Smart kids!

So, we have been digital storytelling for three weeks now. The kids are trying new things and asking if they can add pictures, sound, and music. I am still apprehensive when a student has their hand up because I don't have a clue most of the time.....


I did help a student when he couldn't get sound through his headset... he was plugged into the mic jack and not the headphone jack.... hee hee.

Kirk was wandering around helping kids and he noticed that kids were not citing their sources in the right format.... frustrating... he taught (again) a mini lesson on citing sources.... I was frustrated, the kids were frustrated, it felt like we were going backwards. I did not want this to take another three weeks. Anyways, I knew if we were going to push the kids to have perfection on their sources cited page then that better be on the rubric (which I already had made up and shared with the students)... so I am changing my rubric to include this outcome (which is not what I was intending on focusing on (writing process - editing)..... thank you Mrs. White for showing me that we can assess more than one outcome per assignment...LOL!! Flexibility in assessment.... brilliant!!!

Anyways, I quickly got over the whole citing sources properly. All of a sudden, one of the students said he was done.... no way, I couldn't believe it!!! We needed to put the final draft into a different format. Kirk came over and showed Karen, the student, and I how to do this. Next thing I know we are viewing the students video on windows media player...WOW!! That was cool...so I am viewing it and I see a spelling mistake flash onto the screen... AUGH! This is never going to end!!! hahaha!! Kirk said not to worry the student can still fix it.

Kirk wanted me to listen to see if the images match the voice..... I did not do this because I wanted to view the finished product while I assess.... It was great to have Karen and Kirk for this part because they could give the student the feedback or critiques. I have found, in the past, that I would give too many ideas/help. The finished product turned into mine and not the students.

So, at the end of this day most of the students were starting to make the final draft of their movie. The next class I was not there...but I heard one student lost their whole project!!!
SAVE OFTEN!!

Why I don't like being snowed in!!

Well, I have a two hour work period booked for Monday morning. I was so excited for the students to make some great progress on their assignment. This has been kiboshed by a snowstorm! Now, for the students who make it to school and actually work they will be way ahead of the rest. For the students who don't show, they will be playing catch up.

As for me, I am snowed in at my acreage. Drifted up to the door and down the driveway...great, frustrating, I'm sure we will here from the division about the "weather policy." Good bye EDO or personal day. Hello emailing a lesson plan in.....

So, I think the kids can work on their projects without Kirk and I.... then I find out my team teacher and my EA are both snowed in also... so notify principal that I need to change my lesson plan for my sub... email the changes, email Kirk, email EA, email Karen, email team teacher... I wish I could just be there!!! Planning to not be there is very time consuming (it is way worse when you are sick and trying to plan)!!!

Hopefully, Karen can deal with the questions the students have with the program.. we were left with a few "dosies" Can I cut a track in the middle of my audio? Can I play background music? Can I draw and scan my pictures? Can I create a drama then add it to my audio.... How do I cite on my pictures without it scrolling or change to a smaller font?

I know everything will be okay for one day without me but why do I feel so guilty for missing work?

Can't keep up!!!

Day 3: Computer lab (Friday) -

Kirk and I explain to the students what we want to get done by the end of the period, a title page using movie maker.

We take the kids down to the computer lab and Kirk runs through the program movie maker using the LCD projector. The kids gather around and start watching Kirk open the program. Now the students should know how to open the program. He talks about creating the title page... title, your name, font colour, style, size, the fading in or out, how to change and add movement... we think we have covered everything and we believe the students will be busy creating their title page with the knowledge they have gained. We set them loose on the computer.....

They have no problem finding the movie maker program. The only question we missed was "how do you change the background colour?" I had no idea but before I knew it one of the students figured it out then taught the rest of the class. I am always apprehensive when the kids have their hands up in front of the computer... scared I can't help them with the right answer... I feel way out of my element.

There was one question I could not answer with the title page. There was a student who wanted two separate slides for her title page but the program superimposed them onto one. I had no idea how to make them two separate slides... Kirk came over and figured it out.... I understand the process now :) Thanks Kirk!

It took the kids less than five minutes to create a their title page... I looked at the clock... oh great thirty minutes left.... now what???? These kids are quick with this stuff!! The next thing I know one of the students is adding their voice clip from their folder, then I notice students learning from the other students like ripple effect.... wow!!!

Another thing that I learned was one of the students realized that they couldn't have their voice feed start at the beginning (during their title page) of the storyboard. They wanted to have their voice start after the title page so they needed to move their movie clip to come in later on their storyboard.... I didn't even think of that point... these kids were smart!!

Great questions were starting to be asked, "can I add music with my voice?" "can I use sound effects?" "where do I find these things and do I have to cite them?" I felt way out of my element!!! Thank goodness Kirk, Karen and April were there to help answer these questions.

By the end of class, all the students had their title page created and most had their voice imported onto the program. Some were creating their storyboard by adding (importing) their pictures they have found on the Internet... this day was cool!!

Day three : Peer editing 101

I was ready to get all the students to do their first recording and then listen to themself on Audacity program. We explained that if they were not happy with what they heard just keep rercording until they were satisfied. It was hard to let students (unsupervised during class time) go from the "recording studio" to the "listening studio" as they have stopped and questioned in the hallways on previous accounts by administrators/collegues. So, the students were rotating through the two studios ubtil they believed they had a good copy they were willing to share with one other person. They partnered up then listened and edited their partners oral assignment. They were to jot down suggests for their partner -----

After attending my English curricular day, I would change the way the peers edited and received the feedback... When their peer changed a part in their rough draft the student would have to explain why they changed it or why they chose to leave it the way they did.

Anyways, The students seemed to enjoy listening to their friends story. I only saw a couple of students revise their own work after listening to their peers. I'm not sure if they were using each others ideas or if listening to someones work triggered a different idea.

They all revised using their peers feedback. All the students ended up in the computer lab to start the multimedia portion of their assignment. Kirk did a good job talking to the students about citing on their pictures.

I hope to have pictures from the students working on this project in the future... stay tuned.

Day 2: "Many hands lighten the load"

Friday English 8 - period 1 - 9:00 am

The recording studio set up, the listening studio set up, and many people helping:

My EA and I are in the classroom with 1/4 of the students. Karen and April (DI facilitator) are in the recording studio with 1/4 of the students and Kirk is downstairs in the computer lab (listening studio) with 1/2 of the students.

The students are catching onto the new editing process. They are rotating between the listening and recording studio. Listening and rerecording many times... They are peer editing with smiles on their faces. Hearing someone on the Internet with headphones is not new to them. Hearing themselves is weird. "I sound funny" " I talk too quiet/slow/fast" is the talk in the classroom.

I don't feel confident enough to do this assignment alone. I am not confident it would work with just me. I need the people in each area to supervise.... and their expertise is a major asset....
Kirk with his knowledge of the programs and being able to talk at the students level so they understand, Karen with her ability to adapt when issues arise like "where are the headphones?" or "why doesn't this computer have power?", April for her ability to help our student who was stuck getting her first sentence recorded and creating an assignment to meet the needs of one of our student who is at a kindergarten reading level, and Debbie (my EA) who helps administer the assignment and keep our student on track.... without these people I don't know what would happen.... my prediction.... chaos!


Thank you all for making my job a lot easier!!!

Blogging.... new to me... I must be crazy!!!

Kirk has this great idea! "Andrea, you should blog this experience!" Sure I can blog.. hee hee ... who am I kidding??? - I have never blogged in my life! I have snooped and read blogs but never replied to one OR created one! This guy is crazy! I don't have time for this, really, I don't! (you always have time to make time - that is my mother speaking) OK, so here I am blogging! Am I supposed to answer myself on these things or does that make me look crazy? I think it makes you look crazy (great, now it looks like I have a split personality).... Kirk, can you help me out so I don't sound like a dork????

Oh my... I just added fish... yeah me!!

Techie Gremlins beware!

Start time: Period 1 - English 8: Wednesday 9:00am.

I come into our designated "recording studio" at 8:30. We have seven computers set up for the voice recording portion of the assignment. The gremlin of the techie world strikes again - we can not log into the computers, the server is down.....AUGH!! AUGH!!! AUGH!!!!

I felt disheartened, discouraged, upset!!! Why does this always happen to me!!!

Back up plan - no technology, no problem, I can do this - I headed to my sanctuary - the classroom!!! I explained to the kids what happen to throw a wrench into our plans... my autistic kid took it better than I expected - no melt-down - change is not good with him.

Kirk and Karen handled the crisis very well... a phone call to the techie should get them some results----after a "pardon me" and "I need you to support us and for you to do your job!!!" persuasion we were up and running at 9:30.

We started our first group of seven in the recording studio. The students caught on quickly on how to creating a folder and the audacity program. Before I knew it the next group of seven was starting to record and the first group was heading to the "listening studio" The students that were left in the class waiting for their turn to record their assignment were busy working on editing on paper.... Then the bell rang. We got through fourteen. Twelve left....

No time to debrief with Karen and Kirk.... needed to teach next hour... no time for reflection.... blogging is reflecting??? right?? even if it's done a week after the fact? I think I like blogging... weird...