I worked with Mr. Quiogue's 5th grade class to work on this project since I don't have a class of my own.Students used their Read Naturally fluency books to practice their fluency during Universal Access Time while recording with the iPod Touch Device. Students used Mobile Studio to record and manage their audio files. The idea was that at the end of the school year they would have a digital portfolio of all their fluency recordings that Mr. Quiogue could use for evaluation or for his students to reflect on their reading earlier in the year compared to the end of the year. This portfolio could also be shared at Open House.

I first demonstrated to his entire class the process of using Mobile Studio and how to use the Shure microphone. Then, students had the opportunity to try it out individually with their own iPod. I also showed his students in the computer lab how they could transfer their audio files from the iPod Touch to the computer. At first this process was a little complicated and we had some issues with some iPods that we couldn't connect to. His students had more opportunities practicing connecting to the iPod Touch from the computers in the computer lab when they transferred some of their essays that they wrote using Mobile Studio. The process was the same for transferring Audio Files.

For the actual part of the project, Mr. Quiogue took over. I supported him with some of the technical parts and he came up with the idea of using the iPod Touch during Universal Access with a group of 5 or 6 recording their fluency using the iPod Touch. I believe this was the best way to manage it because if you had the entire class practicing their fluency all at once then the recordings would have had a lot of background noise. It was easy for many of Mr. Quiogue's students who are technology savvy since many of his students work with Mr. Herman using the iPods during ELD. However, we did encounter some problems using Mobile Studio when we tried to connect to the iPod to transfer the audio files. Some of the students were getting error messages.

One thing that I would do differently now if I had to do this project again with another class would be to use iFiles because either I or the teacher could collect those audio files right away and manage them in iTunes. I could create a smart playlist for each student so that when I transferred the files they would automatically be organized. When we tried to put all the files into a folder to create a portfolio, I realized that it was difficult to find out when the students had read these stories because if you edit the name of the file it puts on a different date. This might also work using the Voice Memos app on the iPod. The only problem that I can think of is that since Mr. Quiogue's students use the iPod Cart that is shared with all the students at school, other students might delete the audio files from the iPods before they are transferred to the computer. The best way to manage this would be to have either the teacher or student transfer their recordings to the computer right after they finished recording and delete the files from the iPod Touch.

This student sample belongs to Jennifer who was reading at a 4.5 reading level.

Students focused first on creating their Keynote presentations on the research that they did on their native american tribes. The most difficult aspect of this project was getting students to write in short phrases rather than complete sentences. Mr. Quiogue and myself had to constantly remind students not to write complete sentences because they were going to be recording their voice. At that time they would give more detail information.

Students had to write their own scripts prior to recording their voices on the Keynote presentation. Students and I realized that it was not easy recording because they had to get it just perfect. It was easy to make mistakes.

In the future, I plan to give them the blank Keynote notes or script (Tom has modeled this procedure) to facilitate this process. Students showed how much they learned about their tribes because while recording their slides, they couldn't just read their bullets, they had to give more details. It was very obvious that they were summarizing their knowledge and demonstrating their comprehension on the literature they read about their native american tribes.

My proposal for project 1 is to help Mr. Quiogue's 5th grade students create a Keynote project using summarizing. Students will research a Native American Tribe and create a slide show on Keynote to summarize their findings about their tribe.

Students will first have to do the research on the Internet, collect the information and do their summary on paper. Then students will use that information to create their Keynote slide show by adding photos and recording their own voice on the slide presentation.

5th grade students from the Falcon Video Club decided to make a video called Pink Slips. They wanted to interview teachers and administrators about their opinions on the fact that so many of our excellent teachers at Farr Avenue got pink slips this year. The video is an interview where students asked some of the teachers who received pink slips, those teachers who didn't, administrators who had to give them out, and students' reactions. The students wrote the script together, they filmed and edited the clips on their own. I am very proud of all their hard work and dedication.

Second grade students used iTalk on the iPod Touch to record themselves making predictions on stories they were reading from Read Naturally. I showed students how to use iTalk, typing in their names, recording, stopping, and saving. Then students listened to their own recording to type on the computer their prediction they made for their stories.

Here are two samples:

Student 1 read "Trap-Door Spider"

Student 2 read "Sandra Day O'Connor"

Here is the second sample of a student summarizing the story called The Komodo Dragon.

This is our rough draft of Math Counts! for iVIE submission. Let us know how we can make it better. All suggestions are welcomed!!

Here is a student sample for my first iREAD project. The project focused on identifying "story elements" in stories students read. This project is applicable for grades 2-5.

Bilingual students were taught the meaning of characters, setting, problem, and solution prior to working with technology. Students did their prewriting on paper to help them organize their ideas. Then we used the software program called Kid Pix to draw the different parts of story elements. Students were asked to draw a drawing for characters, setting, problem, and solution. Then I showed them how to export their drawings as JPEG images so that we could drag them into Keynote. This was the process that was the most difficult to understand because Keynote doesn't recognize Kid Pix files or documents unless they are converted into images or JPEGs. Once students understood how to export their drawings it was easy to drag the pictures and drop them into Keynote slides. I liked the idea of students using their own drawings because it became meaningful and authentic. The typing part took a little longer than I thought. Next time, I might allow students to practice their typing skills using Typing Practice on the Internet.

Storyboard: 

I couldn't  export the Comic Life document as a Fixed-Resolution PDF File, so I had to export to HTML and I only posted the images.

This is our Energy Vampires movie created for the Newbie Project. This PSA is about conserving electricity or energy at our school. The majority of the project was created by 5th grade students. They took most of the still images, did the filming, and audio. I did all of the final editing. It was a long process, but we are feeling more confident after our first movie.

Here is our Script for our first Newbie Project. We are working on a PSA for "energy vampires" or things at our school that waste electricity 24 hours a day because they are plugged in even though they are not being used.

Here is our Conservation Storyboard. Student's decided to call our movie "Energy Vampires." Students took the majority of the still images and worked on the Storyboard using Pages. We are currently working on the Script. Students are coming up with the ideas and typing the script individually.

 

This is our storyboard

 version of the "Education Race."

I am going to be working mainly with 4th and 5th grade students since I don't have a class of my own. Even though this is a teacher created project I'm planning on getting the students involved from the very beginning including the pitch. 

Objective

Our objective in this Public Service Announcement (PSA) is to persuade you to conserve energy in our community by turning off the lights when not in use.

Goals

The goals that we want to accomplish through this video are:

1. Persuade you to conserve energy.

2. To help others understand the importance of conserving energy.

3. To demonstrate the many ways that you can conserve energy.

My very first movie made using iMovie during Project Live Kick-Off