A few minutes ago, I officially sent off my application to become an Apple Distinguished Educator. Some of you may be asking why? I guess it boils down to this:
After reading the description-
The Apple Distinguished Educator (ADE) program is a select group of K-12 and Higher Education professionals around the world possessing an identified expertise in educational technology leadership. ADEs are trusted advisors on the realities of integrating technology into learning environments; passionate advocates for the potential of innovative technologies to engage and empower students; authentic authors who share best practices for the advancement of teaching and learning; and global ambassadors who empower each other to expand the walls of the classroom to provide global experiences. This group of over 1,500 educators spans the globe with membership in the USA, Asia, Australia, Canada, Europe, Japan, Mexico and New Zealand.
I thought to myself, “I can do that. I do do that!” So why not get the title, the training, and the opportunity to learn with other dedicated teachers around the world. I won’t find out whether or not I get in until March, but I am hoping I do, because the first training and ceremony session is in Bali. You can read about what this distinction actually entails, mostly workshops, presenting and getting extra training in all things Mac, on the website. In order to apply I had to answer some questions and create a video.
I am quite please by how it turned out, and I was told that it is okay to share before the announcements are made. So wish me luck and tell me what you think!
The day has finally come. Jim Groom’sds#106 class has officially begun. You can read this for details of this first week, but if you are reading this you are most likely a member of the class. Curious how you introduce yourself to hundreds? of people, but we will see how many and who responds. It still feels like Jim is responding to every post and Tweet which is lunacy, but that is part of the reason why I am here. The guy is nuts and I look forward to seeing how he manages this beast.
Seriously though, the thing that attracted me to this course was more that his Bava persona, like Hunter S. Thompson, Jim is more than his online character. Both Jim and Hunter tend to push envelopes and grate at people sensibilities, but underneath that bravado is complex depth and seriousness to what all this means. And by this I mean art, human beings, technology, film, you name it. And if next week’s readings are any indication it is going to be one helluva a ride. Not too be out done by Alan “Show off” Levine, here is my intro:
If you are new to my blog and want to know more. Please feel free to follow the crubs around this maze I call my Personal Cyberinfrastructure. Home page probably best place to start.
If I don’t get this reflection out of my system now, it may just die and rot inside me. Is this how students view mandatory reflective assignments? Do they view reflection as a chore? I have inflicted this task on myself, but I can imagine how much more angst ridden it would be had the choice to reflect been made by someone else.
You see! I have learned something from taking the time to reflect already, and I haven’t even started yet- reflection can be arduous and time consuming and not always feel right. On that note let’s get started:
About a week ago, I wrote my thoughts and description of the unit I worked on with my grade 8’s, but reports, laziness, and life have prevented me form writing the post for the grade 6 & 7 unit. I realized last time that I may need a more streamlined template when I go through the steps of the unit. I hope to find a comfortable template for these reflections that make them effective for me and you as the reader.
Let’s start with the cover sheet I gave to the kids:
I like using Pages, much more than word, because it gives the document a sense of vibrancy and color, but I still find the text stifling and unapproachable to the average 6th grade ESL kid. I need to work on using language they understand and still maintaining the formality of MYP. I simply embed these documents onto our class blog, so students can have instant and constant access. I do not feel, however, that anyone ever looked at it. I hope to work on making these sheets and accompanying checklist a bigger part of our unit in the future.
Another disappointment for me was not having the rubric ready before the task began. I think it is crucial that students have a copy of the rubric along side the unit overview. In addition to sharing the rubric before we begin, I am also playing with the idea of a more interactive video Unit Overview using glogster. (Maybe even a glogster rubric!) I want to make sure that students have a clear idea of expectations before they begin. Now that I have laid out the objectives, assessments, and criterion let me explain the gist of the unit.
We began by exploring the concept of storytelling. Why do we tell stories? We watched this video:
At the time, we watched this clip we didn’t have blogs and I was in Shanghai, but I would have liked to have done some reflection on the video to set the foundation of the unit. I am realizing that I do not like end of the unit summative reflections for the students or myself. Next time around, I want to have more frequent and shorter reflections on every step of the journey, as opposed to the end of the voyage recap.
Next, we started creating our own stories using Storybird. Because I am working with second language learners I wanted to have a tool that gave us images as a starting point to story creation. I realize now that the images shaped their stories more than I would have liked, but it was a much easier place to start than a blank page. Starting from nothing with limited language can be an intimidating process. Storybird made this much easier for sure.
I asked the student to pick 15 slides from the work desk and tell a story without any text at first. I wanted a beginning, middle, and an end. I told them to remember to have a visible problem in their slides that must be solved. Next the students added basic text to each slide to tell the story. We spent time talking about dialogue and adjectives. They were asked to add these devices into their growing stories.
Then I had them print their stories and paste them on to a large paper storyboard. The ideas was that the story at this point would become tangible. Something they could touch and literally walk upon and enter. I asked them to then think about what each slide sounded like. What could they smell, feel, touch, see etc…I told them to think about sensory language and how it would build their scenes. We also talked about sound effects they would be using in the podcast.
They added the sensory language to the storyboard and it was time to create a word document of the text- the script. They copied and pasted what they already had in Storybird into a document, while adding the new sensory language and descriptions of scenes form the paper storyboard. (Yes, these ESL kids were just as confused as you are about the difference between Storybird and storyboard.)We did a halfway point reflection at this stage.
Next we did a quick round of editing on google docs. They shared their stories with the class and me, and we made some basic edits for clarity. Next time around, however I will not help them so much with the editing. I think it is better to have authentic assessment of where they are now, so as to better monitor their growth. I was more worried about having “good” podcasts than truly assessing where each student was.
Next we were ready to record! We did a very basic “how to” lesson on Garageband and they were off. I am lucky to work at a 1:1 school, so the kids grabbed their laptops and scattered around our 8th grade lounge and empty rooms. Each one had a private place to sit and record. We discussed the differences between telling a story and reading one. We focused on the idea of intonation, expression etc…
The problem was that I still did not have a rubric at this time. I REALLY understand the value of knowing what I am assessing as I am going through the unit. Helps keep the unit grounded and goal oriented. Don’t get me wrong, I am sure there was a lot of learning going on, but I wasn’t sure how I could assess it all, or what was being learned exactly without the rubric to guide me. The whole concept of rubrics and their value is another post all together, so I will leave it at that for now.
The kids did a great job playing with music to create tension and suspense. They used pitch to change their voices for each character, and a few really got into the art of storytelling. Others were still too shy, embarrassed or lacked the confidence to really tell their stories. Overall, I was impressed with their dedication and enthusiasm for this last task.
Final step, we moved our podcats to iMovie so it would play nice with blogger, posted them along with the script for your listening and reading pleasure and wrote a final reflection on the whole experience and posted the whole lot on their blogs. The last step was asking the students to answer the unit questions: What is the difference between telling a story and reading one? in a short video reflection, also posted on their blog.
You can read the rubric below. It needs a lot of work I know, but it did the job for the first time out. Next time I will really spend more time exploring exactly what is being assessed and what that will look like. This time around, I got lost in the task. Don’t get me wrong it was very valuable. The question is how much of what they learned was intentional and documented? And does that matter? Here is the rubric I eventually shared with students.
Finally, I shared the rubric with each student through a Google Doc, so they could self-assess and help negotiate a final mark, based on my review. You can find all the podcasts, by clicking on the grade 6 and 7s in the sidebar of our class blog. I have posted a few examples below as well. Not necessarily the best, but examples of podcasts that showed effort.
I have been a huge fan of Jim Groom ever since the great Edupunk debates of 2008. As he so often reminds us, “Nobody blogs like the Bava! Nobody!” And man is he right. The quality of, frequency of, and intensity of his blogging is enough to leave any aspiring blogger’s mouth agape. The man lives and breaths blogging, and he is doing it a few years into the future. Whichever direction this whole thing is going, I am certain that Jim will be at the front of the line steering the ship.
I cannot count how many times following Jim and his band of Edupunks as they push the envelope, practice what they preach style of educating, has literally saved my stagnant network from the Edublogospshere mired in check out the latest tool retweets and false idol worship malaise that can be Edtech.
So when I saw that he is creating an online digital story telling course, my first thought was I have to be a part of this. I quickly started to doubt my digital merits, and thought twice about throwing my weight around with the big boys and girls. It didn’t take me long till I came around. We are here to learn right? All this talk about pushing ourselves and learning new things, and exploring new ideas, and working with new people, it’s all meaningless if we are not doing it ourselves. I could write about social networks, web 2.0, and the connected classroom till the cows come home, but I will not grow or learn until I step out my comfort zone and rub elbows with the Bava!
