Creation & Innovation Through Video PBL

Looking for a way to spice up that lesson with an interactive project using video? CHECK OUT these five simple to use video creation tech tools. Video tutorials, project examples, and FREE lessons using Animoto, Adobe Spark, Sharalike, WeVideo, and Flipgrid. Empower your learners to be creators of your content and learn new skills! Please feel free to leave a comment with questions or share how you use these tools with your students and school.

5 Creative Ways To Use Weebly In Schools

Weebly gives millions of people a surprisingly easy and affordable way to create a website that is as unique as they are. With a Weebly site, people can start their own business, communicate with their clients, showcase their achievements, and be an authority on personal and professional interests.

In 2015, Matt Bergman and I gave a presentation at the PETE & C (Pennsylvania Educational Technology Expo & Conference) to showcase how Weebly can be used by educators and students to create organizational websites, digital e-folios, teacher class websites, summative projects, and district resources for schools. Here is the link to the (FREE GOOGLE DOCS RESOURCE) sheet from our presentation. Please explore the examples and let me know if I can answer any questions for you regarding how you can use this awesome software in your classroom  to engage students in project based learning!  

Genius Hour Examples for High School

One of the biggest movements in education over the past several years has been that of Genius Hour. If you are not familiar with Genius Hour, it is a project in the classroom and sometimes in the workplace where students and employees are allowed to explore their own passions and wonders for a set amount of time. Teachers empower students by allowing them to pick a topic of their own, usually framed around an inquiry question, based on their own passions or wonders. One of the things I love about Genius Hour is that it is customizable to any teachers classroom and students. THERE IS NO ONE RIGHT/WRONG WAY TO DO THIS which makes it so fun!

• Learn more Genius Hour about HERE 
• FREE resources to get started and rubrics HERE

This past year (2016-17) in my Accounting I and Honors Accounting classes, I decided to "spice" things up a bit. Instead of teaching all accounting curriculum which can get dry at times, I challenged my students to research and or create something they are interested in or passionate about for a small amount of time. In the beginning of the school year, students brainstormed ideas, selected the topic they were most interested in, and began their research/project. Throughout the semester, there were several built-in work days for students to conduct research and work on their projects. Many of them found great joy in working on something they loved or wanted to know more about.

My key requirements for their final presentation was they had to present their research/work in a professional presentation and explain to the class how they grew from the process. They also had to create something that could be shared with those from around the world. Many of my students blew me away with the things they chose to work on and create! Projects ranged from video game creation, business websites, stop animation lesson, the history of special effects in movies, mediation for a month, and whether or not the lure of the Bermuda Triangle is real!

CLICK HERE to explore the outstanding projects my students did this year!

Many of the SAMPLE Genius Hour projects that my students and I found when trying to brainstorm ideas were for grades 3 through 6. Hopefully, if you teach older students and are interested in doing Genius Hour next year, these projects can serve as inspiration and generate ideas! Remember, YOU are a genius and the world needs your contribution!