Here is the video that I created for digital storytelling, edited in iMovie and shot by my wonderful wife (you may hear our kids in the background a couple times). I did this in class, so some of the timing is a little off because I was trying to keep the sound low so as not to disturb anyone, but overall I was glad to play around with iMovie and figure out how some things worked. I'm not sure why the "album cover intro" comes up twice, I must have clicked something twice or something. I think this would be really fun for kids, and easy to use too. We had a great time making videos in high school, and I'm hoping to work it into my classes somehow.
Saturday, October 31, 2009
Saturday, October 10, 2009
My DJ goes wiki-wiki
Here is the wiki I created:
http://comm9speech.pbworks.com/
I created it for the speech unit we do in my 9th grade class, and I decided it would be a good spot for students to share their ideas about how to give good speeches. It includes tips for researching, writing, and all kinds of stuff. I think this is great because kids may have ideas for how to memorize something, for example, that I've never thought of, and that may help another member of the class. They can give each other ideas outside of sitting in class. I think this is also way less daunting for kids. We already sort of talked about this, but the kid who doesn't want to raise his hand in class may be an awesome contributor on a wiki site.
The other part of my wiki is that I would take the groups for their radio show project and assign each of them a genre of radio show like mystery, comedy, drama, sci-fi, etc. Each group would then create a page for themselves and write a short description of each genre and its characteristics. Then the other groups can go and read about each one while deciding what they want to do for their own radio show.
Finally, I have a section for resources where kids can find examples of old radio shows. They can post links to websites that have audio files or scripts and things like that, and I think that would be a really good way to help all the students find good resources when planning their radio show.
http://comm9speech.pbworks.com/
I created it for the speech unit we do in my 9th grade class, and I decided it would be a good spot for students to share their ideas about how to give good speeches. It includes tips for researching, writing, and all kinds of stuff. I think this is great because kids may have ideas for how to memorize something, for example, that I've never thought of, and that may help another member of the class. They can give each other ideas outside of sitting in class. I think this is also way less daunting for kids. We already sort of talked about this, but the kid who doesn't want to raise his hand in class may be an awesome contributor on a wiki site.
The other part of my wiki is that I would take the groups for their radio show project and assign each of them a genre of radio show like mystery, comedy, drama, sci-fi, etc. Each group would then create a page for themselves and write a short description of each genre and its characteristics. Then the other groups can go and read about each one while deciding what they want to do for their own radio show.
Finally, I have a section for resources where kids can find examples of old radio shows. They can post links to websites that have audio files or scripts and things like that, and I think that would be a really good way to help all the students find good resources when planning their radio show.
Saturday, October 3, 2009
A long post all about my honeymoon
Okay, first, here's my flickr slideshow:
I chose this set of pictures because our wedding/honeymoon was awesome, and we had so much fun. I think what brings all of these pictures together is beauty. From the beauty of creation to artistic beauty to my beautiful wife :-) I look at these pictures and remember how much fun we had, how great our wedding was, and how different our life was just four years ago. To others who look at these pictures, I think they would a few things. First, they would see two people who love each other and had a great time on their honeymoon and are happy together. I also think they would see the beauty of the North Shore, because I don't think enough Minnesotans take advantage of what we have in this state. Finally, I think people would see that you don't have to go to some expensive, exotic locale to have an awesome honeymoon. A lot of our friends went to Hawaii or Puerto Rico or places like that, but we simply couldn't afford that. So we chose Grand Marais and could not have been happier. Those memories will last a lifetime, and I wouldn't do it any differently.
In my 9th grade class, I do a lesson on merging storytelling with pictures using a story called "Insomnia" and the famous painting "Nighthawks." The students have to find pictures and tell their story without knowing anything about the picture. I think voicethread would be cool to use because then they could use multiple pictures really easily and they could have multiple people telling different parts of the story. It adds an entirely new dimension to their creative process.
Okay, here's my voicethread. Hopefully this works. I had problems with embedding it, so it's just a link. Same pictures, but with commentary!
http://voicethread.com/share/645905/
I chose this set of pictures because our wedding/honeymoon was awesome, and we had so much fun. I think what brings all of these pictures together is beauty. From the beauty of creation to artistic beauty to my beautiful wife :-) I look at these pictures and remember how much fun we had, how great our wedding was, and how different our life was just four years ago. To others who look at these pictures, I think they would a few things. First, they would see two people who love each other and had a great time on their honeymoon and are happy together. I also think they would see the beauty of the North Shore, because I don't think enough Minnesotans take advantage of what we have in this state. Finally, I think people would see that you don't have to go to some expensive, exotic locale to have an awesome honeymoon. A lot of our friends went to Hawaii or Puerto Rico or places like that, but we simply couldn't afford that. So we chose Grand Marais and could not have been happier. Those memories will last a lifetime, and I wouldn't do it any differently.
In my 9th grade class, I do a lesson on merging storytelling with pictures using a story called "Insomnia" and the famous painting "Nighthawks." The students have to find pictures and tell their story without knowing anything about the picture. I think voicethread would be cool to use because then they could use multiple pictures really easily and they could have multiple people telling different parts of the story. It adds an entirely new dimension to their creative process.
Okay, here's my voicethread. Hopefully this works. I had problems with embedding it, so it's just a link. Same pictures, but with commentary!
http://voicethread.com/share/645905/
Tuesday, September 29, 2009
Thursday, September 24, 2009
Bubblus map
This is still a really new idea for me, but I tried to brainstorm the different parts to the project I would need to do and how I could make it something to "turn in." I'm hoping to do a podcast of my own instead of writing, and that I could get a few students to sit in and talk about the experience.
Wednesday, September 23, 2009
Vlog Response
I watched the 3-minute egg vlog on the Ivey Awards for Twin Cities Theater. It was really interesting, and I have very little, in fact almost no, experience with vlogging, so this was new to me. I feel like the audience is people from the Twin Cities who want to keep up with arts events in these cities. There was no explanation of who these people were or where they were from, so the creator assumes that the audience already knows that. I know who Dudley Riggs is, so to see him speaking after receiving his Lifetime Achievement Award was really cool, but to somebody who has never heard of him, they wouldn't think anything of it.
Three things struck me. Two regarding how the vlog was put together, and one about the content.
I noticed really peppy jazz music in the background when the vlog started, and I feel like that was done on purpose so as to establish a fun, artsy mood. Jazz is generally seen as the pure American art form, so the connection to the theater awards is obvious. I feel like jazz is also connected to the "out-on-the-town, kool-kat-nightclub, smoke-and-whiskey, this-is-where-it's-at" scene, so it puts people in the mood like they're part of the in crowd.
Next, when they interviewed people, often it was done outside at night with the lit up Minneapolis skyline in the background. That view just gives a good sense of pride in the city and what we're about, and how "yeah! we're like New York with a happenin' night life!" or something like that.
Finally, there were multiple women who cried when receiving their award. Really? I mean, that's great that you won and it's an accomplishment and everything, but really? It's an Ivey, not an Oscar. You don't have to go all "Halle Berry" on us.
Three things struck me. Two regarding how the vlog was put together, and one about the content.
I noticed really peppy jazz music in the background when the vlog started, and I feel like that was done on purpose so as to establish a fun, artsy mood. Jazz is generally seen as the pure American art form, so the connection to the theater awards is obvious. I feel like jazz is also connected to the "out-on-the-town, kool-kat-nightclub, smoke-and-whiskey, this-is-where-it's-at" scene, so it puts people in the mood like they're part of the in crowd.
Next, when they interviewed people, often it was done outside at night with the lit up Minneapolis skyline in the background. That view just gives a good sense of pride in the city and what we're about, and how "yeah! we're like New York with a happenin' night life!" or something like that.
Finally, there were multiple women who cried when receiving their award. Really? I mean, that's great that you won and it's an accomplishment and everything, but really? It's an Ivey, not an Oscar. You don't have to go all "Halle Berry" on us.
Saturday, September 19, 2009
it's the FI-NAL COUNT-DOWWWWWWN
I'm really not sure what to do with my final project, but I have the seedlings of a couple of ideas, at least.
First, I teach Sports Literature, and we do a create-a-team project in which students, with a partner, create a sports team and then do a lot of work around it, like advertisements, game summaries, logos, etc. Usually they just turn it all in to me as a big packet, but I'm wondering if they could set it up as a website of some kind and have everything on there. Then I could go and look at everything they've done, and so could their classmates. I'm not sure what type of website would be ideal for this, and would allow for responses to be put on there, but it's an interesting idea. I think it would be great for the students to be able to link to outside stuff when writing about why they chose a particular sport or team name or stadium name or whatever for their city (cities chosen at random). Maybe I could just make this one aspect of the project so as not to overwhelm the students, especially those with limited computer availability.
The other option I've thought of is to do a simple case study of what happens in my class this fall. I have changed the paper process in my room. First, all papers are uploaded to my Moodle website where I can download them and read them. The feedback I give uses track changes in Microsoft Word, and my comments are typed onto the rubric. All of this is then sent back to the student via e-mail or directly on the Moodle site if that works. I'm also considering giving audio files with my comments to the students when they get their papers back. Also on the Moodle site we do News forums where students, in groups, find news stories pertinent to the things we are talking about in class and post them for the rest of their group to read and respond. Since this is the first time I've tried either of these things, I could simply study how it worked, how the students responded, what advantages or disadvantages I've found, how it affected our "live" classroom discussions, etc.
I'm not going to lie, I'm not really sure where to go with these ideas as far as research, networking, or things like that, I'm kind of at a loss on those topics. But hopefully over the course of this semester I'll figure it out.
First, I teach Sports Literature, and we do a create-a-team project in which students, with a partner, create a sports team and then do a lot of work around it, like advertisements, game summaries, logos, etc. Usually they just turn it all in to me as a big packet, but I'm wondering if they could set it up as a website of some kind and have everything on there. Then I could go and look at everything they've done, and so could their classmates. I'm not sure what type of website would be ideal for this, and would allow for responses to be put on there, but it's an interesting idea. I think it would be great for the students to be able to link to outside stuff when writing about why they chose a particular sport or team name or stadium name or whatever for their city (cities chosen at random). Maybe I could just make this one aspect of the project so as not to overwhelm the students, especially those with limited computer availability.
The other option I've thought of is to do a simple case study of what happens in my class this fall. I have changed the paper process in my room. First, all papers are uploaded to my Moodle website where I can download them and read them. The feedback I give uses track changes in Microsoft Word, and my comments are typed onto the rubric. All of this is then sent back to the student via e-mail or directly on the Moodle site if that works. I'm also considering giving audio files with my comments to the students when they get their papers back. Also on the Moodle site we do News forums where students, in groups, find news stories pertinent to the things we are talking about in class and post them for the rest of their group to read and respond. Since this is the first time I've tried either of these things, I could simply study how it worked, how the students responded, what advantages or disadvantages I've found, how it affected our "live" classroom discussions, etc.
I'm not going to lie, I'm not really sure where to go with these ideas as far as research, networking, or things like that, I'm kind of at a loss on those topics. But hopefully over the course of this semester I'll figure it out.
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