Past and Present–Mr. St. Amand’s Social Studies

Middle School | Posted by david.widener
Nov 17 2009

classincomplab1Mr. St. Amand combines two of his passions daily–teaching and technology. His social studies classes are using some of the technology available in the MS to engage students and help them develop 21st century skills. In his classroom he has a mini-lab that is surrounded by posters, diaramas, and other historic artifacts that are used to help students gain an understanding of the past.

This year students have already been involved in a number of projects that used technology to help engage students and enable students to learn in new and exciting ways. Listed below are three of the projects that are ongoing or that students have completed.

8th grade US History:

Students were asked to select a WWI topic and create a podcast, using Microsoft Photo Story, that describes and illustrates their  chosen topic from WWI.

http://wa8.wikispaces.com/ww1

7th grade World Cultures:

Students were asked to select a country from the Middle East and create a podcast, using Microsoft Photostory, that describes its early history, current status in the world, as well as future development.

http://wa7.wikispaces.com/Middle+East+Podcasts

Wiki Project:

Students were asked to complete a wiki page (a student editing web site) for each chapter of study in the categories of vocabulary, names, or dates.  Each student had to include a picture, 3-5 sentences of individual work (no copy and pasting allowed), as well as sighting all sources used in the wiki post.  The result was a web site that enables students to review subject specific materials for texts, quizzes, and most importantly the exams we take twice a year.  Students learn not only content of the class, but how to upload pictures, embed YouTube videos, and use web 2.0 tools such as RockYou.com and Animoto to post multiple pictures of a topic.  This is a year-long project designed to teach history using web 2.0 tools in the classroom.

8th grade US History:  http://wa8.wikispaces.com/

7th grade World Cultures:  http://wa7.wikispaces.com

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Talk About Books

Middle School, Students, audio, book talk, multimedia, video | Posted by david.widener
Nov 11 2009

In Web Tech we have been working on digital book talks. Book Talks are students discussing books they have read recently, in this case in a class or for their summer reading. The final product is a video constructed in iMovie. We have used Photostory in the past, but the past two semesters we have used iMovie.  Photostory 3 is free from Microsoft and is a wonderful alternative tool for this project as the emphasis is on the book talk not learning technology.

In the honors reading class, they established a blog to house book talks. Students and teachers are invited to contribute to the site. There are several book talks already posted by the librarians that are being used as the model. It is hoped that students will read a book and then do a booktalk that students can later reference.

2ndpdfall20093Book talks are a great way to provide students’ opportunities to exchange ideas. and recommend books to their classmates, but more importantly to a larger audience. The most important reasons are to get students motivated about reading and sharing their knowledge with others. The book talks are available to anyone who has internet access. It is also very important to the overall development of a student’s communicative and literary skills. Students will write scripts, interpret themes, discuss characters, and finally reflect on the final product making recommendations to the listener.

Students worked on the project for three days in the computer lab using iMovie. Students chose a book, researched the author, collected and wrote notes using Google Docs, created and collected pictures, and then assembled all material in a digital book talk. You can view the assignment sheet and rubric by going to the Book Talk Project page.

I have included some of the book talks below for your enjoyment.

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Students Make Commercials

Middle School, Students, podcasting | Posted by david.widener
Nov 03 2009

We have finished our radio commercials using Garageband. Students really enjoyed working on the project. Each student made a 30 second commercial advertising a product like cereal, a restaurant, or other consumer items. The complete instructions can be found on the commercial project page. The project page includes a sample script and rubric as well.

When students created their commercials, they chose  cleaning products, cars, and other consumer products to advertise. This is a good assignment to encourage creativity and show what students have learned using GarageBand, as well as to allow for further exploration into the GarageBand software.

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Two students working on Commercial

The commercial project started with the script writing process. This is the most important aspect of the project, but many students do not spend the necessary time. If the students fail to spend adequate time on the script, the time involved in recording increases, and in  most cases the quality of the finished product is diminished. The students develop their script from a template that is available for the students in the class network folder.  After the script writing is complete, comes the fun part– recording the commercial.

The commercial can have sound effects, music, voices, etc… In Garageband you have many sound effects available in the media browser, but you can also get sound effects from findsounds.com, and animationfactory.com. Students are able to alter their voices in Garageband, so it is possible for one student to record many parts and alter them, so the end result is cast of thousands. Maybe not a cast of thousands, but more than one. One student who did a cereal commercial, created a great cartoon child voice for a cereal commercial. It clearly made the commercial more interesting and entertaining.

As  students complete their commercial, I ask them to consider these two questions for their commercials:

  1. Is it clear what you are selling?
  2. Are you compelled to do something?

It is essential that they consider these. We want the message to be clear. This concept is going to help them not only on this project, but in all the academic projects they do. It seems that many times students focus on the neat voice filters, or the sound fx and forget the message. We want students to be able to communicate the main point. This will be absolutely essential to their success as students.

I have included several of examples of the students’ work. Listen and enjoy their creativity. If you are having trouble viewing the podcasts Click Here.


 
icon for podpress  Ashlee, Jordan, and Sam Commercial: Play Now | Play in Popup | Download

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Airplane Race Contest

Middle School, animation, drawing, multimedia | Posted by david.widener
Oct 12 2009

Students  after learning the basics of Flash animation construct an airplane race with graphics, animation, scripting, and sound. At this point students, have  been working with Flash for a three weeks. The completion of this project takes five or six days, and is the opportunity for students to show what they have learned applying it to an original creation.

The process for the  airplane project is laid out in a guided process that includes document instructions with screen kevinairplaneracecaptures and videos of various task, i.e. creation of clouds, that can be accessed at screencast.com .  The students throughout the process use experimentation and peer help to complete the project. One student may see another student’s project, and want to duplicate a particular aspect. This is a very important part of the learning process to expand the understanding of the Flash program. This classroom process is encouraging collaboration; and in this case it is not about them necessarily working alone to solve their problem, but helping each other produce or construct the airplane race.

The airplane project is constructed over the course of six class periods, and the final product is evaluated by their lauraairplaneraceclassmates on the seventh day. On  day 1, students are given instructions that provide requirements and also guide them in the initial set-up of the project. The requirements are very basic and allow for creativity and flexibility on the student’s part. For example, each student needs at least “two planes” in their project, but they are not limited to two planes; nor are the students told what color or size to use for the construction of their animation graphics–-the original graphic size is established. Students can use previously constructed materials, such as the background made in an earlier assignment. Several students choose to use the backgrounds they created as the starting point for their airplane race. The use of these resources saved them time, and allowed the students to experiment more with the Flash CS3 program.

A rubric was handed out to students, to give them a clear explanation of the scoring and the various levels of quality in their work. When the projects were completed students viewed all of the races on the large screen and one of the races was chosen as the best in class. I have placed a few of the races below for you to view:

Kevin’s Airplane Race

Trip’s Airplane Race

Ashlee’s Airplane Race

Jack’s Airplane Race

Brantley’s Airplane Race

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Internet Safety Week

Internet Safety, Middle School, Students, language arts, podcasting | Posted by david.widener
Oct 12 2009

We have just finished our Internet Safety Week – September 28-October 2. Internet Safety for middle schoolers is extremely important. Middle schoolers are very active on the Internet, and it is important that they be safe and that they learn how to be safe on the Internet. This year the theme was “SMART.” Each letter represents an important concept for Internet safety.

  • S-”Stay Safe”
  • M-”Make Good Choices”
  • A-”Alert an Adult”
  • R-”Respect Others”
  • T-”Think”

Another part of the week’s activities was a poster contest. The contest was open to all students in the Middle School. Students were to design an original poster based on the “smart” theme. We had thirty- five students submit entries. The top ten finalists were chosen by a committee, and then the students chose the winner by voting in homeroom on the posters.

In addition to the poster contest, middle school students were a part of a Connect Session  in each of their homerooms. A 15 minute video was shown that included questions and time for group discusssion. One of the teacher remarked that it was an “eye-opening video.”  She stated that the students were very interested in the topic and interested in discussing the issue. The video covered several Internet safety topics, including cyberbullying and “sexting.” Sexting is using some form of technology to exchange messages or pictures of  sexual content. It is a growing problem among young teens.  Students may send a picture to one individual that is quickly spread to hundreds. There are legal and social issues with this new growing use of technology. Take a look at this CBS article that discusses some of the legal issues associated with “sexting.” If you are a parent or educator and looking for a great site that provides material to help you and your children with Internet Safetycheck out  NetSmartz.

At the end of the week students voted on the top ten for the posters . Take a look at the posters below:

Internet Safety Week Posters

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