Internship--Entry 7.75

I just have to share this! My students' broadcast has been added to the Baseball Hall of Fame website. Just scroll to the end of the Presentation section.
http://education.baseballhalloffame.org/experience/thematic_units/comm_arts.html#iv

Also, here's a slideshow of the session. There are about fifteen students in this single-gender class, and they loved it. I played their clip on the morning news show today, and saw several of them in the hall, today. They mentioned their project and just beamed.

Internship--Post 7.5

We'll I'm sold on videoconferences now! Even though it took me forever to finally get one scheduled, I'd say videoconferences are a future tool we all could use. My internship supervisor told me that EdTech had a videoconference keynote speaker with an astronaut!

Anyway, about today. Since this was my first videoconference, I wanted to start with a conference for one class--not four (each core teacher teaches four blocks because the teacher is on a four-person team; one teaches language arts, one teaches math, one teaches science, and one teaches social studies.) I selected this language arts class for a couple of reasons: 1. the teacher was willing, 2. the class was covering content that I could match with a potential content provider, and 3. the content provider was easy to work with, 4. this single gender class includes some students who often struggle with making connections between what they read and the world around them. This was a perfect choice. The all boy class loves sports, they'd just read Maniac Magee, a Newbery award-winning book about a boy who befriends a former MLB player, and the guys are extremely motivated by technology.

This morning, the students came in and were so exicted. When they say the big flat screen tv that was in the classroom, they got excited. And when we called the Hall of Fame and someone on the other end responded, they were impressed. Their goal for today was to record a broadcast of a baseball game in the old style of radio where sound effects had to be used. We recorded the broadcast using Audacity, and the Hall of Fame plans to host the file on their own site. I'll share it here, too, since I'm so proud of this group. The teacher even said he wished his other all-boy class could have experienced the conference. I invited our school's literacy coach and MYP instructional coach, and both want to share the outcomes with other teachers. I'd like to write a grant to fund more conferences throughout the rest of the school year now that I have the equipment at my school.

Internship--Entry 7

Things are really rolling now. My first videoconference will be held Monday, November 24th. Last week was all about finalizing details...my internship supervisor met with me the first time to first rearrange the room to accept the portable Tandberg cart. We had to call Video Systems (the vendor for Tandberg) to ask about why our internal camera view wasn’t working and why we weren’t able to connect to sites outside of the district. The suggested changing the input view on the equipment, and it worked!. We then tried test calling the Baseball Hall of Fame but had problems. After talking to our network technician, we realized we needed a public IP address (the reason we weren’t able to call out). A cell phone here was a life saver because all these calls were done in a classroom while trying to get the equipment to work. By the time all this was done, we needed to reschedule our test call, so today, we called them again around 10:15. It worked! What a relief! The Hall of Fame operator had suggestions for the room layout, and I know we're ready.

The teacher whose class will benefit from the videoconference prepared the class today. We showed them a scene from the movie Annie so they could see how radio programs used sound effects. The students then read through a script they'll use Monday during the conference. Here's a link to the program we're planning. http://education.baseballhalloffame.org/experience/thematic_units/comm_arts.html

I'll post again Monday evening to describe how the conference went!

Internship--Post 6.5

After my meeting with my site supervisor today, we have a site created for the tutorials. Unfortunately, that site is restricted to teachers within our district. Here are direct links to the tutorials, though. You'll need Windows Media Player to view them.

EMAIL:

Archiving messages (client)

Creating an Address Book (client)

Adding a Signature (client)

Adding a Signature (webaccess)

eChalk:

Logging Into eChalk

Email

My Account Space

My School

Using the Homework Drop Box

Destiny:

Logging Into Destiny

Internship--Post 6

I feel like I've done lots of waiting lately. The Baseball Hall of Fame has responded to my original request about scheduling a video conference. The teacher and I have selected a program from their list. It's called "Going, Going, Gone" and is about how baseball games used to be broadcast on the radio. We've read the description of the program and are eager to see how the description will look in the classroom.

Unfortunately, we're waiting on the museum to get back to us with a great date. The collaborating teacher's wife is having a baby around Thanksgiving, so I'd like to finish before then if possible. Plus, the deadline for this class is quickly approaching.

My site supervisor and I will talk tomorrow about linking to the video tutorials I've created and hosted on the district server. I just want to make sure that the people can find them now that they are done. The wait continues...