TechieTeach

Well, we just got back from the FLL Regoinal Championship Tournament.  My team could have done much better than they did, but we just didn’t have it together quite enough.  I was proud of how hard they worked all season, but in some ways, it seemed like the kids fell apart once we got there.  The biggest struggle?  They didn’t do well in any of their question and answer sessions.  Whenever they were asked a direct question, the all just looked at one another and it seemed like they all just froze.  They were even asked to share what they each did to help the team, and although they had each done a LOT, they all just repeated one another and left out like half of what they had done.  Ugh.  Here’s what I am wondering:  How do you take a bunch of inherently shy, quiet kids, and teach them to speak up for themselves without being rude to one another?  Any advice on getting these kids ready to address their judges next year would be so greatly appreciated!

I just realized how long it has been since I have posted on this blog.  I post almost weekly on my class blog, but with coaching my FLL robotics team, I’ve just been SO overwhelmed!

My FLL team (team 338, Shredder) is actually what I wanted to write about.  I have been so proud of them this season.  For those of you who aren’t familiar with FLL, let me back up a second.  FLL is the abbreviation for FIRST Lego League.  In FLL, we build and program Lego Mindstorms robots to complete a variety of tasks.  Every year there is a topic.  The topic for this year was climate.  Along with the robot game, the teams also have to research the topic and prepare a creative research presentation.  It is an amazing way to introduce students to engineering and computer programming concepts, teamwork, and research skills.

OK, so back to my team.  Last year was my first year as a coach, and I was proud that we received the Rising Star trophy, despite all of the team’s struggles.  The kids learned a LOT from the process, and got off to a great start this year.  They were amazing, worked together well, showed the gracious professionalism required by FLL, and showed expert problem solving skills (could it have helped that4/6 of them were girls?).

Of course everything was great until our last practice when a few students tweaked some programs unnecessarily, and broke some of what had been built.  I just about had a nervous break down.  Now, don’t get me wrong, mentally I know that this should be all on the kids’ heads, but I had put so much hope in them and just felt crushed.  We organized an emergency practice for the next day, and two girls even came in on their break.  All was fixed!  WOO HOO!  We go to competition Saturday and, although I know it’s not all about the competition, but celebrating what the kids have learned and accomplished, I hope the kids get a trophy in an area.  I guess we’ll see!

With a new school year beginning, and me just getting my feet yet last year, I am trying to decide the best approach to setting up student accounts and allowing my students have their own blogs. I am thinking of having them earn increased rights as the blog goes on, but I’m just not sure what to do. What have you done with setting up student accounts? Do you just let them jump right in? Do you stay an administrator on their accounts? Help!!!

I have had several people ask how I made the Paul Bunyan project with my class.  I’m sure there is no ‘right’ way to do this, but below are the steps I followed.

1. Choose or write a story. 

- For our first project, I chose a story that already existed.  In subsequent projects, I may have the class choose a topic and write a story with them.

2. Divide the story up into manageable sections. 

- Each of these sections will be one illustration.  Try to make each section about an equal length and not too long so the audience doesn’t get bored of looking at one picture.

3. Give each student a section of the story to illustrate.

- I had some students choose to make their images using Paint.

4. Scan in the images or take pictures with a digital camera.

- I have learned that scanned images look best, but a camera can be used when a scanner is not available.

5. Record story sections.

- I used Audacity (a free recording program) to have each student record their portion of the story.

6. Edit recordings.

- Audacity can also be used to edit all the voice recordings and turn them into one long sound file.

7. Use Windows Movie Maker or iMovie to put it all together.

- I used Movie Maker (this program comes free on all Windows-based machines and can be found in the accessories menu. 

This is just a general overview of how I put these projects together.  I would be happy to go into more detail of any one portion of the process that may need more clarification.

Here is my class’s Paul Bunyan project.  I was impressed with thier pictures and I really think this is a great way to practice reading fluency.  Please feel free to click the link below to view the video.

Paul Bunyan

Sadly, yesterday it was announced that the Assistant Principal at my school is being transferred. Some people may think I wish that could happen to me. However, this idea terrifies me. Perhaps my fear will prove to be unjustified, and for that, I can only hope and institute some hard-core wishful thinking. The source of my deep anxiousness in this administrative change is the fact that my current AP has been INCREDIBLY supportive of my use of technology in my classroom. She sees the value in the projects I do with my students, doesn’t question my new ideas, and puts faith into the processes my students go through to create and communicate.

It’s scary to have someone new come in, who will most likely be my immediate supervisor, that may or may not support all that I have developed since I started teaching. The question is, how to approach her. Do I quietly continue doing what I have always done and assume I do not need permission to continue? Do I introduce myself and present her with a smörgåsbord of projects my students have created? Oh how I struggle with the unknown!

In my quest to provide interesting blogging experiences for my students, I thought I would try something new this week. I began a story and asked my students to contribute to the story and keep it moving along in plot. Part of me was pretty sure this wasn’t going to go over well with the kids. I just thought they might see it as a chore and have little buy-in. I was completely wrong! They are loving the idea. They have already posted almost 50 comments and it isn’t even the end of the week yet! I am so impressed with them!

I am so glad I decided to do the digital storytelling project with my students this week. It was a great way to keep them engaged while others in the class were wrapping up their reading projects! I decided to use the tall tale of Paul Bunyan. I retyped the story and read it, as a whole, to the class. I decided that if the students saw the pictures in the book I had, many of them would want to copy them and I wanted the students to use their imaginations for their drawings. About half of my students are finished drawing and a handful decided to make pictures on Microsoft Paint. I am hoping that by the end of the week, the rest of the students will finish their illustrations. Also, I am going to try to start voice recordings this week so I can have a final project one week from now. I am excited to see how the final product turns out!