Since the written word and spoken word are different, the process of writing a piece with the intention of recording it can change a writer’s perspective on how to punctuate, emphasize, and otherwise engage the listener in ways that seeing his words on paper alone cannot” (Reed and Hicks 2009)

I dropped by Prairie Elementary last week while the 4th grade team was having a session on writing. Lutricia Hardaway shared a piece recently written by one of her ELL students: Hell Hound.

Over the next month, we’ll be exploring the many ways to take this piece beyond the walls of the classroom.  For a starter, this budding young author has recorded her story in Audacity (next time I’ll bring a headset). What other venues would you suggest?

Here’s a podcast from Dr. Biology.

Here’s today’s class podcast.WS210001

Here’s a visitor interviewwelcome

Ask me about iPadio.com!  Here’s my first “phlog.”

We’ll start with a visit to the Bringing Educators to Edublogs blog. We’ll also look at three excellent posts by 6th grade teacher Bill Ferriter for great tips for blogging teachers.  And we’ll include a visit to some recent posts by 4th grade teachers Lee Kolbert and Monica Edinger.

More to follow…

7:45 – 8:00 – Sign In

8:00 – 8:15 – Introductions

8:15 – 10:15- Writer’s Notebook – Daniela Thompson – Area 3 Writing Project

10:15-10:30 – BREAK

10:30 – 11:00 – Project Overview

11:00 – Noon – Video in the Open Court Classroom: Meet Mathew Needleman

Camouflage Jones, Private Investigator from Mathew Needleman on Vimeo.

Noon – 1:00 – LUNCH on your own

1:00 – 2:00 – The Case for Filmmaking in the 5th Grade Classroom

The Case for Filmmaking in the Classroom from Gail Desler on Vimeo.

2:00 – 2:30 -  Tour of folders + calendars

2:30 – 2:45 – Q & A + Evaluations

7:45-8:00 – Sign in

8:00-8:30 – Introductions and heading into the day – Everyone

8:30 Curriculum Companion Webinar – Kim Harrison

9:30 Learn 360 Overview – Gail

• Add links to videos within your blog discussions. Example: Let’s explore the Gold Rush*.
  

  *Citation (MLA)

  Gold Rush and Wagon Trains. Sunburst Visual Media. 2004
  Learn360. 16 June 2009
  http://learn360.com/ShowVideo.aspx?ID=150765

10:00 BREAK

10:15 Reflection and Writing Activity – Karen Smith

11:30 – 12:30 – LUNCH

12:30 – Show Time! A Conversation with Mathew Needleman - video and the ELL student
Teachers/teams share a multimedia project:

1:45 – Evaluations & Raffle

2:00 – Bye-Bye (but not really)

• Scott County Film Festival
• Sacramento’s Student Educational Video Awards (SEVAs)
• EGUSD Internet Safety Video Contest
• Maybry Student Film Festival (Middle School)

Our challenge will be to figure out what makes a good movie.

• Blogging Lesson Plan: Writing
• Introduction to the Blogging Lesson Plan
• Blogging with Elementary Students

Question: How can blogging YOUR students? Afternoon Session = Podcasting for Absolute Beginners. I’ve posted links to podcasting tutorials and resources on ToolKit4BlogWalker.

Image copied from http://langwitches.org/blog/wp-content/uploads/2008/12/blog-stickies.jpg

This is an exciting day to at last come together and begin building our EETT community. Improving student performance in language arts through multimodal/multimedia reading and writing is the goal of this grant. You and your students are at the heart of the grant.

Throughout the school year, we’ll be exploring new possibilities for teaching and learning in a digital age. We’ll be working with filmmaking, blogging, podcasting, wikis and other collaborative writing tools – and documenting the many ways technology integration plays out in your classrooms.

What do you hope to gain from your year-long participation in the 2008 EETT grant? As we go through the day, please jot down your thoughts on the 4-Square handout.

To start our journey into Web 2.0, let’s start with Did You Know, created collaboratively by Karl Fisch and Scott McCloud:

In today’s session, we’ll explore Writing Project strategies for keeping a writer’s notebook and also begin a dialog with filmmaker/teacher Mathew Needleman on video in the elementary curriculum. We’ll also visit the award-winning (SEVAs 2008) film The Myth of Romulus and Remus, directed and produced by David Reese Elementary students in Terri Mill’s 6th grade classroom.

We’ll also start exploring free tools you can bring into the classroom, such as Wordle, a program that transforms thoughts into “tag clouds.” We’ll end the day with Krishna’s quick trip into filmmaking strategies – and, of course, take time for any unanswered questions.

We really value your ideas, your questions, your concerns, and your suggestiosn. For a starter, please join in this conversation and let us know what you hope to learn/gain from participating in this highly collaborative journey.

Again, welcome to EGUSD’s 2008 EETT grant!