Sound Art Installation Community Project

Roundware app

During three weeks in October, students in Stephanie's Moon Art & Technology elective class at the Middle School worked with visiting artist Halsey Burgund to create a local installation of audio art, "4 Corners & 4 Questions." You can experience this virtual installation on our Middle School campus! Just download the Roundware app from the iTunes store; then when you are on campus, click on LISTEN or click on SPEAK if you would like to participate in answering any of the 4 prompts. Enjoy the experience!

This exploratory project enabled students to learn about the concept of sound art, and to be introduced to the work of Halsey Burgund who is a sound artist in the Boston area exploring the richness of sound as an art form and combining this medium with technological tools to create installation experiences. He works with several institutions including Harvard University, the Museum of Science in Boston, Miami Art Week, and the MIT Media Lab, to name a few. He has also programmed his own phone app (Roundware) which enables the audience to both contribute their voices to the work as well as to experience it. Here are a few other samples of Halsey's work:

• Sound Art Installations 
• Ocean Voices
• Voices with Faces, Voices without Races
• Scapes (at the DeCordova Museum)
• Patient Translation

At BB&N, the Art and Tech class was introduced to Halsey’s Artistic Process:

1. Brainstorming a Theme 
2. Selecting Music, Voices, Ambient Noise 
1. collecting/creating sounds 
2. editing sounds 
3. creating ambient layer 
3. Assembling the sound booth to collect student voices 
4. Using Roundware (http://roundware.org/)

The 4 Corners & 4 Questions are now part of the MS grounds virtual installation:

1. Laughter - Try to make me laugh, tell a joke (as you enter the school) 
2. Song - Sing a part of your favorite song (by the new sports shed) 
3. Encouragement/motivation - Say something to makes someone's day better (in the back by the science building) 
4. Venting - What's bugging you? (on the way to the carriage house)

Collecting the sounds using sound booth on the MS campus

Testing installation with Halsey

BB&N's Open House ~ 10/29/16

Students, parents, and teachers share our school with prospective families.,.

MS English Launch Grant Project - Year 2

Middle School teacher Betsy Canaday did a launch grant during the 2015-2016 school year to explore ways technology can help students understand the complexity of the characterization in one of the novels within the curriculum. This novel, The Outsiders, is a story about high schoolers in the 50's. Ms. Canaday wanted students to explore physical and emotional characterization in today's tech setting, using social media and online communication. Her original project blog post is here.

I asked Betsy to reflect on her experience doing The Outsiders project again this year " The Outsiders project was even better the second year. The modification of using Google Doc to create the page template was much easier. It made for a seamless way for students to share with each other and me. I was really pleased that Zoe and Ethan joined in to do this project, too. They reported that it went really well - tons of fun for the kids. Next thing we need to focus on is how to improve the writing portion of the project. Below are the published flipbook projects"

Interactive Pumpkin Display in Middle School Library

Every Friday approximately twenty four students get together for lunch at the Library Learning Commons. They are the students in the Middle School Literary Club. They talk about favorite books, play trivia games, talk about movies and read during lunch.  They also share treats for dessert. Sometimes they also create media projects like the one below. In this interactive Halloween Pumpkin display studnets used Make Makey to create an interactive audio experience. They recorded scary passages from the books. A quick video below captures the feel of this exhibit!

try.

7th grade Country Research Project

Second session of the Library Learning Commons Information Literacy Curriculum corresponds to beginning of country research project for the 7th graders. During the library classes students are introduced to the  Latin American Research Page and all the digital and print resources available for their project.  

In class they have an opportunity to learn:

• how to access and use the MS library website and catalog

• how to cite sources properly
• review Academic Honesty Policy and copyright law
• watch: how not to plagiarism video and copyright tutorial

• build a bibliography using Easybib including the following resources:

1. print source (http://library.bbns.org/)
2. website using webpath express
3. online (electronic) database article
4. digital image http://www.creativecommons.org

Museum of Science Field Trip

Early in October, 7th grade students & advisors went on a new field trip to the Museum of Science, a new initiative funded through the Urban Connections Grants program and lead by Kelley Schultheis, MS Science Teacher and Gus Means, MS Math Teacher. The goal of this grant is to develop science understanding while also building community, both within the Middle School and between the three campuses. Field trips to the museum are the first step to allow students to work with their homerooms and develop problem-solving and collaborative skills.

Here is the short video created by Ms. Schultheis, an overview of the trip we showed the students before the field trip of what they would do at the museum:



Klikaklu - Scavenger and treasure Hunt app can be downloaded from the iTunes store

Middle School GPS Haiku Site

For the last two years the "Middle School GPS" Haiku site has become a fundamental way by which Middle School faculty share information and organize faculty resources at the school. All MS teachers are able to create and update any page on the GPS site. A short list of things you can find out using GPS site:

• Important logistical updates for the week 
• Upcoming faculty meetings 
• MS admission visitors 
• Reminders/looking ahead 
• Schedules and duties 
• Important Forms and Links 
• PD opportunities 

Here is a short video featuring Beth Brooks, MS Librarian using MS GPS

Podcasting Blog Post

Podcasts are becoming popular. From Sports to fashion there are podcasts on practically most topics. Students here are creating their podcasts. Here are the 3 main steps to creating a podcast.

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Krina Patel

Upper School Technology Integration Mentor

Buckingham Browne & Nichols School

80 Gerry's Landing Road

Cambridge, MA 02138

Going Paper-Free as Grade Dean

The following are the launch grant goals from Miles Billings, MS 7th Grade Dean:

• Find ways to consolidate all 7th student data into neat, organized, searchable files for faculty (and advisors) to access at all times. 
• Let this pilot of data consolidation serve as a model for other grade deans to adapt and adopt overtime. 
• Delineate those data between what is to be public and what is to be confidential, establish more clear policy around that. 
• Make all parent call sheets (filled out three-four times per year on handwritten paper) to be completed online and paper-free within the same individual student files. This project is big enough that it may require a two year pilot on my end to make it all work. 

Since becoming 7th Grade Dean in 2011-2012, I have sought to be as organized as possible given my yearly charge of over 80 students. Paper organization has never been a strong suit of mine yet I have reluctantly accumulated shelves full of three ring binders over the last ten years at BB&N. I realized that the most efficient way to capture all of these student data, and to keep it organized and easy to sort through, would be to go paperless as Grade Dean. Not an easy task and would also require the help of our entire Middle School faculty.

Our investment in Google Apps has made this possible but, the ultimate goal of complete paperless-ness is yet to be obtained. I would say I am 90% of the way there. Here is what we have transferred from paper to electronic over the years:

• All incoming student notes from the Lower School and admissions 
• All matching of students to advisors and homerooms 
• All current student notes, updated throughout the year, in the form of a commonly shared Google Sheet which is then passed on to the 8th grade team at the end of the year. 
• All parent communication data from advisors to home 
• All faculty meeting notes and presentations regarding current students 
• All academic grades and comments 
• All Weekly Reports assigned to particular students by the Student Support Team 
• All Middle School mix faculty chaperone sign ups 

Many of these listed items are not all my doing. Most, in fact, require the help and support of at least part of, if not the whole, Middle School faculty. There are still a few items which I am attempting to address this academic year, and again need the support of certain key members within the faculty. These are:

• 7th grade detention write ups: done on Google Form by student, submitted online 
• Club and after school program rosters, consolidated and easily accessed by faculty 

The final truly old school paper-based tradition in the Middle School are the advisor slips, given to students who break certain school rules. There are 4 pieces of paper generated with each issued slip. These individual pieces of paper go to various people, including the student. This system could be turned paperless but I think that goal is a few years away.

In the end, going paperless gives me peace of mind that knowing that I can easily find documents from this year, or years past, and can easily share and collaborate on student data with the whole Middle School faculty.


Miles Billings
History Teacher
7th Grade Dean

Middle School Classroom 212

Laptops at Upper School

Upper School students using laptops in class...


BB&N's Upper School's approach to computer ownership is currently an optional "Bring Your Own Device" model; in other words, students may bring any type of computer or tablet to school and get on our WiFi. In this classroom it appears that most students use Mac laptops.

In September of 2016 BB&N's Middle School adopted a requirement for 7th grade students to own Mac laptops. As this ownership requirement reaches Upper School we expect to continue allowing any type of computer OS in Upper School (Mac, Windows, Linux, etc.), so long as it can accomplish a baseline of capabilities to be defined by the Upper School faculty (e.g. run Microsoft Office, Google Apps, and a basic video editing program.)

6th graders and a busy day at the LS Maker Space

TIM Team

BB&N is lucky to have a "Technology Integration Mentor" for the faculty at each campus. This position is tasked with supporting and coaching the faculty as they integrate technology applications within the curriculum.

Svetlana Grinshpan (MS), Joesph Heitzman (LS), Krina Patel (US)