Housing California-- This Is Home: A Story of Hope and Opportunity

My friend Julie asked for help with this project. She had the idea with her colleague. She sent me the story idea, subjects, photos, and music. I got to assemble. Interesting just to try to do the tech part. Very effective project. Loved the black&white to color, and yay Ken Burns!

Almost.....there.....maybe....

OK, I've got all the parts for the first alphabet story--kid drawings, photos, singing, and an interactive report that they recorded. Yup, "B is For Baseball" is going to be great...just as soon as I assemble it.

Haven't been totally slacking--made some short pieces for other things/reasons, and just finished a poetry movie for a colleague for Open House, and managed to do some tricky special-effects and titles, in the nick of time (but had trouble "cooking" the movie). I did get pretty facile at timing and more. i also managed to make a super-quick slide show for my own class at Open House--not the slick ABC project I'd envisioned, but appreciated by the families anyway.

So, this tech stuff is great, if you have/make the time to mess around, figure it out and get the hang of it. Also helpful if you have a mentor before you noodle around.

And yet, the biggie, even before time, is having the tech tools you need. It's no good to want to do something particular and learn it if you don't have access to it on a frequent basis. I have to borrow home stuff for school all the time, and the school stuff is so ancient it can't function with anything modern. I'm constantly switching between computers, and it can really be a pain.

Anyway, I just need a few hours without anything more pressing, and I'll have the B movie up (B movie, definitely--not A list yet, but almost......there........maybe.........).


P.S. February---was that the meeting at Fiesta?
March--wasn't that the Spring conference ? (which was really worthwhile--you should have been there).
Am I caught up on posts?

Yep, late and slacking--but some of you ATI babes are even more so!!!!

OK, I'm late and slacking. Dragged down by the day to day but now have narrowed my sites/sights--now I can't speak regular, just pseudo tech-ese--I will feel OK (or ecstatic) if we do a digital something or other on the most happening business in town. We can plan questions, walk downtown with camera, clipboards and pens, recorder, and just do it. My new condensed plan and I'm sticking to it. One letter of the alphabet. We can do it. Yes we can.

One step forward, two steps back

Also, here I am late as usual.

We are practicing procedures for independence in the classroom. Also manners. Hoping to then be in shape to begin any parts of this project. Slowed down due to various factors, including having to move the classroom and now lack of internet--not really necessary at this point, but i like to know it is there.

I made a photo essay set to a song for a friend's nonprofit agency. Tons of trouble with pixilation, huge files, format. The more I think I know, the more I find out I need to know. I was able to make a dvd, but someone couldn't repeat the feat. I think I am close though.

I have also been working with some fellow RWPers on digital storytelling. At our next meeting, we'll put them all together and post them on the RWP site. They're really good.

See, some tech success--but not with my project and not with the students.

November already?

Well, hope others are enjoying progress. I have made none at all. In fact, as a learning community we are probably regressing. I am so caught up in behavior and in plowing through what we are supposed to cover, I haven't been energetic or inspired enough to get this ABC project going. I need to, though--it will really benefit the kids and community. I'll try to get a new project proposal letter going out to the families and community this week. We can do this. Yes we can.

Plans? Did I have plans?

Nothing exciting to report. Have spent 30 days (who's counting? ME!) getting the students organized to work together and work independently. New kids in the mix and everything is new. We're getting there, though.

I didn't even get my back-to -school-night-learning-goals movie done. And, I still have one student to record, and 4 to photograph. I am pleased with their ideas and artwork. It will be better than last year's movie, just taking a lot longer.

The Chamber of Commerce and the parents who came to Back to School got introduced to the ABC idea. No ideas have come in from them yet. The kids have explored ABC books, so that part makes sense to them.

I am doing the digital story telling series--does that excuse my lack of tech progress with my students? I thought not.

Last week I got internet in the classroom, and I have a document camera that works! That was exciting. Still lacking a functional printer, email, and camera.

Progress, not

Well, I had forgotten how long it takes to get a bunch of kids settled into new routines and become a community. Also, I had to move into a new room which had not been cleaned out (old middle-school diaries and mummified chickens, yikes) and my stuff had been put into a cargo container (which cargo container? and when found, was way in the back on the bottom). Very exhausting, but the room looked great just in time for the students. I'm still struggling with how to teach both first and second graders, and how to make a schedule that works. I'm also still searching for some of my books and materials. I forgot how much work this job is, especially getting the year started.

On the upside, I am not working completely on my own. I have a great aide, who is great with her camera, and made a very cool classroom ABC book last year. We have read and analyzed a lot of ABC books, and did an alphabet search on the playground and have about half of the letters discovered and photographed (all thanks to the aide! ). Who knew if you looked at the picnic table, you'd find a J?

The kids have written/drawn "what I want to learn this year",and I will, I WILL, record and photograph them this week, so we have that little movie ready for Back to School Night. That will help me introduce the ABC project to the class.

We have explored two students' names and developed some big (open-ended) questions that give us big answers, and some little (one-word answer) ones that we like to know. We haven't interviewed our new staff members yet, but that is coming.