"Get your journals out" is something that I say multiple times a day, as each class starts with a written journal component that gives us our vocabulary for the day as well as journals prompts for practice free writing. I started the year with 3 of my 6 classes doing journals in Google Classroom and vocab directly into Quizlet for easy quiz review. I am happy to say that 2 more classes have put their spirals away for the last time (or until wifi goes out LOL!). Dance 2 and Ballet 1-3 got loaded into accounts for both apps and started our new adventure. By the end of the week, engagement in the activity was already increased and I think they realized that this is a pretty cool thing.
Two upper level classes that did Quizlet for the 1st 6 weeks, started our new vocabulary a little before the new 6 weeks started. As we study Production Vocabulary for this unit, many of these students have been in productions before, so....instead of me giving them the vocab words, their task was to develop the vocab list as a class.
Jazz 4 used Lucidchart for a real-time collaborative mind mapping activity. I wish I could say it all went well, however we spent so much time getting everyone logged into the program and the class chart, that we saved the actual activity for day two so that we still had time to work on choreography for our upcoming show. For some reason, the app/program was not playing nice that day and Lucidchart only has a 7-day free trial so I was worried about it working the following day.
So the following day it was time for my Ballet 4 to try the same activity and I made the decision that many teacher's go to: Plan B. I did not want to have the potential to waste the same time in class, so we tried our activity on awwapp.com where the real-time connection was immediate. So much smoother. Although the product is a little less professional looking, we all had fun adding our thoughts to this crazy mind map. 
Day 2 with Jazz 4, I was determined to try Lucidchart before the trial ran out. We were all logged in and ready to go and had the same amount fun, finding ideas and connecting them together. What a neat way to try 2 different tools and be able to see the result for the same activity.
Jazz 4 also tried a few more workout apps for our warm up to gain strength and flexibility for our Fit & Flexible Minds & Bodies PIE Grant. We even got to use our new yoga mats!
What's happening with DAMCOM (it's our acronym for Dance and Media Communication) this week?
We began the week studying different types of light in photography. Since our iPads do not have flash and have limits with low light photos, so we were so excited to get use our new still camera as well as our stage lights from the Texas Cultural Trust Digital Literacy grant. Unfortunately, a few of our lights came broken or only flashed on before not working again. However we got some amazing pictures both inside and outside with different lighting situations.
Then we were able to choose our favorite and make notes alongside the photo on why they chose that photo on an app called on Mindmash.
In the curriculum there was a a lesson that had us writing adverbs on post-its. Of course, my mind said, no to post-its and yes to an app. However, when app surfing, the first app to appear was actually created by Post-It's and I decided to check it out. It actually had a neat feature of taking a post-it brainstorm session and making it digital where it can take it with you. You can also use the app to create your own post-its from pictures you take of items or text. I thought it was such a neat useful tool for their future that I decided to use it for that part of the activity. We all had big laughs when I handed them paper post-its and pencils and they acted like they 
We ended the week creating a dance based on shapes/symbols and adverbs and learning about the Rule of Thirds in composition/photography. We learned how to put the grid on the camera of our iPads to get us ready to explore this concept while photographing our Adverb Shape Garden dance next week.
I am happy to say I have survived the 1st 6 weeks figuring out my new NextGen dance life. I hope you can see that I am and will continue to keep this blog honest. Sometimes the network is down, sometimes a lesson or app you plan to use does not go as planned, sometimes equipment breaks for good. What matters is how you react, deal, or readjust. Your grade isn't always the product, it is the journey along the way.
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