“Technology is not the driver, it only serves as a facilitator.” (Quote on Twitter today)
Tonight I feel a little bit like a kid at the fair…sights and sounds are whirring by, confusion abounds, excitement mounts, and I don’t know where to focus my attention. It’s a little overwhelming, very exciting, and somewhat daunting. Our teacher book club met tonight to discuss The Digital Writing Workshop. We all agreed that there is so much to think about and how do you know where to start? We are almost finished with the book and I’ve had quite a bit of time to digest the information and let it wander through my thoughts. I feel like I have a little better handle on wikis, blogs, and digital storytelling, but I still have so many questions that can’t be answered until I jump in and try some new things.
Some of the things I am thinking about…
How do I want to use 21st century tools in my classroom?
How do I choose what technologies to use first? I know that I can’t do it all, even though I want to.
What will my students need to know in order to be successful?
How will the use of technology enhance my students’ learning? When is it appropriate to use technology and when is it better to use more traditional methods?
How do I help my students understand all the facets of composition?
How can I use portfolios to illustrate student growth over the school year?
In what areas am I comfortable so that I can support my students’ learning?
Where will I need help from the technology teacher?
Will my students have access to needed equipment?
How can parents be actively involved?
I want my students to use 21st century tools authentically and purposefully. I don’t want to use technology to do the same projects I’ve done in the past. I want my students to be active decision makers in this process.
So where to start? I need to think about my goals for my students, look at the curriculum, and decide how to integrate it all together. My work this summer in the multi-modal class gave me lots of ideas for digital storytelling and I think I’d like to explore a class blog. I’ve been blogging for over a year now and I’m curious about how blogging can support my curriculum.
I’d be interested to hear from others about what they are doing with 21st century tools, useful websites, or how they’ve answered some of the questions I posted above. It’s going to be an interesting year as I journey down this path.
Tomorrow, I will be taking 2 students to OSU so they can talk about their experiences as members of our after school writing club to the Columbus Area Writing Project Summer Institute. One of the main things they will be doing is sharing their glogs: the thinking that went into designing the glog, their choices in writing pieces, and their overall impressions of being able to work with a group of other students who enjoy writing as much as they do. Below are the glogs they will be sharing. You can see that they each tried some different techniques. Sarita used iMovie to embed into her glog. Colin created a collage of photography and recorded his voice reading one of his pieces. It’s sure to be a great afternoon and I can’t wait to take them there!
We finished our Digital multimodal class on Friday with show and tell. Everyone shared their multimodal digital projects which were a digital response to a poem or song and a personal memoir piece. As what always happens when students are given choice, we had a wide variety of projects. The final projects ranged from humorous, to serious, to sentimental, to political statements. Everyone’s individuality was able to emerge, even though we all had the same assignment. That is one of the reasons I think student choice is so important when we are asking students to complete an assignment. We all learned how to use Photo Story and Audacity, to import pictures, scan images, create transitions, add music and voice overs just to name a few things. Probably more important, was the conversation that we had each morning before we began to work. Creating a metadiscourse, explaining the choices we made and why we made them was very important to the process. This project showed us that we were, in fact, creating another text to show our understanding of the original text. The social context was critical to the success of the project. Not only did we have conversations at the beginning of class about the process, but also conversation abounded during our work time. It was not uncommon to see participants at each other’s work stations trying to help. The tech support was very important too. John, our tech support person, was very patient with all of us and Dr. Newell was there to answer questions as well. I so appreciated Dr. Newell’s approach to this class. It was a true writing workshop atmosphere where we learned together and supported each other along the way.
So here are my projects. First, “I’m Learning to Speak English” by J. Patrick Lewis spoke to me because of my own student population. J. Patrick Lewis is coming to visit at the Young Author’s Writing Camp this week, so I thought I’d look for one of his poems. I was so pleased when I found it here. I chose photos of my kids that I took throughout the year and chose a song with Latino influence.
My second piece, “Summer Gifts” is about a week I spent with my grandma 6 years ago, about 3 months before she died. My grandma was something else! There were many times my grandfather would yell, “Turn that damn radio down” as she cleaned to Meatloaf or Prince blaring from her stereo. All 10 of her grandchildren thought they were her favorite because she made each of us feel that way. I chose “Heaven Can Wait” by Meatloaf as one of the background music pieces. She loved Meatloaf (my cousin took her to their concerts at Blossom Music Center until she was well into her 80s). I decided to show photos of her with only the music playing in the background at the end of my narration because I wanted my audience to focus on her and see the influence she had on my life.
I am already thinking of ways to use this on my classroom next year. I hope you enjoy!!
I am taking a class at OSU this week called Digital Multimodal Composition with Dr. George Newell, another co-director of the Columbus Area Writing Project. When my daughter asked me what multimodal meant, I gave her a fuzzy answer because I wan’t too sure myself. I’ve come to learn that it is a way of showing meaning that includes text, sound (voice and/or music), and visuals (photos, moving pictures, color, etc.). Our assignment is to do a digital response to a poem and then create a digital memoir piece using Photo Story. I used the poem “I am Learning to Speak English” by J. Patrick Lewis for my digital response and wrote a memoir piece about a week I spent with my grandma the summer of 2004 (about 3 months before she died).
The process that we have gone through has been eye-opening! Each morning, George asks us to write in our learning logs about how our thinking. One of the things we’ve talked about is how our own view of responding to a piece of literature has changed as we go through the process of creating a multimodal piece. There is so much to think about and most of us in the class have gone through the same journey…first being very literal as we found images to represent the piece of writing to becoming more thoughtful and looked at the writing in a more abstract way. Even choosing the music has brought about a myriad of thinking. One man put it beautifully today when he said, “I’ve asked myself if I am illustrating, responding to or reacting to this poem as I’ve been creating my project.”
We all agree that the end product does not show all the thinking and purposeful decisions that go into the final project. I think that tells us something as teachers. First, our students need time to work through the process, make mistakes, and change their minds. I also think that asking students to write about and engage in conversations that describe their process is important. A simple rubric for the final project does not do justice to the student’s work.
These projects have certainly given me a broader view of using technology in the classroom. I’m looking forward to sharing my experiences with the teacher group who is reading The Digital Writing Workshop this summer. I also can’t wait to try some of these ideas in my classroom!
All of the oral history movies are uploaded to the computer and the kids have watched the videos with Melissa and taken notes on the stories, just like real researchers. The next step is for each child to create an illustration for their stories. We delved into 2 of my favorite illustrators, Eric Carle and Steve Jenkins. I love their work because they use a variety of textured papers to create beautiful collages. We spent some time just looking through their books and talking about what we noticed. Of course, the kids noticed so many things. Ideas were “ping ponging” (I made that up) back and forth among each other. It took on a life of its own…I almost didn’t even need to be there. After I charted their thinking, I said, “I wonder how Eric Carle and Steve Jenkins made these textured papers?” The excitement mounted as they shouted out their ideas. They thought of things that I didn’t even consider. You should have heard them when I told them that they were going to try some of these techniques on their own.
Well, I got out the paper, paints, forks, cotton balls, and foil balls, and we were ready to go. You can see below all the fun they had and there was only one major water spill. Now that the papers have dried, I will cut them up into smaller pieces and the kids will use them to create their own collages to go along with their oral history story.
I stayed late tonight to help some of my after school writing clubbers finish their projects for our writing celebration Monday night. The glogs look great and I have to give a shout out to our technology teacher, because I couldn’t do it without her. I owe her a lot of biscotti!! It’s the first time that the only publication will be a digital one – the glogs. This is a huge paradigm shift for me. I keep thinking that I should have a book to give the kids. I wonder if the parents or kids will miss having a physical publication to hold.
The students have loved the digital project. As always, I wish we had more time to work on them. It’s been a little hairy having only 2 adults to work with 16 kids who all need attention at once (and one of the adults…me…was learning along with the kids). I would still do it again though. The kids were so enthusiastic and they each were able to express their individuality through their glogs. It’s been very fun to watch the whole process.
Things the kids learned to do:
Create a plan to use visual and audio components to complement their writing
Use Wordle
Take a screen shot
Upload photos and audio
Use Garage Band to record their voices
Embed sound into their glogs
Embed movies (only a few got to do this)
Think about the best way to represent each piece of writing
Design a layout that was appealing and made a statement about who they are
So, the glogs will be unveiled Monday after school. Each student will have the opportunity to stand up in front of the audience and share his or her glog as well as the thinking that went behind its creation. The process is the most important part!
The first grade stories are finally uploaded onto the podcast server! I saw a video clip from Bud Hunt about first grade stories being published digitally. I immediately went to our building tech teacher and told her I wanted to do the same thing. She had never used iMovie with first graders, but she was willing to jump in and make it happen. This project was huge and it wouldn’t have materialized if it wasn’t for Kathy (the tech teacher) and Betty (the media specialist). Added to their expertise were 4 other parent volunteers and the ELL teacher, along with me in the classroom with 24 laptops and 24 eager first graders.
Steps we took:
At the end of our personal narrative genre study, each child published his or her story.
Kathy and Betty came in and took digital pictures of the kids’ individual books (a photo of each page and the cover). The kids helped with the picture taking by holding their books flat.
Kathy downloaded the photos onto individual laptops and noted whose photos were on which laptop.
THE BIG DAY! Kathy and Betty brought the laptops to my room. I had asked 4 parents to help with the project (one was a grandma who had never used a computer before), as well as the ELL teacher.
The students logged in and brought up iMovie. Kathy had hooked up the Epson machine so she could project one computer on the screen and lead them through the process step by step.
All the adults worked together to record the students reading their books. We recorded one page at a time so that it would be easier to line up voice recordings with the photographs. We had kids and laptops everywhere…in the hall, the ELL teacher’s classroom, and my room.
Once all the voices were recorded, Kathy showed the kids how to bring their photos into iMovie from iPhoto. (At this point, the kids had reached their limit and they began to get very antsy. We decided to stop them here and have the adults sync the voices with the photos.)
Kathy, Betty, and I finished by lining up the photos and voice recordings. Everything was saved to my classroom server.
This project was very rewarding, but one that couldn’t have been done without the collaboration of several people. I am very thankful to Kathy, who is always willing to listen to my ideas and help me make them a reality. Thanks to Betty, who is always available to help out in these big projects, and the ELL teacher who changed her schedule to help us out. And finally, thanks to my wonderful parent volunteers who stepped out of their comfort zones to help us create this project.
Tomorrow will be the really fun day…showing the kids their wonderful work!
A small group of teachers met yesterday afternoon to talk about Troy Hick’s book, The Digital Writing Workshop. I love that our group represents teachers from different buildings, different grade levels, and different comfort levels when it comes to using technology in our classrooms. All of us have a love of learning and a love for what we do each and every day in our classrooms. One of the major topics of conversation was the importance of us, as teachers, taking time to actually explore and try the ideas presented in the book before we ask our students to do it. We are going to work slowly through the book, giving ourselves permission to play with some new ideas, make mistakes, and learn from each other. We are fortunate to have two of our district technology teachers be part of our group to help us on our journey. We are also going to set up a forum where we can ask questions and share ideas online so that we can stay connected between the times we meet face to face. I am so looking forward to this new study group and broadening my horizons when it comes to using technology with my students.
I just know that our technology teacher loves to get an email from me in her inbox! It usually goes like this…It’s late at night, I’m reading a book or looking at a website and I get an idea that uses technology, but I don’t know how to do it. So, I shoot an email to Kathy and say, “This is what I want to do. When can we meet so that we can plan it out?” She is always more than accommodating. Our latest project is creating an iMovie with my first graders using their personal narratives. I told them that they were the youngest class to create their own iMovies at our school, so they think they are pretty special (which they are!). (Thanks to Troy Hicks and The Digital Writing Workshop for the idea).
Kathy and I met this week to discuss the possibilities for my after school writing group of 4th and 5th graders. It always helps me to talk with Kathy to clarify my thinking. She takes my muddled ideas and shows me how we can make it work. She suggested that we use Glogster as the vehicle for the kids’ project. That way we can embed iMovie, a slide show, Wordle, etc. right into their digital scrapbook. She introduced me to a new site called Classtools.net that has several Web 2.0 applications that we can put into the glog. The animated book looks interesting to me. She also suggested Voki, which allows the user to create a speaking avatar that can also be used in the glog. The kids won’t do all of these things, but they will be able to look at the different options and decide which ones best meet their purposes.
What I do know is that I want the kids to have choice in their projects. I want them to explore some different genres as well as make choices about the visual and audio components of their piece. So, my homework is to explore these sites and solidify my plans for the final project. I’m not quite sure yet where it will take us, but it’s sure to be exciting!
As I mentioned in a previous post, our teacher writing group had the assignment to take a risk in our writing instruction. My goal was to publish some writing digitally. I have taken the podcast class twice (so I should have a little knowledge) and created some podcasts with the help of our technology teacher, but I have not done it all independently. I have been putting it off for a couple of reasons. First, I wasn’t sure how to manage the rest of the class while I recorded the kids’ voices and the biggest reason…time! Where do I find the time to take their pictures, record their voices, and put the podcast together? Well, as always, when I have a goal, I find a way to make it happen.
I decided to record their voices while they worked on illustrating their personal narratives (which we will be publishing using iMovie next month!). After explaining the importance of working quietly when they heard my signal, I got started. The kids did a great job! Each time I announced, “Recording,” the class quieted down and we were able to get most of the class done. The art teacher was kind enough to let me pull the rest of them out a couple at a time to finish up.
I went back to the directions I received in my podcast class, Googled for more information, and went to work. OK..I was at work pretty late that night and the next day, the technology teacher told me that I made a major mistake in putting the kids’ names in the chapter titles, but I did it! I fixed the chapter titles and republished it yesterday.
What did I learn? I learned to give myself permission to make mistakes (don’t we remind our students all the time that it’s OK to make mistakes?) and to be patient with myself as I learned a new skill. Plus, I am gaining confidence in myself in trying new things with technology. Google has become my best friend! Taking a chance with this project has stretched me and I’m ready to do it again. Next time, it will be even easier. Take a look at the wonderful research work being done by a great group of first graders.
Tonight I feel a little bit like a kid at the fair…sights and sounds are whirring by, confusion abounds, excitement mounts, and I don’t know where to focus my attention. It’s a little overwhelming, very exciting, and somewhat daunting. Our teacher book club met tonight to discuss The Digital Writing Workshop. We all agreed that there is so much to think about and how do you know where to start? We are almost finished with the book and I’ve had quite a bit of time to digest the information and let it wander through my thoughts. I feel like I have a little better handle on wikis, blogs, and digital storytelling, but I still have so many questions that can’t be answered until I jump in and try some new things.
