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Saturday, November 17, 2012
Friday, November 9, 2012
Remembrance
Today was our school Remembrance Day assembly. It's my yearly job. Well, one of them. Remembrance Day is a really important day to me. I've had some wonderful opportunities in my life to learn about and from our Canadian veterans, and as the number veterans living begins to slowly dwindle, I think it's so important to make sure that future generations know, understand, and appreciate the sacrifice and difference that was made years ago.
I always try to keep our school ceremony brief but meaningful. I use a few videos including Terry Kelly's Pittance of Time, Astronaut Rob Thirsk's Remembrance Message, and one last video focused on the Highway of Heroes. This year was no different, and I used all of these. The one that seemed to hit home the most was the Highway of Heroes video. It really got to some people, and even a few students teared up. It was immensely touching to see the heartfelt emotion come from students, but also the way that others around them came together to support them. In one such case, a boy in my class began to cry. As soon as others noticed, the students sitting on either side of hime (who were not even in his group of friends) scooched over and put their arms around his shoulder. It was a moving scene to witness and I was overwhelmingly proud of my kiddos in that instant.
The second display was essentially one large "Parking Lot" activity. I posted some chart paper in the lobby of the school with a message attached asking "When you close your eyes and think of peace, what do you see?" I left a variety of Post-It notes on the table in front of the display (I went on a Post-It buying rampage over the summer, so I've got quite a collection of styles and colours) and asked the staff of my school to send their students down a few at a time over the last few days to leave their answer. Again, pretty happy with the result!
When all is said and done, our assembly was pretty successful and I think the key ideas made it through to at least a few students. Everyone was respectful, and I'm hoping that the more interactive displays and presentations made an impact.
In an effort to make our assembly a little different this year, I put together a couple of displays (thank-you Pinterest for the inspiration) which turned out pretty well. The first was a display titled "Working Together for a Better World" which featured a large image of the world (drawn and painted by two of my amazingly artistic Grade 8 students) surrounded by hand cut-outs. I asked the other teachers in my school to have every student trace and cut out a hand and then send them down to me. I then took the cut outs and used them to surround the world, and voila! I have to say, I'm pretty happy with the way it turned out.
Sunday, November 4, 2012
Podcasting
I've got to admit -- sometimes technology is infuriating. My grade 5-8 language arts students have been working on the first of their monthly book review podcasts for the last couple weeks and we've really been blocked at every turn. First, the website we were using for file conversion was blocked by our board. Then, Audacity wouldn't open. Then, Audacity wouldn't allow them to edit their mp3 files. Then, Audacity would allow them to edit, but wouldn't allow them to save their work. It was a never ending list of technological glitches and I was starting to lose hope.
Then, the weekend happened. I stepped back. I relaxed. I played with my amazingly sweet 15 month old. And I had an epiphony. "Try something else" I told myself. So, I did. I started scouring the internet for information on podcasting, on voice recording, on programs and apps, and anything else that could be helpful. Slowly, a new plan started to form in my brain and today I put that plan into action. The results were immediate!
So let's rewind a little bit. Let me tell you a little bit about this project I've taken on.
I am a sucker for technology. I'm not really a techy, but I really believe that technology in MANY forms have a very important place in the classroom. I've seen first hand how engaging it can be, and I've seen how the quality of work rises when the kids buy into it. So, I decided that I would try out podcasting this year. I thought and thought about how I'd use podcasts, and I came up with the idea for monthly book reviews. I didn't like the idea of the podcasts being a one-off assignment, and I really liked the fact that in June the students would be able to look back over the course of the year and have a record of their work. Thus, the monthly podcasts were born.
I told the kids about the podcasts during the first week. They seemed pretty jazzed. Over the month of September we talked about things like oral fluency, writing for purpose and audience, and making connections. About half way through October, I gave the students a template for their book review podcasts to help them plan. It was essentially a large scale fill-in-the-blanks worksheet and it worked wonders. Once the students had planned and written their first podcast they were required to practice reading it out loud 3 times...once to themselves, once to another student, and once to a second student or a teacher/EA. After they'd practiced reading their work aloud, they were permitted to start recording.
The recording process is where we started to have problems. In order to keep this assignment as engaging as possible, I've been allowing students to use their own devices (iPods, etc.) to record their work (using the Voice Memo app). About half the class has taken advantage of this. The recording itself was pretty simple, but getting the recording to a computer was difficult due to wifi issues. Plus, once it was on the computers, the files had to be converted from m4a files to mp3s. We ended up using a free online file converter which was very quick, but it took a while to figure out the easiest solution. Fortunately, I have an awesome administrator who is extremely supportive of my efforts to make use of technology, so we've been able to score ourselves a class iPod (and word on the street is that another 8 are on their way). So, with such an abundance of apple technology in my classroom already, I thought I should look into iOptions for this assignment. That's when I discovered (or, re-discovered) GarageBand. I won't go into too many details other than to say that it's already solved a variety of our problems, and the kids are totally into it. They can record, edit, and insert background tracks of drums or guitar all in one place! Bing, bang, boom! I downloaded it into my iPhone, iPad, and iPod and did a brief demo with my kids this morning over the data projector. A few of them already had the app and most of them went home planning to beg their parents to download it. Score!
Meanwhile, students who don't have their own devices were given a microphone and a school laptop to record directly into Audacity. Luckily, it wasn't glitchy for these students and we were able to have 95% success with it.
Now, after about a week of wading through a variety of technologies, various hitches and glitches, and more than a few frustrated students, we've finally had success. Nearly every student has recorded and posted their first podcasts. Some are excellent, and some leave quite a bit to be desired. But they're done and online! It took me a little while to figure out what platform to use to host our podcasts and after some discussion with the people over at K-12 Handhelds, I settled on Podomatic.
I knew the first month would be the hardest since it's a brand new project. I won't say that it wasn't maddening at times (it absolutely WAS), but I will say that the final products absolutely justified the twists, turns, and about-faces throughout the process. I definitely think that next month will be much smoother, and I really can't wait to see how they improve over the course of the year!
Check out this fantastic example!
Then, the weekend happened. I stepped back. I relaxed. I played with my amazingly sweet 15 month old. And I had an epiphony. "Try something else" I told myself. So, I did. I started scouring the internet for information on podcasting, on voice recording, on programs and apps, and anything else that could be helpful. Slowly, a new plan started to form in my brain and today I put that plan into action. The results were immediate!
So let's rewind a little bit. Let me tell you a little bit about this project I've taken on.
I am a sucker for technology. I'm not really a techy, but I really believe that technology in MANY forms have a very important place in the classroom. I've seen first hand how engaging it can be, and I've seen how the quality of work rises when the kids buy into it. So, I decided that I would try out podcasting this year. I thought and thought about how I'd use podcasts, and I came up with the idea for monthly book reviews. I didn't like the idea of the podcasts being a one-off assignment, and I really liked the fact that in June the students would be able to look back over the course of the year and have a record of their work. Thus, the monthly podcasts were born.
I told the kids about the podcasts during the first week. They seemed pretty jazzed. Over the month of September we talked about things like oral fluency, writing for purpose and audience, and making connections. About half way through October, I gave the students a template for their book review podcasts to help them plan. It was essentially a large scale fill-in-the-blanks worksheet and it worked wonders. Once the students had planned and written their first podcast they were required to practice reading it out loud 3 times...once to themselves, once to another student, and once to a second student or a teacher/EA. After they'd practiced reading their work aloud, they were permitted to start recording.
The recording process is where we started to have problems. In order to keep this assignment as engaging as possible, I've been allowing students to use their own devices (iPods, etc.) to record their work (using the Voice Memo app). About half the class has taken advantage of this. The recording itself was pretty simple, but getting the recording to a computer was difficult due to wifi issues. Plus, once it was on the computers, the files had to be converted from m4a files to mp3s. We ended up using a free online file converter which was very quick, but it took a while to figure out the easiest solution. Fortunately, I have an awesome administrator who is extremely supportive of my efforts to make use of technology, so we've been able to score ourselves a class iPod (and word on the street is that another 8 are on their way). So, with such an abundance of apple technology in my classroom already, I thought I should look into iOptions for this assignment. That's when I discovered (or, re-discovered) GarageBand. I won't go into too many details other than to say that it's already solved a variety of our problems, and the kids are totally into it. They can record, edit, and insert background tracks of drums or guitar all in one place! Bing, bang, boom! I downloaded it into my iPhone, iPad, and iPod and did a brief demo with my kids this morning over the data projector. A few of them already had the app and most of them went home planning to beg their parents to download it. Score!
Meanwhile, students who don't have their own devices were given a microphone and a school laptop to record directly into Audacity. Luckily, it wasn't glitchy for these students and we were able to have 95% success with it.
Now, after about a week of wading through a variety of technologies, various hitches and glitches, and more than a few frustrated students, we've finally had success. Nearly every student has recorded and posted their first podcasts. Some are excellent, and some leave quite a bit to be desired. But they're done and online! It took me a little while to figure out what platform to use to host our podcasts and after some discussion with the people over at K-12 Handhelds, I settled on Podomatic.
I knew the first month would be the hardest since it's a brand new project. I won't say that it wasn't maddening at times (it absolutely WAS), but I will say that the final products absolutely justified the twists, turns, and about-faces throughout the process. I definitely think that next month will be much smoother, and I really can't wait to see how they improve over the course of the year!
Check out this fantastic example!
Classroom Jobs
This year I decided to try something new. I'm running a classroom economy, and so far, it's going really well. I've got a variety of jobs for which my students apply. Each position is a month-long contract and has a specified weekly salary. They are also eligible for bonuses based on their efficiency and performance. With their classroom currency, they can do a number of things including pay rent on their desk (they can even be evicted if their desk is not tidied up after receiving warnings), purchase the deed to their desk (a few students are already saving to purchase their own desks as well as others so that they can then lease them to their classmates and begin to generate their own cashflow...clever, I tell ya!), purchase items in our term auction, loan money to friends, etc. One of my students has even hired another student to become their 'butler.'
When I created the jobs, I tried to give them all really professional sounding names. My career captains are essentially my assistant managers. They're responsible for keeping track of everyone else, and completing the jobs of any employee who is absent or who has forgotten/slacked off/quit. Because it's a job that requires a lot of responsibility, it's also got the highest salary.
Next comes my banker. They are responsible for tracking all of the finances for the class. Students can request an appointment with them to make deposits, withdrawls, and transfers. When students are paid, they are paid with cheques that are fairly accurate in composition, and the banker tracks finances with a spreadsheet that is very similar to a real-life bank book. Again, this is a position that requires a high degree of responsibility as well as some math skill, so it's a high paying job as well. I'm sure it comes as no surprise that competition for the career captain and banker positions is fierce!
Below is a shot of the job application my students have to complete in order to apply for any position. I tried to model it after real-life job applications so that students would be able to become accustomed to the format and information required. I keep a stack of blank applications in this orange binder which is always available at the front of my room. Once they've completed an application, they just place it in the matching blue binder (marked "Completed Job Applications") which is kept in the same place.
When I created the jobs, I tried to give them all really professional sounding names. My career captains are essentially my assistant managers. They're responsible for keeping track of everyone else, and completing the jobs of any employee who is absent or who has forgotten/slacked off/quit. Because it's a job that requires a lot of responsibility, it's also got the highest salary.
Next comes my banker. They are responsible for tracking all of the finances for the class. Students can request an appointment with them to make deposits, withdrawls, and transfers. When students are paid, they are paid with cheques that are fairly accurate in composition, and the banker tracks finances with a spreadsheet that is very similar to a real-life bank book. Again, this is a position that requires a high degree of responsibility as well as some math skill, so it's a high paying job as well. I'm sure it comes as no surprise that competition for the career captain and banker positions is fierce!
Below is a shot of the job application my students have to complete in order to apply for any position. I tried to model it after real-life job applications so that students would be able to become accustomed to the format and information required. I keep a stack of blank applications in this orange binder which is always available at the front of my room. Once they've completed an application, they just place it in the matching blue binder (marked "Completed Job Applications") which is kept in the same place.
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