We’re fully immersed in our Figurative Language Stopmotion Movie Project right now, with me mostly stepping out of the way and just letting my students work on the filming of their raw videos. We’ll pull the raw footage into Moviemaker, add narration and titles, and then I will show them how to make their own music with a software program called SuperDuperMusicLooper that will keep them occupied for a few days, too (kids love MusicLooper).
Peace (in the movies),
Kevin
I am fortunate to have a colleague on the other side of the school (and other side of the grades) who uses and shares her technology integration with our entire school on a regular basis. Yesterday, kindergarten teacher Gail P. sent out a link to the staff, saying that we could watch the incubator in her room via UStream, a live video streaming site.
Gail had popped a webcam in (near?) the incubator. For the entire day, as my students were working on their stopmotion movies, I kept the streaming video up on my Promethean Board so that the sixth graders could watch what was going on in the kindergarten classroom.
First of all, many of my students remember having Gail has their teacher, and so they connected immediately with the video, once they realized what they were watching. They began to tell some stories of kindergarten.
Second, as one class watched, a duck popped out of the egg. The energy in the room was like a wave of excitement as they all cheered and shouted. For the rest of the hour, they would regularly update themselves on the status of the duck, even as another egg seemed to cracking, too. When Gail herself and a few of her students appeared on the screen, my students shouted out to her (as if she could hear).
I love that Gail and I were connected through technology yesterday. That was pretty cool.
I’ll put in the embed code to the live stream, but Gail has to reset the video later on today, so here is the direct link to the ducks, if you are interested.
Live streaming video by Ustream
Peace (in the hatchlings),
Kevin
Well, this is a nice surprise. I was informed yesterday that I was a finalist in the Ypulse Totally Wired Teacher Award. The winner was another sixth grade teacher who has been doing some amazing things to connect kids and teachers around science. He deserved the top honors, for sure.
The award is sponsored by the Ypulse website, which provides content around kids and technology (Ypulse editor, Anastasia Goodstein, wrote the book: Totally Wired: What Teens & Tweens Are Really Doing Online); and Dell’s education division. As one of two finalists, I get a new Netbook for the classroom, so that’s pretty neat.
The site explains:
The goal of the award is to recognize a teacher who has overcome these challenges and is inspiring to both students and other educators. Dell’s support for this initiative is part of a longstanding commitment to supporting educators who lead by example, demonstrating for students the power of technology to enhance learning and achievement.
Peace (in the thanks),
Kevin
Yesterday, I pulled out my acoustic guitar and began to fiddle around with some melodies and rhythms. I’ve been wanting to do a bit more on Audacity with layering guitar tracks. Usually, I do my demos with one guitar track and that’s about it (partially because of the limitations of my playing abilities).
But I was inspired to do a bit more and composed this song out of layered acoustic guitar. I tried to add some effects here and there, and doubled up some tracks along with recording single notes. I was trying to explore sopme different ways of creating sounds. I also tried to use the stereo effect here and there. I kind of like it, although it is a bit off in parts. Doh.
Peace (on the tracks),
Kevin
Should I or shouldn’t I? That’s my question right now as I have been asked to be a teacher-leader in an upcoming New Literacies Institute being hosted by our state Department of Education. It certainly seems intriguing and it’s exciting that our state is dipping its toes into New Literacies.
The description of the week-long event, with scattered other activities throughout the year, includes:
To compete in a global information age, students must develop the ability to effectively read and comprehend information on the Internet and to use other information and communication technologies well. Reading comprehension skills such as understanding search results or critically evaluating information laden with social, commercial, and political motives are essential for any student wishing to skillfully comprehend information online for content area learning. So, too, are effective communication skills including e-mail, video, and other digital tools, as well as inquiry models for learning. This Institute will help participants enhance their own skills in these areas and develop effective instructional strategies, using online tools, to promote skill development and academic knowledge acquisition in their students.
Also, on the flier:
Teachers will:
• Develop expertise with teaching the new literacies of online reading comprehension and learning in your grade level or subject area.
• Design and produce video and new media learning products for student learning.
• Adapt innovative social networking environments for use in 21st century classrooms.
• Explore dynamic instructional models for teaching 21st century skills.
• Learn how your class can collaborate with other classrooms around the world.
• Become an instructional leader for change.
• Engage a pioneering community of teacher leaders who continue to collaborate after the Institute.
• Gain access to the latest technology and facilities of the Microsoft New England Research and Development Center in Cambridge, MA
• Have fun!
The institute will be headed by Professor Don Leu, of UCONN, who has extensive work in the field. There are guest keynote speakers (including Sara Kajder Bridget Dalton, and Yong Zhao) and the work of the 10 state-wide teacher leaders, like possibly me, will be to partner up with institute leaders and work with small groups of teachers. Sort of like a helper.
Sounds cool, eh?
BUT, my trepidation is that the Institute takes place during the very last week of our school year, meaning I would miss the last few days of school with the kids I have had all year. I would also miss our Recognition Night ceremony — our formal “good bye” to the kids. I am strugging with this because I want to be part of those events.
So, I am not sure. I am leaning towards the Institute — it’s hard to pass up — but I want to ask some colleagues what they think and get some more feedback from my principal.
Stay tuned …
Peace (in the decisions),
Kevin
I’ve been working with a friend to record a song of mine and documenting the process with my Flip camera. A few weeks ago, I posted the first session and last weekend, I got together with my drummer friend and he helped lay down some drum tracks.
Now, I need to do some more with the keys (or sax) and record the vocals.
Peace (in the process),
Kevin
Yesterday, after our vocabulary quiz, I took my students onto the computers and had them tour around the Longfellow 10 stopmotion movie site. Next week, they will begin their own movies and I want them to get inspired by the work of other students. And, I told them, some of their Figurative Language stopmotion movies might make it to the Longfellow 10 website when they are done.
It was a guided activity, with an easy sheet to help them think a bit about what they were watching, and they were pretty impressed by the movies they saw. I also challenged them to try to find some of the movies last year’s sixth grade class put up at the site, and a few them took that as viewing challenge and had fun with it.
This sheet by a student showed some of the thinking going on as they viewed the movies. It’s OK for them to be critical, because once they start filming their own movies, they will have that in the back of their minds. And they will come to appreciate what they viewed once they realize how tricky it can be to produce a quality movie in stopmotion.
I realized once again, too, what a great resource the LF10 site has become — not only for the stopmotion but also for the wide range of concepts in projects developed by youths for youths. Some of the video streaming got gummed up by all of the wireless computers, so I had them team up, if they could (one of the best investments I ever did: purchasing some dual-headphone jacks that allow two kids to listen or watch at the same time. I’m serious!).
Peace (in the viewing),
Kevin
Tomorrow, I am bringing my little guy to a benefit show that features the wonderful and talented Mo Willems. I just realized this week that Willems now lives in my small city (along with a host of other illustrators, writers and artists) and he is donating his time, and few of his animated shorts, to this event to raise money to revamp the children’s wing of the city library.
Willems has created the Pigeon books, which will bring the giggles to just about any little kid (or big kid with little kid still inside) and the Knuffle Bunny picture books, and more. He has a great sense of humor and his off-kilter stories hit you in the heart as well as the head. They are simple, but great.
As it turns out, I am reading a book by Willems called You Can Never Find a Rickshaw When It Monsoons, which is a day-by-day travel journal from when Willems spent a year in Europe and Asia, traveling mostly on foot and without much money. He drew a comic each day, and years later, he he wrote a short narrative. The comic journal is hilarious, and insightful about an American in different cultures.
Peace (in the cartoon/picture book world),
Kevin
(This infographic comes via Forrester Research and Business Week. Thanks to Free Tech for Teachers for the heads-up)
Peace (in the info),
Kevin
We continue to inch along towards the filming of our stopmotion movies around Figurative Language and my students are raring to go. But not yet. I had then storyboard out their ideas yesterday. I explained to them that these storyboards will become like a “roadmap” for the filming, guiding them along their story.
Here are a few pages of storyboards as a Flickr slideshow:
Peace (in the boards),
Kevin
