Creating a Class Biopoem Podcast with Myna

The other day, as my students were finishing up a Biopoem writing project, we worked together to pull pieces from their work and create a collective Biopoem Podcast that would represent everyone in the class. In the past, I have used my little handheld voice recorder to do this. This year, with my new Interactive Board shining brightly at the front of the room, I decided to do something a bit different.

I decided to use the new audio site, Myna, and allowed students to record and then watch me go through the process of mixing the podcast. They were completely fascinated by the process and a number of them asked for the web address for the site to try on their own (with parent permission, I warned them).

Take a listen to one of the classes:

Class Biopoem Podcast

Myna is part of a free suite of tools from Aviary.Com and it is still in beta. But, it is an interesting alternative to Garageband (and does not require you to be on a Mac), although Myna a bit limited right now in loops that you can use.

In an earlier post, someone asked about the differences between Myna and Audacity.

So, here goes:

Myna is web-based. Audacity is a local program.

Myna has loops. Audacity does not have loops.

Myna limits each live recording to just one minute (meaning you have to divide up a longer podcast). Audacity has no limit to recording time.

Myna allows you to export as MP3 and Wave, as does Audacity (if you have the LAME encoder).

Myna gives you an instant embed code (although the code seems buggy and I had to remix a file a few times and then gave up and used my Box.net to host the files). Audacity — since it is not web-based — does not allow you to embed.

Myna has a pretty design, with color coding and simple drop-and-drag options. Audacity is basic in design and streamlined.

Myna has fewer advanced options for dealing and messing with recorded audio tracks, but more than a enough to create interesting podcasts. Audacity has many levels of tools.

Neither one costs a penny. (love that)

I hope that helps people do some exploring. I think Myna is worth trying out, although for now, I am doing any recording there under my own account, as my students do not have individual emails. The Aviary folks, however, mention they might be developing a school-centered platform, so I will keep an eye on that.

Peace (in the sound),
Kevin

Email and Principal Penn

Yesterday, I received an after-school email from my principal– joking that he noted a resemblance to Principal Penn. If so, that was certainly not intentional (really!). And as I noted in an earlier post, my own principal is as far from the tech integration spectrum as you can possibly be from Principal Penn (although he will be coming along as I develop him further). Where Principal Penn is clearly so out of the loop that you could not imagine such a thing, my boss carries around his Mac laptop to all meetings and urges teachers forward with technology.

I told my own principal the truth: Principal Penn is yet another side of me — the side that sort of wonders about the validity of technology in the classroom and the character reflects the periodic feeling that I am on the wrong side of the curve sometimes. I hope that side of me in my comics gets balanced out by the positive energy of Boolean and Mr. Teach. (OK, so maybe not Urth so much).

Comic feng shui?

Today:

Peace (in the Penn),

Kevin

Day in a Haiku!

dayinsentenceicon

I’m going poetic this week. For Day in a Sentence (which will now become a twice-monthly activity as we share hosting among many bloggers, starting with Bonnie in two weeks), I ask that you consider a haiku reflection of your day, or your week.

Traditional haikus are five-seven-five, but who’s counting? You write your haiku as you see fit.

To contribute, just click on the comment link to this post and I will gather up the haikus and post them together over the weekend.

Here is mine:

Emotional fragile
student almost melted down:
But stress turned to smiles

Peace (in three lines),
Kevin

The Pat Hunter Award

I had the honor this weekend to be given the Patricia Hunter Award for the Western Massachusetts Writing Project. The award is named after one of our site’s founders, and although Pat Hunter passed away before I became part of our network, her spirit remains infused in our site today.

Pat Hunter nurtured teacher leaders and saw things in people that they may not have seen in themselves. She was a mentor and a leader. In a monograph book project that I worked on for a few years for the National Writing Project about the history and inquiry done at our WMWP site, Pat Hunter’s name and legacy came through loud and clear in many of the stories that formed the center of our work.

I am greatly honored, therefore, to have been this year’s recipient of this award and follow in the footsteps of many past recipients whose teaching and leadership I greatly admire. I also took the time during my acceptance to encourage teachers to continue, or begin to, explore multi-modal composition with their students and to use technology as a means for composition in the classroom. I guess I couldn’t miss a chance to stand on the pedestal for a second or two.

Peace (in humility),
Kevin

Developing a K12 Online Conference Presentation

I just got news this weekend that I was selected to be one of the workshop presenters for this year’s K12 Online Conference. Actually, the news filtered out through my network earlier in the week but the official email arrived in my box yesterday. I am part of the “Kicking it up a Notch” group.

http://k12onlineconference.org/?p=389

My presentation is about the Virtual Heroic Journey Project that I do with my sixth graders after they read The Lightning Thief and a graphic novel version of The Odyssey. We use Google Maps and Google Earth to develop their own creative writing assignment in which they are somewhere in the world and must make, like Odysseus, their way home by encountering and battling a series of obstacles and monsters.

So I admit: I had forgotten that I even submitted an idea to the K12 Conference. When my friend, Matt, congratulated me via Twitter, I had to check and see what he was talking about. Doh.

But, I am excited.

This is the second time I have presented — the first time was in a great collaboration with Bonnie around our Collaborative ABC Movie Project that connected teachers around the world as we explored digital storytelling through the concept of an ABC Book.

What’s cool about the K12 Online is that it is free, it is full of interesting presentation, and it is archived forever. Just go to the homepage and you can see links to presentations for every year. Neat.

Peace (in the sharing),

Kevin

Day in a Sentence rocks on

dayinsentenceiconWow! What a turnout of sentences this week for Day in a Sentence as it makes it return to the ‘Net. Thanks to everyone who participated and to those of you who thought about it but ran out of time. And thanks to those of you who are just reading along with me right now (can you hear me?)

Ken sees magic and probably can now breathe easier.

What it is to be on leave, the exams marked, all the projects checked and a clear week ahead, just like the last: magic!

As many of here in the United States are just starting the year, Anne is just ending her year. Have a great break, Anne!

After two weeks of spring break, I am preparing revision, extra notes, correcting outcomes etc for the final three weeks that I have my senior secondary students before their VCE (Victorian Certificate of Education) exams, as this is last term for our school year in Australia.

The world is full of hopefulness.  And it’s a good thing Art knows enough to plan for hope.

I am hoping that if I get behind in my grading really quickly, I will have a lot more time to catch up–a guy can hope!

I can almost feel the energy in Lynn J.’s comments — the active learning commotion of the classroom.

The seventh graders are on the rampage this week, full of questions and comments about absolutely everything!

Yes, Jim, Fridays are nice days.

Wow, It’s Friday. Time to stop and smell the roses.

Ben has his students deep into Hawthornian terrrain.  It sounds deep and exciting there.

My students are chipping away bits and pieces of Hawthorne’s text to reveal characterization.

Good advice here from Shaun. Was this a lesson plan almost gone awry?

If you must leave something to the last moment, be prepared.

Marg‘s thoughts are on the outdoors.

My last week of holidays has involved mowing, pruning, mulching, weeding, planting and watering my garden, which only seems to look this lovely, each set of school holidays. :-)

sara may be leaning in a little close to the plants. just let them be, sara. just let them be. (ha)

it skeeves me out that the spores on the back of ferns on my desk are the ferns’ way of getting it on; i feel like i should be getting dinner and a movie if i’m this close to something so personal.

Ok — Amy — tap into the rebels of the classroom (and hope they don’t see you as the English Monarchy)

As we begin talking about the American Revolution, I am hoping to relate their teenage rebellions or revolutions and feeling about rules to the colonists feelings about the British!

Alex‘s poetic words mask an adventurous spirit! Have fun in those woods!

Experiencing synapse-lapse, my brain flashes back greenery, scent of smoke, crisp air, and rugged mountains, making the classroom seem suddenly claustrophobic; I am so looking forward to four days of wilderness mini-break, starting tonight!

Vacation … vacation … vacation. Come on and say it with me: vacation. It’s what Illya is needing right about now (anyone else?)

It seems hardly a month gone by since the beginning of the school year and yet I’m already looking forward to the next vacation!

(Luckily, in Switzerland we have a two week vacation in the fall after only 6 weeks of school!)

Oooo. A bit of rhyming in Delaine‘s lines.

School is in full swing, with all the madness that brings.

My head was spinning a bit with the math here as Nina talks about the demographics of her class. I love that the diversity is celebrated, Nina.

My intermediate ESL class at the University of Maryland includes twelve students, speaking six different languages, from three continents and eight countries! I am in heaven.

Chocolate cake, Cynthia? Or ice cream cake? Or?

Homecoming week is over; SACS training is over; the rest of the week should be “a piece of cake”!

As the father of three boys, I have made a mental note of Mary H‘s list here. Maybe you should, too. And I can’t help but wonder about the backstory behind this sentence.

Tomatoes, superglue, duct tape, bubble solution–things to keep away from three teenage brothers.

Gosh, Connie, your sentence is beautiful on so many levels.

Weaving a fabric of knowledge in my fifth grade class; linking all subjects in a huge tapestry that has “change” as its central theme.

Gail P and I are starting to speak the same language — which is good, since we are colleagues. But I think that this year’s push into Literacy and other areas will be helpful for teachers like Gail (Kindergarten) and me (Sixth grade) to converse about our school curriculum in meaningful ways. Right, Gail?

Communities of practice and standard based report cards are helping teachers communicate about how we can all assess with the same tools, and benchmarks.

Tracy had experiential learning on her mind — something I wrote about in my own Day in a Sentence the other day.

I’m jealous of Kevin though remembering community building with our students as we zip lined on the first day and apple picked last week, also thinking that community building is an ongoing process and can’t end when we pack up at the end of a fun day.

Mary gives a good recipe for creativity in the digital age.

Word and images, images and words, add music and narration for a digital composition in Photo Story 3.

May the End soon arrive for you, Cheryl, so that you may begin again.

Our students and teachers are in a holding pattern while waiting for our state wide testing to come to an end.

Peace (to all of you in this interesting sentence community),
Kevin

Introducing: Principal Penn

First, let me say that this character is NOT inspired by my own principal. Mine is hip with technology and a brave explorer and an avid advocate. But I felt that Mr. Teach is going to need an adult foil as the Boolean Squared comic progresses, and what better foil than a principal who is clueless to what is going on with Boolean, Urth and others.

Peace (in the hallways),
Kevin