Super Bowl Commercials in the Classroom

It's almost Super Bowl time! Appointment television at it's best with the thrill of the game and the fun of the commercials!   Why not use this important social event in American culture to pull students into learning? 

What has caught my attention the most right now is the use of commercials in the classroom.  Several websites have collected the "Best of the Best" of Superbowl commercials from over the years.  You can search by year or by product to choose attention grabbing hooks to your classroom.

Commercials can be hooks into your assignment, examples of what students can create themselves, or elements of it can be analyzed to illustrate what is happening in the classroom.

Take this Coca-Cola Commercial:


Science teachers could the laws of physics that were involved in moving the bottle and the insects that were used and what natural characteristics of that insect made it useful for each step of the heist.

Watch a propoganda ad to discuss what techniques were used to make their point.

Look for persuasiveness in an ad to see how you could use those techniques in your writing.

Any subject can have students make their own commercials based on what they are studying.   A few ideas are:

• Ad for why the Constitution is important today


• Show an M&M commercial and talk about the personification of the candy.    Apply that to the study of chemical elements.  Give your element a personality and it's own commercial.


• Persuade people to read your book

Any other ideas?

To find superbowl ads check out these resources:

• http://www.spike.com/superbowl - Ads that can be sorted based on year, product and popularity.


• http://www.superbowl-ads.com/index.html - Also based on year, the display of these ads are smaller and they cannot be embedded, but they do not have the related videos at the end of each one.


• http://www.frankwbaker.com/super_bowl.htm - has links to ads and facts and figures from throughout the years.

Some of these ads may not be appropriate for all grade levels.   Please preview all sites before using in the classroom.

Skype in Education

Here is the presentation I used recently to introduce Skype to teachers on campus:



I am looking forward to what they decide to do with this great FREE tool.

A New Look at Wordle

I ran across this and thought I would share.   Using Wordle to create posters and original pieces had never occurred to me!  She also links to other sites and ideas at the end of the presentation as well as includes how she created some of the slides.  It is worth checking out!

Wordle Ideas

View more presentations from Jenuinetech.com.

Skype in Education

I recently polled my staff on various technology training topics.   Surprisingly the most requested training was on Skype and webcams.  What is the hook with Skype and how can it be used in education?

I started putting together a wikipage on the ins and outs of Skype and uses.  I can see how this can make a difference.  Today I was researching through my PLN on twitter and ran across a presentation by Robert Marzano who was emphasizng the need for feedback and how interactive whiteboards and clickers helped provide that for students.  This got me thinking about how vital videoconferencing could be on doing the same thing.

Student could connect with others, explain learning, and perform a band piece to an expert and get immediate real-world feedback on their learning.   No longer are they doing the work for the teacher to see, but for a real person that they can see and talk to.  I am getting more excited about Skype.

Google Earth: Adding Placemarks

Using Google Earth in classrooms sometimes mean making your own trips to guide students through valuable resources and avoiding the distractions.  It can also mean that the students create the tours and learn the process of designing a trip for their classmates.  Our 7th Grade students are going to teach the class about the Texas Revolution by presenting their research through placemarks in Google Earth.  The teacher is going to use the placemarks to teach the class about the different events in the Texas Revolution. 

Student and teacher need to know the basics of placemark creation to get started in this process. 

Here are some basic instructions to get you started:

Placemarkers in Google Earth

FormattingPlaceMarkers

Video Tutorial:

Flip Cameras - Basics and YouTube

I've been working with the Flip Cameras recently and have created a few videos to show how easy it is to work with the movie files the camera creates.

Taking Flip Video straight to YouTube:

What MovieMaker can do for your Flip Video:

For step by step directions on editing Flip Videos in MovieMaker download this handout: Flip Cameras and Movie Maker

Google Forms: Self-Graded Quizzes

Google forms can be used to create a quiz that can be graded automatically in the spreadsheet using formulas.  To save you time, these instructions are for a 20 question (or less) quiz using the template with the formulas already entered. 

Self Graded Quizzes in Google

1. Open up the following spreadsheet: http://spreadsheets.google.com/ccc?key=0AuuREHWQtmebdHo1UjVINzRCaVIwVGhJb2c2YV9nNHc&hl=en


2. Save a copy of the spreadsheet into your own Google account.


3. Make a copy of the spreadsheet for a new quiz. Important so any changes on this quiz will not affect future quizzes! Open the spreadsheet and go to File – “Make a Copy.” Give the spreadsheet a new name


4. In the new spreadsheet go to Form – Edit Form


5. Do not remove the name or class period fields, as that will affect the formulas to grade the quizzes. You may edit the class periods field to represent just the classes you teach.


6. Add your question items to the form. Remember spelling will count against the results, so choose wisely when making your question types.


7. Make any changed to the theme


8. Save your form.


9. Open up your quiz and answer the questions correctly to create the answer key. Suggestion is to use Answer and Key as the first and last name fields.


10. Submit your answers.


11. Open the spreadsheet.


12. On the “Answers” worksheet, select and copy row 2.


13. Go to the “Test Answers” worksheet and paste the copied row into that worksheet’s Row 2.


14. Fill in the number of questions the quiz contains into cell B8.


15. Go to worksheet “Results.” If your quiz contains less than 20 questions, delete the extra question columns.


16. Make sure everything is saved.


17. Share the quiz link by directly linking to the quiz, or by embedding it into another webpage.
    
    
    
    • TeacherWeb - Enhanced Text page in the html view
    
    
    • Wiki - an html widget box
    
    
    • Blog – into a post with the html view
    
    
    
    

To get grades:

1. After students have taken the quiz, open your spreadsheet.


2. Go to the “Results” worksheet. If needed, fill the formulas from Row 2 all the way down the worksheet.


3. The averages should be displayed in column D. Check a few responses to make sure the formulas copied correctly.

To create a new quiz be sure to start from the original spreadsheet and not from a used quiz.

Download the directions here with screenshots:  Google Forms - Self Graded Quizzes