Business Plan Project--Day Three

I'm a bit behind in blogging.

Friday was the last day of the Business Plan project.

As had become very predictable on Thursday (and even to some extent on Wednesday) almost every group needed a turn on the camera.

It wasn't as bad as I had originally predicted. There were some definite conflicts, with students having nothing to do but wait while another group used the camera. I hope that some of those students made the connection that, if they had done the requirements of the project in a different order, they could have been recording on an earlier day instead of sitting around idle, waiting on a camera, and worrying about failing the project.

The largest disappointment was that hardly any students actually edited the video. One group, that had taken the initiative to stay after school and record on Thursday, was able to edit. They added some color filters, a title, and some scrolling credits. And, they were able to edit out mistakes. I was very proud of this group. But I was very disappointed that out of five classes, only one group accomplished this.

A few students with access to equipment, or who had stayed after, were completely finished at the beginning or part way through class. This was a great convenience for me, because I was able to use them as assistants to help classmates with the camera and the software. It was a shame though, that they were able to help with very little editing since no one was editing.

Most of the students did the best they could in a single take, and saved that as a movie.

I think I would approach this project slightly differently in the future. Part of the point was the put some responsibility on the students. And, from what the teacher said, this is not the first long term out of class project in which most of the students put everything off until the last few days of in class time. I think, if it were my class, I might take a page from one of the Science teacher's books. During the creek project, the science teacher left the students to do the large project outside of class time. However, about half way through, she had a check up day where all of the students had to prove some sort of progress.

These are freshman students. I am a firm believer in teaching responsibility by placing responsibility on students. I think, in my own classroom, I might take a half way approach between the Science teacher and the Social Studies teacher. In earlier long term projects, I would have check up points, either half way through or even more frequently, when students had to turn in proof of progress for a grade. As the year progressed, I would continue providing students with time lines, but have fewer check ups. This would hopefully at least give students another tool for organizing their project and managing their time, while placing gradually more responsibility on the students without the incentive of "points."

Business Plan Project--Day Two

Day two of the project was very similar to day one. Out of five classes I think only two groups filmed anything. That does not bode very well for everyone finishing by the end of day three.

After day one, I was a little surprised at how little progress some students seemed to have made. I was under the impression that they had had class time on Monday to get started, and yet it seemed that a large number of groups were just starting on the background work on Wednesday when I joined the class. I was beginning to think there must have been some other part to this project that they had already done that had taken up the class time on Monday.

I asked the teacher about this because I wanted to know about any other parts of the project. It would make for a more complete blog, and probably give me ideas to help out other teachers. I was very surprised by his answer.

All the students have to do is what I was already aware of: decide what type of company they are running, name it, give it a slogan and a logo, research start up and recurring costs, write up a summary and proposal of what the business, costs, and profits are, create a floor plan, and create promotional materials including a commercial.

But, they have had a month.

The only class time they had was Monday, Wednesday, Thursday, and Friday. But they have had a month. Last year, with the same project, the teacher said some student were turning in complete projects a week after it was assigned. This year, no students worked on it at all outside of class, and therefore had nothing done at all before they were given class time. Presumably, students were still debating on types of companies and names for a large part of class on Monday. They had not even done that much outside of school. The teacher attributes the change to just the overall differences of his students between last year and this year. Last years students were a bit more motivated to take initiative and work outside of class. This years students rely more heavily on having in class time.

I have a better understanding now of why he is sticking so strictly to the due date. The students could have borrowed the camera and started on the video at any time prior to this week. The students could have even more easily accomplished a lot of the other aspects of the projects and had all this week to create and edit videos. Instead, they are all trying to cram what is essentially a month long project into four days.

A lot of the business plans are actually very interesting, so it is a shame that there was so much put off to the last minute.

Mostly in class today I was helping students with programs other than Movie Maker. I helped out with a lot of Word and Excel questions.

Another lesson in this project is the very authentic and very real world concept of time management, which is something I tried very hard all day to reinforce. Students have a limited amount of time in which to accomplish several tasks. They can work over the weekend, but they will not have video equipment and they may not be able to easily meet in person. I was trying very hard all day to convince groups to work on some of the other parts of the project--figuring that researching costs and drawing floor plans can easily be done from home and easily collaborated on over the internet--and work on the video in class. I was not at all successful.

Possible project--Science Presentations

While working with the Social Studies teacher on his Business Plan project, I got an email from one of the Science teachers. She was having blue tooth issues--which is unfortunately not something I'm that good at helping with.

While I was trouble shooting, we got to talking. Her students are currently working on presentations for infectious diseases. She wanted to be able to video tape all of the students and put each presentation on a CD. While we were talking, we started throwing around ideas, and got to the idea of allowing the students to edit their presentation videos in Movie Maker. That way, they could edit out long pauses or such.

I told her I was doing something similar with the Social Studies teacher, and invited her to stop down and check out how things were going if she had time. I also said that I would try to estimate, based on that project, how long she would want to give her students for editing.

She seems to like the idea. It gives another dimension to the project, and it gives the kids a chance to basically give themselves a second chance if their presentations don't go off perfectly.

Business Plan Project--Day One

On Tuesday, we had a district wide inservice day.

I had a great opportunity to present to the fifth grade teachers. By the end of the year, each fifth grade classroom in the district will be equiped with a Promethean board and ActiveStudio.

I downloaded a good presentation from promethean planet that showcased how teachers can use ActiveStudio to create a better learning environment by making lessons interactive, adding some pop to the normal, using the board to improve classroom management, and doing neat and unexpected things. After that, I went through the basic tools on the tool bar and the power tools.

I only had 45 minutes to present (and might have gone over by about 15, actually). On one level, I was really excited, because that is the longest space I've been given to officially present ActiveStudio to any teachers. At the same time, I was a bit worried. No teachers had laptops, and I was not able to give any time for processing or practicing. I know that some of the teachers were very overwhelmed by the presentation. It was a lot of information to squeeze into just 60 minutes.

I was a little disappointed to reflect that, even though this presentation went well and was a great opportunity, I have not been able to give this level of training to the high school teachers I am supposed to be supporting. The longest I have been given for any training on ActiveStudio at the high school has been twenty minutes. I've had a few one on one opportunities to go through some of the functions, but that is generally on a teacher's planning period, where they can't really give me the full 45 minutes.

I'm hoping that the fifth grade teachers will provide positive feedback about the training. If the fifth grade teachers do more to use the boards effectively in the classroom, it will hopefully send a message that this type of training, and more, is needed even at the high school level.

I gave all of my contact information to the fifth grade teachers, and hope to hear back from some of them. Most of them do not have the program installed yet, and therefore are not needing an support for technical or integration issues. I'm planning on sending out a follow up email in the next few days, though. It is important to stay in touch with teachers, especially those who might feel that, because I am supposed to work at the high school, their questions are a bother to me.

I think that this was one of the most important professional development opportunities I have had so far at my school. Hopefully progress will come from it.

Presentation to 5th Grade teachers

On Tuesday, we had a district wide in-service day.

I had a great opportunity to present to the fifth grade teachers. By the end of the year, each fifth grade classroom in the district will be equipped with a Promethean board and ActiveStudio.

I downloaded a good presentation from Promethean planet that showcased how teachers can use ActiveStudio to create a better learning environment by making lessons interactive, adding some pop to the normal, using the board to improve classroom management, and doing neat and unexpected things. After that, I went through the basic tools on the tool bar and the power tools.

I only had 45 minutes to present (and might have gone over by about 15, actually). On one level, I was really excited, because that is the longest space I've been given to officially present ActiveStudio to any teachers. At the same time, I was a bit worried. No teachers had laptops, and I was not able to give any time for processing or practicing. I know that some of the teachers were very overwhelmed by the presentation. It was a lot of information to squeeze into just 60 minutes.

I was a little disappointed to reflect that, even though this presentation went well and was a great opportunity, I have not been able to give this level of training to the high school teachers I am supposed to be supporting. The longest I have been given for any training on ActiveStudio at the high school has been twenty minutes. I've had a few one on one opportunities to go through some of the functions, but that is generally on a teacher's planning period, where they can't really give me the full 45 minutes.

I'm hoping that the fifth grade teachers will provide positive feedback about the training. If the fifth grade teachers do more to use the boards effectively in the classroom, it will hopefully send a message that this type of training, and more, is needed even at the high school level.

I gave all of my contact information to the fifth grade teachers, and hope to hear back from some of them. Most of them do not have the program installed yet, and therefore are not needing an support for technical or integration issues. I'm planning on sending out a follow up email in the next few days, though. It is important to stay in touch with teachers, especially those who might feel that, because I am supposed to work at the high school, their questions are a bother to me.

I think that this was one of the most important professional development opportunities I have had so far at my school. Hopefully progress will come from it.

PD for Social Studies.

One of the biggest challenges I have faced as a CFF coach has been a general lack of time for professional development.

Last Friday I was able to act somewhat proactively and find time with some of my teachers.

There was a scheduled in-service day on Friday. The, because of a quirk in the schedule, it was closely followed by a second in-service day the following Tuesday. I heard through the grape vine that because of this, the first day had a large amount of time allotted to department meetings. My school does not have regular department meetings, so I rarely have the opportunity to speak to a large group at once.

Taking some initiative, I sent out an email to all of the department chairs, offering to give some professional development--on any topic or program, for any length of time. I figured that being flexible would make the offer more attractive. If a department head only had fifteen minutes to fill, and was afraid I was asking for an hour, it would have been a missed chance.

I heard back from both the Math and the Social Studies departments. Math later had to cancel because they had to focus more on curriculum, and, as the department chair told me, they had a rare, engaging, and productive dialogue going on.

Social Studies offered me a two hour block in which to present whatever I wanted.

I had to sit down and give this some thought. I wanted to present something useful, and something fun that would grab their attention and help them see me as someone who can help enliven the classroom and not just someone who drone on and on about technical issues. I decided to go with Photo Story and xtranormal, and to end with a demonstration of the new ActiveInspire software that we are hopefully adding to the computer images over the summer.

Photo Story did not go well. I had originally anticipated having about a half dozen high school teachers with teacher CFF laptops. I knew that about half had Photo Story and about half did not. That was a decent mix, because I was planning on having teachers work in pairs to create a short story. I gathered pictures for me to use to make a presentation while demonstrating, and another set of pictures for them to use to make their own. That way, I we could save time but not having teachers have to search for pictures. Unfortunately, my plans were for nought. When i arrived, there were about a dozen teachers, from the middle school and the high school, and two of the teacher with Photo Story were not able to attend. So, almost everyone needed to use a student laptop, but those had been recently re-imaged and no longer had Photo Story. I did a very quick presentation, that even I knew was getting dull and boring, because no one could follow along. All they could do was watch. I kept it to about ten minutes, and showed just the very basic buttons. I also showed parts of two student generated Photo Stories as examples of what students can create in a limited time. The examples were by far the best part of the presentation, and I was glad I had thought to bring them.

I very quickly moved on to xtranormal. This was a program I chose because I knew most of the computers had updated flash, so most of the computers could run the program. Also, I know that it is always a big hit. It is fun, easy to use, and most educators can envision ways for either themselves or their students to use it in the classroom. About half the computers did not have the latest flash, so mostly everyone worked with a partner, but even that went well.

I started by showing a demo video I had made. In it, a British Ninja and an Australian judge discuss how easy xtranormal is to use. I then pointing everyone to the website and had them sign up. I then walked them through selecting characters, voices, and a setting. As a group, we came up with a few lines of dialogue. I demonstrated switching between characters, adding camera angles, and adding actions. As I was doing this, everyone was able to follow along and add their own actions, angles, and lines.

When I finished the short demo, I gave an assignment. Each group had to create a movie with at least six lines, two actions, two camera angles, and, for "extra credit" two looks at the cameras, two facial expressions, and one point.

It went well. Everyone completed a movie. I don't know if everyone met every requirement, though. I really only used those as guides to encourage exploration and creativity.

And most importantly, they had fun doing it. Everyone was laughing, and sharing their movies as they worked. And they were talking about making movies for their classes, or having students do them. All in all it was a great success.

I then demonstrated tinyurl as a way to easily get a link to everyone's finished video to share with the group.

In the end, we didn't have time for the ActiveInspire demo. But I think that this was time well spent. Several teachers were exposed to a tool they didn't know they had. Several were inspired to see how easy some technology is. And, I hope, a few saw the value of working with me to show them these tools so they can use them to reach their classroom goals.

Business Plan Project

I started working with one of the Social Studies teachers last week on a video project. It was part of a larger project that, at the beginning, I didn't know much about.

The larger project was for students to create a business plan. The video part of the project is for students to create a commercial.

I began by going back and getting a better handle on movie maker. I haven't looked at it in a very long time, and I've never really used it. I felt it was my first duty to know the program in question. I took an afternoon to look at the connections, how to transfer files, what the file types were, and how to work with the video. It was pretty easy.

I next managed to find a few minutes with the teacher to go over how the program works. He didn't seem to think it was too difficult, either.

I then created a set of directions for students. I ran them by the teacher, and made a few changes. We then started talking about turning the projects in. In the past, the teacher had not known anything about video editing. Students had just had to rewind and re-shoot any mistakes. Then, the teacher simply uploaded all of the videos to his own computer. He wanted the directions to include saving to his computer, but I pointed out that that would mean having each group use his computer to edit. That would have been a large logistical nightmare.

In the end, we decided to contact the tech department and set up a teacher workspace folder for him. This is a folder that all students and the teacher can access. In this way, it pretty much fills the function of a drop box. There is less security, but I don't think most students would think of it that way. I had the teacher go through and set up a folder for each class under his workspace folder.

Now, each group will be able to record their video, edit out any mistakes without hogging the camera, edit it on their own computer, and share it with the teacher easily.

One of the important aspects about being a coach, in my opinion, is having the experience and the mind set, to be able to foresee issues, and see a way around them.

Creek Connections Symposium

I haven't been able to blog for a good long while.

A few weeks back, I went with the Science teacher to the Creek Connections Symposium. This was the culmination of the Creek Project the students have been working on.

The best projects--the ones that did the best job of asking and answering a question relating to fresh water in Western Pennsylvania--were invited to attend. The Science teacher made an observation that was a little disheartening. She mostly invited students that had done computer based projects. Of those who were invited that did not use a computer, none chose to attend. That was a little bit upsetting.

It could have simply been a matter of coincidence. Many students who were invited could not attend because of conflicting schedule (specifically a track meet that day). And, many of the students who did not use computers were more unwilling to make the suggested corrections that they needed to actually attend.

The symposium itself was a great experience. Our students, as freshmen, were amongst the oldest there. There were quite a few "billboard" projects on display. Not many of our students had turned in projects that did nothing more than list facts because of repeated warnings not to, and because of the frequent check up the teacher did to keep them on track.

There were a few excellent and interactive projects, too.

We were the only school that had any technology at all. That did not make us a better school, nor did it make our projects better. I think we were an impressive school. We were also a resource heavy school and had barely enough outlets to run all of the laptops.

I think we were also a brave school. Because of having the computers, I opted out of one of the afternoon activities to pack up and generally keep an eye on things. This was the first time we had been allowed to take the laptops out of school, and I was very invested in making sure things went well.

I did have a chance to do one of the afternoon hands on sessions. These were a series of workshops held by environmental and other science majors of the sponsoring college. It was a great way to make learning more fun. The sessions were hands on, interactive, and, best of all, outside.

Things overall went very well. Our students were well behaved, and may have taken something away from the symposium. Hopefully, they took away that a) hard work has its rewards and b) creating a more interesting project will make it more likely to generate that authentic audience that makes it all worth while.