Week 13

I attended the presentations for the IIC competition this afternoon. First of all, I should have watched their videos before I went because many groups just assumed that they were presenting to an audience who had already viewed their projects. So, it's hard to say if my feelings from their presentations were accurate since I'm not exactly sure what some projects were about.
I felt like most of the projects were strong--so I am going to pick my top three (in no particular order) and discuss briefly why I liked each of them.

Group 4:
Mainly I liked this project because this couple put in A LOT of work into their entry. Their website seemed functional, eye-appealing and fresh. I loved how the man said they did not use technology for just bells and whistles--they wanted to make common websites like Facebook and YouTube useful. I also felt like it was a solid base to an entire idea for a classroom. Everything is in one place and the website could be very expansive. I liked this project because it was expansive. It didn't just pick one or two technologies, but many and showed how to harmonize different technologies for a single project. It's a very forward thinking into future teaching in schools. I don't feel like its completely feasible right now, but give in ten years and maybe every classroom will have a website similar to this one.

Group 5:
I liked this idea because the pair implemented the idea in an actual classroom and it worked. A lot of the entries appeared to be too forward thinking to be applied on a global level immediately. It would take a lot of learning, money or technology in the schools to make their ideas work beyond a single classroom. The other thing aspect of this project I thought was strong was its appeal to a global classroom. In my major, we discuss writing in context. Students put more effort into polishing their papers if they feel like someone other than the teacher is going to read them. The beauty of the interet is allowing students' work to be shared with a real life audience--producing a real life context. This is brilliant. It gets kids talking--even kids who don't normally participate. It gets kids thinking, and if teachers can find other teachers across the the country to be their sister classroom for the year--I think it would be a wonderful opportunity for students to see new cultures, ideas and places without leaving their own classroom. Wow, even though they didn't have a PowerPoint--I really liked this idea.

Group 7:
If the bugs can get all worked out--which I trust Apple to fix---iPads are the new computers that will be put into classrooms. Instead of rotating laptop computer labs, there will be rotating iPad labs. However, this will take along time before class sets of iPads are a standard classroom tool like the computer is now. First of all, the first model always has problems--and the first model has not even been officially released!!!! Second, education is getting budget cuts all over the place right now--few school districts will be able to afford iPads. Third, I'm pretty sure kindergartens will be one of the last grades to get iPads. All of this, of course, is just my personal opinion. However, their ideas is wonderful. Sounds, picture, touch and words all in one lesson. It's just plain brilliant. Also, its exciting and interactive. Five-year olds would be all over this idea. And applications for teacher lessons would be all over the internet and easy to find within just a few years of becoming regularly used in classrooms. Teachers could develop their own applications for a personal lesson, or borrow from other teachers. It is just a good idea. Simple as that.

Week 12

For this project I chose to make a book trailor for the YA novel The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I would probably use this to replace a book report--paired with a question and answer period and a single paragraph explaining their favorite scene in the novel and why. This could easily be done individually as well in groups. It would help showcase the student's ability to pick out important themes, ideas and scenes from a book they have read; at the same time, it would also give the opportunity to showcase thirty books (if I chose to have them do it individually) to my class in a quick, effective way. It might help my students find other books they would be interested in reading and maybe pick up a book without me making them for a grade.
I could also use this as an introduction for a new book we are reading. It would help the kids get excited about the new novel we are reading--maybe I could even make Romeo and Juliet or Huck Finn appear interesting to my students. It could help motivate them to read the book to learn what happens in the story.

I made this movie with Windows Movie Maker.

Week 11

So for this blog post I am going to insert a little tip that I learned while using movie maker. If you are having issues adding music add it into your Windows Music Player Library. I know, with iTunes, who uses WMP??? But, for some reason iTunes cannot change it into the right format. Sometimes it won't even accept mp3s. It has to be in a format that Windows Media Player can read or it won't work. The second thing--which I'm not sure why it took me so long to realize this. Instead of editing the time of the clip by going to Edit: Clip: Time -- just change yourself from storyboard to timeline and you can change the timing of each invidiual clip by just clicking on it and adjusting it with your mouse (you can do the same thing with the music clips as well). It's super easy to make some clips longer than others without the hassle of going through four different tool bars. Also, while storyboard is good for adding effects and transitions--the timeline is the best way to view and work with your movie anyways.

Week 10

Wow! I can't believe we have already arrived at week ten. So here is my storyboard for the movie we are making. I am pretty sure I'll use MovieMaker since I have a PC, but my husband does have a Mac, so if I start having issues, I'll probably just use his computer. So I decided to make a book trailer for The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins. This is an assigment I would have my students do--maybe in groups or individuall. I would use it as a replacement for a book report. However, in addition to making this movie, I would probably have them write a 1/2 page about their favorite scene or character in the book and why--just to make sure they actually read at least some of the book, since most of the information needed to create a book trailer can be found on a wikipedia site or the back of the book. Second, I would probably have a question/answer session (to help fit the core curriculum even better) where both the students and I would ask questions about the book, plot, characters, etc. after this movie was shown in class. I think its a very clever idea, and I'm excited to actually make my storyboard into a real movie!

Week 9

Video from TeacherTube Number 1: From: Sadowskij

http://www.teachertube.com/viewVideo.php?video_id=163946&title=Introduction_to_The_Catcher_in_the_Rye

This video introduction to Catcher in the Rye is rather creative. First of all the good things: citations at the end of the clip, use own drawings for some of the images, uses own voice for the narrative. The things this teacher could improve: the citations were fuzzy, small, hard to read and scrolled quickly, the citation for the music just said who wrote the song--we're not sure where she got if from or whether it was a legitimate source that gave her the authority to use that song. I like her drawings, sometimes its hard to find specific images for what you are describing--so she just created her own. No need for copyright there!

Video from TeacherTube 2: From suzannecanup

http://www.teachertube.com/viewVideo.php?video_id=4423&title=Classroom_Rules

Well, this video is creative and probably entertaining for high school students. Let's switch it up this time; we'll start with the problems: no citation for the music he used, he also used the rhythm/tune of the song to create his own rap. Good: it was his own video, he thanked the officer :), and there were no logos or other such things in the background that could get you in trouble. Also, I'm assuming that since the police officer agreed to it, there's no copyright on his uniform.


Okay, I had serious problem trying to embed ANY video from TeacherTube, I googled why it wasn't working (and stumbled onto the correct way to post a TeacherTube video on my blog: I must include who the created the video and a link to the webiste). I looked in YouTube but found nothing worth while. So hopefully this is sufficient. Sometimes technology can be insane!!!!!!!! It just didn't want to work for me. So here you go. Maybe I'll try again on Saturday when I have time. So sorry that they are lame links and not cool embedded videos.