Ipod Videos Created by my 6th grade

My 6th graders had the chance to use iPods in our English classroom this year during our Medieval Unit.  Every year I teach some lessons on storytelling.  It is a great chance for students to use some higher level skills.  They  read  a medieval tale, then read the history behind it, and get some storytelling pointers (all from this book). They have to synthesize the story and tell it in their own words.

In years past I asked the students to share their storytelling expertise at our feast.  This was not always successful.  Students were never comfortable enough to "tell" the stories in front of other classes, parents, administrators etc.  Even when they were comfortable telling their stories, it was often too busy and noisy to share their expertise well. 

The final project of the iPod pilot project was to use Reel Director to create a movie of their storytelling.  I asked them to read the story and background information, take notes or highlight what they wanted to tell, and tell their story into the voice memo on the iPod.  This was their "rough draft".  Doing this gave them an idea of how long their story was, so they could find images and adjust the length and transitions on their video.  Once they "created" the movie images, they recorded their story in to the Reel Director program and it created the movie. 

Every student completed the assignment (yea!) and excluding a few poor picture choices, and not enough images (the audio ends when the images end, creating an abrupt stop to the story) most of the storytelling movies we amazing. 

We showed the videos on the smart board throughout the feast, and everyone had a chance to see what a great job they did. The videos were evaluated using this rubric.

Here are some of the videos:

Beowulf Slays Grendel

Eleanor of Aquitaine

Robin Hood

Battle of Orleans

Arthur Meets Excalibur

Technology in my Classroom

I am part of an iPod pilot project in my 6th grade ELA class.  This coincides with our yearly Medieval Feast.  I usually have the students create a recipe book.  I do this for two reasons, they can have extra credit if they make a recipe, and to give them a chance to work with technology.  the assignment in years past focused on fonts, centering, using headers and footers, and reading over the recipe in case they needed to summarize (conserve space). This year we used Comic Touch Lite on the iPods.  They were asked to find authentic pictures, fill the background, have a title & first name, and defiantly had to adjust text and summarize.  Here is an animoto video of the finished recipe projects.  I included all, even the students who did not adhere completely to our rubric.

Free Audiobook Resources

Mary Burkey, a teacher, librarian, and audiobook addictvisits my Google reader a few times a week with great audiobook suggestions.  This week she shares a free audiobook download from AudioGo. No email address, or survey, just a free book.


She also led me to the Tales2Go ipod app which is free to educators until June 30th. WOW What a resource, They have lots of popular titles, as well as great folktale resources for the NYS ELA test.

Book Apps

At work our principal offered us chances to join Professional Learning Communities. It is a great chance for  teachers to work together reading, researching and developing sound resources for the district.  My group is working on Response to Intervention and our recent implementation of the Daily 5. 

This article from School Library Journal however, is a great resource for what another PLC group is researching.  Do you ever wonder what to look for in a book application?  This article gives some excellent advice.

Read a Children's Book, NOW!

I know I haven't posted in a while.  I keep meaning to, but keep getting distracted with crafting (hehe), and reading my new nook.  I did read this post, and felt I had to share it.  I feel a little guilty reading children's literature all the time, but its sooo good.  Take a monent to read this blog, and then a children's book. 

I suggest:

 When You Reach Me

The Book Thief

Loser

  Among the Hidden

The Hunger Game Trilogy

Have Fun!!

Inspiration Has Hit

Just a quick note, I need to go to work. 

 Practical Scrappers, a blog I follow, posted samples of different peoples take on the December Daily.  Ali Edwards has a page dedicated to it.  It is a way to document the 25 days leading up to Christmas.  You create a blank "scrapbook" that is embellished and has dates on each page, and then just concentrate on filling it during December.

Unfortunately this would work best if this was created before December :(.

Here is where the inspiration hit... I could create one on the days of summer for my sister.  As teachers we love our summer vacation, and try to do special things with her son.  What do you think?  I have some very cool summer Cricut cartridges for embellishments!!!

Old Time Christmas

Since my recent rant on my love for fall I have encountered the inevitable approach of winter.   Bah Humbug!!! A current of fear invades the back of my mind every time I hear the dreaded weatherman mention the four lettered curse word….s***.  

I find myself dreading the season for another reason this year.  Maybe it’s my age, maybe it’s my recent ability to spend more time creating, but I am not enjoying the rush, rush, spend, spend aspect of Christmas this year.  It’s never fun standing in line, or spending endless hours clicking away at amazon, but this year I don’t want to buy anything.  

Before you get your knickers in a bunch…I didn’t say no gifts, just no shopping.  I used to make everyone gifts because I stayed home with my kids, which created a one income house, so it was cheaper.  Now we both work (heck even my kids living at home work) and everyone I know has two income households.  One advantage to these two income households is the ability to buy everything we need, or dare I say… want. 

What do you buy people who can buy what they want?  How can I show them I care?  I think I am going to go back to the homemade gift part of my life.  I think it might (I guess I’m hoping) mean more to my uncle to get some homemade mustard, salsa, and cornbread then another golfing calendar (I could be wrong here, he does like golfing).  Maybe Grandma will enjoy a set of 30 homemade all occasion cards to send out. 

  Perhaps my teenage niece will enjoy an altered notebook with a matching pen. 

With the internet at my fingertips for inspiration I should be able to think of lots of personal things to make.  Just the other day my inspirational friend Lauren sent me to a post by Becca at Blue Cricket Design where she shared a tutorial on how to make this advent project:

I loved it so much I had to make one…but who to give it to (my kids are grown).  The reaction I received from her upon giving it to her helped me realize how important the gift of my time and creativity is.  

Well off to find more inspiration…