Jamming Out with Garage Band and Do Ink (Again!)

I love making music in Garage Band!

I made another animated music video using  Garage Band and the Do Ink Drawing/Animation and Green Screen apps today.  I'd been wanting to test out the sampler feature on Garage Band, to create my own spooky ghost sound, so I did and then used it to build my spooky song around it.  I am convinced that many students would get a huge kick out of creating their own music and animations, too!  I would love to do this with a group of kids!

This time, I experimented with creating one of my own original animations, rather than simply using the props provided by the Do Ink Drawing/ Animation app.   More specifically, I created my own moving spider and added it as an overlay on my credits page!  It was intuitive enough that I plan to make more of my own animations in the future! 

Here is the YouTube link, in case you have difficulty viewing it above.

My Favorite EdTech Tools (30 Day Blogging Challenge: Day 13)

Name the top edtech tools that you use on a consistent basis in the classroom, and rank them in terms of their perceived effectiveness.

Although there are quite a few other tools that I also routinely use with students, these are my top five.

ThingLink

ThingLink is a tool that allows students and teachers to create interactive images.  I have used this tool for a variety of different projects, and have found that students really enjoy it.  Here is a link to some examples of ways that I've used it professionally.

Socrative

Socrative is a great tool for formative assessment that invites students to use any smart device to answer questions provided by a teacher.  There is even a "space race" feature that can be used by student teams who compete to answer the most questions correctly.  My favorite thing about this tool is that students who may be quiet in class can easily participate.  I've used this tool to introduce classroom procedures, as a pre-assessment, and to quickly check the pulse on a class.  You can create your own quizzes or download quizzes created by others.

Google Drawings

Google Drawings is one of the most underrated tools in the GAFS toolkit.  Because Google Drawings can be downloaded as JPEG files, they are great for use in a variety of projects.  I've used Google Drawings to teach students about copyright and creative commons.    Students have used their drawings to create interactive images in ThingLink, illustrations in Animoto videos and Movenote presentations, Aurasma trigger images, and more.

This is an example of a Google Drawing assignment using ThingLink.

MoveNote

MoveNote is a wonderful tool for students and teachers to tell stories and showcase their learning. Movenotes feature images in the form of a scrolling presentation, but they also allow a story teller to record a video of themselves (or a talking avatar) to convey even more information.  I've found that students who've created MoveNote presentations increased their reading fluency while practicing their scripts.  Here is a link to a MoveNote that I made that includes a Tellegami talking avatar.

ImageCodr

ImageCodr is a useful tool for getting the attribution information for Creative Commons images available on Flickr.  If you'd like to learn more, you can watch my video tutorial here.

Teaching in the Future (30 Day Blogging Challenge: Day 12)

I have been asked to envision ways my teaching might evolve over the next five years.  This is difficult to answer, because technological changes are happening faster than the educational system can process them. Also, while I foresee my own practice evolving, particularly in the ways that I personally go about participating in professional development, I sometimes struggle to imagine how I might bring that type of flexible, self-directed, and personalized learning into the confines of a traditional school setting, increasingly driven by tight schedules and high-stakes testing.  I believe that it needs to happen, though.

While I see the need to teach in a way that is expansive, creative, and connected-- addressing the diverse needs and interests of students--I also know that schools need to fundamentally change.



Since I stopped working full-time as a content area teacher (social studies and language arts), I have been thinking more about how ineffectual traditional schooling can be.  Classes that don't do enough to seamlessly integrate technology and make global connections are not adequately serving the needs of students.  Classes that fail to give students white space to create and reflect are not doing enough to touch the hearts and souls of young people, let alone preparing them to be critical consumers of information with sophisticated problem-solving abilities.  Since I share this view with many other educators, who are equally interested in shifting their practice to better meet the needs of learners, I can't help but believe that schools will have to evolve in order to catch up.  I am, however, excited about the possibilities!

My First Garage Band Composition!

                     

       Oh, How I Love the Fall!

Yesterday was a blustery, rainy day, which made it perfect for playing!  I used the gift of time to explore Garage Band on my iPad and ended up composing a song that made me think of our glorious autumns in Vermont.  Hence, "How I Love the Fall" became the musical soundtrack for a silly video animation that I made to accompany the song. Although students in a classroom setting don't always have the luxury of white space or creative incubation time during their school days, a project like this could be a rewarding creative activity for students in a variety of content areas. Over time, students could be invited to create a piece of music inspired by a historical document, photograph, poem, or a piece of art that they've created.  They could even work in small groups. Click the arrow above to view my music video on YouTube.  I used original photography for the backdrop and added the animations using the DoInk Animation and Drawing and Greenscreen apps.

This little shout-out certainly made my day!

AppSmashing: DoInk Animation + DoInk Green Screen + iMovie + GarageBand http://t.co/xLfBsHuBFM by @Switchback42 "Why I Love the Fall"
— Karen Miller (@Kdmiller4) September 21, 2014

Good Morning! (30 Day Blogging Challenge: Day 11)

   by  Squonk11 


Today's prompt asks that I contemplate my favorite time of the school day, which for me is mornings.  I prefer mornings, because the day remains full of promise and the majority of students are happpy to see their friends (and hopefully their teachers).

While some people admittedly take a while to get into the groove (I count myself among those who require coffee to become fully human), I prefer mornings to the time just before and after lunch, because the students are fresher and have not yet had too many demands placed on their attentions.  Usually, they haven't yet been asked to sit too long in one place, and many of them are genuinely interested in seeing for themselves what's going on in the first class of the day, rather than hearing about an upcoming activity from their friends who may have already attended an earlier class. The temperature of many classrooms is often cooler in the mornings, too, before the sun has had a chance to heat everything up.

On the flip side, mornings can be a bit chaotic, especially if one has extra duties that lead right up to the bell or needs to wait in a long line to make last-minute copies, while an antiquated copy machine squeaks and repeatedly jams.  There are often technology quirks impacting networks in the mornings, while panicked teachers are scrambling to prepare for student arrivals.  Mornings can also a bit chaotic as students grab breakfast and substitute teachers try to figure out where to go and how to log in to the guest network.

In general, however, I still prefer mornings, and I am often most eager to try something new at the start of a new day.

5-4-3-2-1 (30 Day Blogging Challenge: Day 10)

Today's prompt feels a bit like something that I've seen on FaceBook, but I'll be the first to admit that I like it.

Share five random facts about yourself.

1.  I went to high school in Germany.

2.  I enjoy the art of binding books, and then giving them away as gifts.

3.  I detest artificial plants, especially in restaurants and funeral parlors.

4.  A student once caught me singing "Goodbye Yellow Brick Road" at the top of my lungs, as I worked in my classroom after hours.

5.  I love bluebirds, even if they do eat my blueberries.

   by  ptgbirdlover 

Share four things from your bucket list.

1.  I'd like to paddle board on Lake Champlain.

2.  I'd like to take a jewelry making class.

3.  I'd like to spend a week at the Haystack Mountain School of Crafts learning something frivolous and fun.

4.  I'd like to take a cooking class in Italy.

Share three things that you hope for this year, as a "person" or an educator.

1.  I hope for happiness, health, and wholeness for myself and those that I love.

2.  I hope to become more adept at learning how to code.

3.  I hope to find the place where my greatest passions meet the world's greatest need (Buechner).

Share two things that have made you laugh or cry as an educator.

1.  Middle school humor often makes me laugh.

2.  Saying "goodbye" to students, colleagues, and schools makes me cry.

Share one thing you wish more people knew about you.

1.  I am an introvert.  I may seem outgoing, but I need some silence in my day to recharge.  I prefer to lead from the sidelines in a thoughtful way, with the benefit of having the time to make thoughtful decisions.  I do my best work in small groups.  I am most confident when I feel prepared.

One of My Biggest Accomplishments (30 Day Blogging Challenge: Day 9)

Today's prompt asks that I reflect upon one of the greatest accomplishments of my teaching career that no one may know (or care) about.

The biggest accomplishment of my teaching career is that I have not let fear or convention keep me tethered to one place.  After my first five years of teaching, my inner voice was clamoring for me to take some time away from the classroom and spend it doing things that I had been neglecting in my personal life. After waking up to the discovery that my daughter had transformed from a first grader into a middle school student (almost without my noticing), I knew that I needed to redirect my attentions for a while. The decision to take time away was one of the most difficult decisions of my life, one that many people viewed with confusion. What on earth could possess a person to leave a secure position teaching high school social studies and humanities, at a great school like Colchester High School?  While leaving the comfort of the known could be viewed as a risk, taking the time to spend with my family and on other areas of interest helped me become a stronger, happier person, and a more skilled practitioner.

It was by taking time away from full-time responsibilities as a classroom teacher that I came to realize how important it is to live an undivided life.  It helped me recognize that my habit of overworking and constantly putting work before every other aspect of my life was not benefiting anyone.  It gave me the time and reflective space to take history and technology courses for the sheer joy of learning, and it allowed me to rethink the ways that I might approach a full time position should the opportunity again present itself.  It allowed me the time and mental space to re-imagine my goals, set priorities, and design instructional experiences for myself, as well as my students.  It gave me the space to think about things differently and more creatively.

Since making that decision, I have come to the conclusion that teaching plays a huge role in my identity and remains a vital part of what gives my life meaning, even if I do remain a free agent of sorts.

Although I was sad that I wasn't part of the whole "going back to school" routine this fall, since I didn't have a new position lined up, I have been grateful for opportunities to teach a variety of different courses and students in a variety of settings.  I am grateful that I've had the gift of time to dive deeply into professional development, tinker with my hobbies, and dote on my loved ones.

Image Credit
   by  kewl