Reading, Writing, Green Screen and Awesome Collaboration

We have two awesome 6th grade Language Arts teachers.  They are always looking for ways to get their students reading, writing and speaking.  Both teachers worked on similar projects that involved their students using the green screen- one had their students write puppet shows and the other plays.  It was just by coincidence that they both ended up using the green screen - but have I mentioned how my collaborations with teachers usually start?

So, let me back up a bit.  Let me explain the "detailed" process we went through to make these projects happen.  One of the teachers stopped by the media center as I was helping a group edit their green screen video.  When they left she began asking what the students were doing.  I explained.  She then told me she was having her students write puppet shows.  I said the green screen would be perfect for that.  I showed her how we could fold up the green screen for the students to sit behind and hold up their puppets- that was all it took.  A random 10 minute conversation that wasn't even a part of the reason she came down turned into some pretty cool projects for 6th graders.

Over the years I've been a part of all types of collaboration sessions from the completely formal and highly planned session to conversations like I've described above.  I'll take the informal conversation any day.  I've found that when you have to go through formal planning sessions the relationships I've had with staff or within the school are generally distant or there is a disconnect of some sort.  When there are strong positive relationships or the school as a whole has a positive atmosphere great things can come out of a quick conversation.  At first I may be the one to say, "Hey, what are you covering in the next couple of weeks?"  Then I can proceed to tell them the resources available to enhance what they are doing or take it a step farther.  We may have to meet to get our schedules lined up, but it's not a huge ordeal.  Once the teacher knows I'm there to help, they initiate the conversation.  Because there is an atmosphere of trust and willingness to help, it just works.  It's an amazing feeling from a media coordinator's standpoint when you know that your teachers want to work with you and know you're willing to try almost anything to help them.

Now- going back to the projects.  One teacher had her students write scripts for puppet shows that re-created scenes from books they had read.  She had them create the puppets as well.  We selected a background that matched their setting and the students used the green screen and Doink to record their videos.

The other teacher had students create silent plays.  There was plenty of action and emotion, but no dialog.  These students had to write detailed director's notes in order to know what to do.

The videos were recorded and emailed to the teacher and the students.  The teachers then shared the videos with the classes.  Students tend to put a little more effort into making sure they do their best when they know their classmates will view it.  It views them an audience and a purpose.

Google Expeditions - Field Trips to Virtually Anywhere

I am a big Google Maps and Earth geek.  There are so many hidden treasures that can be used by all subjects.  One of my favorite additions to Google that can sort of be considered a part of Google travels is Google Expeditions.  If you haven't tried out this little gem, stop right now and download the app to your mobile device.  It is a must have!!

We used Google Expeditions on our iPads.  If your school has access to smaller devices that will work with Google Cardboard or other VR headsets, I'd highly recommend using those over the iPads.

Google Expeditions has hundreds of virtual field trips available.  You can visit real places or go on a
Miss Frizzle style Magic School Bus trip and look inside of the eye among other things.  There are two views:  teacher and student.  The teacher view allows you to set up a trip.  You download it to your device.  It provides you with a script and points of interest.  You can tell if students are "with you" on the trip by watching smiley faces move around the screen.  This lets you know where students are on the page.  The teacher completely controls what the student sees and for how long.  You can direct students to specific places.

The student view allows students to join an Expedition.  They can see everything that you see.  Students can move their device up, down and 360 degrees to view a panoramic picture of the location you're sharing.  When you direct them to a point of interest, an arrow appears on their screen to direct them to the specific spot on the tour.  When you change screens, their device automatically updates.

This year we had classes take a virtual tour of Pearl Harbor, explore the eye and learn about earthquakes by going under the surface to explore the cause.  There are so many tours available.  You just have to decide where you'll go!

But Where Are All of the Books?

I can imagine by now that my librarian friends are ready to call me out.  This was supposed to be about library adventures.  Didn't you do anything with books?  The answer is of course, but they did get a little less attention this year than I'd like to admit.

There were several changes technology wise that shifted my focus a little more than usual.  One of the biggest was our 1:1 transition from iPads to Chromebooks.  This was a bit of a learning curve for me and my staff.  It should have been easy.  They were just laptops - right.  Not so much at first.  I guess we had been spoiled by all of the flashy apps that put some pretty cool learning tools directly in the hands of our students.  We had to back up and punt a little at first with the Chromebooks and shift our way of teaching.  Once we got over the hurdle of learning a new tool and how to teach with it, it became easier.  Our tech director did have a cart of iPads for teachers to use.  We took full advantage of this by using them for Minecraft projects and green screen.  I had to be sure to carefully schedule them so projects didn't overlap.  The students loved using Minecraft.

The second piece that shifted my focus were the new tech tools placed in the media center.  Someone had to learn how to use them in order to show students and staff.   That someone was me.  I'll admit I'm a huge geek when it comes to shiny new "toys".  I dove in head first to learn to use them all.  My first was to create a project in Tinkercad to print on the 3D printer.  My only instructions were:  "This is how you turn it on.  This is how you load and unload the filament - have fun!"   I watched a bunch of YouTube videos and by the end of the day it was installed I had my first project printed.  It was only a rectangle that had "Cindy" on it, but I was excited.  I did similar projects with students and staff to get started.  Each time they wanted to make something more challenging, I learned a little more as well.  

In addition to the 3D printer I had to learn more complex programming for the Spheros, how to use our green screen app, learn our Promethean board, create files for our Cricut, find ways to use Little Bits and stay a step ahead of what our teachers wanted to learn.  I'll admit I was in Geek Heaven, but the books came in a distant second.

So to answer the question in the title of this article, the books are where they have always been.  Waiting quietly to take me and my students on our next adventure when we're ready.  

World Read Aloud Day

The biggest part of my career has been spent working with elementary teachers and students.  I loved it.  There was so much you could do when a classroom was self-contained.  One of the highlights of my year was centered around Dr. Seuss' birthday.  I started way back when by having community members come in to read to a class and deliver every student a book to take home.  It took weeks of planning, but it was worth every smile from the readers as well as the students.

Not long after that, I became more active on Twitter (back when Twitter was mainly edtech professionals).  I took note of all of the amazing things that were happening in the educational community simply because we could connect with people outside of our area.  I got the idea to expand my face-to-face read alouds and make them virtual.  I put the call out on Twitter, made a few connections through email and one awesome experience was born.  

The event lasted for two weeks.  I would schedule classes based upon the needs of my reader as well and the teacher's schedule.  The last year I did this we had readers from 24 states and 3 continents.  We had North Carolina's State Superintendent, Mike Artell the author, a professional baseball player and his wife, along with classrooms and teachers from all over the country read to our students.  We used this as an opportunity to teach students about the locations of our readers by marking their location on a map and talking about the distance from our school.  We got into discussions about time zones, the different continents and culture.  I did this with the K-2 school I worked with for about 3 years.

Since I've been at a middle school, I've missed opportunities like this.  It's more difficult because of scheduling and time constraints, but this year I decided to give it a try.  February 1st was World Read Aloud Day.  I met with our Language Arts teachers and pitched the idea to see who would be interested.  Once I knew they were on board, I worked with the media coordinators at our K-2 and 3-5 schools to recruit classes for my students to read to.  This was a first for most of the people involved.  

Once we had the teachers and the times, I worked on a schedule so that we could have at least one of my classes read to their partner class.  I also created a quick video to show teachers on both ends how to make the call in Google Hangouts and to show them what to expect.  The media coordinators at each site were on standby for technical support.  Some of my teachers were comfortable to make the call on their own while others decided to do their read aloud in the media center.  I was really impressed by the effort the student readers put into trying to entertain their partner class.  

This is definitely something we will try again.  I'd like to see the collaboration happen with other middle schools outside of our county on content specific projects.