CEDO 530 First class thoughts

I am excited about this class because I am teaching an Intro to Broadcast class (which should be called Intro to Media), and I need help teaching my kids.  I was selected to teach the class after the prior person left, but the only training I have is that I love technology.  I hope we can get to some editing instruction because I have my students working with Final Cut Pro and Express, iMovie, other Apple suites like Garage Band, Adobe CS5 Pro Premiere and After Effects, and Windows Movie Maker.  As a class, we have gone through the process of brainstorming ideas, scripting those ideas, storyboarding, preparing a shot list, and filming.  With the editing suites, the kids are struggling to find what works best for them, and I am still learning, so I can't offer much help.  I am also hoping this class shows me more ways in which I can re-structure my class at school for second semester students so that I do not end up having them and myself be too overwhelmed by jumping in with applications that are too advanced.  I would like the class to be more about digital storytelling than it currently is.

As I was reading our chapters in DigiTales, there was a paragraph about Nikos Theodosakis and his book, The Director in the Classroom.  I have read this book, talked with Nikos on the phone, and organized a video teleconference with him for my classes with National Louis University.  Though he is not a licensed educator, he is doing much to help teachers make content relevant and exciting through allowing students to do film projects.  He has a presentation called "Mattering" that he did for my class, and it was amazing.  You can view this at http://vimeo.com/4888866. Additionally, you can visit the website, http://www.oliveus.ca/OliveUs/Welcome.html to see how he teaches teachers and students how to use digital storytelling as a project based/service based learning experience.  His website for his book is http://www.thedirectorintheclassroom.com/.  The book walks you through filmmaking in the classroom but also discusses why filmmaking and digital storytelling are important (21st century learning skills, ISTE standards, etc).

Strategies that I forgot to post

Setting objectives, providing feedback, and providing recognition:
I think that setting objectives is very necessary because it helps you define where your students are at and where they need to go.  I agree that objectives should be specific but flexible.  I find that being flexible allows me to adapt to what the students need most versus the pace I think I should be moving at.  I also agree that communication is essential.  So many times teachers do not show rubrics to the kids, but it would help the kids make better sense of what the expectations are for each unit or project.  Communicating with parents also helps keep parents as allies rather than foes.

Feedback is essential especially when you engage in project based learning.  I find that prompt and specific feedback helps students stay focused on the expectations of each project.  I like to sandwich my feedback by starting with positives and ending with a positive wrap up and suggestions for improvement.  Most of my feedback is given through email or through the comments section of a wiki or within a Google Doc.  Whenever possible, I try to use a different color so that it is separated from the student work.  I also try to leave feedback near the places where I recommend a change or more development rather than in one long paragraph at the end.  Because my feedback occurs so promptly, student time on task is more focused.  Lastly, the bulk of my feedback concerns content versus usage and grammar.  I may make a comment about technical things, but I prefer to focus on the actual substance of a project.

Recognition for me occurs in almost the same way as feedback.  I try to find specific places where I can leave a well developed positive comment rather than a general "good job" statement.  I have also saved good student work and used it as the "good" example of what students should be striving for.  I think students appreciate this, though most will act embarrassed and surprised.

Module 5 "Interactives" online unit

I browsed through the Interactives website http://www.learner.org/interactives/ and found some really cool learning tools.  The site has modules in Math, Science, History, Language, and Arts.  Under these main topics are subtopics such as cinema, middle ages, elements of a story, metric conversions, and amusement park physics.  Each subtopic has a recommended age level.  When you click on the subtopic of choice, it guides you through different facets of the topic including an introduction, and a related resources page.  I browsed the cinema subtopic found under "arts" because it had some info I can use for my broadcast/film class.  The site's explanation of director and producer was easier to understand than most examples I have read, so even though the recommended age group is 9th-12th grade, I am sure my middle school kids could follow it.  The tabs on actors and editing will be very helpful to my kids since they are about ready to start filming their commercial projects.  I will be adding the list of recommended resources to the wiki I have for this class.  Interactives seems to be sponsored by Annenberg Media Learner, found at http://www.learner.org/ which contains many more topics and lessons for most categories of education.

Strategies for the Week: Similarites and Differences, Homework and Practice, and Generating Testing and Hypothesis

This week's strategies do not really apply to what I teach: physical education, health, and broadcast/film.  The only time I use "Recognizing similarities and differences" is when I am trying to get a student to understand that the sign of ultimate participation in PE is sweating, red face, deep breathing, etc. versus no sweat, regular breathing and normal color in the face (I use heart rate in this example).  I don't think that is what the chapter was really talking about.  I have not used "Generating Testing and Hypothesis" formally, and I am fairly confident I won't in the future.  The resources in both chapters 9 and 11 are ones that I can pass on to teachers, though.  I many times get asked questions about "the best way to. . . " so any time I can bank resources and find a way for others to benefit is good. 

The Homework and Practice chapter (10) was probably the most useful.  I do not generally give homework because I know the students in my school are already overloaded.  The gauge our school uses is 15 minutes of homework per class.  This usually means each student in 6th through 8th grade could have 1.5 or more hours per night.  I am convinced that not all of this homework is relevant.  I think that some of our teachers give homework because it's just what teachers do, and they do not think about the objectives and goals of the homework.  According to the website, http://www.nasponline.org/resources/home_school/homework.aspx, only 10 minutes of homework per grade should be assigned.  That means 6th grade should have no more than an hour, 7th 70 minutes, and 8th 80 minutes.  Even the grade school kids in our system have at least one hour per night.  Excessive if you ask me. 

All that being said, now that I am teaching a broadcasting/film class, students do have to find time outside of class to complete projects.  This is mainly because students are writing and developing their own 5 minutes "short" so their plots and stories may need locations outside of school.  Students in class are just now getting to that point.  It is not homework per se, but if students want to meet the rubric requirements, they will need to do what is necessary to complete the film.  I really enjoyed the resources in this chapter.  I have bookmarked several such as Writeboard, Backpack, and Campfire.  We have been having problems at our school embedding in wikis and with sharing some google docs, so maybe these other resources have less hassle to using them collaboratively.