This year has been all about conquering my fears and believing in myself! This has been a year of learning how to believe in myself and do things I never thought I could do on my own -- like conquering my fear of heights and doing some of the courses on our high school's Project Adventure Course! Make sure to watch the videos! 

It was something I had always wanted to do, but was always scared to do it. Thanks to my friend Bob Sutherland who runs the Project Adventure Class at CHS I was able to go on the course today. 

Project Adventure is all about learning to trust others, team work and conquering fears while high in the air! It really did all that and more for me today! 

I learned a lot about trusting myself and believing in my ability to do things I never thought I could do. 

I have had overcome a lot these last few years, and for awhile there I really doubted myself. I did not believe in my own abilities and really relied on others too much. I was always second guessing myself. With the help of my friends and family I started to believe in myself more. There were a few people in my life that really did believe in me at a time when I did not believe in myself. They saw what I could be when I could not do that myself. They were there for me when I needed them the most. I will forever be grateful and thankful to those people -- even if some are no longer in my life now. 

This year is about letting go of the past and figuring out a way to move forward one step at a time. Much like me on the course today. I was 20 feet in the air walking across a thin metal wire with only a harness and a student on the ground holding on to a rope.  I had to put my full trust in that student and also in the fact that I could make it across that wire one step at a time. I did and in the process learned that I am stronger then I think. 

The course also taught me to let go and stop doubting my abilities I am stronger then I think! In one of the videos you will see my climbing up the pole. When I first looked at the poll I thought there was no way I could climb that. I started to doubt myself but I did it and realized it was a lot easier then I thought. 

I will take so much away from today's experience but most of all I have learned that I can do it! I can put one foot in front of the other and get past those lingering doubts in my head. 

Walking across what I am calling the bridge.. As you can see I almost fall off but I am able to right myself - calm down and regain my balance and then continue on my way. Which you can see in my  next video,

Regaining my footing and making it across the bridge. 

Making it across for the first time! The moment I conquered my fear!

Climbing the Pole for the first time! Its really high! 

Aurasma has changed my teaching for the better!

I decided to change things up with our author study unit and have Aurasma as one of the choices. Students had to make an Animoto video about their authors and then make those videos into an Aura. To do that they needed to choose a trigger image that symbolized their author or a character from their book. 

First,  I taught the students how to use Animoto and the students loved it because it was so easy to use. They also loved the ability to personalize it by choosing different backgrounds and music. Then it was on to teaching them Aurasma. I started out by setting up accounts for every student but realized that was going to be too much so I set up a class account. 

I then talked to and demonstrated for students the three step process used to make an Aura in the Aurasma studio. I also posted the instructions on my Edmodo page so students had a place to go back and review it. Here are the instructions that I wrote down for them:


Steps for aurasma:
1. Download the trigger image to your computer (the trigger image is whatever image you want scanned to make the aurasma work..ie book, model you made, drawing etc)
2. Click on Trigger image
3. Upload your trigger image - make sure to name it and put the location as south orange middle school
4. Go to animoto and download your finished video
5. Click on Overlay
6. Upload the animoto video - make sure you name it - Click Save
7 . Click on Aura
8. Click on tigger image and find the trigger image you made-Click Save
9. Click on Channel make sure you choose South Orange Middle Library
10. Click on overlay and find the overlay you made.
11. Click save! You have made your aurasma!!


Having the Edmodo page really helped because it was a great way for students to ask questions when they ran into trouble at home. The students either posted their questions on my wall or Direct Messaged me and I was quickly able to help them. What made it even better was that students started to help other students with their issues! 

Yesterday in class we saw some of the Auras and I was so impressed with what they had done! The image above is of a student's robot that he built as his trigger image. He then drew the robot picture on it and used that as his trigger image! Another student made a cube with different images from her author's life. Instead of just choosing one as her trigger image she made it that a number of the different pictures trigger the Animoto video.

I was blown away with the creativity of my 6th graders and I can't wait to see what they can do next.

Make sure to follow us on the Aurasma app to see all of the Auras the students made. There are two channels that we used for this project. Our main one South Orange Middle School Library and also Ms. Foreros Period 2 Class.