Chromebooks in EDU

Teacher Feature - Chris Vondruska

This week’s teacher feature article finds us catching up with Chris Vondruska at Union Pines High School. When Chris is not coaching state wrestling champions he teaches standard and honors World History at UPHS. Mr. Vondruska asked me to collaborate on a lesson that would increase student understanding of Mesoamerican, Pre-Columbian civilizations by incorporating various digital tools to research and present those findings.

The lesson we arrived at was a class wide jigsaw in which student groups of three researched an assigned group (guided questions focused that research), assembled relevant images in Google Drawings, and combined that data with images on a ThingLink.

The students in all three blocks did a great job (see examples below) are were extremely efficient. The students completed their research, image collages, and Thinglinks in one class period; not bad for introducing a brand new tool.  

Mr. Vondruska and I loaded student projects by url into a “master” presentation (example seen below) so students can visualize the geographic location of each. When the class reconvenes the students will present their civilization to peers and after presentations are completed, the ThingLink will be shared with all for lesson notes.

Hint: Creating a “master” presentation reinforces student understanding of the unit and saves class time that would otherwise be spent logging in and out or finding links from an email address..

Want to see more ThingLink? 

www.thinglink.com

Great Job Chris!

Thank you for reading

Will Herring

MEd-IT, NBPTS

DIF-Moore County Schools