We Did It!

We have been working hard on our educational Television Show, and yesterday, the students did the first full recording of their show. I had another chance to work outside of my comfort zone by using JayCut to edit the video and produce what you see below. I would definitely suggest plugging in some external speakers when listening to this video, as the sound quality is not as good at times. This is my no means a professional production, but it is what six- and seven-year-olds independently produced in small groups, and it was a great opportunity to share out learning with others in a new way.

The students would like to watch this video again, reflect on how they did, and try a live performance the next time using UStream. I plan on doing this when we get back from March Break. I'm interested in seeing how they change their performances based on their reflections.

Here are some things that I learned from this experience:

1) It is important to give students the opportunity to present information in a lot of different ways. Many chose to just have a discussion, and having some more variety in the performances would have been great!

2) Planning is important, but script writing may not be quite as important. The students really wanted to stick to their script, and this made things stilted at times. Using an organizer to plan out some ideas instead of writing a full script, may have been better.

3) Have students list what props they're going to use and how they're going to use them. Students realized the importance of having props, but not all students used all of the props that they chose.

4) Develop a conclusion as a class. What is the meaning behind the television show? Make sure that this message is clearly stated at the end.

For teachers that have done a similar project before, what are your suggestions for improvement? I would love to hear what you have to say! And once again, a special thank you to Colin Jagoe (@colinjagoe) and iAnna for inspiring all of us to try something new.

Aviva