I'm back.

I'm taking a new course in my adventure to a graduate degree and will be blogging on a more regular basis.  Summer is on it's way and I'm ready for it.  

ACSA "Who We Are"

I really enjoyed creating this digital story.  The process of creating this story, taught me how to edit and organize my stories.  I spent a lot of time arranging the clips, voice overs, and music to match up the way I wanted.  I learned to draw in my audience and lay out my story in a way that will keep them engaged.  

I am going to have my students create a documentary about a major event that has occurred in Nome over the past fifty years.  Going through the process myself has given me a lot of insight for helping them through their movies.  I will create a list of tips to help them, such as work with better lighting.  Practice your reading parts while watching yourself in a mirror.  I had basic knowledge before creating my movie and now I feel rather proficient with the software.  I will give them the rubric so they can grade my video.  I am hoping this will help them produce a quality product.

I learned that I am not a performer, I prefer to be behind the scenes.  It was really hard "performing" for my movie.  It was very hard and uncomfortable to film and watch myself on the screen.  It's good for me to have experienced this discomfort so I can empathize and help those students who will also feel the trepidation of being filmed.  

I hope you enjoy watching  ACSA, "Who We Are"

My Philosophy of Education

Creating my educational philosophy video was a good learning process. My first obstacle was looking at my educational philosophy - I haven’t written one in more than ten years. It was interesting to reflect upon and acknowledge how it has evolved.   Adding technology was the most obvious change, how far we’ve come in ten years! I did have several other obstacles.

Thanks to the training videos, the actual movie process was simple. I always approached videos using the photos first and then adding the audio. It makes a lot more sense the opposite way. This was probably the most valuable tip I came away with.

The biggest obstacle was not having the right movie making software and my computer would not accept the program I wanted to use. This stalled my project by a couple of weeks. Once installed by the technology assistant, I had little difficulty completing the task and enjoyed it. The next obstacle I had was uploading. I had no problem joining Teachertube, and following the process to upload, but first I was trying to do this on Safari, and I couldn’t upload at all with this browser, so I switched to Firefox. The video would upload, but it would not send the final data. With a lot of troubleshooting and help from Jason Ohler I finally figured out the problem. Due to the remoteness and smallness of our town, our internet connection is slow. I know we have a more powerful connection at school, so I then tried it at school with Firefox and succeeded in uploading my educational philosophy video: All Children CAN Learn

I am currently working on a Bill of Rights project with my students. I incorporated the techniques I learned in this assignment and applied it with them. They have been looking for images that reflect a particular amendment. They will complement the photos with a script giving examples and explaining their amendment. We will share all the finished products in class.

Two Grandmas

Once there were two grandmas who came together to enjoy their new granddaughter. What brings together these two ladies? A beautiful baby girl. She was born on August 29, 2003. When she entered this world, little did she know the love that would be hers.

One grandma, Donia Collins, traveled from Maryland. A mother of five children and retired teacher. She traveled 5,000 miles for this one moment, to hold her grandbaby.

Another grandma, lived close by, but couldn’t get enough. She was kind enough to share holding time with the other. She, a mother of four and retired DMV lady. Grandma Bonnie came to visit often.

Two grandmas joined by the common bond, Meagan Brianna Johnson.

Futuring

a. How would you “grade” or assess Fox Becomes a Better Person, and School Train?

I would assess Fox Becomes a Better Person and School train using a rubric. With so many different aspects of a media project you have to have a lot of criteria identified for assessment. When you assess you need to address content, technology, and performance. I would use something similar to the Ididamovie Rubric/scoring guide but tailored for my classroom. You can find this rubric here:www.aste.org or you can create your own rubric at this website: http://rubistar.4teachers.org.

b. What impacts could the developments portrayed in epic2015 have on your classroom, particularly with respect to things like pod casting?

The impacts are exciting and provide a lot of new opportunity to engage children. I have been contemplating using pod casts to have children give book talks. Storing the book talks and when students are choosing books, they could listen to pod casts to help them make choices. The interactive pod casting and map at the end of epic2015 still has mind reeling with what this means.

c. How might you use SabrinaJourney as a model for something you would do with your own students?

I think SabrinaJourney is a great model for having students make biographies of themselves and eventually biographies of historical figures. SabrinaJourney was written more like a poem and the story telling was beautiful.

This could also be used as a community service or career research motivator.

I was born in Maryland outside of Washington D.C..  I am the youngest of five siblings.  Both of my parents were educators, as well as my oldest sister.  

After graduating from Frostburg State University, originally a teacher college in the Appalacian's, I drove the Alcan to teach in bush Alaska.  I taught in Napaskiak on the Kuskokwim River for four years.  After a short lapse in reason, living in Anchorage, I moved to Nome.  

In Nome I met my husband, Matt Johnson who is from Nome.  I have taught in Nome since 1999.  Matt and I have two lovely daughters.  Meagan is five and was diagnosed last March with type one diabetes.  She begins kindergarten in four days.  Kaitlyn is two and is our spirited character.

I am excited about taking this class and utilizing digital storytelling.

Now I'm blogging

** If you did a search about Nome, go back as this is a blog for a class I'm taking.  

I read a few of these each day, so I can't believe I'm actually blogging now.  Will post more later.