Reflections Of...

I'm probably dating myself, but there's that song "Reflections" by The Supremes, and in the hook of the song Diana Ross belts out, "Reflections of/The way life used to be..." When I think of my "teaching life" before these classes, the way I used to be, I was completely insecure about technology with a modicum of confidence. I wasn't a complete disaster, but I lacked a lot of 21st-century know how. Now, I have three of these technology classes under my belt and the way life used to be is just a distant memory...

When I reflect on all of the modules we have done in this course, I think I am most appreciative of the introduction to audio applications in the classroom, mostly because that's what I knew the least about, especially podcasting. The coursework articles I liked the best were the ones about typography and graphic design. I really appreciated "Why No One Reads Your Classroom Newsletter" by Jennifer Gonzalez and "Why Teachers Should Care About Typography." Both of those articles contained the nuts-and-bolts type of information that I can see myself wanting to reference from time to time. I also really appreciated the Google Drawings assignment. I have dabbled in the application before, but this assignment really gave me a deeper understanding of the functionalities within the program. Without a doubt, I had the most fun with the video book trailer assignment and I was completely inspired by the screencast assignment. I felt like that assignment was a catalyst of never-ending instructional possibilities.

I feel like my next step is to continue incorporating what I'm learning in my practice. It's so easy to get complacent and fall into familiar (yet luxuriously comforting) patterns. If I'm going to continue to stretch myself, I have to keep pushing myself out of my comfort zone and try something new. The next area I went to delve into is virtual reality through Google Expeditions and possibly use Skype to connect with another classroom or "mystery guest."

So here I am...reflecting on the way my technology life used to be, which was just okay. But who wants just okay when amazing is right around the corner?

Artifact #1: Book Trailer (EEND677)

In this course, I am most proud of the video book trailer from Module 4. Although I have used iMovie to create videos for the classroom, I have never used its trailer feature. In all honesty, I didn’t even know this feature existed until I started looking into various applications in order to complete the assignment. When I learned that iTunes had existing movie-trailer templates, I thought it would be fun to give it a try. When you create a new trailer project in iMovie, you get to choose between ten or so templates from various genres. I chose the “narrative” template as the music and overall tone seemed to best support the theme of my book. Once the template is selected, putting the trailer together is really easy. The hardest part is finding the video and images that sell a book the way the right film clips sell a movie. My biggest challenge was the time element. According to assignment parameters, the trailer had to be a minimum of two minutes, but most of the trailer templates are 1-1:30 minutes. To extend the length of the trailer, I had to change the duration of some of the clips, but to do that I had to convert the trailer to a movie. Once converted to a movie, the content is editable but I couldn’t go back to my original trailer. I know. Complicated, right? Really, it was not as bad as it sounds. My biggest challenge was editing the music provided within the template so it extended the duration of my new trailer. If you listen closely, you will notice a spot where there is a slight jump in the music. That’s where I couldn’t get a copied and inserted piece of the music to line up exactly right. It’s not perfect, but it’s definitely passable.

Overall, I am thrilled with the finished product, but I do wish I would have had the foresight to give attribution to some of the sites I used like archive.org for the video clips. For those of you who don’t know, archive.org offers video that is in the public domain, so no worries about copyright violation. At the end of an iMovie trailer, there are credits and iMovie allows you to fill in the fields that make up the credits. This is where I wish I would have thought to put in archive.org or sites where I grabbed pictures. I didn’t really have to attribute the music because that is already built into the trailer template, and iMovie gives itself full attribution within the ending credits.

What I like so much about these classes is that I'm able to create materials I will use in the classroom, and my book trailer is no exception. I can't wait to "tease" students by playing the trailer prior to reading the book.

Artifact #2: SMORE Screencast (EEND677)

What I love about this course is that it keeps surprising me. I never thought I would successfully create a screencast, yet here it is. Voila! I decided to include the screencast not only because I am super proud of how it turned out, but I’m also really impressed with how I was able to take this screencast and turn it into a usable assignment that I can’t wait to unleash on my students.

Even though creating the screencast wasn’t as hard as I thought it was going to be, it definitely had its challenges. Arguably, at 15 minutes, my screencast might have been a bit too long. When I reviewed it critically, I could see where there may have been a lull, like when I was entering text. If I would have done another take, I could have tightened that up. I also wished I would have created a “screencast introduction” page on my computer that was on my screen rather than the Screencast-O-Matic website page. If I would have watched one of my earlier takes instead of immediately recording over them, I would have caught that. As a perfectionist, I also hate that it ends so abruptly. I had a perky, cute ending, but it got cut off. I’m not sure if I pressed stop too early or I ran out of the allotted recording time. So, yes, my good screencast could have been a great screencast with some tweaks, but there are still some things I did really well. For example, I thought that anyone could watch my screencast and know exactly how to use the SMORE program to complete the assignment, and I took viewers through the assignment from conception to submission. I was incredibly meticulous with my pre-planning outline, so I thought pacing and content were well done. I really took care to include overarching concepts like digital citizenship that I wanted my students to consider. All in all, not a bad effort for my first go around with this technology.

Until this assignment, I never considered all of the ways teachers could use screencasts in the classroom. From introducing new concepts in step-by-step clarity to flipped classrooms to student assessment opportunities, there really is a variety of creative uses for screencasts in the classroom.

Seeing is Believing

Why might incorporating graphic design into the classroom be valuable? I can’t say it any better than the wyzowl blog:  “…studies have shown that people tend to remember an impressive 80% of what they see and do.”  Eighty percent. That’s a staggering statistic. It almost makes me want to market a lesson the way an ad agency markets a soft drink. I see the incorporation of graphic design as really a two-way proposition. Teachers can be more purposeful when incorporating graphic design into their instruction and students can use graphic design as a new way of showing what they know.

As a special education teacher, I’m always thinking about how my students will absorb the information. It can never be one-dimensional and it can never be a one and done situation. The information needs to be presented using different mediums over different occasions. I always have to be cognizant of the font I choose, the size of the font and how much text I have on a page. To keep their interest, I often include visuals. And although I haven’t asked my students to make any infographics, I do spend time teaching them how to read them and interpret the information as a valuable part of the text. Something I would love to try do with my instructional kids is mind mapping or concept mapping, where pictures are used to represent and show relationships between ideas. Not all student are exceptional at using words to show acquired knowledge, but graphics give students another avenue to display learning.

In the spring, I will teach the novel Number the Stars. I never teach a novel without a guided reading packet that I create, and I have to give a lot of thought to the graphics of the packet. I always choose a serif font because it’s easier for kids to read (or so I was told by a mentor teacher I had many years ago). I also always choose a larger font size because I have some kids who are visually impaired. If I have too many words or complex sentences on the page, I will lose kids, so I have to make sure the layout is clean and uncluttered. I also use bold and italics to help draw attention to important aspects of questions. Additionally, I will incorporate images and fun icons as bullet points to help maintain focus and interest. Since the book is about the Holocaust and that is a complex, deep issue for kids, we could do some mind/concept mapping when exploring these difficult themes and concepts.

Artifact #1: Using Google as a Collaborative Site (EEND676B)

The work I am most proud is from the Using Google as a Collaborative Tool assignment. In this assignment, I used Google three ways:  Google Forms to “Choose Your Own Adventure,” Google Docs to write a complete narrative from the Google Form and Google Drawing to create a cover page for the story. I loved all three parts of the project, but what really made the idea sing was the use of the Google Form to “Choose Your Own Adventure.” I can’t take credit for the idea. I just knew I wanted to use Google Forms, but in a way I never have before. Appropriately enough, I did a Google search to find innovative uses of Google Forms and I stumbled across the “Choose Your Own Adventure” concept and it was love at first sight. But like any relationship, it was love-hate. It was so difficult to make the form work. It was truly a Tim-Gunn-make-it-work moment. I first had to have an idea of the overall story and the different avenues it would take. But the more ambitious the story became, the harder it was to create the form. For every new choice I created, I had to have alternate story paths. I finally realized I needed to simplify it and find ways for story plots to circle back to similar spots or I would never finish the Google Form.  I was so determined to make this work, failure was not an option. I kept telling myself, WHEN I figure this form out...not IF I figure this form out. Ultimately, I did figure it out and it exceeded my expectations.

A “Choose Your Own Adventure” could be used in so many ways in the classroom. It could be used as an informal assignment to build skills for a larger assignment. Or it could be used as a collaborative activity, and groups could work together to create their own “Choose Your Own Adventure” stories. Or it could be used as the springboard to a formal narrative assignment as addressed in Common Core standards. The features used to create the “Choose Your Own Adventure” could also be used to create similar forms, but with different functions. For instance, teachers could create a quiz that lets kids advance to the next question as long as they get the answer right, but as soon as they get an answer wrong, it sends them to a review video and a new question.

I feel like every time I complete an assignment for this course, I learn something new. I’m constantly pushed outside my comfort zone.  Using Google Forms to create a story would never have occurred to me had it not been for this course, but now I feel like I have all these new tools in my teacher toolbox and I’m not afraid to use them.

Artifact #2: Hot Seat (EEND676B)

Although there is nothing “techy” about my next artifact, I chose to include it in my blog because it made a strong impact in the classroom. I’m talking about the “Hot Seat” discussion technique. In this activity, one student assumes the role of a character from a novel and the rest of the students ask questions of the “character.” The student in the hot seat must answer the questions like the assumed character would. Because of this “Hot Seat” activity, all kids were actively involved in the classroom discussion and they had a ton of fun pretending to be a character from Harry Potter. Because of this activity, I was able to engage kids in the discussion of a novel in a way I never have before. It was so successful that I plan to use it in my next novel study.

A major challenge of this activity is the amount of prep time. Since I teach instructional students, I prepared a handout that explained the Hot Seat concept as well as introduced the questions in advance. The kids took about a period to answer the Hot Seat questions and another period to get each of my four students on the Hot Seat. Larger classes would need even more time to get through the activity. In fact, larger classes may want to turn this into a group activity. I used the Hot Seat for literary discussion, but I could see a history teacher having kids assume the persona of a historical figure.  A science teacher may have the kids become an inventor.

Because of this Hot Seat activity, I now feel like I need to push myself when it comes to introducing different discussion avenues into the classroom. Time is always such an issue. Where do I find the time? How do I fit this activity in? But I realized that the real question is How do I NOT make the time? If it weren’t for this assignment, I probably never would have found the time to do this activity. And then it’s only the kids who lose.

Keeping up with the Jones's...Technology Style

My issue related to technology was sparked by a survey question I received about two weeks ago:  "Do you use your SmartBoard as an actual SmartBoard or do you use it as projector." My answer was simple:  Of course, I use my SmartBoard as a SmartBoard and you are going to have to pry it out of my cold dead hands if you plan on taking it away from me. But this got me thinking. Now that we have all of this new technology, are we abandoning all of our old technology? Don't get me wrong. I love our new Google platform and I am trying to utilize it more each day, but I have a lot of time invested into my SmartBoard presentations/activities that I don't think are Google compatible. 

An article in TeachThought called "5 Problems with Technology in the Classroom" referred to this new phenomena as "pace of change." What the author was really referring to in the article was how some school districts just cannot keep up with technology that is changing almost daily. My district doesn't seem to have that problem, but they are almost tackling it too well, to the point where I feel I can't catch my breath because the speed is hyper drive. Sometimes I feel as if I am being asked to abandon old technology just because there is a new flavor of the month. And I suppose that's not just true of a SmartBoard. There are loads of applications out there that are in one day and out the next. So here is my question for all of you. How do we keep up? How do we keep pace with the ever-changing face of technology without constantly feeling like we are reinventing the wheel? I don't mean this question to sound so rhetorical because I would love some feedback.