CES: Authentic Learning - Science, Language Arts, ITL

Today I was honored to be the audience for 4 presentations by the owners and employees of 4 different fitness centers. Each presentation focused on the special features that made their health and fitness center an excellent choice for anyone interested in special exercises, diet and individual attention. Although these companies were "not real" and the owners and employees were 5th graders in Ed Wolf's class at Coleytown Elementary, it only added to the obvious learning and sophisticated display and presentation of information. The "owners" presented their companies' missions and special services AS IF their fitness and health centers were legitimate companies.

It all began several months ago when Mr. Wolf wanted to have his students apply their prior knowledge of using wikis (See blog entry -- Jan. 21st - Community of Learners -CES) to a new project dealing with their study of the human body. Instead of researching the systems of the body, he wanted his students to have a strong purpose for using the researched information. He engaged the students in a proposition --
Can you create a "real" website using a wiki for a "real" fitness and health club that provides specific health, diet and exercises for specific people with certain needs, such as a 60 year old man recovering from a heart attack or a 15 year old soccer player?


The Mission Accomplished group, a doctor, diet specialist, fitness specialist and orthopedic specialist spoke about the yoga classes designed for a 23 year old leukemia patient. They described a selective diet with lots of fruits and vegetables. They said that whoever came to their gym received one to one time, and the staff would create personal connections with everyone. They created online diet tables with pictures. They also brought in a former client "Mr. Malon " [aka Mr. Wolf!] who provided a testimony to the great work done at Mission Accomplished!

The Groove Fitness and Health group expalined that their club was more social than any other gym.They offered a special individualized program for every person, and even provided children's programming. They detailed special programs for a 10 year old gymnast, a 40 year old Survivor participant and a 65 year old recovering from a heart attach. They offered cardio workouts, stretching plans and diet recommendations.
The !BAM! group explained that every professional who works in their gym focuses on the needs of the individual. They stated that the staff values respect and responsibility. They worked closely with a 10 year old dancer and provided real videos of turns, leaps and dance routines for their client to use at home. They embedded these videos within their website, and used them to illustrate how they worked closely to meet their clients' needs.

The Shock Fitness and Health group presented their plan for providing ONLINE personal training programs. The strength and diet experts talked about their recent experiences with a 10 year old tennis player, a 65 year old heart attack survivor, an obese 10 year old and a 50 year old smoker. An easy to read grid was organized to tell and show each client various foods and exercise programs. Pictures of the lungs after smoking, and before and after pictures of some clients were shown.

After the incredible presentations which focused on all of the major systems of the human body and what they need to stay healthy, the students answered my question:

What did you like best about this project?

and they responded:

• I learned some incredible presentation skills.
• I learned how to research in a group.
• I liked pitching and presenting about my company.
• I liked gathering information and putting it to GOOD USE!
• I enjoyed creating my own clients.
• I liked working together and getting to know the people in my group better.
  

21st Century Librarians Wiki

Started by Joyce Valenza, library media specialist at Springfield Township High School in Erdenheim, PA, this wiki is for library media specialists, and everyone interested in new strategies to positively impact teaching and learning.

http://21stcenturylibrarians.wikispaces.com/

KHS - Skype with Peace Corps Volunteer in Rwanda

Today at KHS, Tara Doyle, technology teacher, and Elena Wetmore, 1st grade teacher, communicated with a Peace Corps volunteer in Rwanda, Emily, a friend of Ms. Wetmore's. Emily first wrote a letter to the class. Then the class wrote letters back to her asking questions. One boy in the class asked Ms. Wetmore if Emily had the Internet and Skype so they could talk with her. Ms. Wetmore wrote to check that out and found out that she did have a computer with Internet access. Many pictures were shared so students could see where and how Emily was living in Rwanda. This is a picture of the road to Emily's job.


Ms. Wetmore and the class talked about the different location, Rwanda, and came up with questions to ask Emily. A script was created and each person who wanted to speak had a part. It was practiced many times. Here it is:

Script for Skyping

Student1: Hi Emily! We are Ms. Wetmore’s Class.
Student2: How are you?
Student3: We are from Westport, CT in the USA.
Student4: Where are you from?
Student5: Did you get the letters we sent you? Were they torn at all?
Student6: What time is it there right now?
Student7: We are growing beans, pumpkins and sweet corn during
science.
Student8: What types of plants are in Rwanda? Do you have a garden?
Student9: Do you have pets or animals around your house?
Student10: What do you miss most about the USA?
Student11: When are you coming back to the USA? Maybe you can come
visit us sometime.
Student12: What is your house like?
Student13: We read about water pumps. How do you get your water?
Student14: Thanks for skyping with us.
ALL: Chow for Now!

As it turns out as they were talking more questions were thought of so there was a line that formed at the microphone.

Although there were some technical problems and the connection was lost, students did get a chance to see and talk with Emily.

Tara Doyle, technology teacher, helped Ms. Wetmore a lot with the technology part of it since it was the first time Ms. Wetmore had used Skype. Because they needed to meet when Emily was available, they did not use their regular computer time, so they met at a different time with Ms. Doyle for the Skype session.

Ms. Wetmore said, "The kids were so into it and learned a lot. I loved seeing them come up with other questions as they heard things (a skill we had worked on when doing a podcast interview about a person's history with Ms. Anctil our library media specialist). "

Map of Rwanda from Wikimedia Commons (Click on image to enlarge.)

Wolfram/Alpha

By now you have probably heard from someone about Wolfram/Alpha a new "computational search engine," and if you haven't then you have now!

I have read about it in the following people's blogs, and you can too -- just click on their names:
Kathy Schrock
David Warlick
Joyce Valenza

Enter two towns and it creates a chart comparing population, elevation, and time zones.
Enter formulas, and it computes.
Type in "3 peanut M&Ms" (or any quantity of any food) and you will get a detailed nutritional analysis.

It is just the beginning of a new way of turning objective data into computable data!
Watch a Screencast,
then...
Give it a try!
http://www78.wolframalpha.com/

Today Deb Perry, technology teacher at CMS, and I visited Suffern Middle School in New York, primarily to see students working in Second Life (on Ramapo Islands) with Peggy Sheehy, library media specialist. (If you do a search on Peggy Sheehy on this blog you will find links and more information about her in two other ITL posts.) We learned a great deal from our visit -- about student use of Second Life and so much more!

(Peggy Sheehy, LMS, working with a class in Second Life)

Early in the day we met:

• Dr. Robert MacNaughton, school superintendent
• Mrs. Judy Barbera, assistant superintendent for instruction
• Mr. James Yap, director of instructional technology and data
• Eleanor Schuster, library media specialist
  
• Brian Fox, principal
• Teresa Ivey, assistant principal
  

We learned that the superintendent's vision includes exploring new technologies that support his view of a "flattened world." This includes trusting Peggy's abilities to align curricular goals and objectives with the student work in Second Life.

James Yapp has provided considerable support and has worked with Peggy Sheehy to find solutions to any problems that had to be considered over the 4 years since Peggy introduced Second Life as a learning vehicle in the school.

We observed two groups of students working with Peggy Sheehy and Gayle Yodowitc, Family Consumer Science teacher, working on their private islands in Second Life. Students brushed up their avatars, sent an IM to become a member of a new group, and heard the plan for their upcoming work to prepare for a debate on" Should teens have credit cards?" Both teachers worked with students in Second Life, and it was clear that the work in Second Life was motivational and focused students on their debate research.

(Student preparing avatar for a debate.)

We learned about other technology initiatives in the library media center and the school. There are 3 class sets of computers available in the LMC - one MAC lab and one PC lab in the LMC, and one more MAC lab in a separate room in the LMC. A glass wall will soon be built around 2 of the computer areas in the LMC to make the labs more private, and another class set of computers is going around the more flexible area in the LMC where large group activites can take place with a Promethean board available. The former TV studio in the LMC is being rebuilt as a video conference center. The school is completely wireless with many laptops available.

There is a 40 week technology program for all students called Gateway to Learning: Gateway to Technology. Two former wood-working rooms now have full computer labs in them. 6h graders have 10 weeks of technology classes, with a class every day. 7th graders have 20 weeks of technology classes with a class every day, and 8th graders have 10 weeks of technology classes with a class every day. The focus is on critical and creative thinking and problem solving.

During our visit students were creating podcasts in Garageband with the 2nd library media specialist, Elenaor Schuster.

We also learned about Saywire,which is currently being implemented K-8. Saywire is a secure social/academic network. Peggy talked about her use of Quest Atlantis as another MUVE (multi-user virtual environment). We learned about Peggy's work with Bernajean Porter, author of the book DigiTales: The Art of Telling Digital Stories (who visited Suffern Middle School and worked with 75 students for 4 days last year). We viewed an amazing and powerful digital story that Peggy created in a DigiTales workshop, called All that Glitters.

This post does not cover all that we experienced and learned on this incredible site visit, but you get the idea! It was amazing. We plan to further synthesize our experience and determine if and how we can implement a student presence in a virtual environment.

Thanks to Peggy Sheehy and all the incredible staff who welcomed us to Suffern Middle School today!!!

MACHINIMA

Deb Perry and I attended a Machinima presentation in Second Life this week sponsored by ISTE and given by Knowclue Kidd, who in real life is Marianne Malmstrom, a technology teacher at Elizabeth Morrow school in New Jersey. (A previous post from April 1st focused on her work with Peggy Sheehy on the video, No Future Left Behind.)


Knowclue (shown in the picture above) explained the value of students creating videos or machinima inside a virtual world (such as Quest Atlantis or Teen Second Life). Costuming, sets and storylines are "free" and not limited by reality. Students are highly motivated by this environment, as can be viewed in some of the projects below

Knowclue shared some of her students' videos.Some of the videos did not play, but the links provided an opportunity to see the videos outside of Second Life. Here are some of the links she provided so you can get a sense of the work she is doing.

• http://knowclue.pbworks.com/Machinima
• http://www.knowclue.com/movies/ISTE_SL_sample.mov
• http://www.knowclue.com/movies/6_Aphrodite_Web.mov
• http://www.knowclue.com/movies/Collier_sample_Web.mov

Deb and I will be visiting Suffern Middle School in New York on Monday to see Peggy Sheehy's work with students in Teen Second Life, so you will be reading another post on this topic next week!

LLS: ITL Committee Meeting

I was fortunate to attend the Long Lots School ITL Committee meeting yesterday afternoon from 3:00-4:00. Steve Cerney, ITL committee chair, and Nick Brophy, Assistant Principal, unveiled the four new ITL committee objectives to work with through the end of this school year, but more importantly, to guide the group for the 2009-2010 school year.

An overview of the current status of the 21st century skills was provided utilizing the Voicethread embedded in the ITL homepage. A discussion by group members determined that grade level teams would decide which 21st century skill to focus on in each unit of study. Strategies for teaching the listed 21st century skills would be documented during the 2009-2010 school year.

Leo the Lion Tours America -- When Will He Return?

Long Lots has celebrated reading all month, and their school mascot, Leo the Lion, has traveled around the United States sending postcards along the way. Michael Brownstein, technology teacher, Barbara Eilertsen, library media specialist, Becky Laus, 1st grade teacher, Kendall Alderman, music teacher, and others have monitored Leo's travels on their daily television program. A Google Earth file was created to show a photo-journal of the places that Leo has visited in America and it can be downloaded ( and it will automatically open in your Google Earth -- IF you have it on your computer) [You can download it here as well as on the Long Lots School HOME PAGE.]

Students have read hundreds of books to celebrate Leo's journey across America, and the entire school will be gathering tomorrow at a community meeting to celebrate all of the reading done in the past month.

This project promoted school spirit, met many ITL objectives and developed social studies and language arts skills.

Current Issue of Educational Leadership Focuses on Literacy 2.0

Janna Bell, assistant principal at CES, recently shared two articles from the current issue of Educational Leadership with staff. The theme of this month's issue is Literacy 2.0. Janna shared the article, Orchestrating the Media Collage by Jason Ohler, with two committees at her school: the literacy committee and the ITL committee.

Both groups met separately on different days and all participants came to each meeting having read the article, ready to discuss. Both groups had lively discussions with much interaction and found the article interesting and applicable to their group's mission.

The article is atypically NOT filled with much educational/technology jargon. It provides 8 guidelines for teachers to ensure the promotion of the most important skills associated with digital literacy. The article focuses on the increased importance of reading and writing in education, explains the difference between report and story and elaborates on why they work well together, adds art as the 4th essential "R", and explains the importance of becoming knowledgeable about a wide range of digital tools.

This article is a MUST READ for anyone interested in redefinining literacy. A link to the online article is available here.

BMS: Creating Book Trailers

NO, NOT THAT KIND OF BOOK TRAILER!!

Rita Hennessey, library media specialist at BMS, recently challenged students to create a Book Trailer, a movie to advertise a book! The contest was also advertised in the BLAST and Lauren Bullock & Kathy Fleming, technology teachers, also helped promote the contest in their computer classes and in the after school Media Club. This is the advertisement for the contest:

Book Trailer Contest!

Create a trailer (or commercial) for a book. You can use Windows PhotoStory 3, Windows Movie Maker, iMovie, or any other technology that can be saved (or converted) to a .wmv or .mov file.

Guidelines:
Minimum length: 30 seconds
Maximum length: 2 minutes

What to include:
The Title and Author of the book are required - everything else is up to you!
Your goal is to convince the viewer to read the book.

Students can submit their videos to the "Book Trailer Contest" drop box
(on the "R" drive).

Finalists' trailers will be shown on BAM, so please use
school-appropriate language and images.

Deadline:
Friday, March 6, 2009

Winners will be announced Friday, March 13, 2009

Prizes: Your choice of iTunes or Barnes & Noble Gift Certificates

First Place: $25.00
Second Place: $15.00
Third Place: $10.00

See complete details at http://bmslmc.pbwiki.com/Book-Trailer-Contest

From the student entries, three were selected as 1st and 2nd place, and a 3rd was given honorable mention.

Honorable Mention to Melissa B. & Will H. for The Wizard of Oz
Runner up to Alex P. for Kensuke's Kingdom
First Place to Caroline S. for 13 Reasons Why (View Below)

MUVE Over for a Saint Patrick's Day in Second Life

Last Thursday evening the Chicago Public Schools' Library Media Program held a St. Patrick's Day "Party" in Second Life from 9-10:00. Second Life is a M.U.V.E. or a multi user virtual environment. This is the description of the event on their website:

On Thursday, March 12, the Chicago Public Schools Department of Libraries hosted a St. Patrick’s Day party in Second Life on our sim. The party featured a live DJ playing Celtic and blues songs. Approximately 85 people attended from the education and library communities. Many came with their avatars dressed in green for the occasion. There were virtual refreshments, including an Irish feast. As in real life, the Chicago River was dyed green. A highlight of the party was an Irish trivia scavenger hunt that led partygoers around the sim looking for pots of gold while they sought the answers to the party quiz. Adding to the festivities, many also wore a special bracelet that animated their avatars to dance an Irish jig. Members of the AASL and ISTE SIGMS attended and this event was the ISTE Social for the week. While the event was couched in the terms of a party, it was also an opportunity for educators from around the world to network in an inviting setting. See the Flickr pics.

Deb Perry, (aka Sweety Footman in SL) technology teacher at CMS, and I (aka Atomic Thespian in SL) attended the Saint Patrick's Day event, and you can see us dancing the jig in this clip:

At this past summer's ITL Summer Institute Kathy Schrock gave us a tour of educational sites in Second Life. She provided us with a link to her online Second Life resources. Second Life is for adults 18 and over, with a separate Teen Second Life for teens, ages 13-17. Many teachers have created environments in Second Life for their students to interact and create Machinima, or movies made in Second Life or other Virtual Worlds. Westport has an educational presence in Second Life on Lighthouse Learning Island.

This year AASL and ISTE have presented several workshops, and several ITL Summer Institute participants have attended these virtual meetings. The workshops involved presentations from:

• David Loertscher, discussing ideas for a new concept for library media centers called The Learning Commons
• Joyce Valenza, leading a conversation about significant changes that are impacting the daily operations of a library media program
• David Warlick, looking at recent developments with PLNs (Personal Learning Networks)
• Mike Eisenberg, discussing how library media specialists can survive in the current economic crisis
  

The next AASL-ISTE SIGMS virtual learning community meeting will be on Thursday, March 19th at 8pm ET/7pm CT/6pm MT/5pm PT in Second Life. This month’s guest facilitator is Jon Mueller. Jon is the author of the book “Assessing Critical Skills” (Linworth Publishing) and is a nationally-recognized expert in skill development and assessment.

If you have not experienced a virtual world, and would like to learn more about Second Life, please let me know and I will create a workshop for those interested. Email me at bill_derry@westport.k12.ct.us .

SHS: Book Reviews on Voicethread

Julia Roberts, library media specialist at SHS, recently worked with New Canaan High School library media specialist Michelle Luhtala to learn more about creating a Book Review Voicethread. Robin Stiles, library media specialist at SHS, soon joined in on the project. Julia began the process of adding several book reviews and other staff members have started adding their book reviews. Students and staff are encouraged to recommend new books and add video, audio or typed book reviews.

Julia wrote, " Our goal is to broaden our discussion around books...Having talked with others who have used this form of discussion schoolwide, I know it will take a while to catch on, but there have already been some voluntary student and teacher comments. The library staff has been commenting as they find time. (All comments and recommendations come to me first for some control.) Another goal is that the Summer Reading list will be on VoiceThread. Those who recommend a book for summer reading will comment. ... In the fall, we hope to have an online survey of What Was the Best Book You Read over the Summer? based on what we did in the spring to prepare for summer reading."

This Voicethread was shared with 30 teachers at the recent ITL Steering Committee meeting, and was motivation for several to start similar Voicethreads at their schools and many found new books to read on the Voicethread presentation! If you have read one of the books, please leave a video, audio or written book review. For the original larger version please go:
http://voicethread.com/#u5821.b316167.i1723018

SHS: TV Production

Mike Zito and Jim Honeycutt co-teach the TV Production class at SHS. They work with all students on developing video skills through demonstrations, planning and creating videos for several weekly TV programs, and critiquing each others video productions.

Students are provided individual support and guidance to bring their personal and group ideas to fruition. This "independent study" environment has allowed every student to learn the basics of video production and some students to master a variety of video editing software at a very high level. When this happens students can serve as mentors to other students and the teachers.

One student, Brandon, has excelled at Motion 3 (part of Apple's Final Cut Pro suite which allows the creation of many visual effects, including particles exploding through space; movement around an object and 3D motion graphics). He has created several video pieces for the TV Production class (including the sample for the opening of a Good Morning Staples program shown below), and also applied his video skills to products for a Social Studies Civil War project as well. He is working simultaneously on many projects on his own MacBook Pro that he brings to school.

Mike Zito said this about Brandon: " He has inspired other kids and pushed Jim and me to keep up with him and elevate our program."

It was a real treat to sit in on this TV Production class today, not only to see the great concepts that are being taught and discussed, but to also conference with Brandon to view the many video projects he is working on and to hear the depth of understanding he has about video construction and the tools he is utilizing.

SHS: Students Provide Middle East Policy Suggestions to President Obama

Dana Gilland, Social Studies teacher, and Robin Stiles, library media specialist, recently completed a project focusing on the Middle East at SHS.

Students pretended to be the new Secretary of State, meeting with President Obama for only 3 minutes to convey their thoughts on the foreign policy for the Middle East. They had to include 5 out of 9 main ideas from the semester long class on the Middle East. Students had to infuse American values with what they had learned about the identity of the region and the people. They then had to come up with a foreign policy approach/strategy to handle terrorism which would not create more enemies for America.

Research was primarily done in the LMC, while the synthesis was done primarily at home or during free time before exams. To present their strategy students were required to create a digital story. Students could use any platform they were comfortable with, including PhotoStory3 and iMovie. Their presentations constituted their final exam, and the movies were presented during that time slot. Here is one sample created by Suzie.

KHS - SCRATCH Workshop Coming Soon!!!

Aimee Anctil, LMS at KHS, has uncovered a SCRATCH expert at her school -- a student. What is SCRATCH? Scratch was created by MIT and is a visual programming language. Users can easily create games, stories, plays, art, animations -- and they can be interactive. All of these can be shared on the web. In fact, you don't have to start from "Scratch," as you can download other people's work, and tinker with it to get it to do what you want.

According to the website "Scratch is designed to help young people (ages 8 and up) develop 21st century learning skills. As they create and share Scratch projects, young people learn important mathematical and computational ideas, while also learning to think creatively, reason systematically, and work collaboratively."

Aimee is starting the "Scratch Club" on February 26th (before school starts) with 10 kids signed up so far...for a 7 week session!

This is a great example of the creation of a learning environment that allows kids to lead and teach others.

BMS: Student ITL Committee

Meg Tiley, Assistant Principal, and I have been coordinating a student ITL committee for three years at BMS. This group meets before school three times a year with several subcommittee meetings throughout the year. The mission is to increase awareness of the importance of effectively utilizing information and technology at home and in teaching and learning activities at BMS. Currently two groups are focusing on two different initiatives: a call-in information literacy contest held for one week live on BAM (Bedford's TV Station), and a video contest which asks students to creatively focus on the technology that they use at home. The group has an ITL Student Committee Wiki for agendas, and notes. In the wiki each student and teacher is represented by a self-created avatar name and icon.
Meg Tiley said, "Bedford has over 30 students involved in the Student ITL committee. We were able to target those kids with technology interests from their elementary schools and we advertise committee participation school-wide. It has been a wonderful connection between the students and faculty and the needs of our students. Currently, we have one student representative on the faculty BMS ITL committee. As we all know, our students are steps ahead of us with regard to current technology. We have found the student ITL committee to be an invaluable part of the BMS community. Each year, the student ITL committee holds one to two ITL contests to get other students involved in Information and Technology Literacy and what it means to them and to BMS. It is my hope that the committee will continue to grow and that students will feel empowered around some of the decisions regarding technology within the classroom."

SHS: Honors Western Religious Symposium Wiki

Eric Mongirdas and Rebecca Levine, Social Studies teachers at SHS, created a wiki for students in their Honors Western Humanities Classes to collaborate in a Socratic Seminar. This is the homepage of their wiki with some sample comments and collaborative discussions created by students.

Rebecca said this about the project: "This Wiki was a great tool to promote student discussion beyond the classroom walls. Students were able to discuss historical content critically at their leisure and without the constraints of limited class time. Furthermore, this tool empowered students who may shy away from class discussion to participate fully on their own time. As for added value, the Wiki was tremendous. Students used the material discussed online to formulate theses for midterm essays on the changing role of religion in the West. "

Welcome to the Honors Western 2008-2009
Religious Symposium Wiki!

The purpose of this Wiki is to communicate with your academic colleagues regarding Christianity and Western Humanities. It is our (Mr. Mongirdas and Mrs. Levine) intention that you collaborate across class periods on topics introduced in the curriculum.

Throughout the semester, we expect you to comment periodically on our Wiki. You will be assigned formally to comment on certain topics, but we encourage and expect you to visit the Wiki frequently and post your musings on class discussions & activities, homework, essays, outside reading, etc. We will be using the Socratic Seminar rubric to evaluate the depth and breadth of your comments.

Follow links below to engage in Socratic discourse about our units of study.
(These links do not go to the original wiki, but take you to some samples of students' comments with names removed.)

Rome Links

Medieval Links

Renaissance and Reformation Links

GFS: Music

Suzanne Propp, Music teacher at GFS, has been using an iPod and a microphone to record kids' singing and playing various pieces of music on the instruments in the music room. The students then listen to the performance to do an assessment of their skills. Here is how she describes the activity:

"Laughing All The Way" is an activity I use with 5th graders to teach them to read a musical score. After several lessons where students read through the music, we rotate through the instruments so that everybody gets a chance to try all of the different parts. Then we work on finalizing the performance. Recording the performance on the iPod and playing it back immediately helps the students assess their performance; they listen to see if they are (a) keeping a steady beat and (b) playing the correct notes. Later we work together to add expressive elements (dynamics)."

This activity meets many curricular objectives from the ITL and music curricula, including:

• Create, perform and respond using: half notes, quarter notes, eighth notes, dotted quarter notes, dotted half notes, whole notes, dotted eighth notes, sixteenth notes, syncopated rhythms, triplets, eighth rest, quarter rest, half rest, whole rest, fermati and ties.
• Perform and respond with understanding to metered signatures of 2/4, 3/4, 4/4, 6/8 through singing, movement or accompaniments.
• Identify and understand the function of music symbols, such as repeat sign, single bar line, double bar line, first and second endings, and D.C. al fine, multi-measure rests and coda.
• Review treble clef and recorder notes C- D'.
• Demonstrate an understanding of rhythm patterns by performing orchestrated accompaniments on Orff instruments and in other ways.
• Perform pieces that use a variety of layered ostinati (speech, body percussion, instruments).
• Identify and perform pieces in AB, ABA, AABA, Rondo and other forms.
• Self-assess performance and final product using rubric established by self, class and/or teacher.
• Use a variety of production technologies for sharing information, e.g., word processing, photographing, audio recording, drawing materials, maps, models, multimedia presentations, scanning, videotaping, multimedia presentations and video editing
  

Listen to One Piece of Student Music

BMS: Digital Photography -- Abstract Architecture

Kathy Fleming, Technology teacher at BMS, is currently working with students over a series of sessions on a Digital Photography unit. Students viewed several YouTube videos and a BrainPop video about taking good digital images and using digital cameras.
Students learned the three essential elements of a successful photograph: the subject matter, the composition and the lighting. The subject matter must be interesting, or beautiful, or striking, or funny, or touching. The composition is the arrangement of the subject matter within the photograph and it should create a balance and/or special meaning. The lighting defines the shape, mood, depth, and contrast.

Students also spent time reviewing and identifying basic photography principles, such as:
• The use of focus to add depth or a 3-dimensional feel
• Looking at the background - for weird looking objects or for being too busy and distracting.
• The use of flash both outdoors and indoors
• Moving in close on a a subject
• Getting down to the subject’s eye level
• Using the Rule of Thirds
• The power of vertical vs. horizontal images
• The meaning and use of a Dutch tilt
• Acting as "a picture director"
• Capturing the feeling of the moment.
• The use of lines, angles, & shapes in objects (esp. in abstract images)
• Focusing on a small part of a larger thing (esp. in abstract images)

Students were given many images, and asked to work with a partner. The students wrote short comments under each photo which described the basic photography principle that was followed.
They were also asked to comment on images that did not show any of the principles, and asked to explain how the image could be improved.

They also perused many images in Flickr's Abstract Architecture Gallery and made comments on some of them.Each student then used a digital camera to take 5 – 10 abstract architectural photographs around the BMS campus. They were told that quality, not quantity was most important. When they returned to the classroom they used a card reader to download their images to their "Y-Drives." After reviewing their photos, they selected the 2 best and inserted them in to a Word document, under which they described how each photo demonstrated the principles of photography.

Since this lesson is in progress the finished products will not be posted for another 2 weeks. Please come back very soon to view a few samples of the amazing digital photography work done by the 7th grade computer students at BMS.

GFS: Research and Writing a Feature Article

GFS Library Media Specialist, Kelley Auringer, has been working with the four fifth grade classes and their teachers: Calla Constantine, Stacy Fowle, Kristen Lukovits, and Sarah E. White for the last month on the process of creating and writing a feature article. The students did research for their own articles using i-Conn and the information site Kids InfoBits to find inspiration and information. A template was created that guided the students in finding a topic, an angle and four main ideas upon which to build their articles. The 5^th graders also learned how to conduct surveys and interviews and to use this data as part of their research. The students reviewed NoodleBib and used it to cite all of their sources. The articles were designed, formatted and printed as an activity in the computer lab with technology teacher, Sally Wanamaker. This is the third year GFS has done this collaborative project.

[Since this year's projects have not been completed, here are two sample projects from last year: Sydney's Cell Phones Article (Page 1 shown below) and Kari's School Time Article]

(Click on image above to view in original format.)