Video Reflection: I am what I learn

I appreciate the spunk of Alex wanting to follow his passions. I remember having the desire to be a tight rope walker. I thought it was interesting that in every room there were things that surrounded him in his environment of things that represented film making. There were director chairs, mac computers, electronic keyboards, cameras, camera crews, and many props. By surrounding yourself with the kind of things that you are interested in, then you are bound to end up in that profession. Like the young boy said, what you're doing right now is a good sign of what you will end up doing as a career. Start doing what you want, and make an education out of it. I think this is good advice. It's a little unrealistic in this economy, but it's a hopeful perspective.

Digital Story 3. Last Blog

What? 

We are still learning about Digital Stories. We have been learning how to polish and complete our Digital Stories. I actually just posted mine on my class website. It was a success. 

So What?

As a teacher, this all means that I know how to create a digital story. I can share it with my students, and I can share important information in a memorable way. As a student, this means that I have learned something to add to my collection of teacher resources to call upon for teaching valuable and meaningful lessons in the future. In Wikipedia, the definition of "Digital Storytelling" is an emerging term, one that arises from a grassroots movement that uses new digital tools to help ordinary people tell their own 'true stories' in a compelling and emotionally engaging form. These stories usually take the form of a relatively short story (less than 8 minutes) and can involve interactivity. The term can also be a broader journalistic reference to the variety of emergent new forms of digital narratives (web-based stories, interactive stories, hypertexts, and narrative computer games). 

As an emerging area of creative work, the definition of digital storytelling is still the subject of much debate.As a colleague, we couldn't really use digital stories to talk to each other or communicate. The truth is that I probably wouldn't use digital stories to communicate with my colleagues or create more meaningful working relationships. That is a lot of time, and I would rather spend the time working on digital stories for my students. We are doing this to try to help us become better teachers, students, and colleagues. 

Now What?

Technology will mean great things for my future students. Jennifer New from Edutopia says, "Storytelling is a vital skill with seemingly unlimited applications. Done well, it can have a magical effect -- moving, enlightening, or entertaining audiences of any size. We tell stories to woo lovers, calm children, or reassure ourselves. Lawyers rely on the power of storytelling to vividly re-create crimes to juries, archaeologists conjure former civilizations, and teachers make abstract concepts real to their students. 

In today's digitized world, visual storytelling is a favorite classroom tool, and the affordability and accessibility of technology such as iMovie provides opportunities not imagined a decade ago. Joe Fatheree and Craig Lindvahl, two teachers who have made seven films between them and who teach filmmaking workshops to educators, say that even when teachers are comfortable with the technology, they don't often feel confident about teaching the art of storytelling." I think it will be helpful to tell stories when I am feeling like I don't want to or am uncomfortable. I can use digital stories to tell about important things in a memorable way. 

I Am What I Learn

"Passion is something that sticks with you throughout your entire life." As teachers, it is important for us to give opportunities for students to find their passions. The young student in this video wouldn't have found out his love for movie making had he not been exposed to the programs and ideas. Now, he feels there is an escape out of his tough situation into a better life. Although a teacher may have introduced him to film making, he does say that 'you can have the greatest teacher in the world,' but if you're not willing to try to learn, then it won't do any good. By creating a classroom environment with lots of exploratory options for students to find their passions, teachers can help students make the difference in their own lives. We-teachers- are the facilitators to the great power that lies within each student we will ever have.

Digital Story 2

What?
We are learning how to use Photo Story. We will use this program to create our digital story. We will present our digital stories to the class for our Final.



So What?

As a teacher, this means that I am learning yet one more way to incorporate media into a better functioning and learning classroom. As a student, this means that right now I am working with Rachel to create a digital story about the propaganda used in America before the atomic bomb was dropped on Japan in WWII. We are learning how to use the photo story program on the school computers, and we have been working on finding good pictures to demonstrate our main points about the deceitful propaganda used at a certain time in history. As a colleague, this doesn't mean much for me now, since I am just a school janitor, but if they ever needed a presentation on how poorly taken care of the classrooms are by the students, I could use photo story to emphasize how messy and irresponsible the students are when it comes to cleanliness and sanitation.
We are doing this to open up more options to teach any of the subjects we will teach when we are hired. In my other classes, this can apply to me, because I could use digital stories for projects, final exams, or for my presentation in my math class of an instructional method to teach a certain math concept. In my life in general, this applies because I can make picture-movies with music for weddings using a new program, instead of taking up so much space with my imovies on my computer. This technology means, to me, that there are much more powerful ways of teaching than direct teaching and lecturing. This can be a means of showing examples, illustrating different perspectives, looking at multiple points of view, and much more. To my colleagues, this technology won't mean much now because I don't have any colleagues. I am one janitor that is used for the art department and I have two bosses. I could offer my bosses, who are UVU art teachers, some help with saving the work of their students throughout the year by taking pictures of all the favorite student pieces of the semester and putting them to music on a digital story. This could be a gift to the students for their portfolios and could be helpful in the future.


Now What?

To my future students, this technology means that they will be able to try less hard to pay attention. It will come more naturally for the parts of understanding that include these digital stories. They will be able to create a file cabinet in their mind to store later information that comes from the topics presented in the digital stories. This technology changes my current schema by introducing it to new ways of thinking how to give learning in a more productive and diverse way. This will help me be a better teacher by helping me improve the quality of my lesson plans with new innovative ways of presenting and creating information.
Some of the assignments I could give my students in the future would be the creating of these digital stories. I could tie it into an art lesson. What art work the students have done for a certain social studies unit, I could take pictures of them and put them into a computer for all of them to create a digital story telling of the Civil War or whatever unit we happen to be on. They could collaborate with their peers in class and outside of class making more art work, finding music, and putting it all together on the digital story program. This will help me become a better teacher because my students will enjoy coming to class, they will in turn be well behaved, and I will be able to have confidence running my classroom in a productive, diverse, different, fun, and learning filled manner. I could be a better colleague by offering my ideas and putting together an entire grade digital story day where the classes combine and get to work in groups of students that include student from any of the other classes. It will be nice for the students and the teachers to deal with different people and offer their knowledge to multiple groups under constructive group work settings. In the department, digital stories could be a fun way to start a meeting, a celebratory way to end each term. Digital stories could be a means of creating more positive relationships among the students, the teachers, the department, and other school members.

Spring Break.

Ridgeline Elementary School has spring break this week. So, I am off to six flags in LA and some family fun in the sun at my home--Las Vegas. Hasta Luego!

Technology Rich Classrooms: Video

Integrating technology in this School System in Kansas made many learning strategies easier to incorporate in the classroom for greater success. The methods we've been learning about to teach children most effectively can best be reached through technology, as was shown in this video.
One of the psychological tools teachers need to use to reach all learner levels is scaffolding. The technology used in this particular Kansas School helped students learn at their own pace and level, while urging them to push forward and improve their skills to keep up with innovative ideas and creativity occurring in the classroom.
A teacher in this video made a very good point- she was only one mind with 40 minds listening in. Why not use all 41 minds to create the most amount of learning possible. Technology helped facilitate a way for all the minds in the class to be utilized.
21st century learning tools used in the 21st century shouldn't be such a revolutionary idea. In my field work, I noticed that all his methods were probably effective in the 20th century, but not today, not in 2010.
We don't use an ink jar and a feather to write. Why? Because we have a better way! The same goes with one teacher standing in front of a class to lecture within four walls, within the one text book. We have a better way!
One student spotlighted in the film had never enjoyed school. He was not good at being a 'traditional student'. Why should he? How can we expect our students to have traditional behaviors and learning styles when they are inhabiting a modern world with modern ideas, behaviors, and learning styles. The father of the boy said, "You give him that technology and let him shine a little bit... and now we've seen leadership skills we've never seen before." New skills will start emerging that had never been tapped into before as we present 'traditional' material in a modern way---TECHNOLOGY!

Field Experience 3

What? 

We are in our last week of field. Next week is spring break, and so we have wrapped up our assignments including: social studies, arts, math, and english lessons, while performing with much media in presenting our lessons. 

So What?

As a teacher, this has helped me see that students of this particular generation love up-to-date ways to learn that include technology. As a student, I have learned how to teach more effectively and more organized using power point presentations, class websites, and other technology. As a colleague in the future, I'll be able to feel like a better contributor as I share lessons via email and other media methods. We are applying technology into our lessons now in order to be better prepared for using up-to-date methods of teaching. It has been good to understand how to make back up plans for when technology doesn't work how we hoped. 
This can apply to me today because of all the same reasons I mentioned above. I am preparing to become a teacher. If I want to be an effective teacher with quality lesson plans, then I need to practice using technology in the classroom and understand the pros, cons, and just how children deal with it in general. Collectively, this technology that we've been learning about has been helpful in collaborating with my field work partner, has given me more options in my lesson preparation, and has been a tool in helping me prepare and organize enduring understanding in my teaching. 

Now What?

To my future students, this technology means that they will have more input in their schemas for future careers, school tasks, means to learn new material, present important information, and other life tasks. This information also changes my schema and will continue to shape multiple options for presenting and teaching information to students. This information will change the type of teacher I will be in the future because I will find it easier to incorporate the curriculum into my lesson on multiple levels because of the immense organization technology can provide. 
We performed an assignment that allowed the students to work inside and outside of class, but since we didn't have permission to assign homework, we just used class time to have the students develop a class website we (Charis and I) had created. The internet wasn't working, except for the plug in at the front of the class, so we just projected our computer and worked through the website links and created the page links as a class. It worked, but it would have been more fun for the students to collaborate in groups. Knowing that I had this kind of an option to create a website, opened up my options for the students to learn in a cooperative learning environment. This kind of activity idea to teach an important unit will help me become a better future teacher. I can be a better colleague by giving the websites used in my class to other teachers in my grade level so they can get ideas. As a department, it would be awesome and helpful if we had unit projects, lectures, and assignments as an entire grade level on one shared power point presentation or website that the students could look at in and outside of school. I have learned at field how important it is for same grade level teachers to collaborate so their students get to participate with all students their age in activities supervised by all different styles of teaching.