Karie Huttner’s Blog

I’m suppose to be working on a post for my Wilkes project based learning course but right now the website is having problems – oh, Technology! So instead I will write about a recent project that we have done in our classroom that turned out beautifully.

Step 1: We started out by having each child pick an African animal that they are interested in. They had to find book resources as well as internet resources to research their animal. Here is a link to the document that they used – Animal Research.

Step 2: Next each student went to Discovery Education and found a close-up image of their animal and the citation for the image. We used iPads for this part but a computer would also work.

Step 3: Each student FaceJacked their image to reply to the six questions that they had posed. Many students changed their voices to make it sound like the animal was talking. On the computer, blabberize will do the same thing as facejack. We then sent all of the Facejack images to the students email address since the final stage of the project would necessitate using a computer.

Step 4: Using our green screen and flip camera on a tripod, each student recorded their questions one at a time for easy manipulation later in the project.

Step 5: Day 1 in the computer lab (about 45 mins.). We took all of the resources that had been collected – 7 green screen video clips (including 6 questions and an introduction), 6 facejack video clips, and one citation page and put them into iPhoto. Students also found one more image on DE to use for their background image and citated that image. Now we had all the parts.

Step 6: Day 2 in the computer lab (1 hour) – putting all the pieces together.

Using iMovie, students designed their title page.

Next the facejack video were pulled into the project area in order.

Between each facejack video, students placed their background image with 2 images at the beginning for the introduction and the first question.

I showed students how to check the length of the green screen video clip and match the image timing to the video clip.

Lastly each green screen video clip was dragged on to the image corresponding to the space before each answer. With the advanced settings enabled, a choice for the green screen would show when the video hovered over the already placed image.

Here are just some of the amazing projects that my third grade students created.

What is project based learning?
Project based learning is an in-depth student/teacher designed investigation that incorporates
1. Posing real-life questions that students want to find the answers to
2. Researching, investigating, and documenting the answers to the questions that are posed
3. Sharing the investigation and answers with a larger audience

What is the role of the teacher?
The role of the teacher is to guide children through the steps of posing a question that can be answered or investigated, gathering accurate information through accurate research and observations, and sharing the information in a way that others can benefit from the learning.

What is the role of the student?
The role of the student is to pose the question, gather information, and share what is learned. This can occur as a whole group, small group, or individual depending on the project.

Why is it effective learning?
Project based learning incorporates all areas of learning which engages students to pursue something that interests them, learn how to research, gather information, use resources or observations accurately, and share their learning with others. These are skills that all life-long learners need to have which is why project based learning is so powerful.

Learn more about project based learning through these resources
“More Fun Than a Barrel of . . . Worms?!” – Diane Curtis, Edutopia
http://www.edutopia.org/more-fun-barrel-worms

“Geometry Students Angle into Architecture Through Project Learning” – Sara Armstrong, Edutopia
http://www.edutopia.org/geometry-real-world-students-architects

“March of the Monarchs: Students Follow the Butterflies’ Migration”
- Diane Curtis, Edutopia
http://www.edutopia.org/march-monarchs

Step 1: Procrastinate until my idea popped into my head right before I fell asleep.

Step 2: Print a storyboard and sketch out my ideas.

Step 3: Collect my images. Record in front of the green screen. Record a bunch of takes until it is just right.

Step 4: Use iMovie to green screen, split screen, and integrate the videos and images with voiceovers.

Step 5: Share, get feedback, edit, and publish.

Length of project – 3 weeks of procrastination, 2 weeks of planning, writing, editing, and publishing.

When I am not thinking about teaching and using technology, I am engaged in some fiber activity – spinning, weaving, or holding my angora bunnies. But until recently I never brought this part of me into the classroom. Last year I wrote a proposal for donors choose to get cardboard looms and a silkworm farm as well as a flip camera to document our learning. Let’s just say that I cooked our silkworm eggs instead of hatching them.

So this year I wrote another proposal and was able to get a class set of wood looms and another silkworm farm. Now I am a learner just like my students so this time I didn’t cook them.

Here is some of our footage using a proscope.

Our plan is to teach our students about the life cycle of the silkworm, document the cycle, harvest the silk from the cocoons, and weave with the silk.

For the past two years, I have had the fortune to be able to integrate more technology into my classroom through grants. One little known grant available to Wisconsin educators is the WEMTA technology grant. The deadline is approaching quickly – the last Friday in January. This grant has helped me to fund the expansion of our home literacy MP3 program and Beyond Cuentos.

Check out the example grant and go for it! What would you like to do in your classroom? What technology could help change your students’ learning?

Over winter vacation while reading one of my favorite blogs – Mind/Shift I learned about a really amazing story writing app with the power to design beautiful student created images or uploading other images.

Scribble Press is a free iPad app that gives children the tool to create wonderful stories that they can share by email, to the gallery, or converted to an ebook.

Here are two examples:
Enrique created a story about Butterscotch, our classroom bunny.

David created a book about big cats using DE images though he forgot to add his citation page.

I love apps that engage my students in wanting to write and being excited about writing stories. Our iPad is filling with stories that my students have been creating.

Thank you Scribble Press!

So here is a little fun using Discovery Encyclopedia articles and the wonderful word cloud creator Tagxedo.

Step 1: Find a resource from DE and encyclopedia

Step 2: Copy and paste part of the article into Tagxedo

Step 3: Choose a shape and edit the words

Step 4: Choose the colors and share

________________________________________________________________________
Citation (MLA)
Africa. Prod. Funk & Wagnalls. Funk & Wagnalls, 2005. Discovery Education. Web. 28 December 2011. .

This isn’t the first time that I’ve written about using songs from DE to create fun interactive learning. I was lucky enough to have been introduced to this idea by Lodge McCammon (who currently has 45 different content based songs with lyrics available for FREE on DE).

We are studying magnets so I did a search for magnet songs.

Next I downloaded the song and the lyrics. Over the course of 15 minutes, students were divided into groups to create a part to the song. Using one practice run and two takes, the video was created in less than 40 minutes. The original footage was shot with a flip camera on a tripod in front of a green screen so that I could add another DE video to the background.

The song played over and over again…. later students could be heard singing the lyrics. Music is a powerful memory strategy. Add the element of music video and you have a very fun, interactive learning experience.

Resources
Music Makes It Memorable: “Magnets”. Prod. Music with Mar. Music with Mar, 2011. Discovery Education. Web. 18 December 2011. .

Magnets and Magnetic Fields. Prod. Summer Productions. Discovery Education, 2005. Discovery Education. Web. 18 December 2011. .

So we’ve been having quite a bit of fun. Last week my third graders learned about how to cite images and videos that they use from Discovery Education. It was so much fun to watch them learn about giving credit to the creator of the image. The next day we were working with our high school buddies when one of my third graders took the initiative to show his partner how to save images on the iPad from DE and cite them.

So on our journey, we are learning to use images in creative ways. Our newest app that we love is FaceJack. Students have taken their DE images and research and created authentic informational pieces. The following are examples of our arctic animal research:

The completed project integrated DE images, FaceJack, and iMovie on the iPad. Oh, the things you can do!

So I’ve been taking a digital storytelling course and this is my final project using green screen with my flipcamera, facejack on the iPad, and iMovie.

Here is my planning video:

Here is my final video:

I wanted to share a page that I have been using with my 3rd graders to help them develop research skills. We start with
1. what they know
2. what question they might have that works off of what they know
3. where they think they might find the information
4. what the answer is to their question
5. where they found the answer