As the school year draws to a close, how do you document those moments, events, or projects that made a difference to you as a teacher – and to your students as learners? I really like the model National Writing Project colleague Bonnie Kaplan has produced. The combination of a 3rd person narrator using voice over (mostly) stills makes a good story even more compelling.

Dover DS Intro from Bonnie Kaplan on Vimeo.

And I’d like to thank my friend Kevin for sharing his reflections on bringing movie making into his 6th grade curriculum and for pointing me to Bonnie’s gem.

I’m surprised that my MS Word spellchecker continues to underline literacies.  It’s been more than a year since  the National Council for the Teachers of English President Kylene Beers posted a definition of 21st century literacies, moving away from what had for decades been a word that existed in singular form only. I’ve probably referred teachers to this link almost as many times as I’ve recommended visiting NCTE’s wonderful Read, Write, Think site. And for colleagues who ask me about research on writing in a digital age, I refer them to Kathleen Yancey’s Writing in the 21st Century report. I’ve also recently joined NCTE’s English Companion Ning, where I have opportunities to join such groups as the upcoming discussion of Kelly Gallagher’s Readicide: How Schools Are Killing Reading and What You Can Do About It.

But wait, here comes one more huge gift to teachers from NCTE: The National Gallery of Writing :

To celebrate composition in all its forms, we are inviting diverse participants –students, teachers, parents, grandparents, service and industrial workers, managers, business owners, legislators, retirees and many more — to submit a piece of writing to the which will be a digital archive of samples that exhibit how and why Americans are writing every day, accessible to all through a free, searchable website.”

Thank you, NCTE!  I’m working on a multimedia essay right now (A Case for Filmmaking in the Classroom, a piece inspired by Ernest Morrell’s keynote at last summer’s NCTE Conference on 21st Century Literacies) that I hope to soon submit to the Gallery.

1. Over the last 24 hours, a ton of Tweeters are referencing WolframAlpha . Stephen Wolfram’s opening phrase Making the World’s Knowledge Computable sort of explains it. But you really need to listen to his introduction to get a feel for how mind-blowing this application is.  If you’ve been looking for an example to show administrators and colleagues about why for our students’ sake, it’s no longer about finding information (which the Internet makes easy-peasy); it should be about applying information. For a more extensive post on WolframAlpha visit Karl Fisch’s recent post (Sorry, Karl, I’m  not commenting directly on your blog because, due to your settings, I can only use my Blogger URL, which is actually my dog Nola’s blog)
2. Scratch – NWP colleague Kevin posted this resource. Wow!

   “Scratch is a free download (for Mac or Windows) that lets children build their own interactive games, animations, and digital stories. After building their creations, children can share their Scratch creations via the Web. Children can learn from each other, be inspired by one another, and build upon each others’ creations.”

   Designed by the “good folks at the Lifelong Kindergarten at MIT’s Media Lab,” Scratch “puts children in the driver’s seat. They become actors upon the world rather than acted upon by the world.” What a great resource for elementary computer lab teachers! Classroom 2.0 colleague Zack Dowell just Tweeted that “Scratch is a really excellent program – I know some 12 year olds that are obsessed with it!”

3. From the DEN Diigo group via Tim Childers – 100 Incredibly Inspiring Blog Posts for Educators – Great range of articles!
4. From NWP mentor Elyse E-A – Drape’s Takes: The Educator’s Guide to Creative Commons. If you’re looking for an easy way to explain the CC concept, this is it!
5. Also from Elyse E-A – We cannot have too many copyright friendly resources for educators like this recent post by Making Teachers Nerdy – Best sites to find Public Domain Images.

This weekend ends an exhausting week (daughter in bicycle accident and needs chauffeuring; son’s car vandalized and needs chauffeuring), so I’m taking a virtual trip to Verana, Mexico (near Puerta Vallarta), via this stunning photo tour.  Yep, it’s a commercial, but, oh my, what beautiful camera shots and angles!

Verana 2009 – The Houses from Heinz Legler on Vimeo.

Happy weekend to all!

Last night I joined students, parents, and teachers as we filled the Crest Theater in downtown Sacramento for the 2009 SEVAs (Student Educational Video Awards). For the third year in a row, I sat back in complete awe of the video projects K-12 students have produced under the four categories of PSAs, documentaries, instructional, and school news.

It has been my privilege this year to support a number of teachers through my EETT grant in their efforts to bring filmmaking into the 4th grade curriculum.  In a test-driven climate, many teachers and administrators view filmmaking as an after-school activity or when-testing-is-over activity.  I think if they could sit in on a session or two, they would see that, unlike the daily worksheets, as students delve into their projects, a major shift happens.  They typically begin a project with the idea of “completing an assignment.” And then the shift happens: they see themselves as producers of content that others could benefit from.  They have – with much enthusiasm and pride – ascended to the top level of Bloom’s Taxonomy (as revised in 2001 by Anderson and Krothwahl).

Over the next few weeks, I’ll be gathering interview clips from the EETT SEVA teachers and their students to document their journeys into filmmaking. My goal is to write an article, modeled after my NWP colleague and mentor Peter Kittle’s multimedia style, that teachers can use as a resource and/or argument for justifying “time spent away from test prep.”

But back to last night’s event.  In a word – magical. What about the digital divide?  Were Title 1 schools able to compete with their more affluent counterparts? Yes!! Some differences were visible, though. The Title 1 projects, for instance, were filmed on site, not at home using personally owned video equipment. And unlike their more affluent counterparts, many whom arrived in shorts, jeans, tee-shirts, flip-flops and other casual attire, the Title 1 students were dressed to the nines.

The six young filmmakers who sat with me (driven to the theater by their amazing principal) were without words for much of the evening, starting with their walk down the red carpet. Only one had the courage to speak into the microphone as various “paparazzi” attempted to interview them. They filed into their seats, where they sat mesmerized by the work and acceptance speeches of other students. But when the PSA finalists for grades 4-6 were announced, and they saw footage from their Blog Safely video, and were then asked to come on stage to accept an Honorable Mention Award, each one stepped up to the mic and into the blinding light to give thanks for those that had helped them on their journey to walk the red carpet.

A Case for Filmmaking in the Classroom …who could argue against it?!?

Note: Bloom’s image copies from http://www.techlearning.com/article/8670