share with their classmates. Students will use the Chromecast to screen share from their Chromebooks to my classroom display. Additionally, I will employ the use of the Apple TV to share interactive Apps and content with students from my iPad in the same manner. As students become more comfortable with the interactive technology I plan to use, I will then introduce them to virtual reality field trips available through Nearpod. The Nearpod virtual reality experience will include images in first person perspective paired with the Bose Bluetooth Speaker to create a total immersive experience for students.