Computer Teacher, Teach Thy Self!

Two very cool things happened today:

1. I was interviewed by doctoral candidates about concerns I have for my school’s technology program.  I gave pretty lengthy answers on all the new things I wanted to do with my classes, so on of the candidates decided to use Garage Band to record my interview. After we were done he showed me how easy it was to select a drum track to accompany my voice, then bass, then a mandolin.  Before we realized it we had a semi-cool product.  In the span of 10 minutes a piece of work was created that I will later post on this blog.   We started talking about how “this” is some of the stuff that our students would love to learn. It would take their creative writing to a whole new level. 

2. I RSS Will Richardson’s Del.icio.us account so anything new that gets added I  receive.  The newest one was regarding Tabblo, a service that allows you to upload photos and arrange them into collages.  One very powerful Tabblo was created by Thomas Hawk. After looking at Thomas’s work especially in the “City that Care Forgot” I realized that here is yet another awesome opportunity for a lesson in my class.

Possible Activities:

1.   Have students select a piece of literature that speaks to them or create one expresses a certain mood or feeling. It could be as simple as having one of the kids colorfully narrate the findings on the lunch line! Later have students record this using Garage Band, and then add three elements to it such as drum, bass and guitar. Later the work can be published on their blog and recorded into a digital portfolio. A follow  up could be for the students to view video blogs such as lonelygirl15. Yes, a young 15 year old girl did not make these videos but film students did.  This is also a great opportunity for a poetry slam.

2.   Using Tabblo- have students collect pictures on a Flickr or upload their own pictures (great for yearbook, or journalism students) create a collage with available text space. Then have them write on the feelings that the collage invokes.