YouTube as an easy incentive…

Quick win for vocab… every week on Wednesdays my students homework assignment is to use their lingo (vocab) to create a script of some kind (“Script it Out” if you will). They can create a movie script, TV show script, commercial, song, rap, poem, fiction story… the options are really endless as long as the product is well thought out and uses their lingo in sentences, in a way that shows they understand the meaning.

Well needless to say while at first this can be exciting and a little different, eventually it becomes just another homework assignment they have to complete. Quick easy win= YOUTUBE! The best scripts are performed the next day (Thursday Theatre) in class, and recorded on my small digital still camera. The good ones are then uploaded on YouTube. If you teach in a computer/Tech lab, it’s easy to embed it on your blog and have them all watch it the next day. If you don’t, just put it on your website (or tell them what it’s titled) and you’d be amazed at how many kids will find a way to look at it outside of school.

Following a class discussion earlier this year about how YouTube is revolutionizing fame, and every middle schooler wants to be famous, kids will do whatever it takes to get their work (and performance) on YouTube.  Whatever it takes in this case is quality homework.  What a beautiful win-win situation 🙂

Just another way technology can help invest kids in your subject…

P.S.  Struggling to get videos in a format that upload easily on YouTube?  Try VisualHub- best converter I found after a ton of research last night.  VERY user friendly.

 

Google Earth in the Science Classroom

I just discovered Google Earth about a month ago and was FASCINATED! One of the most fun parts of being a tech teacher is playing around with all the new free things I discover online. This was an awesome one. However, not teaching science made it more difficult for me to figure out exactly how it can be used as an educational tool in a science classroom.

This morning I discovered this recent post on one of my favorite blogs, ‘The Tech Savvy Educator’. Would be really helpful to all you science teachers, as it has a TON of great resources and ideas, as well as some cool science blogs/websites. Check it out!

Earth Day Should Be Everyday – Google Earth & Climate Change in the Science Classroom

Blogging BY the kids

While blogging FOR the kids is a powerful tool to connect to their world of digital engagement, I enjoy their blogging even more 🙂

About four months ago my students created their first blogs. At first this involved them simply typing up some of their writing from English and responding to a couple prompts from me. While I was convinced at a tech conference in Greensboro that blogging was a strong tool to improve students writing, I wasn’t convinced immediately. The idea that writing for an authentic audience would improve their voice, grammar and style was compelling, but students didn’t seem to feel that their audience WAS authentic since they weren’t receiving any comments. It was then that a brilliant mind in the world of KIPP suggested Blog of the Day. LOVE IT! Since then an essential part of our Do Now has been visiting the blog of the day (written on the board). We discussed and learned what positive and constructive comments look like, so comments do not become a sort of “writing on walls” if you will, a transfer over from their MySpace and Facebook worlds. In my next unit I’m going to hopefully teach the idea of continuing and building the conversation through their comments, to increase the intellectual conversation potential created by a blogging community.

Okay, now the one huge wall I’m already predicting from teachers NOT in a tech lab setting. If not privileged with a classroom full of computers here are a couple of options.

1) Reserving the school computer lab so you can set them all up at once. Then save it as an earned privilege, potentially using it as a class incentive, earned however you consider appropriate for your subject and what you want to emphasize at the time.

2) A ‘pod’ of computers in the back of your room, if possible. Even 2-5 computers in the back of your room can be a cool earned privilege for kids making smart choices, or an even rotation where everyone gets signed up and blogging within a week. From there, normal writing assignments in your class can become new blog posts! No need to type them up first, but everyone can write on paper and later transferred to blogs. Encourage kids to visit them at home as well… even those without internet access will miraculously find a way when they WANT to get on. You’ll be amazed by which kids are motivated by this!

The biggest key with both of these is providing a way for them to receive comments. You’ll find that many may not respond very quickly to the idea of blogging when they’re receiving no response. But as soon as they get their first comment, many will be hooked. Send their blog web addresses to your staff listserve. Encourage other teachers to visit them. Send the addresses to friends and family members and encourage the same (make sure to mention to them what kind of comments you’re hoping for… grammar feedback, content responses, or just conversation based off of what they’ve brought up). Send them to other KIPP teachers. You’ll be amazed at how much fun it is to read the ramblings of a middle school student… we have a lot to learn from them, and many just need a place to express it!

Some prompts I found with great responses:

Do you believe in love at first sight? (They’re doing Romeo and Juliet in English right now)

Are there some things that are evil, but in certain situations good? Or things that are good, but in certain situations evil?

If I were a teacher I would…

In 20 years, I will be…

The qualities that make a best friend are…

One thing I’d like to change about the world…

The more controversial/debatable the better. Not only will they love expressing their opinion, but it also makes it easier/more exciting to comment on and spark discussion.

One helpful hint: send home a permission slip first to parents to let them know about your project, and make sure to emphasize with kids this is a CLASS project, therefore what they write should be appropriate for a professional/classroom situation.

Here’s a website that can really help when thinking of setting up blogs for the first time:

http://teachertechblog.com/teachers-guide-setup-and-configure-a-student-blog-in-4-steps/97/

Blogging FOR the kids

So in the past couple of days since returning from Spring Break I’ve heard many of my kids reference how much time they spent over break going on MySpace, or how they were going to head to MySpace as soon as they got home.

While I accept that MySpace is, and despite what I may hope or wish for, will remain an important part of their social lives, I also accept there IS something I can do about it. Kids are always looking for new things to explore and play with online. Right now they have a TON of ways to connect with their teammates online, but do they have a way to connect with their teachers?

This year I created my first ever blog, and it was for my class. I find it an awesome way to communicate with students inside (I’m lucky enough to teach in a room with 24 computers) and outside (you’d be surprised how many will look at it in their free time!) the classroom. I began by writing daily about what happened in all four of my classes (we often forget about how little they see of the other groups, but how much they want to know about the other groups!), and it evolved to updates, commentary I don’t have time for in class, pictures, and could be so much more!

The English teacher on my team recently created her own blog, and I LOVE the idea of all teachers in our school blogging! You can write about YOUR interests (how little they actually know about us is amazing, how much they WANT to know about us is surprising!), what you’re reading, thoughts on the world, or whatever you want! Imagine a world where students go home and have the option of MySpace, but also the option of 5-30 teacher blogs to choose from! If we can show the Internet as a place of learning and community with their teachers as well as their teammates, we are expanding their social and personal learning networks to a place where growth doesn’t have to stop at our school door as they board the buses…

Just a thought 🙂 I recommend WordPress as my blog of choice,(wordpress.com) but there are tons of other places for you to go to create YOUR first blog 🙂

Check out mine at:

http://www.saltinerockstars.wordpress.com