Friday, March 4, 2011

It All Started With A Tweet ...

A couple of weeks ago, I saw a tweet by Colin Jagoe (@colinjagoe) about a guest post on his blog by his seven-year-old daughter. She made a "television show episode" called iAnna, which is very similar to iCarly. When watching her show, I knew that I needed to try out something similar with my students.



I then saw a tweet last week by Heidi Siwak (@heidisiwak) about her class UStream Channel. When I saw this, I knew what to do! I would have my students create a television show on UStream.

Last week, for our Word Wall and Word Family activity, students learned about feeling and colour words after reading My Many Colored Days by Dr. Seuss. As part of our school focus on Social Justice, we've been spending time discussing feelings, so why not have students create an educational television show on feelings? An idea was forming ...

Yesterday, I showed the class iAnna. We used this excellent example to help us develop "success criteria" for television shows. From there, the idea took off! Watch this PhotoPeach Slideshow to see where the students are going with this mega-media literacy project:

Our TV Show Project: Starting The Process on PhotoPeach



The students are so excited for Monday and our continuation of this fun and educational activity! A special thank you to Anna, Colin, and Heidi for helping me step out of my comfort zone (television shows, music apps, and UStream are very new to me) and learn along with my students: a whole class of excellent teachers! And to think this whole project started because of a single tweet ...

Aviva


9 comments:

Barbara McLaughlin said...

And thank you Aviva for posting your reflections. It inspires me to hear how you and your students co-learn and how you mash print and digital materials, using them all with purpose and intent.

Aviva said...

Thanks Barbara! I really appreciate this! I'm sure that I'll continue to blog as we continue this classroom project. It's a lot of fun to learn along with my students. I can't wait to see where this goes!

Aviva

Heidi Siwak said...

Exciting! Can't wait to see how this project evolves.

Aviva said...

Thanks Heidi! I'm excited to see how this project evolves too!

Aviva

lpapplegirl said...

Absolutely wonderful! I eagerly await your first episode. I love the photos of the students creating music, writing scripts, and your music choice was perfect.

Lenette

Aviva said...

Thanks Lenette! I really appreciate it. I'm excited to see the first episode too!

Aviva

Colin Jagoe said...

You rock. Wow. Way to take an idea and run with it. Can't wait to see the productions.

Art Projects said...

Thanks Colin! I think it's you and your daughter that rock though. Without iAnna and that blog post of yours, I would have never even considered this idea. Thanks for the inspiration!

Aviva

Aviva said...

Check out "Ripples": Colin Jagoe's newest blog post that he wrote after reading this one. I love the post, Colin! - http://jagoe.ca/2011/03/ripples/

Aviva