Mini Think Tanks and Crazy Big Tanks

What-what-what is a mini think tank?! Today we divided up into mini think tanks to work on a Technology-based lesson by Ms. Williams. I think there were 5 or so groups, and each group had a different author to research. Basically, each group member had a different role and contributed to the assignment in some way. There was a researcher (the person who researched as much information about the author as possible), a synthesizer (this person who went through the research to choose the most relevant and interesting information), and a designer (the person who gathered and organized all the information chosen and designed the slides for the Power Point presentation). Our group had Arthur Miller, and I think the whole "think tank" idea was perfect for this sort of activity! I liked having set roles, but I guess I would still be worried that one student would end up doing the majority of the work or something. If I used this activity in my classroom, I would definitely walk around the room to check how much progress is taking place and to give verbal cues on how much time is still left for the assignment. I also liked that the groups presented their Power Point at the end of class. This would be extremely beneficial in classes where students tend to be distracted or off-task. There is no other choice but to work as quickly as possible -That is, of course, if you want your full participation grade! :-)

Film Clip Lessons!

Today we presented our Film Clip Lessons! I was pretty excited because I found such a creepy clip to accompany my lesson! I guess I am still amazed by the variety of things you can find on the net - Really, it amazes me! I used a short segment from a longer clip I found on YouTube which can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YhqQEnASvJ0 (4:42-5:30). It was a clip from the movie The Innocents which is based on The Turn of the Screw. The clip is just one part of the lesson which is based on investigating elements that contribute to the mood in a work (i.e. writing, film, music, etc.). I really thought the clip did a great job of portraying this one particular scene; plus, it gives the students something new to do in class besides staring at the whiteboard!

I was also really impressed by a number of the lessons my peers came up with. I really liked the PS I Love You clip which was paired with the novel 13 Little Blue Envelopes. It made me want to see the movie and read the book! The Mark Twain claymation clip was extremely disturbing, to say the least, but I think students would definitely be interested in what Twain wrote after watching it! That's a plus, right? :-D

Copyright and Fair Use Guidelines

I really enjoyed the presentation on Copyright and Fair Use Laws today. We watched a short film created by Professor Eric Faden of Bucknell University titled A Fair(y) Use Tale (The film can be found here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CJn_jC4FNDo). This video was both hilarious and informative. I didn't realize how many restrictions there were on copyrighted materials! I felt a bit overwhelmed by what we can and cannot use, but I understand the importance of following these guidelines nonetheless. If someone used my work without crediting me, I would probably be upset, so there has to be some type of accountability to make sure people don't plagiarize or misuse someone else's work. But seriously, some of the laws are intense. I wish teachers had more freedom for instruction in the classroom in regards to copyright and fair use guidelines, but alas, one can only wish!

After the discussion on Copyright Laws, a few of us still had to present our WebQuests. I was very happy with my lesson considering this was the first WebQuest I ever created! I used Henry James' The Turn of the Screw as my novel, and I think it worked well! If I ever taught this book in a real classroom, I would definitely use this WebQuest, but I think I would still have to add more details and more resources. All in all though, I think it turned out better than my original!

Last, but not least, we discussed some plans for the Film Clip Lessons we will be presenting next week. We have to create a lesson plan where we use a film clip to accompany our lesson. My brain is blank right now, so I think I'll just wait until I can browse on the net. I'm sticking to Henry James, so who knows what I'll be able to find! :-) :-/ :-D

WebQuest Presentations!

Today we had a WebQuest feast, courtesy of my creative classmates! I really enjoyed seeing what everyone came up with considering the broad spectrum of options we had. As I had discovered before, WebQuests take a lot of time, but they seem to be well worth the effort invested. I tried to place myself in the shoes of the middle/high school student, and I really think that students would enjoy participating in many of the activities we saw tonight.

Unfortunately, I have bad news to accompany this post... I lost my flash drive! :'( I have no idea where it went, but this morning I had to start all over again on my WebQuest. Thankfully, Ms. Williams is allowing me to present next week along with a few others, so hopefully I can get my act together and bust out an even better presentation than the one I had before!