Our global footprints show what we have done with our lives. My global footprint includes travel, adventures, experiences, and learning I have had which lead me to the perspectives I have today. I present some of these in my digital portfolio on YouTube.
It is challenging to find times and ways to communicate what we learn in our travel and adventures. I want to think about ways to work with this rich tapestry of travel, experience, and learning to find ways to share that will invite others to share, to become inspired, and to learn from my experiences.
Showing posts with label YouTube. Show all posts
Showing posts with label YouTube. Show all posts
Saturday, April 10, 2010
Monday, November 2, 2009
Making Connections between Schools, Parents, and Students
Teachers are often challenged to make connections between schools, parents, and students. Many times parents regard their children and school work as unrelated to the "real world" of their day-to-day lives. The Library of Congress of the United States of America has suggested that students capture oral histories of their families.
Last year I had two projects that I introduced at the middle school (seventh and eighth grade) level that could be adapted up and down and is relevant to adults as well. These two projects were a Family Migration History project and a Footprints Project. You can find out more about these projects on my digital portfolio for education on YouTube. (Follow this link for the same video on Teacher Tube.) You can find the details for the projects on these websites: http://drmontgomery.wikispaces.com/ and http://drm-ms-resources.wikispaces.com/.
In the Family Migration Story we used the National Geographic Human Genome Project as our starting place for everyone's stories, then picked up personal family stories as far back as the parents could remember, talking about family members and reasons for moving from one place to another across the globe. Using a collaborative writing technique guided by the teacher students in each class created a series of questions which they translated from English to their native language. They asked their parents the questions and recorded the answers. They also gathered family pictures, souvenirs, and other family treasures to support their stories. (These are called primary source documents in historical research circles.) We made digital copies of these treasures and returned them immediately to their parents. Our goal was to have the students write a script from their answers and to digitally record their Family Migration Stories--accompanied by the digital photographs of their family treasures. Ideally they would make the recording in both English and in their native language. Our goal was to record their scripts onto DVDs which the parents could then play at home. Due to technological difficulties the audio in our recordings didn't work last year, though the rest of the project went well.
The Footprints project takes the end of the Family Migration Story and talks about what someone has done with their lives. Middle school students can talk about what they want to do with their lives and what kind of footprint they want to leave on the planet. Parents and teachers can talk about footprint stories from the point of view of what they have done with their lives and of the footprint they are leaving on the planet.
These are very engaging projects and are good for the beginning of a school year, though they could be a focus point for anytime during the year. Parents could come to the school to view multiple Family Migration Stories as part of a celebration of learning.
The key to integrating parents into the school life and the life of the students is to make the connections with the real world. Parents and students studying language together can be a help as well as parents becoming involved as subject matter experts about their own families.
Last year I had two projects that I introduced at the middle school (seventh and eighth grade) level that could be adapted up and down and is relevant to adults as well. These two projects were a Family Migration History project and a Footprints Project. You can find out more about these projects on my digital portfolio for education on YouTube. (Follow this link for the same video on Teacher Tube.) You can find the details for the projects on these websites: http://drmontgomery.wikispaces.com/ and http://drm-ms-resources.wikispaces.com/.
In the Family Migration Story we used the National Geographic Human Genome Project as our starting place for everyone's stories, then picked up personal family stories as far back as the parents could remember, talking about family members and reasons for moving from one place to another across the globe. Using a collaborative writing technique guided by the teacher students in each class created a series of questions which they translated from English to their native language. They asked their parents the questions and recorded the answers. They also gathered family pictures, souvenirs, and other family treasures to support their stories. (These are called primary source documents in historical research circles.) We made digital copies of these treasures and returned them immediately to their parents. Our goal was to have the students write a script from their answers and to digitally record their Family Migration Stories--accompanied by the digital photographs of their family treasures. Ideally they would make the recording in both English and in their native language. Our goal was to record their scripts onto DVDs which the parents could then play at home. Due to technological difficulties the audio in our recordings didn't work last year, though the rest of the project went well.
The Footprints project takes the end of the Family Migration Story and talks about what someone has done with their lives. Middle school students can talk about what they want to do with their lives and what kind of footprint they want to leave on the planet. Parents and teachers can talk about footprint stories from the point of view of what they have done with their lives and of the footprint they are leaving on the planet.
These are very engaging projects and are good for the beginning of a school year, though they could be a focus point for anytime during the year. Parents could come to the school to view multiple Family Migration Stories as part of a celebration of learning.
The key to integrating parents into the school life and the life of the students is to make the connections with the real world. Parents and students studying language together can be a help as well as parents becoming involved as subject matter experts about their own families.
Monday, September 14, 2009
Public or Private? Which Makes Most Sense?
In creating some MP4 videos using TechSmith's Camtasia software, I decided to post some publically on YouTube--with back-ups on TeacherTube in case of firewall problems with YouTube.
It is a real question--whether or not to give the public access to some of the information we may want to share with others. How many others? For what purpose?
One of my videos is of a presentation I made called Using Audio Books to Improve Reading and Academic Performance. That's the video I was working on yesterday. It's up today on my website at http://www.joelmonty.net/education/education.htm. (My computer may have been multitasking while I was making the video, so I'll have to double check to make sure that the audio is well synchronized with the video throughout.) I may try to put that video on TeacherTube later because I want as many teachers to access the presentation as possible. The information is important.
That's a major key for me to keep in mind. Who do I want to have access to material I make available and why? What do I need to do to preserve my privacy and copyright on the materials I share? Both of these are decisions to be made on a daily basis.
I have another research paper recently published that I need to turn into a presentation. It is about working with "reluctant" English language learners (ELLs) and encouraging them to produce higher quality in the classroom. I'd like for that to be a video on TeacherTube as well.
It's amazing how many hours are required to keep these things going and available for others to make use of.
It is a real question--whether or not to give the public access to some of the information we may want to share with others. How many others? For what purpose?
One of my videos is of a presentation I made called Using Audio Books to Improve Reading and Academic Performance. That's the video I was working on yesterday. It's up today on my website at http://www.joelmonty.net/education/education.htm. (My computer may have been multitasking while I was making the video, so I'll have to double check to make sure that the audio is well synchronized with the video throughout.) I may try to put that video on TeacherTube later because I want as many teachers to access the presentation as possible. The information is important.
That's a major key for me to keep in mind. Who do I want to have access to material I make available and why? What do I need to do to preserve my privacy and copyright on the materials I share? Both of these are decisions to be made on a daily basis.
I have another research paper recently published that I need to turn into a presentation. It is about working with "reluctant" English language learners (ELLs) and encouraging them to produce higher quality in the classroom. I'd like for that to be a video on TeacherTube as well.
It's amazing how many hours are required to keep these things going and available for others to make use of.
Monday, August 31, 2009
The Business of Getting Noticed by the Right People
In the 2009 economy in the USA, much time on the internet is invested in trying to get noticed by "the right people." Who are the "right people?" That depends on the goal. If I want a job, I want to be noticed by people who are hiring. If I am looking for contract work, I want to be noticed by the people who are looking for someone to fill the contract. If I want to find consulting work, I want to be noticed by organizations who would like to use me as a consultant. Sologig.com and Fulcrum Network both focus on identifying opportunities for contract or consulting work.
How do we go about getting noticed in this age of social networking? We post resumes to job boards, fill-out profiles on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and other locations. We create web sites, blogs, create podcasts, put out promotional pieces on YouTube--and hope for the best
Many people are in the business of helping people get noticed. In fact, there are almost more people trying to help others improve their resumes than there are people hiring for jobs.
We do need to get noticed by the right people--for the right reasons--and for the right "investment" of our time and energy.
How do we go about getting noticed in this age of social networking? We post resumes to job boards, fill-out profiles on Twitter, LinkedIn, Facebook, and other locations. We create web sites, blogs, create podcasts, put out promotional pieces on YouTube--and hope for the best
Many people are in the business of helping people get noticed. In fact, there are almost more people trying to help others improve their resumes than there are people hiring for jobs.
We do need to get noticed by the right people--for the right reasons--and for the right "investment" of our time and energy.
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