Video Clip Assignment

This was one of my favorite assignments.  The teacher in me loves to view something that strikes me in some way and figure out how I can use it in a classroom.  My assignment was based on two clips of slam poetry.  The first one example was “Scratch and Dent Dreams.”  The second was a poem called “You Move Me.”  In my assignment, I had students create a slam poetry piece using inspiration from a novel they had read.  I thought it was important to have students draw inspiration from a text to better understand how texts relate and stir things in us.  I also chose poetry because poetry is a genre I think students have a negative association with without really understanding why they feel that way.  Slam poetry is a way to make poetry come to life and show emotion.  The performance aspect of slam poetry also makes it more real for students, and it also helps meet the oral components of the Georgia Performance Standards.

Digital Portfolios

A digital portfolio as a culminating assignment at the end of a semester seems like a great way for students to “pull it all together.”  As much as I dislike the chalk and wire assignments, it does allow me to examine and articulate the goals and objectives of the class and how the assignments given and my work product relate to those objectives.  It also gives me a chance to “show off” what I can do in one place.  In a classroom setting, I think a wiki page could work very much the same way.  With such an importance placed on standards, I feel it is a good idea for students to see exactly how they meet those standards and examine their work and be able to define what knowledge they gained doing the assignment.  Much like chalk and wire works for KSU, a similar approach as a classroom assignment could also help me as a teacher determine what students are gaining from assignments and if those assignments are meeting the standards I intended for them to meet.

MVL Projects

After viewing other projects and completing my own, a look into the Career Builders Commercial, I came to an interesting conclusion from a teaching standpoint.  These projects had such a wide range of approaches.  As my group was doing our project, I did not think there was much variation on what was required from the project, but rather how a group chose to present their findings.  After viewing some others, I realize just how much was open to interpratation from the assignment.  I love being surprised at how different people read an assignment.  The possibilities are endless.  As a future teacher, this open-endedness is something I want studnets to have, that is, the ability to have options and variations in their work.  Not every student learns the same, and not every student demonstrates what they have learned in the same way.  It is important to me to make sure that students feel confident with what they turn in.  An assignment such as this would feed directly to that, and is still requiring the same things from every student (reading, research, writing, critical thinking, and technology).

Web Phenomena and Memes

At first, the idea of memes made my head spin, but after a second reading of the chapter and class discussion, the idea of memes is fascinating.  I especially connected with the idea of timing.  A person has to be ready mentally to gain a new meme.  What this means to me is that someone must have the thought planted in their head or at least open to the idea from past experiences for the meme to have personal meaning for them.  When talking about memes being passed along through the web, it is interesting to discover that many memes are passed through email forwarding, social sites such as facebook, or other links an individual already has in place on their personal computer.  They already have an interest in the information being traded or the person trading the information.  This is why one is open to connect to the idea.

One of the web phenomena I looked into was that of the Star Wars Kid.  In this video, a teen is “practicing”  his Star Wars” moves.  Another student posted the video online, and a new phenomena was born.  It received so much attention (over 16 milliothat it even became a contest on a late night talk show.

In a classroom, this would be an interesting concept to explore, but I think it is just as important for students to understand that there are consequences.  In the case of the Star Wars kid, he became so embarassed by the negative attention that his family filed a lawsuit against the student who posted the video for damages.

Georgia Performance Standards

When reviewing the Georgia Performance Standards on line, I was thinking about how to align my MVL project with these standard.  In the power point that the Georgia Performance Standards site provides, there are some key slides that explain why an assignment such as this would work well in the classroom.

This slide talks about the importance of a culminating assignment where students produce work as evidence of skills and knowledge gained throughout the unit. 

As seen above, culminating activities meet many standards because they allow for students growth throughout the assignment.  It gives students opportunities to evaluate their work product throughout the assignment and to demonstrate their growth by changing their finished product to reflect that growth.  It also provides teachers with the opportunity to have students demonstrate their product in “nonlinguistic, written, and spoken presentations.”

The MVL project gives students multiple opportunities to provide evidence of learning throughout the assignment. 

Editing Wikipedia

WHEW!!!  This assignment made my head spin.  I learned so much about how wikipedia is run and the reliability of  it.  The information I gained changed my outlook on using wikipedia when performing research.  I previously avoided wikipedia when doing research because I knew that anyone could add anything they wanted to it.  I was not aware of the restricions placed on wikipedia information added or that facts were constantly being checked.  I also was unaware of the wealth of references you could find on a topic through wikipedia.  I now view it as a great jumping off place for research.  Although I still would not allow students to use wikipedia as a reference, I woulf reccomend that they use it as a place to gather information.  My group’s wikipedia was on Jay Asher.

Visual Response to YA Novels

Until doing this assignment, I never really understood how much visuals effected my comprehension and attitude on a subject.  I have done numerous assignments relating to how I am influenced by visual aspects around me.  This is one of the first projects I have done that required me to create my own picture in response to something I have read, and the result took me to a new understanding of just what I was getting out of a text.  I know I will be using some version of this assignment in the classroom because it required me to dig a little deeper and not only create something, but be able to rationalize my creation.

Social Networking

 When I reflect on the idea of using social networking in the classroom, I sometimes feel as if my opinions are useless.  I will read an article like the one in class to today called \”Tweeting Your Way to Better Grades,\”  and think that technology absolutely has a place in the classroom.  Even when the argument that I so often hear and use myself from time to time arises that asks what do you do if a student does not have internet access at home, this article leaves me with the answer:  That is precisely the reason to use it.  I feel it is my job to give these kids the opportunity to use technology so that they are better prepared for a society that engulfs it at an amazing rate.

On other days, my opinions come from a place of fear.  How do you maintain those personal boundaries with students if you are inviting them to social networking places with you?  How do you set boundaries with your time?  If a students can find you in a number of ways outside the classroom, how do you make your own personal time your own?  Also, there is the fear of what others outside the classroom are doing with this very public information.  I know this seems small, but one of my main problems with people outside my group of friends using these types of technologies is how informal it is all getting.  As a teacher, I am affraid that using an informal setting outside of the classroom gives them them the “okay” to use it inside the classroom as well. 

But I am also afraid that my fear will lead to an even more frightening place.  Vancouver just unrolled the new laws concerning teacher and student interaction in one of their schools as a result of a sexual abuse case against a teacher.  Under the new laws, teachers are not allowed to expose their students to nudity, this includes a college art class.  Teachers may not interact with students socially outside of the classroom, this includes email.  When I read this article, I was floored.  This is overkill to say the least; am I heading this way?

Chapter 6 The Social Web

What I found most interesting about this chapter was the use of Diigo.  What a great way to connect with other teachers and find the resources they are using to teach a certain subject.  I love the idea of having so many minds at work for the same purpose.  By tagging information, I can find links to other information more easily.

As far as classroom use, I think this would be a great way for students to gather and share information on certain topics we are exploring in class.  I though this would be especially useful in writing a research paper.  Instead of starting with the old standby, wikipedia, or relying on a librarian to find your information, now students have the ability to see what multiple minds and searching have discovered on their topic.

On the other hand, I do feel that micro-blogging, such as Twitter, can get to personal for a classroom, and could easily turn into a river of conversation that does not, necessarily, have anything to do with class.  The example given to allow students to use their cell phones for journal updates I feel is a slippery slope, especially considering Cobb County Schools’ stand on cell phone use, which is no cell phone use at all.  Considering this is where I want to teach, I feel that allowing students to use their phones in class could lead to abuse and only cause more problems.

I am very interested in exploring Youth Twitter.com for the classroom.  This permission-only environment has me intrigued, and I am anxious to find out just what kind of information is being shared.

The Hunger Games

I read this book some time ago, and I still love it.  I have been trying to come up with a way to use this book in class and I think I have a plan.

It would be interesting to have students create their own Hunger Games.  They could divide up into teams to create the games that would be used the next year.  This project would be a multi-genre project and could include such things as a map of the site of the games, a list of rules for the contestants, a press release or news article about the games, etc.   I think this assignment would be a wonderful way to expose students to different types of texts and discussions on the value of those texts.

A short assignment that could be part of this assignment could be a check register for the set up of the games including all the things purchased to set up for the games.  It would allow students to dig a little deeper and discuss how much it must cost to have these games in contrast to how far that money could go to help feed the districts.  The short story  “Ordeal by Cheque” would be a great introduction to this assignment.