Mr. Teal's Math Classes take on Moodle!

Mr. Teal, 8th grade math and geometry teacher, has been using moodle for weekly problems.  Mr. Teal assigns the problem at the beginning of the week and students have until Friday to turn in their answers to the problem. What's great, is Mr. Teal has data of when the student submitted his/her answer Moodle provides documentation that an answer was turned in on time or late, and Mr. Teal cuts back on paperwork by grading the assignments online.  The questions review concepts that Geometry Students should know. Here's an example of what the kids will see when they get an assignment in Moodle.  

First, students get a list of assignments

Once they click on an assignment, students will get the problem and the instructions on what information they should submit for their answer.

Students can then type out their answers and click submit.  If they decide to change their answer, Mr. Teal has it set up to where each student can resubmit if he/she would like.

Engineers helping Engineers using Skype

Although the DMS robotics teams did not move forward to the Championship First Lego League Tournament, at their last meeting, they helped out their fellow middle school team, The Robojags, from Cedar Valley Middle School, who will be competing this weekend at the championship.  The Robojags presented their presentation to DMS robotics via skype, and Deerpark's coaches, mentor, and student engineers asked questions and gave feedback.  

Good Luck RoboJags!  Hopefully next year we will be able to join you!

  

8th Graders + Writing + Flip Cams + Movie Maker = The How Toies

Students filming their How To Video

Ms. Tyler, Mr. Garcia, Ms. Summers and Mr. Williams' students have been working very hard on writing and editing scripts for their How To Videos.  After students were done writing their scripts, each group was given a flip camera to video tape each of the steps of their How To paper.  


Once the videos were made, students used Windows Movie Maker to compile their shots and create a How To Video. At the end of the unit, the teachers held "The How Toies" to award groups on various categories from best actor to best video overall.  The teachers laid out the red carpet and were dressed to impress.  Winners were given trophies and allowed the opportunity to make speeches.  

Mr. Garcia, Ms. Tyler, and Mr. Williams dressed up for the Red Carpet!

  

Students had to walk
down the Red Carpet to get
to the awards

How Toie Awards were given to
Best Actor, Best Soundtrack, Best Costumes, &
Best Overall Video

Below is the 1st period over all winner, "How to Cut Grass the Old Fashioned Way".  Check it out, it's awesome!

7th Grade Language Arts Uses Publisher

Seventh Grade Language Arts Classes worked for several weeks on writing and publishing a completed news paper using Publisher.  Students had to research a topic of interest, write about that topic, and then they had to create a feature article that included their writing.  To see some examples of student work, click on the links below. 

• Memory Loss
• What Organic Gardening Can Do

Communicating Through Art

One of Ms. Blackwell's students who has a hard time communicating, has found a way to communicate with the rest of the world through her art.  She has her own website, which features her computer artwork, short films, and stop animation videos.  Ellie can communicate endless amount of information through her drawings and art with little or no words.

Here is an example of one of her stop animation videos where she makes Mickey and WALL-E do the same thing.  

Deerpark Middle School in the School Library Journal

Deerpark Middle School's participation in the virtual book club on the Hunger Games turned out to be a hit.  Our book club and our librarian, Amy Lott were given a nod by Joyce Valenza in the School Library Journal. Check out the article here.  School Library Journal

 

Theater Digital Portfolios

When you go to your evaluation for your job, you are given a grade.  It usually isn't like the grade our students get based on a percentage out of 100, but it is usually based on a portfolio of your work.  Mrs. Hadzi's Theatre Classes are getting ahead of the game and creating portfolios using Foliospaces.  Students have to create a resume', compare where they are in their acting from the beginning of the year to the end of the year, and add information about their skills and what they have accomplished during the year.


In the end, Mrs. Hadzi hopes that they leave her class with a tool to help them gather, organize and display all of their talents in one place.  This certainly is a tool that will help them in their pursuit of a career, college education and much more.


Check out work from one student's portfolio here...

There will be more previews of student portfolios as they continue to develop throughout the year.