20% project - a great learning experience

Our last day of class was spent viewing other students projects.  I watched the various projects with my typical "What can I use" eye, and found that everyone offered me something.  As I reflect back on the experience a few days later, I am glad to say that I could take something from everyone, so Thank you.

In some cases, I took away new Apps or ideas for projects.  In others, I became aware of potential problems and how to avoid them.

My new concern though, is that unlike me, most of my students don't seem to want to learn form a mistake, but would rather blame someone else for a short coming.

I believe that Thomas Edison mentioned that in discovering the lightbulb, he didn't make 1,000 errors, but that he learned a 1,000 ways not to make it, or something to that effect.

With that in mind I give you the link to my 20% project and the 1,000 think I learned from it - No I won't list them all here, just leave you the video to discover them for yourself.

Oh Yeah, tomorrow my students will shoe their video projects, so I will try to post one or two of them.

Thanks for the time we spent together.

Christian

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3T_K--FDsFw

20% project My Music Video

I was excited and nervous about the 20% project.  I love to choose ideas for class, especially ones where technology is involved.  Then Dr. Penny suggest to me that I do a music video for a song I wrote.  I thought, "What a great idea,"  and I already have a song for it.

The problem was finding someone to be in it with me.  I used an assortment of tools for this one including my guitar of course, but also Garage Band to add other instrument tracks and iMovie to add everything together.  Then I finally got my wife to play a role for me.  We ended up in and around the house, in West Chester borough for a few shots and realized that I should have done the outdoor shots before it got cold.  Also had to do little things like put tape down in the backyard so that when I did the time-lapse sequence, I had, roughly, that same location.

All in all, it was a really great experience that gave me insight into some of the details that I can pass on to my students when I assign a video project

Student video project rubric

https://docs.google.com/document/d/1yPkQ9udczRVR_m_I8llNwpN3rrF5FJJYxrqKJ3fdT-k/edit

The link above will take you to the handout given to students on my class for the project. I have added the standards to the document - the students didn't get those.

Student Video Project

Projects have been slow moving.  Students waiting for the last minute are finding it difficult to get video segments and are looking to me to do everything for them regardless of my warnings that they needed to start weeks ago when it was assigned.  I hope they are learning from the experience as much as I am!

On the other hand, some groups are moving along pretty well and are in the production phase and it is really fun to see there sour faces turn to excited ones as they see the final product nearing completion and they try to match background music with the sequences they have constructed.

Should also note that we had quite a time Thursday when the servers were down and the videos were due Friday.  Had to extend the deadline to next Thursday(15th) then realized we needed to get all of the video from the iPad before I gave it back.  Made for a hectic day of emailing.

Here is the link to an example of one groups work.  While it doesn't actually meet all of the criteria yet, it does show good usage on the medium.

http://youtu.be/Y-kbjO3OQ6M    


I will post the actual rubric and lesson a bit later tonight.  Right now I need to get the tree out of storage...

Green screen Loads of fun

Tonight we created a green screen movie using iMovie.

It is both fun and funny to do and it would be even more so to do with my students if I could access a green screen.  Might be worth looking into with some minor budget money for this year.  Need to spend it soon.

The URL will take you to my first attempt at creating a video using a green screen.

Enjoy

http://youtu.be/Ywe8HrO-YmU

video project in my class

I decided to assign the video project in my class a few weeks ago.  I first gave them access the iPad and let them shoot a quick scene in the hallways in the building.  I gave zero parameters except it should be Physics related.  That was an easy one!!

But then I brought up the idea of storyboarding and told them that they just had to put their ideas down in a schematic format.  Gave examples and a rubric.  However, the ability to come up with their own idea seems to be very difficult.  I am trying desperately not to show my example video, because I don't want just a dozen videos like mine. I fear I will need to do so as they seem to be having great difficulty when my answer to "What can I do?" is "Whatever you want!"

FRS Story Starters - Fast Rabbit Software

Name of APP: FRS Story Starters
Fee or Free: $1.99

Story Tellers is a wonderful story telling application that provides the who, why, what, where and when for a story that can then be used to create a full story.  The App allows the user to choose which of the five W's are supplied leaving any number of them out allowing for a number of creative choices.  It also will provide all five, giving as much or as little structure as desired.

The App does not allow for writing within it's features so any story writing would need to be done with pen and paper or on a word processor, but if it's simply an idea slot machine your looking for, this is a really good one.

The app also allows for repeated shuffling, as well as a lock feature, that will keep those W's that are locked while shuffling others.  This can be very helpful, when certain elements don't easily blend for beginning story tellers whose imaginations are not yet ready to make giant leaps.

One draw back is that the App does not appear in any search I did for my iPad but only on my desktop computer, limiting its use in the classroom setting to larger PC's rather than slimmer lower cost options.

I would rated this App a 4/5 due to the above mentioned drawback.

DST the text

Through the readings, I am a little unnerved at all of the aspects that are presented for consideration. However, after taking a bit of time to digest them all, I return to my original conclusion that for the purpose of educational presentations and student involvement, we need only start with a few simple principles.  While Ohler discusses tone and tempo etc, It seems to me that many of these things will take care of themselves once a topic has been chosen.  For example, one of the DSTs I viewed discussed the horrible treatment of a reporter and a woman who was burned - the nature of this topic sets the tone for the author.

In our classrooms, if we are to make good use of DST for students (and by students) I think we need to consider that for many of them, it will be the first foray into this genre and we need not be so concerned with too many details but rather let the students be guided by there topic to set the tone as well as other aspect of their story.  Ohler's book can be overwhelming, and rightfully so if we are setting out to present an award winning piece.  However, we need to remind ourselves that we are not here for that, bit only to open doors to students that move them in a direction where they can have have as many experiences as they can to give themselves as many opportunities as they can.

Groupp Project - Digital Story Telling

Laura, Denis and myself are embarking on a tale about the history of story telling from ancient times through the present.  We will be attempting to show how storytelling has changed through the centuries but also how it has remained the same.  Our effort will show the advancements in the story telling genre including print media, mass production of books, and electronic advancements like the computer and Power Point and Prezi.  We sill also point out that through all of this, live presentation still is a wonderful way to captivate an audience and how narration still remains a mainstay even in today''s world of digital advancement

Digital Storytelling

The digital stories that I viewed were nothing short of powerful.  In large part because of the content itself, but in no small part because the medium allows for the fluid shifting of images behind the audio story as told by the authors.  From this small sample, it is evident that digital storytelling can be a very good tool for history and sociology classes and a good way for students to relate stories without having to actually stand in front of a class themselves.

It was very much like watching a news item that was prerecorded and clearly one that with current software like imovie is readily available to anyone who is remotely adventurous.

TAMU 3

Another good meeting - started an hour late due to a conflict, but everyone was able to make it and stay for at least 20 minutes - most for the entire time.  We mostly discussed first year teacher stuff.  Pencils, pens, erasers, organizing, discipline, and finding a mentor, and working with administration.  We weren't exactly on topic as far as ELL, but I think it was agreed, that this was a very useful and productive meeting for them.  e spent another hour together when I called it a night as it was 11 pm EST.

From a learning perspective, I guess the most I can personally say is that I can see how I have grown since my first year, and how much there really is that is left undone in the teacher education process.  On the other hand, it is not really possible to make someone organize for a classroom full of students until they have one.  I think, looking back on it, the thing I relied on most was my mentor teacher, and it was the one thing I tried to really impress upo th group was to find one even if you don't have to.

TAMU Meeting 2

Second meeting with TAMU went very well.  About 75 minutes and we basically adjourned although we were still going strong.  Topics included how to determine the usefulness of technology as compared to the time spent introducing it to students, how to police student activity and keep them on task, differentiating and having other assignments available for the quicker students.

The meeting went very well though it offered less to me as the direction it took was more about how to run your classroom and manage student behavior. This is not to say that I believe that I am perfect at it, indeed, each year offers new challenges as I change curriculum in what I like to think of as a very fluid and differentiated environment.  What was most instructional to me was the commentary from the other participants about how I organize and run my classroom.  I realized more than anything that I need to further differentiate and consistently differentiate through each unit - something I have thought of but have been somewhat slow to do in midstream.  I have been looking forward to spring and summer breaks to even out the units within my class.

We were also in a different environment for this meeting - sitting on grass as opposed to in the circles.  There didn't seem to be much difference in the group dynamic.  I think this was because we were still surrounded by  grassy area and not in a very classroom type of setting.  I also have been fortunate in that my group is very prepared and willing to share their ideas and even to reconsider their position.

Perhaps the most enlightening moment to the TAMU collective was after they adamantly argued against allowing head phones and multi-tab searches (where students might be looking up unrelated topics).  SAfter they almost unanimously said no, I asked them if they and anything else going on and they all  admitted having TV, radio, or e-mail open.

We ended by just deciding to, though we were still very much into our discussion.  We concluded , once again, that nothing is as clear cut as we might wish and that differentiating doesn't necessarily only apply to how students learn, but how perhaps even how they are allowed to multitask.

TAMU Meeting 1

Had a really good- one-hour long - meeting with students from Texas A&M.  We discussed everything from identifying ESL students to teaching them in an inclusion setting.  The students were very engaging and offered good ideas as well as concerns about their role in the larger picture of teaching while splitting time between regular planning and "special case" planning.  We also discussed differentiation within the class room and the advantages and pitfalls.

In the role of facilitator,  I did find myself steering the conversation a little as I could.  The Participants were very willing to offer comments and I mostly just had to move us on to other topics.  We agreed that SL was a good forum for conversation, but we also agreed that to use it with students in a high school setting does present inherent dangers to teachers and we were not sure how to get around them. In particular, SL has areas that are of questionable content, and once on the site, there is no way to stop students from finding these areas and it seems likely that the teacher who directed them to SL would be mentioned as being to blame.

A a group, we weren't sure about some aspects of ESL.  In particular what, if any, status they shared with other Special Ed students legally.  We found ourselves becoming overwhelmed with all of the possibilities that a teacher of these types of students would face, and we found no relief in the fact that we would likely only have a couple in any one class.  In fact, this almost seemed more difficult from a planning perspective.

There was a moment for me when I realized that I don;t actually have a simple question on my First Day Questionnaire that asks students if English is the primary language spoken by them or in their home.  I offered no excuse for this last night, and do not do so now.

In the end, I complimented them on their dedication to education as demonstrated by their agreement to meet at a late hour on a Monday night three times in a month.  I thanked them for their time and came away, with a little opening in the window of my mind about taking a fresh look at myself and my teaching practices; especially as it pertains to addressing culture and language in my classroom.

GCC Thoughts

Met with an undergraduate student from a Texas college about gender roles in education.  She had some interesting questions that, in some cases, made me think about my role as a teacher and how my gender effects it.  We were accompanied by a female teacher which also added interest and perspective for me.  At the end, she claimed to have gotten more than enough information from us, and I hope she did.

For me, the experience was interesting.  First, I had to stop and think about things that after fifteen years I probably just take for granted.  For example, do I think my gender makes a difference to the students, and does their gender matter in how I treat them.  I think I am comfortable with how I treat gender in my class.  I have always been more comfortable chatting with females mainly I think because they will, where guys tend to be more direct and less interested in details.  (Oddly my wife is just the opposite).  I think I am even keeled with time spent with each sex but do notice that the girls tend to ask more questions which makes me approach the guys to see how they are doing.  Looking at that, I think it's a good thing , and something I also just do and don't think about.  I also know that I spend more time with students that struggle with the material, not so much to help with class as maybe to just try to make them more comfortable and less threatened by the subject.

I hope in the end, my class is a very nonthreatening place to be and having a brother who lives in the district, I have gotten feed back about how much students enjoyed my class and liked me.  I guess that's a large part of it (no, they don't know he's my brother - different last name)

Having a second person answering questions also gave me time to reflect on my answers immediately.   Some I wanted to add explanation to, but time slipped away from us.  It was interesting to hear her perspective about certain issues - being looked at differently by parents, maybe not taken as seriously, being flirted with etc.  Some things, I never considered because they don't effect me and some I only considered when I was younger and less experienced.

As a result, I think I gained a lot from this experience and, if I'm smart, will take away with me and use.

Social networking in education??

If social networking is to be successfully used in the classroom it must first be seen as the logical extension to student-teacher interaction.  By this, I mean that we must overcome the fear of having teachers and students interact outside of the classroom.

The benefits of social networking and sites that allow interaction are bountiful.  In many instances they are already being seen. School district and class websites allow parents and students to get immediate answers about students progress.  Absent students can keep up with course work and not fall behind.

In addition, social networking can allow or collaboration between students from schools around the globe to get amazing perspectives on problem solving as well as see language usage and other perspectives.  Indeed, as collaboration efforts go, there can be no better tool.

As the economy and companies go more and more global, it behooves schools to use social networking sites as tools to prepare students for this new world and the work environment they will find themselves in the future

A Short Introduction

After fifteen years in the classroom, I am embarking on an exploration of self-reflection which I hope will lead to an improved educational environment for my students.  It is here that I will reflect and look for suggestions from other professionals.

Please add your professional comments as you feel inspired.