Five Reasons Why I Love Photo Story 3

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. […]

Telling Our Classroom Stories

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 […]

Mathew Needleman’s K12Online Preso – Oh my!

I’ve blogged about Mathew Needleman before. Since attending his CUE 08 presentation, I’ve been following his blog and have even written videoconferencing sessions with Mathew into my district’s current EETT grant. But if you haven’t had the pleasure of meeting face-to-face with Mathew in real time or virtual time – or even if you have […]

Why Filmmaking Belongs in the Classroom

“I think the big mistake in schools is trying to teach children anything, and by using fear as the basic motivation. Fear of getting failing grades, fear of not staying with your class, etc. Interest can produce learning on a scale compared to fear as a nuclear explosion to a firecracker.” Stanley Kubric For the […]

NCTE – Helen Barrett on ePortfolios

Helen Barrett is sharing her commitment to life-long portfolios and building the argument for portfolios in our own personal lives, not just for our students. Recommended book: The Power of Portfolios by Elizabeth Hebert – Aimed at elementary level. Link to Helen’s PowerPoint for session. Realizing I had my camera with me, I logged onto […]

Digital Storytelling with Arnie Abrams

Arnie Abrams is opening the session by stating that digital storytelling should be more about the writing – and the writing process – than about the technology. Benefits of digital storytelling: can be made interactive provides real audience works for the “YouTube generation” helps develop visual literacy helps to understand mass media requires presentation skills […]

Digital Storytelling

Bernajean Porter is asking us the difference between a story and storytelling. It’s a “lesson learned” that raises a story to storytelling. We’re watching the sample The Music in My Heart, with the tip that when justifying storytelling in your curriculm, make sure you always end by focusing on the difference it makes to an […]