Author Archives: dogtrax

Cellular Mitosis Digital Picture Books

Date
Posted by
Comments0

Today, I began the initial work with my sixth graders on creating digital picture books that will integrate knowledge of Cellular Mitosis into a fictional adventure story. They will be using MS Powerpoint as their platform, with animation, audio, hyperlinks and video embedded into the books.

Today, we looked over Magic School Bus books and talked about the use of layered literacy (I didn’t use that term, of course, but that was what I was getting at), and then we watched a video of one of the Magic School Bus shows, and we talked a bit about the difference in media. I want them to think critically as viewers, so that we can then make the shift to critical composers/writers.

Tomorrow, I hand out a packet with instructions and they will begin some initial brainstorming on story ideas and maybe even push into some storyboarding. I will even show a few samples of digital books from past years. In the past, my students had more freedom for curriculum topics, but I am working more closely with my science teacher partner this year to get deeper into understanding mitosis, so we’ll see how things fare as we move along.

Here are some math books, turned into videos, from a few years ago:

Peace (in pictures),
Kevin

More Poems and Podcasts

Date
Posted by
Comments0

Somehow, I am still writing and recording a poetry podcast every day over at Bud the Teacher’s blog, although I have to admit that it feels as I am forcing more than a few (and that I am in a friendly competitive tangle with fellow poet, Ken Allan, as he and I are the regular contributors — way to go, Ken!).

Here are a few of my poems from this past week, although it may be helpful to remember that these are inspired by photographs that Bud is providing. I hope they can stand on their own, but how knows …

Fried Like Chicken
(listen to the poem)

This heat came suddenly,
so we’re in the oven right about now,
wondering when the cold might snap back
into place —
even as we know this change is exactly
what we had been hoping for
and to wish otherwise seems like
Sunday morning blasphemy.

Justice Served
(Listen to the poem)

When the gavel talks,
the world falls silent
but what happens to justice
when no one is watching?
Is the law an invisible backbone
that keeps us standing straight
or just another broken authority figure
to be ignored when the lights go down?
You decide,
as I take minutes from my squeaky chair
just outside the circle.

Colored Pencils
(Listen to the poem)

You presume me: green–
light and soft on the spring grass beneath the warming sun,
when in fact I am red,
dripping dark with the dried blood of effort and exertion —
while you, blue,
drink in the ocean’s vast horizon stretched out before us.
Here in this space,
I compliment you and you, me,
even though the color-blind few of us
assume these shades of difference don’t really matter.
They do,
for you remain my favorite hue.

Peace (in poems),
Kevin

We Find Love — a song about love

Date
Posted by
Comments2

I am really happy with this particular new song, which is part of the storu/poem/song cycle I am working on (OK, so I need to come up with a catchy name for this thing). I was trying to find a way to end the whole story on a positive note, in which the main character re-connects with his real love as they both near the end of the their lives and fate brings them back together. This song — We Find Love — captures that positive energy of love tying us to others, I think, and so I made this video with Animoto after a simple recording with a mic and Audacity.

Peace (and love),
Kevin

Your day in 140 characters or less

Date
Posted by
Comments0

This week, Day in a Sentence becomes all a-twitter as Jo takes over a guest host with the theme of Day in a Twitter. This means that your sentence is going to be limited to just 140 characters or less. If you don’t Twitter or don’t even want to think in terms of Twitter, that’s OK, too — just write a short, concise Day in a Sentence and head on over to Jo’s Blog — Mrs. Hawe — and add your reflection to the mix.

And if you are someone who keeps hearing about Twitter but you’re not quite sure what it is, here is a neat video explanation:

See you over at Jo’s place!

Peace (in sharing in short bursts),
Kevin
PS — you can find me on twitter, too, at http://twitter.com/dogtrax

Everyone’s a Comic …

Date
Posted by
Comments0

This is vacation week and my older boys have been working with a neighbor friend to create their own “newspaper” of events in our ‘hood. It’s been fun to watch them talk about what they will report on (creating a new bike path through our back woods, a profile of a neighbor who promotes baseball, the ‘dirt pile’ on a neighbor’s yard, etc.) My older son worked on a few comics yesterday that we will be putting up on his blog — Crazy Cartoonz — in the next few days. He did the layout on ComicLife and then he drew the artwork by hand, and I just laughed at his comics.

And just for comparison between dad and son, here is today’s Boolean Squared, in which Urth is trying to figure out which tech pioneer to do his research project on and Boolean takes a nice dig at teachers in the “lounge”:

Click on the comics to get the larger versions
(PS — the follow-up to this comic will be Urth creating an entry on Wikipedia about their beloved teacher, Mr. Teach, and causing a bit of … well … concern).
Peace (on the funny pages),
Kevin

Envisioning a Digital Writing Resource and other creative ventures

Date
Posted by
Comments4

I’m taking a bit of a break from blogging because I have been working on a few different projects that have me otherwise engaged. All of them are pretty exciting, I think, although for different reasons. And I continue to blog small poems/podcasts every day over at Bud’s blog site, where he is posting daily pictures as inspiration for poetry. It’s been a lot of fun and challenging, too. The poems are pretty rough but I am enjoying the ideas running through them and it is fascinating to think about photos as inspiration for writing.

This past weekend, I joined a group of other teachers in the National Writing Project to begin planning a future online space to showcase ways in which technology and writing are coming together in meaningful ways for students. This is not going to be a “how to” site, but a “why do it” and “what does it all mean” site for sharing and reflecting. The philosophy behind the concept is to design a portal and insight into projects, with reflections. The conceit is that we are “beyond the moment” of technology making an impact on learning and now we need to understand what is going on with it. The NWP is a partner with the MacArthur Foundation on this venture, so there are many exciting connections to be made with other MacArthur partners in the future.

I am working on a prototype of a resource around last year’s Many Voices for Darfur project, in which my students joined others to use technology (podcasting, images, videos, etc.) for social action. As I go back to that time, I realize now just how powerful it was for my students as they joined hundreds of others from around the world to advocate for peace in the Sudan.

Meanwhile, on a personal musical note, a friend and I are in the midst of developing an entire “song cycle” story that is a bit hard to explain, but it is a big project that tells the life of a man through the use of poetry, with songs as part of it all, as he struggles to connect with the world, falls in and out of love, and then comes to terms with life. It stretches from childhood to the end of his life. We are thinking of this as a multimedia production, although what that will look like we can’t quite say yet. It’s been a great source of inspiration to be writing the poems of this story and also, the songs. In the past two weeks, I have composed about eight new songs for this project and I can “see” the whole thing before us, even if I can’t quite articulate it yet.

So, how about you? What have you been up to?

Peace (in sharing),

Kevin

The Quidditch Rap Song

Date
Posted by
Comments6

Today is the Quidditch Tournament in our school. A few years ago, I wrote a song to celebrate our game and last week, I updated it, using a music loop software for the music. Then, I made a music video. Yesterday, I had all of my students listen to it and I had all 80 of them help me sing the chorus. Yeah — it was messy, but messy fun.

Here is the video and then below, you can listen to the song with my students singing the chorus:

Listen to the Q Rap with Students

Peace (in flying snitches),
Kevin

Off to California for NWP

Date
Posted by
Comments2

Tomorrow morning, I am off to California for a weekend technology retreat with the National Writing Project. It’s a long way to go but I bet the discussions and work will be most interesting, as I am part of a group of teachers who are working on developing technology resources through a program partnership with NWP and the MacArthur Foundation, and others. This is pretty exciting work. Our Western Massachusetts Writing Project has proposed developing resources around some main themes:

  • using technology for social justice
  • using voice (podcasting, etc)
  • assessing digital media in the classroom

I don’t know what the actual resources will look like at this point (thus, the retreat) but I expect it will be a way for teachers to engage their students with writing and technology on many levels and provide a foothold for them to do so in the classroom. I am being joined by a member of my WMWP Technology Team and in California, there will be teams from other sites. It will be great to connect with them and socialize (of course) and wander around Berkeley again. The weather looks nice, too (bonus!).

Here is one dilemma: I hate bringing my PC with me. It’s too heavy and I am too cheap to buy a new one. I do have my little green XO and I think, for the first time, I am going to use is as my primary computer for a business-related trip. I wonder how it will be? I know the small keyboard will slow me down and there are other limitations, but it will also allow me to see if it can be depended upon as a real tool and not just a fun technology toy (I know it is more than that, of course).

Peace (in travel),
Kevin

Writing Poems with Bud

Date
Posted by
Comments0

I’d like to toss out some thanks to Bud the Teacher for giving me daily poetry inspiration with his photographs. I’ve been enjoying the experience. Here are a few poems from the past week that I have written that I still like a few days later:

Nighttime Cleaning
(listen to the podcast)

Some nights,
I’d like to hang you out to dry
with the clothes
when you come home all wet
with whiskey and beer
and laughter from your podium at the bar
while I console the kids in their nightmare deliriums
and use the remote to talk with
as the wind brings in life from the streets
through our open windows.

Oh, Golden Saxophone
(listen to the podcast)

Oh, deep moaning gold
you delight me with your voice
gentle spirits pushing up from within
blasting notes begin
to tell the story of dancing ideas
that can’t remain on the page

Your reed tastes of the forest
your keys click with rhythm
your pads hold in and let go
like a heartbeat to the pulse of time

In the hands of some, you shimmer
along the tops of the melody lines
in a freeflow improvisation tapping into something unknown;
In others, you follow the rules —
straight, narrow, perfect —
and deviate not one iota from what the composer
has envisioned.

Oh, saxophone, you are a wild beast
in my hands
and I mull the possibilities of what might emerge
when I place you to my lips
and blow the world a kiss.

Infinity Feelings
(listen to the podcast)

The blue hue of swirls
forces my hand –
I must admit:
doubt;
fear;
longing inside me where the facade crumbles —
the only voice is mine
and it only knows truth.

i am the white blanket
(listen to the podcast)

i am the cold:
the chill that comes with spring;
the frost that covers you
so that you lay quietly dormant,
expectant for release,
only to be told to wait, wait, wait;
i hesitate,
knowing that once the snow has melted,
the ice removed,
you will come into your own without me
and our roles reversed — i will be gone,
no longer necessary —
and that, i cannot even begin to fathom
beneath this white blanket
we share together

I hope you find time in your days to write or read poetry, and not just this month but throughout the entire year.

Peace (in poems),
Kevin

A poetic vacation for Day in a Sentence

Date
Posted by
Comments0

I am off to California this weekend for a technology retreat with the National Writing Project, and I have a nutty few days ahead (we play Quidditch tomorrow!) so I am giving Day in a Sentence a little poetic vacation. Why poetic? Because I am hoping some of you may venture over to Bud the Teacher’s site, where he has been posting interesting photographs every day to inspire poems from his readers.

I urge you to take a look and add your own poem this week in lieu of Day in a Sentence. Sure, make your poem your day in a sentence if that makes sense for you. Write a poem. I know you can do it.

HEAD TO BUD’S SITE

Peace (in poems),
Kevin