I was introduced to James Paul Gee’s research on gaming in education several years ago at a National Writing Project Annual Meeting workshop. NWP colleague and mentor Peter Kittle referenced Gee’s work with the comment (something like) “As educators, we really need to be thinking about when kids are reading and writing when they don’t have to be.”  Ever since, I’ve hoped for an opportunity to hear James Gee present.

Thanks to the growing bank of outstanding resources posted to Edutopia’s Big Thinkers site, I just got my wish. In the interview below, Gee puts gaming – as well as teaching and learning – into a 21st century nutshell.

Might make for a great conversation starter at your next faculty meeting, no? And in case you’re looking for it, here’s the link to Henry Jenkin’s white paper on participatory culture that Gee mentions.

Heading off to search for “fan fiction writing”:-)

What do Truman Capote, Frances Farmer, Joyce Maynard, Bernard Malamud, Joyce Carol Oates, Sylvia Plath, and Robert Redford have in common?”

Answer: They all received Scholastic Contest awards as teenagers for their creative work.

So if you know budding young writers in grades 7-12, please checkout the California Writes site for information on how they can participate in The Scholastic Art & Writing Awards Contest of 2010.

California students have the added bonus of sponsorship by the California Writing Project. With options of up to 3,500 California student winners (Gold Key, Silver Key, or Honorable Mention),  all Gold Key entries will be published online.  And if that isn’t enough…”California Gold Key winners’ work will also be judged for national awards and scholarships, with national winners honored during Scholastic’s National Celebration of Events in new York in June 2010.”

Early submission deadline = December 18, 2009; Final Submission Deadline = January 8, 2010.

Have questions?  Need more information? Contact the California Writing Project at CAwritingawards@californiawritingproject.org.

Need a little inspiration for your YA writers?  How about joining Scholastic’s Goosebumps webcast with R.L. Stine? Scholastic has you covered with a complete teacher’s guide for the October 28 event.

Need a little inspiration for yourself (and I think your students will enjoy this too)? Checkout this YouTube clip on Inspiring Authors.

What great opportunities new technologies – supported by and in collaboration with  national organizations -  offer our students for writing for an authentic purpose and publishing to an authentic audience!

The single most important part of telling a good story is asking throughout the entire process: ‘What is the story all about?’”  Bryan Shadden, KVIE

I look forward to our regional (Sacramento)  SEVA Trainings for Teachers series. Saturday’s event was an opportunity to learn about Tips for Building a Documentary, a session lead by KVIE producer Bryan Shadden. Bryan’s handout will walk you and your students through his steps to creating a video narrative (documentary) – starting with Research & Story Focus. I love that the basis of building a documentary mirrors teaching the writing process: “After a producer (writer) has researched the subject matter, she should be able to say exactly what the story will be about in one sentence. The more focused the sentence, the more focused the story.”

I also learned a new term: B-roll, which is “TV jargon for the cover shots you need to correspond with the sound bites from your interviews and the words you write.”  Huge “ah ha” moment for me…From now on, I’ll encourage students to make sure their production team includes a designated B-roll person. From 4th grade – 12th grade, I’ve too often seen student filmmakers scrambling after the fact to come up with cover shots when they realize that the audience will quickly lose interest if too much of the interview is just footage of the interviewee.

And some tips from the audience:

• fastest way for students to create their storyboards: use online comic book generators such as Comic Life.  Love this idea!
• great collection of student-made documentaries: AFI.com, with teen entries such as The Bus Stop (a great team effort!)
• Center for Sacramento History – a growing bank of photos for classroom use.  I looked at this site several years ago and can see that their vision for becoming a rich archive of oral histories is starting to take shape.
• PBS Guide to Ken Burn’s The War – a collaboration between the Library of Congress Veterans History Project, Florentine Films and WETA public television station in Washington, DC — contains hands-on production tips and interview techniques from Ken Burns and Lynn Novick as well as information on how to send completed interviews to the Veterans History Project.

And Bryan’s last question to an interviewee: “Is there anything I haven’t asked you that I should have asked?” I’ve used this question before for my Time of Remembrance Oral Histories Project. This final question can take an interview in a whole new direction!

I don’t know who the speakers for the next SEVA event will be, but without a doubt there will be blog-worthy presenters ready to take teachers to the next level in their filmmaking skills and vision:-)

The highlight of my week was learning that I am an Edublogger Competition Winner! With that honor comes the opportunity to pass on to someone else a free, 12-month  Edublogs Supporter subscription.

I’ve decided to turn this option into a competition within my school district. Although a number of teachers have added blogging to their toolkit, as far as I know, not a single principal in the district is an active blogger in the edublogosphere. But wouldn’t that be awesome to have an “in-house” administrator join the ranks  of principal bloggers whose blogs have been added to Scott McCloud’s growing Moving Forward wiki, such as elementary school principal Vincent Baxter, middle school principal Chris Lindholm, and high school principal Patrick Larkin ?!

My plan is to send out an email to every site representative in our Technology Advisory Committee with an invitation to nominate their principal for the EB subscription (I’ll provide the training and support). The form will be very simple, maybe something like

I nominate ______________ to become an Edublogs Supporter because I know he/she will __________________________________________________________.”

I’d like to include in the email links to 3-5 exemplary principals’ blogs from elementary, middle, and high school sites.  Do you have any recommendations?

This year I’ve decided to add Photo Story 3 to my workshop offerings.  I don’t know why I’ve waited so long to introduce teachers and students to this extremely user-friendly program.  For a number of reasons (and I’ll limit myself to five), it’s a great beginning step into filmmaking and the art of digital storytelling.

Reason #1 – It’s all about the Next button! Yep, once you’ve uploaded your pictures, you basically just ‘next’ your way through this program.

Reason #2 – Panning effects – If you’re a Ken Burns fan, you’ve got zooming and panning tools at your fingertips.  In fact, random panning and zooming are the default setting. You can, of course, turn off this effect for all or for individual pictures – or customize your pan (click on the Customize Motion button, click in Specify start and end position of motion box.

Tip: If you”re using Movie Maker 2 and are bummed about not having a “Ken Burns Effect” (Windows XP) or find the Vista panning effects a bit limiting, you can easily bring a still image into Photo Story 3, add the panning and zooming effects, and then import that image into your Movie Maker project. Easy-peasy!

Reason #3 – David Jakes’ video tutorials and handout – Short and excellent!  What if you wanted more information on zooming and panning? Check out Adding Pans and Adding Zooms.

Reason #4 – Concerned about copyright issues for music? Not to worry, PS3 has you covered with a built in music selections to choose from that allow you to select the properties that best match your story. Or you can upload MP3 files. Start with Jamendo.com if you’re looking for copyright, royalty-free music.

Reason #5 – It’s a FREE  download from Microsoft.

Need more convincing why PhotoStory3 is a great program?  Checkout some classroom samples from Paul Hamilton’s Universal Design for Learning wiki. And if you have samples of student-created PS3 projects,  I would love to add them to the filmmaking resources page of Toolkit4blogwalker!