More than ABC

While packing for my upcoming move to NC, one of my favorite books about my favorite state caught my attention. T is for Tar Heel, a North Carolina Alphabet and other ABC state books like it (try P is for Peach, a Georgia Alphabet) draw the reader in with color, rhythm and rhyme while tucking state symbols and bits of history among the side bars of each page. While ABC books are traditionally used with younger students, their value for teaching in the content areas with older students should not be missed. Consider creating your own class's version of an ABC digital book centered around a science, history or math theme. Choose your curriculum based theme and brainstorm with students potential words to include from each letter of the alphabet. After students choose letters, allow them to work individually or in groups to research online data bases and informational books to write a brief paragraph about their letter / word and how it relates to the overall topic. Use a rubric to keep students on track while providing additional guidance during each step of the project. Consider using digital format such as a blog, digital picture book, or even a simple power point slideshow to combine each student's or group's letter page for the final product. Share the project on your class website for parents and others to enjoy. It's way more than ABC! It's collaboration, research and technology integration at it's best!

Culminating Experiences: Tips on creating videos with your students

Considering a culminating experience in which your students can demonstrate what they have learned? How about involving your students in creating, directing and producing their own educational video or slide show? Sound overwhelming? It doesn't have to be. You can make your video using iMovie, Windows Movie Maker or other movie software such as Pinnacle Studio, as I used for the Habitat video above.

     If the task is still daunting, or you, like most teachers, are short on time, opt for my favorite: the quick, user friendly Animoto movie and slideshow creator. Just upload your video and still images, add in some text and let Animoto do the rest. Animoto will email you the completed movie in a matter of minutes.The best part is, educator accounts are free and teachers are given a special code for students to use. 

     You can see an example of how I used Animoto to create a book trailer on a previous post. This entire book trailer video took me less than 20 minutes to complete. And speaking of book trailers, consider having students create their own book trailers as a visual for a book report. The beauty of the video project is that it requires students to collaborate with each other as they apply what they have learned.  It can be used across all content areas with students of all ages. Here are a few tips to get you started:

• Write down your curriculum goals for this project (to keep everyone on task) and collaborate!  
• Use a combination of still images and short video segments. You can use your own images or select from available images on the web. Just be sure to check for copyrights on any images that aren't your own. Look for a creative commons license for free-use images.
• Involve the students in planning the video. Ask questions like: What do we want our viewers to learn from our video? What are the most important parts and how can we capture that on film?
• Assign students roles including videographers, photographers, keyboard operators, actors and narrators.
• Keep the final product short -- less than one minute to five minutes max.
• Have fun! Invite parents to an afternoon matinée viewing of the student created movies showcasing what they have learned. Don't forget the popcorn!

Cool Tools for the Classroom: Voki

Voki is a free web tool that allows the user to create avatars. You can customize how your avatar looks, the background, what they say and how they say it. You can see my example on the sidebar to the right. With easy to use elements created especially for educators, Voki can be used in the classroom to grab students' attention for a new unit or to spark student creativity for sharing what they've learned. Here are some ideas to get you started:

• Have students create vokis to highlight some of their research findings about animals, famous Americans, places around the world, or events in history. 
• Voki can be used to present the math word problem of the week in a way that is sure to grab students' attention. 
• Use voki in foreign language class to showcase new conversational skills. Check out Voki for Education to get started. 
• Voki can be used for book promotions or to share a joke or fun announcement in your homeroom class or next staff meeting. 

Getting It Right

Recently I overheard a conversation among parents of elementary students. They were talking about the latest student projects their children had been assigned. "I hate school projects!" said one mom. "I know!" agreed another, "They should really just call them 'family projects' since the parents have to do so much of the work." Inwardly I sighed, knowing that exact feeling, having felt it myself before. 

I have been impressed with several teachers with whom I've had the pleasure of collaborating on research projects recently. Instead of sending a research project assignment home for their 2nd, 3rd and 5th grade students to do entirely outside of school, these three teachers collaborated (individually) with the school media specialist (and her intern... that would be me). Together we set goals of what we would like the students to learn and planned a series of lessons on information skills within the authentic context of the student projects. As a result, students learned how to locate and use appropriate library books for their topics as well as links to informative articles through the school website. They were then able to use these links both at school and at home to complete their project. Teachers were pleased with how well students synthesized the information and how they chose to share their results. Students were excited to share their findings because they chose their own animal to research or topic from a list provided by the teacher. In the end, these students learned life skills that they can apply to future information gathering tasks.