One of my core tenets as a teacher-librarian is that collaboration is key. So often teachers have great ideas brewing that are totally worth pursuing and librarians can and should be the catalyst that helps make a great project even better. Many of the greatest lessons I've ever taught were only possible because I had teachers to collaborate with. Find those colleagues who are willing to team up and take risks, be real and plan flexibly, learn and celebrate. Allow me a minute to expand on these points: 1. Find colleagues willing to team up and take risks:
2. Be real and plan flexibly:The earlier you can begin planning, the better. Think BIG, then scale back on what's realistic. Be real about timing, sit down with your calendars, prepare for unexpected obstacles (i.e absent or unprepared students, other assignments that take priority, editing, exhaustion). Be open to failure. You will inevitably run out of time and you will need to be fine with however it ends up. Planning and collaboration requires being held accountable to timelines and consequences for both teachers and students. Say what you're going to do and do what you're going to say. Communication is key, articulate to students that this applies for both teachers and students, model teacher teamwork. While you might need to surrender certain ideas from your vision, never compromise the expectation for the project's excellence to students. Yes, we don't have time to record those scenes, but this project will still be done and done well for a larger audience. 3. Learn and celebrate often
Let's go!I must preface by saying that these students had previously finished a unit on digital photography and shooting that I adapted from KQED Teach's "Video Storytelling Essentials" This was not their first rodeo. You must build up students' skills gradually and develop their vocabulary (i.e. rule of thirds, landscape vs. portrait, etc.) so they know what the heck you're talking about!
Reflection and CelebrationAny decent teacher knows that the practice of reflection fosters deeper learning and provides a more authentic means of assessment other than a skill recall test. All of their reflections over their five years at the school are kept in their own digital portfolios. I adopted this practice after attending Trevor Mattea's digital portfolio workshop. "Honestly, it was pretty hard because we kept laughing. We had to keep adding and deleting over and over again. We had to keep the really embarrassing part of me with 3 heads and made sure everything was spot on perfect. I learned that filming and making scripts are actually pretty hard. You have to determine which parts of the book are important and valuable enough to be put into the movie trailer." -Student reflection excerpt When all was said and done, students enjoyed a FILM FESTIVAL where they finally saw what other groups were working on and shared the debut of their final masterpieces with other school community members.
Feel free to contact me for more information, resources, tips, or if you need someone to brainstorm with by commenting in the section below. Better yet, I'd love to hear about how you're integrating green screens in your classrooms and taking things to the next level.
Next up: Awakening civic engagement in students through protesting digital wrongs! Whaaaa? Stay tuned to find out.
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AuthorAlicia Tapia is a school librarian and digital literacy instructor focused on information literacy skills delivered in a creative and effective way. ArchivesCategories
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