I believe Arts Integration is not INHERENTLY project based learning, but that PBL can serve as an intentional opportunity to incorporate Arts Integration naturally and effectively. Starting with the arts can draw students in, get them interested, and give them a wider breadth of understanding for the PBL, and if we end with an arts based project as an option, the creativity of students who may not shine through conventional means is encouraged.
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5/11/2017 0 Comments A Spectacular Disaster; Part IISo there I am, halfway through my second class in the library computer lab when I can finally take a look at the screens of the students telling me they can't do anything. Surely, they'd done something wrong, or had simply not clicked on the assignment I had posted. Nope. I check several of them and I see the same thing they see, which is something like this: As you can see, there are clickable links, but when they are clicked absolutely nothing happens. Nothing. At this point, I have kids signing back out and just playing with the avatars again while I try to figure this out. They can't even see the assignment I've posted! I go back to my account and check the "classes" page, where the assignments live. Here's what I see: Now, at first glance, this looks like everything is ok. I see the test assignment, and it's showing up under the correct class. I try re-entering the assignment, signing the students out and back in again, deleting and re-posting the assignment, adding an attachment, screaming hysterically, etc. Nothing works, and class is about to end. It's lunchtime and I figure I can check out the User Guide over lunch to see what I'm doing wrong! I find the page in the User Guide, and. . . . . . it does NOT look like what I see on my page. Not even a little bit. I figure out that my lesson must be hidden from the students as I see a little "show hidden" box in the upper right hand corner checked. I uncheck it and the assignment disappears but see NO little box, NO way to "unhide" my assignment as you can see in the Useless Guide to the right of each assignment. This is not helping me. And lunch is almost over. I re-check the show hidden so at least I can see my assignment and trudge back to the library, thoroughly dejected. When I opened my classes page again, I just started clicking around on everything I could (for about the 7th time) to see if anything would magically happen. I happen upon the little light grey icon next to the assignment name, and when I click it, it turns purple. THAT's SOMETHING NEW! As I hover over the icon, a box pops up and I see that it says "hide/unhide assignment". HALLELUJAH! FINALLY! Now we can get some things done! But really, THAT'S the only difference? It turned PURPLE? Had I not hovered over the icon, I would not have known that's what it was for. I quickly enter my students (well, as quickly as I can since I have to enter each student independently). And as they sign in they can see the assignment! YES! They all start working on this and I feel like my day has been saved! Not a complete disaster! As I'm going around helping kids I can't help but chuckle to myself. Usually I'm pretty tech-savvy but this is just not my day. So happy things are finally working! This class is almost over and I have one more class, so maybe all is not lost. 6th period comes in loud and obnoxious as usual, but I've got it under control. I have even started entering their names already so it won't take as long to get started (even though I had to delete some of the first ones I entered because my trial only allows for 100 students total). Still, it's a large class and it's the end of the day. They are not as entertained by the avatars and I need to get them signed in and working as soon as possible. After I get them going, I walk around. Then I start to hear low grumbles. . . they can't submit the Voki. WHAT? I go check my "review" page so I can pull up the assignments that have been submitted, and here's what I see: This CANNOT be HAPPENING! You've got to be kidding me. I've seen students working on these things, and as I've asked if they turned it in they said they had saved it. How is it that there are none to be seen? I click all over the place and get nothing. I go to students still working and WATCH them click "save" and the window close on its own, and they are back to the page where it says they have an assignment. I check my Useless Guide again, and again, it looks nothing like what I see. I play with a student account and see a "submit" button that is NOT highlighted and CANNOT be clicked. The only clickable thing is the one to allow them to create the Voki, but nothing else can be done, and I finally just give up. By this point, I probably look like a crazed animal, ready to attack and the students are slowly backing away from me with wary looks in their eyes.
We go back to the classroom and I vow to never again use Voki. Since then I haven't had the heart to go back on and see anything, and I don't know that I will. In their defense, a few days ago I got an email from Voki apologizing for some technical issues with students not being able to submit work or something, but it was so much more than that. Also, not for nothing, but another thing that just kind of irked me is that when you look at your list the students are listed in alphabetical order by first name. Just no. And, your student list does not separate itself by class, they just all appear on one list. Those two things, while a little annoying, would not have been a deal breaker for me, but along with everything else. . . I just don't think I'll try it again. At least not this year. . . :) 5/3/2017 1 Comment A Spectacular Disaster; Part ISo, it's taken me a little while to even build up the energy to write about my complete failure of a lesson using Voki. Let me set this up for you. My students are completing a cross curricular assessment between Social Studies and Language Arts that will culminate in a grade for each subject area that will serve as their 4th quarter assessment grade. Basically, they are writing an argument to convince some rich dude (Carnegie, I think) from the early 1900's to invest in their plan to "fix" a social injustice like child labor, civil rights, women's rights, etc. They have to research, write, create a visual, and present. Some students have a hard time presenting in front of their peers, and some just need to hear what they have come up with spoken aloud to them in order to catch their own mistakes. Enter Voki. Voki is a tool that allows students to create an avatar from a wide variety of options and speak via this avatar. There are multiple benefits to this but my main goals were 1) to allow students who freeze in front of their peers to present, still using their own voice without having to stand up in front of their class, and 2) to allow students to hear their arguments aloud, in a sort of proof"hearing" if you will, to catch mistakes or fill in blanks they may have inadvertently left.
I decided to go ahead and do the 15 day free trial of Voki Classroom to make the signing up and managing easier, and to allow me to have a variety of artifacts at my fingertips, so to speak. Since I wanted to allow them to play with the Voki a little first and still have time to get their research done and complete the final project later I signed up for one of the few remaining days of technology available in the black hole known as PARCC Testing Window. Reading through the specs, it appeared very easy to set up the students as a group by creating a CSV (comma separated value) file and just uploading them all at once, and waited until the last minute to sign up for my 15 day free trial so that I could have as much time as possible to work with this tool before I had to decide if I was willing to pay upwards of $100 per year to allow my students to use it. I figured if it went as well as I expected, I might be able to talk the school into getting a license, and at worst, I could pay for it myself, though the prices have gone up since then. . . Fast forward to the day I'm in the computer lab with my first class - an 8th grade group of advanced students that are good kids, but chatty and active. We were using the lab in the library which is the only one not dominated by PARCC testing, but still a very busy place. As we sat down I allowed students to play with creating an avatar with the free version while I downloaded the CSV file to get the student usernames and passwords which I would then give them so they could sign in and continue working. So, I try to save the CSV file from my gradebook, but the format isn't correct as the students' names are not separated into two separate columns, so I quickly type the student names into the template conveniently provided by Voki. At this point, the students are well into playing with their free avatar, creating the weirdest looking thing they could, typing inappropriate things for the avatar to say, and giggling insanely. It takes me only a few minutes to type the names in, so I feel like I'm doing pretty well. Satisfied with myself and inwardly chuckling at the students, I save the template with the names and upload it to Voki, waiting patiently for maybe two minutes while it works to get the accounts together and produce a list of my students, usernames and passwords, ready to rock and roll. A window pops up and at the top it says "The following 20 students have been successfully added to your account," or something of that nature. First of all, I entered 34 students, and second of all, the names that were on that list were none of them. I have no idea who these students are that are now part of my account. Never heard of them. I try again. I get the same student list as before. Not my students. At this point, I'm 15 minutes or so into my maybe 40 minutes of time, and the natives are starting to get restless. I begin entering students one by one, getting their user names and passwords, and giving them out as I do so. This takes the rest of the class. My next class comes directly to the library so we have more time, and I'm now prepared for the singular entry business and have it down to a science. Still, it's time consuming and this group is not as easily entertained by playing with the avatars (not as much imagination, I guess). As I enter each student I have a runner take a sticky note with their user name and password directly to them so they can log in. Now, I'm able to hear a little bit of what's going on as they log in and a few come up and say they can't click on anything once they log in. I realize that I'd heard some grumblings from my first class as well about this, but I was too distracted by my lack of actual students signed up so I'd put them off. I tell the kids to keep playing with the avatar and as soon as I get everyone entered I will tackle this problem. I thought. I need to take a break and finish the saga later, but at this point in my story this is what I looked like: 3/29/2017 0 Comments Response to ePortfolio sitesResponse to Oona
Example 1: Wellesley Middle School Library http://wmslib1.weebly.com/ Type of Portfolio: Communication, and Resourcesbook I really enjoyed this site! It packs a great deal of information and useful tools in a very easy to navigate space. I agree with you they should have a page for teacher and student suggestions - maybe even a book review page. That could be fun. I love, love, love the series page! Like really. Love. I can't wait to see your site when you get done with it! Response to Sam Expeditionary Learning's Resource Library (formerly EL Commons) Wow, Sam! What a great resource. I found myself sifting through this site and finding so many helpful videos and suggestions. I'm definitely bookmarking this. Response to Melanie Elly Moohan Photography - ellykabala.weebly.com/ I like the way this site is laid out, and I like to see the work that's inspired her as well as what she did in response to the artists' work. I also like the way she describes what she's done to mimic the style she sees. Your idea of using it as an example for students to emulate is a great idea. It would be something they could work on all year and continue to use and evolve as their talents and interests evolve. 3/28/2017 1 Comment Further thoughts on NearpodI wanted to revisit what I liked and didn't like about my first Nearpod experience after having time to look at the results.
3/27/2017 0 Comments Late, Late, Late. . .So, not trying to make excuses, but could anything else have gone wrong for me? Holy cow.
2/20/2017 1 Comment ePortfolio First Blog Seed!I'm so pleased that you've joined me today and I can share my ePortfolio with you! My goals were to highlight the achievements of my students' progress and learning, and to show how much more effective that learning can be through Arts Integration. As you can see from the artifacts I've shared, students are engaged, collaborating, and learning through the Arts, all while having so much fun they almost forget they are learning something.
Arts Integration has truly changed the way I teach, and the way the students learn. They are eager for each new activity, thinking routine, or project we do, and they are willing to try harder to achieve more when they are having fun. I find that students think more critically when we use Arts Integration and make deeper connections to the material. They also REMEMBER what they've learned through these fun activities! Parents love the ePortfolio as it's a way for them to see what their student is accomplishing, as well as how they compare to other students; what they are doing well, and what they may need to work on. It eliminates the need to hold onto every project and paper, only saving the most special ones, but still having the ability to see them whenever they want. I hope you'll enjoy looking through this ePortfolio. Come back again and see what else we've accomplished! |
AuthorMonika Grogan Archives
May 2017
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