Making the WikiStix Dance with Stopmotion

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This is my last reflective post from the Dublin Literacy Conference, which took place in Ohio last weekend. Along with working with teachers, I was asked to lead a family session, too, which I readily agreed to. I love that kids and their parents are invited to attend portions of a conference for teachers, and so I suggested a session around stopmotion movie making.

Well, there was a big response, to put it mildly (about 125-150 people in the session), and the music room was packed with kids and parents. Luckily, I had some idea of the numbers beforehand and while I knew I wanted to make a movie before their eyes in the hour that we had together, I mulled over some possibilities.

How do you get a lot of kids involved in making a movie in a short time? My answer was to use bendable WikiStix, which we handed out to kids as they entered the room and gave instructions to create some strange character. Some of the kids looked at me strange, others didn’t say a word, and others asked for further instructions. Just like my own classroom (including the strange looks)!

And so, using my webcam, a freeware program and Moviemaker, we made a Wikistix Conga line stopmotion movie in a short amount of time.

I used a black music stand that was in the room for the background, which worked well for the bright colored creatures but not so well for the dark ones. I tried to talk my way through the process, which everyone watched on the screen. I had kids line up with their creations (and put a student at my computer to take the frame shots), and we moved the creatures across our “set” one frame at a time. I think they were pretty excited to be involved in a movie, but they also got a sense of the time and patience it takes to make a movie, too (a valuable lesson).

I had two kids come up and voice the title and the credits and now the movie is part of my Making Stopmotion Movie website resource, with a link for the kids who were there to download a version of the video.

They asked some great questions, too, such as how long does it take to make a short movie? What materials do you need? What advice would I give?

What was great was when I asked who might go home and try to make a movie, almost every hand in the room shot up. And many parents came up to me afterwards, asking follow-up questions. (A lot of the kids wanted to know where they could buy Wikistix, which are perfect for stopmotion, I have found. Luckily, one smart vendor had them for sale out in the conference hall).

Wouldn’t it be cool if even half of the kids there made a movie?

Peace (in the frames),

Kevin

Slice of Life with Two Writing Teachers

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My friends, Stacey and Ruth, run a blog that you just have to follow, particularly if you are a writing teacher. Their work at Two Writing Teachers is inspirational (and they are working on a book right now, so that’s even better) and you are sure to come away with great ideas for the classroom.

Two years ago, and then again last year, I joined them for a month-long project called Slice of Life Challenge, in which they ask followers of their blog and others to write a bit about a moment in their day, post to a blog and then link off Two Writing Teachers (although I suppose you probably could also write in their comment slot for that day, too, if you are blog-less … but don’t be blog-less! Create one for this project, if you need). My Slices are still archived here on my blog, which is pretty neat (see for yourself).

They call it a challenge because they are hoping that participants will write a Slice of Life post every day in the month of March. And here it is, almost March already. There are gifts for folks who complete a post every day and kudos to those who try to do every day but don’t quite succeed. And even if you pop around to read the other Slices, and add a comment here and there, the value is that your online writing community expands pretty significantly during Slice of Life.

Plus, Stacey and Ruth are cool. So, there’s that.

You can read more information here by Stacey and Ruth about the Slice of Life idea.

Peace (in the moments),
Kevin

Which would you choose? Invisibility or Flight?

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I know this is a strange post, but I was recently listening to a fascinating radio piece by John Hodgeman for This American Life (the entire show was about superheroes). Hodgeman went around, asking people to choose between two superpowers: Invisibility or Flight. And then, he asked, what would you do with that power? It was so interesting what he discovered.
So, I figured, why not ask my friends the same question. Please take this two-question poll and pass it along your networks, too. I’ll share the results on another day.


Peace (in the powers),
Kevin

Our No-Cost Tech for Teachers event

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If you are part of the Pioneer Valley in Western Massachusetts and you want to have a little “play time” with technology tools that don’t cost a dime, then consider joining us in a few weeks for a few hours.

The flier and registration form is here.

We’ll be exploring sites like Glogster, Wallwisher and more and reflect upon the possibilities for the classroom. We’ve kept the cost low and there is room for all technology users — from beginners on up.

I hope to see you there!

Peace (in the sharing),
Kevin

When a Whole School Blogs

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(Note: this is cross-posted over at the NWP Walkabout site, too).

This is a podcast reflection of a conversation that I had with Tim Tyson after the Dublin Literacy Conference had ended and we were all at dinner. I asked Tyson about his old middle school, where he (as principal) had every teacher in the building reflecting on classroom practice and activities via blogs at least once a week. I was most interested in what he discovered and how he helped reluctant teachers along.

Listen to my podcast reflections

Peace,
Kevin

Thoughts about Dublin Lit Conference

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(this is adapted from a post I wrote for a NWP blog)

“The gifted educator of the 21st Century is you — the precious teacher in the classroom.” – Tim Tyson

I’ll give Tim Tyson this: he can give an inspiring presentation.
Tyson (http://drtimtyson.com/) was the keynote speaker at the Dublin Literacy Conference in Dublin, Ohio, and if his job was to get this crowd of about 500 teachers thinking deep about the possibilities of technology and new media in our schools, he succeeded. Tyson arrived on stage just after an incredible group of student Japanese Taiko drummers created a joyful roar of rhythms and chanting that woke us all up to the beauty of student creativity.
Once the drums stopped beating and Tyson took the stage, you could barely hear a sound in the room as Tyson first showed us how he was podcasting, screencasting and using such tools as an online polling site (http://www.polleverywhere.com/) that participants in the audience used their cellphones to vote with, with live data spilling onto the large screen in front of us.

But it was the powerful stories of students using technology for learning, for reaching a global audience through research on important topics, and for pushing themselves beyond the normal expectations that had me (and others) hooked on the message. He didn’t mince words either, letting us know in plain language that the time is now for teachers to be tapping into emerging technologies that are central to the life of our students.
He said it is not enough to have the latest equipment in the room. We must also be thoughtful in guiding students to use it for learning and not just for creating random projects with no substance.
“The hard part (of using technology) is not having to plug in the interactive whiteboard,” Tyson said. “The hard part of our job is envisioning instructional practice in a completely different way than we have ever envisioned it before. That’s the challenge.”
And he noted that while assessment of learning is critical, “Too often, grading kills learning,” and he urged us as teachers to find way to measure learning that is meaningful for the students, so they feel empowered and supported along the way.
“The gifted educator of the 21st Century is you — the precious teacher in the classroom,” Tyson said. “We’re living in a once-in-a-lifetime opportunity and these don’t come around too often. It would be a shame to waste it.”
I hope Tyson’s message got through, and I think it did.
In the sessions where I presented, I tried to remind folks that it is OK to take incremental steps forward with technology, as long as the steps are being taken. We owe it to our students to find ways to engage our young people with technology, and for many teachers, events like the Dublin Literacy Conference may be the only real place where they will hear that message in a way that resonates as loud and as powerful as those Taiko drums.
You can almost hear the beat of innovation from way over here.

Peace (in the rhythm),
Kevin

Taking a Chance on Tech

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I am in Dublin, Ohio, in the hours before the start of the Dublin Literacy Conference. Last night, I had a wonderful dinner with Mary Lee and Franki, and also my new blogging friend, Tony, but it was a conversation on the way into Dublin from the Columbus airport that sticks out with me this morning. The organizers of this amazing conference — which is in its 21th year — have really put the focus on technology this year, using the push from NCTE into New Literacies as their guide post.

The keynote speaker this morning will be Tim Tyson, who has done some amazing things with technology when he was a middle school principal (including having all teachers blog and using moviemaking as a core element of the curriculum). Many of the sessions, including the ones I am leading around digital picture books, webcomics and stopmotion movies, have some technology element to them.

And the organizers have set up a “tech playground” area where teachers can wander in and play around with a Kindle, an iTouch, Flip cameras and more in a non-threatening fun environment. Plus, I believe there might be some student work on display that shows technology in action.

I think this is all wonderful, and important for teachers to see, but I know some of the organizers are crossing their fingers, hoping that it is not too much technology for the teachers coming to the conference. A good number are from outlying rural areas, where technology may not be prevalent, and the last thing you want to do is to alienate your base (see Pres. Obama for details on how that goes for ya).

As a presenter, this is good to know. I hope to pitch my presentations to the middle of the spectrum and try to help teachers see how you might get from here to there, even if it is baby steps. What we can’t lose sight of is that the use of technology and media is part of the lives of our students, and sticking our heads in the sand and hoping it will go away or never enter our classrooms just won’t work (this seemed to be the approach of a large regional literacy conference I went to in Providence in November). So, I salute the Dublin folks for being brave and I hope the teachers here today take advantage of the opportunity to see ways to using technology to enhance student achievement and engagement.

Peace (in Ohio),
Kevin

Supporting Writing in Content Areas

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(This is an edited version of a blog post I wrote yesterday for another site)

A roomful of teachers in various content areas — ELA, Math, Science, Social Studies, Technology, etc. — came together this evening to talk about ways that our Western Massachusetts Writing Project can support writing across the curriculum. This meeting is part of a grant that our site has received around Writing Across the Curriculum. We had a nice dinner and then worked in small groups on a number of questions before sharing out what we were discovering from each other.

In my small group, we identified a few areas of concern with our students:

  • Non-fiction reading and writing seem to be an overall area of weakness and our students need more support in interpreting non-fiction text and then, analyzing and reflecting on that text;
  • Our students need to do a better job (or we teachers need to do a better job) of transferring the skills they are learning in the ELA classrooms around writing skills in the other content areas. They don’t leave their “writers’ hat” on the hook when they leave the ELA classroom, but students need to be taught to remember and use those skills;
  • Our students need more help with interpretative skills, going deeper with their writing in all areas, and really tapping into the “writing to learn” mentality.

We also talked about how our writing project can help teachers in these areas:

  • Develop strategies for content-area teachers who are afraid of correcting writing (or don’t see the value in writing skills in their content);
  • Refashion the identity of our writing project so that it is welcoming to all teachers, not just ELA teachers because we have “writing” in our title;
  • Show the connections of reading and writing skills in the “real world” or marketplace for students;
  • Showcase more digital media and use of technology to engage students in all content areas, and get them writing and composing even when they don’t quite realize that is what they are doing.

And this was just a tip of the discussions around the table.

Peace (in the talks),
Kevin

NWP and MacArthur Foundation, continued

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Last year, the National Writing Project received a grant from the MacArthur Foundation to develop resources and engage in conversations about the integration of technology into our concepts of writing, and then bringing those ideas out to other teachers. In November, we held a large one-day event that brought together all sorts of smart people to talk about the implications of digital media in the lives of young writers, and what such a move looks like in the classroom.

I consider myself lucky to be part of the project known as Digital Is … and I just saw on the RSS wire this morning that the MacArthur Foundation has graciously extended the grant funding (translating into $1.1 million in grants over two years).

Here is a blurb from the news:

The focus of the two-year grant will be on developing and disseminating resources and professional development opportunities for teachers, building processes and rubrics for assessing multimodal student work, and collaborating with other organizations working to support young people in using new digital technologies. Established in 2008, “Digital Is” enables local writing project sites across the country to conduct workshops and develop resources for teachers in all 50 states.

I’m excited about the entire Digital Is concept and I have been working with teachers here in the Western Massachusetts Writing Project around developing resources for a future Digital Is web-based home.

Here is a video of a discussion that took place back in November as the culmination of the Digital Is conference:


Peace (in the digital world),
Kevin

Digital Writing Matters

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Troy Hicks (of the Chippewa River Writing Project and author of The Digital Writing Workshop) has put together an interesting slideshow for a presentation around a book he has been working on with the National Writing Project called Because Digital Writing Matters (a spin on an earlier NWP book called Because Writing Matters).

As with most everything that Troy does, this slideshow deserves a look, and the book (not yet published, I don’t think) should be another keeper in our collection of tomes laying out the foundation for the New Literacy movement in the classroom, particularly around composition with media and technology.

WSRA 2010 – Because Digital Writing Matters

View more presentations from hickstro.

Peace (in the slides),
Kevin