The idea of School News takes the morning announcements to a new level! In this time of standards based instruction, where students are asked to produce more real world products for assessment, this idea is very appropriate and exciting. Talk about getting students actively engaged! The Pleasant Grove Elementary School’s (which is in the same district as my school, but much newer) Kid News Network is an exemplary program. After viewing the page I was in awe of how student centered this project seemed to be. Students were involved in all aspects of creating the news program and the production process was very cross-curricular. Additionally, the production process promotes working cooperatively. Students had to work together to create a successful news program. This type of project also works to increase the integration of technology use in schools. This project takes this a step further and allows students to see the how technology is used to produce something that resembles a product in the real world “a new cast”. The process of creating this project for their peers allows students to have an authentic audience. Students work better when they realize their work will be shard with a real audience.
Although we don’t participate in this type activity at my school, my media specialist stated that she had been apart of school news broadcast at her prior school. When talking to her, she stated that the students really enjoyed and actually looked forward to the weekly broadcast. The music teacher worked with her to help the student produce the board cast. Some key points that she mentioned for an elementary news cast (but could be applied to middle/high) were:
• To keep the format simple and easy to follow
• Make the news stories relevant and interesting for all grade levels
• Invite other staff members to contribute to the process
• Plan and organize
• Make sure to describe all roles for students prior to starting the process
• Start simple and slowly and added to the program
An elementary school near us does do a live daily newscast. I was able to email the media specialist and she was happy to respond to my questions. She stated that she and the SAGE teacher coordinate the newscast. The format includes the pledge, lunch menu, weather, announcements, behavior pledge, and special announcements for certain events like Red Ribbon Week. The principal or assistant principal will do daily announcements on the newscast. Students interview for the positions on the crew and as anchors. Teacher may submit names of students for special event announcements. Teachers also write and submit special announcements like for Children’s Music Month. The crews rotate over a grading period with different students interviewing for positions. These students must display good behavior and maintain good grades. Because this is a K-3 primary school third graders are selected for the crew but students from the other grades can be selected to do special announcements.
While I don’t think our school is ready to take the morning announcements to the level of Pleasant Grove Elementary. Exploring their site and hearing about what's going on at the near-by school does encourage me to “start simple” and encourage my media specialist, teachers and administrators to allow our students to start with small things like taping students doing specials announcements and airing them over the closed circuit TV unit. I think it would be engaging and allow students to use some critical thinking skills. I might even encourage some students to look at broadcasting and production as a career choice!
Friday, October 30, 2009
School TV News
As a homeless person (AKA substitute teacher at many schools) I am witness and privy to many ways of "doing" the morning announcements. At one elementary school that is only K-1-2, the P.E. teacher announces over the intercom any news that needs to be shared as well as the pledge and a moment of silence...no video. At the K-3-4-5 school that follows, the media specialist has an elaborate production each morning with a news crew that changes jobs each week. For example, you may be the camera man this week and next week the anchor. I thought this morning show had way too much for students that age, but I was surprised by their abilities to handle it! I agree with a post I just read that this may lead to a less than professional morning show, but think of what the kids learn!!! This morning show has all the typical announcements and each elementary school I have been in does things slightly different. One school I was in, the media specialist was not is charge of the morning show, but I think that is a rarity. My 6th grade son was on the news team last year at his elementary school. The media specialist interviewed the students who applied for particular jobs and then determined who she felt was capable of each particular job. The students then held the jobs she assigned and the teams she assigned for 6 weeks. The announcements were written and overseen by the media parapro and is a live production.
I have not seen much middle school because middle schoolers scare me :) I have been through middle school with my older ones but I did not pay attention...and my youngest is just in 6th grade now. I know they have a morning show everyday and applications and auditions for these positions, but that is all I know. The middle school where my son attends has the students on visually every morning... this is also a live production.
In most of the high schools I have subbed in, the morning announcements come in the form of an administrator over the intercom. He/She leads the Pledge, moment of silence, and various other important activities that need to be addressed. On Fridays is the BIG show. Not live...that would be too scary...but prerecorded...edited...and very good! Students either take a class (some are part of drama class) or are in a club that produces the morning show. This is an elaborate production with acting and skits and a variety of interviews where teachers and students alike are acting silly, but trying to plug whatever activity, club, or event they are promoting. These announcements are really VERY good and I love to have the opportunity to watch them! After my son graduated from High School I even got to see him on the morning show because it was an enticement to get students to buy tickets to the Sadie Hawkins Dance. His band was recorded by students on the morning team and a lip synced version of the song with his band acting silly was shown. This prerecorded tape gets delivered to the media center and is then played to the entire school Each teacher turns his/her TV on in their room to watch the morning announcements and homeroom is dismissed when they are done. These are the only morning announcements that high school kids listen to!!! The only job the media staff has is to play the show...
I have not seen much middle school because middle schoolers scare me :) I have been through middle school with my older ones but I did not pay attention...and my youngest is just in 6th grade now. I know they have a morning show everyday and applications and auditions for these positions, but that is all I know. The middle school where my son attends has the students on visually every morning... this is also a live production.
In most of the high schools I have subbed in, the morning announcements come in the form of an administrator over the intercom. He/She leads the Pledge, moment of silence, and various other important activities that need to be addressed. On Fridays is the BIG show. Not live...that would be too scary...but prerecorded...edited...and very good! Students either take a class (some are part of drama class) or are in a club that produces the morning show. This is an elaborate production with acting and skits and a variety of interviews where teachers and students alike are acting silly, but trying to plug whatever activity, club, or event they are promoting. These announcements are really VERY good and I love to have the opportunity to watch them! After my son graduated from High School I even got to see him on the morning show because it was an enticement to get students to buy tickets to the Sadie Hawkins Dance. His band was recorded by students on the morning team and a lip synced version of the song with his band acting silly was shown. This prerecorded tape gets delivered to the media center and is then played to the entire school Each teacher turns his/her TV on in their room to watch the morning announcements and homeroom is dismissed when they are done. These are the only morning announcements that high school kids listen to!!! The only job the media staff has is to play the show...
Tuesday, October 27, 2009
School TV News
As a third grade teacher at Clarkesville Elementary, I view a school news broadcast every morning. Even though I was very familiar with the daily school news, I decided to sit down and talk with the media specialist at my school today during my planning time to discuss the school news broadcast. She explained that four fifth graders are chosen each nine weeks to participate in the school news broadcast. Two of the students serve as the news anchors, while the other two students operate the video camera and sound. At the beginning of every school year, the media specialist goes around to all of the fifth grade classrooms and discusses the news broadcast team. The students are then given the opportunity to sign up to audition to be a part of the broadcast team. The auditions are held in the media center and four students are chosen for each nine weeks. Therefore, 16 students are chosen in all for the school year.
The media specialist has a script written out for the anchors to read from during the news broadcast. Several components of the script stay the same each week. For example, the Pledge of Allegiance, the moment of silence and KIP's Code (school motto) will be same each day. The character education word of the week changes each week. However, the counselor talks about the character education word each day on the news broadcast. She discusses what the word means, gives examples, shows videos and even reads books to help the students better understand the meaning of the character education word.
Teachers may turn in any announcements that they would like to be read on the school news to the media center and the anchors will read them the next morning. Our school administrators use the daily news broadcast to communicate important announcements with the students. The administrators even draw out of grade level containers every Friday for lunch with the principal.
The school annoncements are very popular at Clarkesville Elementary. No matter what my students are working on in the morning, they are quiet as soon as the announcements begin because they want to make sure they don't miss anything they may need to know!
I believe that it is very important to have a school news broadcast that is at least aired to the entire student body each week. Although I can't imagine our school changing from a daily news broadcast to a weekly broadcast because there is so much happening at our school! The daily news is a wonderful way for the students, teachers and administrators to communicate with one another.
The media specialist has a script written out for the anchors to read from during the news broadcast. Several components of the script stay the same each week. For example, the Pledge of Allegiance, the moment of silence and KIP's Code (school motto) will be same each day. The character education word of the week changes each week. However, the counselor talks about the character education word each day on the news broadcast. She discusses what the word means, gives examples, shows videos and even reads books to help the students better understand the meaning of the character education word.
Teachers may turn in any announcements that they would like to be read on the school news to the media center and the anchors will read them the next morning. Our school administrators use the daily news broadcast to communicate important announcements with the students. The administrators even draw out of grade level containers every Friday for lunch with the principal.
The school annoncements are very popular at Clarkesville Elementary. No matter what my students are working on in the morning, they are quiet as soon as the announcements begin because they want to make sure they don't miss anything they may need to know!
I believe that it is very important to have a school news broadcast that is at least aired to the entire student body each week. Although I can't imagine our school changing from a daily news broadcast to a weekly broadcast because there is so much happening at our school! The daily news is a wonderful way for the students, teachers and administrators to communicate with one another.
Thursday, October 22, 2009
Social Networking in Schools
As I began formulating my stance on social networking in schools, I began to think of all of the positive effects of the use of social networks in both the classroom and in the media center. Most students use some type of social networking site several times each week in order to communicate with their classmates and family members. Therefore, most students already know how to use social networking sites. As I am teaching my students, I sometimes struggle engaging them in every lesson and activity in the classroom. However, I believe that the use of social networking sites would help to increase student interest in classroom projects and assignments. While I know that social networking sites could not be used all the time, I believe it would be beneficial for teachers and students to have access to these types of sites when needed in order to help improve instruction and student learning.
Even though I believe social networking would be beneficial for instruction, every type of social networking site is blocked for every school in our school system. This was proven true today during a meeting with our academic coach. Our academic coach needed to use Teacher Tube to show us a video to help further explain her topic for the meeting, standards based classroom. However, she was unable to access that website because it was blocked. During the meeting, she spoke with our technology director and he explained to her that all social networking sites are blocked across the county and they will not allow access to the sites. Needless to say our academic coach was very disappointed and also frustrated. Access to social networking sites would have benefited the teachers in our meeting today and I believe access to social networking sites would benefit our students on a daily basis.
While I understand that there can be negative aspects to social networking sites, such as access to inappropriate material, I also believe that the students can be taught how to use social networking sites properly. Students need to be taught by teachers how to safely search the Internet and to use social networking sites. Not only would the students have the benefits of using social networking sites, the students would also learn how to safely use the Internet to help to improve their learning.
Even though I believe social networking would be beneficial for instruction, every type of social networking site is blocked for every school in our school system. This was proven true today during a meeting with our academic coach. Our academic coach needed to use Teacher Tube to show us a video to help further explain her topic for the meeting, standards based classroom. However, she was unable to access that website because it was blocked. During the meeting, she spoke with our technology director and he explained to her that all social networking sites are blocked across the county and they will not allow access to the sites. Needless to say our academic coach was very disappointed and also frustrated. Access to social networking sites would have benefited the teachers in our meeting today and I believe access to social networking sites would benefit our students on a daily basis.
While I understand that there can be negative aspects to social networking sites, such as access to inappropriate material, I also believe that the students can be taught how to use social networking sites properly. Students need to be taught by teachers how to safely search the Internet and to use social networking sites. Not only would the students have the benefits of using social networking sites, the students would also learn how to safely use the Internet to help to improve their learning.
Wednesday, October 21, 2009
To Block or not To Block that is the question?
Social networking sites are a big “No! No!”at our school for the students and teachers per the technology department. All social networking sites are blocked by the school firewall. In fact, today I wanted to get my blogger for this class unblocked so I could work on my homework but to no avail. I am still waiting. The technology department cited that they must review the site before it can be unblocked. Although, yesterday our Assistant Principal sent out an email asking for volunteers to attend a class on assisting teachers in setting up blogs. I wondered if the Assistant principal knows that the technology department has these types of social networking sites blocked.
As for me I think it would definitely be an asset to our classrooms. Some students that just don’t seem to be able to put any thoughts down on paper can certainly use Facebook or My Space. My thoughts are that students need to learn how to participate in social networking sites appropriately. The students need to be taught the rules on internet etiquette and how to protect their selves from predators.
During the summer, our AP classes used blogs for their summer reading books. The students were able to relate to each other concerning their thoughts on the reading material through this monitored blog. The students encouraged each other to read and to express their thoughts. This blog presented opportunities for self-expression and friendship building that would never occurred with just a summer reading assignment.
I know there are several negatives to blogs such as risky behavior, cyber bullying and revealing too much information about ones self. At some point students need to be responsible for their actions. As educators, we should teach students internet safety and develop policies for the use of the social networking sites at school. If students fail to abide by the rules then consequences should be given. The American Association of School Library’s survey revealed that “social networking tools are becoming more and more vital in a student's education.”
As for me I think it would definitely be an asset to our classrooms. Some students that just don’t seem to be able to put any thoughts down on paper can certainly use Facebook or My Space. My thoughts are that students need to learn how to participate in social networking sites appropriately. The students need to be taught the rules on internet etiquette and how to protect their selves from predators.
During the summer, our AP classes used blogs for their summer reading books. The students were able to relate to each other concerning their thoughts on the reading material through this monitored blog. The students encouraged each other to read and to express their thoughts. This blog presented opportunities for self-expression and friendship building that would never occurred with just a summer reading assignment.
I know there are several negatives to blogs such as risky behavior, cyber bullying and revealing too much information about ones self. At some point students need to be responsible for their actions. As educators, we should teach students internet safety and develop policies for the use of the social networking sites at school. If students fail to abide by the rules then consequences should be given. The American Association of School Library’s survey revealed that “social networking tools are becoming more and more vital in a student's education.”
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
What makes your website unique?
In order to get the reader's attention, the media center's website must be unique and valuable to the user.
As stated by David Warlick(2005), we “must challenge ourselves to step back and examine the overreaching goals of our job—assisting students to become successful learners as well as supporting teachers in their efforts to create and craft meaningful learning experiences for their students—and to do this within the context of a contemporary information environment.” I think this statement sums up the way we should be thinking when we are planning our media center website. The website should meet the needs of the students, teachers and the community.
Unfortunately, when I have been scanning some school’s media center websites I have found that many websites have not been updated in a couple of years. To me, these websites are useless. If the media specialist does not care enough to update their own site then why would someone even bother to look at the website. Other websites disasters are: 1) websites that are wordy 2) websites that hard to read because of fonts and/or colors 3) some websites contained pictures that have not been compressed or files that were too large and the sites would not open 4) many contain links that do not work.
The perfect website on the high school level would contain 1) information about the media center including policies and procedures 2) equipment available (to students, teachers, & community members) 3) OPAC 4) databases 5) pathfinders 6)media center events 7)Wikis 8) Book talks 9) video clips –students love images 10) widgets (Apple has tons of free downloads)
Another point made by Warlick is that people do not come to the internet to read. A website must be snippets of information or links to additional information. People are typically just scanning for information. In order for a website to be useful it must catch the readers attention.
Warwick, D. (2005). Library media programs in a web-wise world. Knowledge Quest. January /February 2006 retrieved from http://staging.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/aasl/aaslpubsandjournals/kqweb/kqarchives/v33/warlick.pdf
As stated by David Warlick(2005), we “must challenge ourselves to step back and examine the overreaching goals of our job—assisting students to become successful learners as well as supporting teachers in their efforts to create and craft meaningful learning experiences for their students—and to do this within the context of a contemporary information environment.” I think this statement sums up the way we should be thinking when we are planning our media center website. The website should meet the needs of the students, teachers and the community.
Unfortunately, when I have been scanning some school’s media center websites I have found that many websites have not been updated in a couple of years. To me, these websites are useless. If the media specialist does not care enough to update their own site then why would someone even bother to look at the website. Other websites disasters are: 1) websites that are wordy 2) websites that hard to read because of fonts and/or colors 3) some websites contained pictures that have not been compressed or files that were too large and the sites would not open 4) many contain links that do not work.
The perfect website on the high school level would contain 1) information about the media center including policies and procedures 2) equipment available (to students, teachers, & community members) 3) OPAC 4) databases 5) pathfinders 6)media center events 7)Wikis 8) Book talks 9) video clips –students love images 10) widgets (Apple has tons of free downloads)
Another point made by Warlick is that people do not come to the internet to read. A website must be snippets of information or links to additional information. People are typically just scanning for information. In order for a website to be useful it must catch the readers attention.
Warwick, D. (2005). Library media programs in a web-wise world. Knowledge Quest. January /February 2006 retrieved from http://staging.ala.org/ala/mgrps/divs/aasl/aaslpubsandjournals/kqweb/kqarchives/v33/warlick.pdf
Tuesday, October 13, 2009
Media Center Web Pages
I believe that a media center web page is the media center’s second front door. An effective media center web page pulls together, in one unified interface, the media center resources, policies and procedures and any other needed information for the teachers, students, parents and other members of the community.
As a media specialist is determining what to include on the school’s media center web page, it is important for her or she to keep the targeted audience in mind. Information that is needed by teachers, students and parents should be included on the web page.
What to Include for Teachers?
Teachers are always searching for new ways to teach lessons to their students. They are always searching for good books to read and valuable websites and technology resources to use in order to enhance their lessons for the benefit of their students. Because this is reality, why not help decrease the amount of research time for the teacher by providing them with easy access to lists of good books, valuable websites and other resources to use in order to help them better plan for their students. Teachers would appreciate lists of books, to use in the classroom, that correlate with the Georgia Performance Standards for their grade level. A list of websites that contain lesson plans already created would also help to benefit the teachers and also help to improve their instruction. If certain technologies are present in the school, such as SmartBoards, it would be beneficial to have a link to information about using SmartBoards and also lessons already created for the SmartBoard. It is important for the media specialist to make the media center web page teacher friendly!
What to Include for Students?
Students love reading good books! We know this for a fact; therefore, media specialists should include book lists organized by genres to help students find the right book for them. Book talks and book reviews should also be included on the media center page in order to help the students become excited about reading. A list of the recent book award winners would also be helpful for the students as they begin their search for a good book. The students also need to know the hours that the media center is open and the procedures for checking out books. This information should be easily located on the web page and presented in a format in which students can read and understand easily. We also know that students love to search the Internet and are required to use the Internet frequently to complete assignments. Therefore, media specialists should provide the students with a list of student friendly websites that will help them complete their assignments successfully. The websites should be listed in an organized and friendly use manner.
What to Include for Parents?
Parents are very interested in what is happening at their child’s school. Therefore, it is important to provide access to this information. A media center calendar would be very beneficial for the parents to be able to access on a regular basis. The Accelerated Reader program is used in many schools and some parents are interested in how the program works and a list of AR books that are located in their child’s school library media center. This information would be beneficial for parents as they help assist their child in becoming a better reader.
Web Page Layout
As the media specialist begins typing all of the information for the web page, it is important for him or her to lay out the information in a way that is user friendly. When viewers are locating information on a web page, they want to be able to scan the words and paragraphs and find their information quickly. Therefore, it is important to indent the content contained on the web page, to keep the paragraphs short (no longer than 3-4 sentences), to use bullet lists to display information, to use different style fonts and different color fonts for information, and to include images to catch the viewers eye. A user friendly media center webpage will be in the making if those tips are used!
Friday, October 9, 2009
Wiki Who????
First, I did not really think about Wikipedia being a wiki site. I know that as a teacher that I am constantly telling the students that you cannot use information posted to Wikipedia because it can be written by anyone. It never fails that in their research papers the students will cite Wikipedia. Well, a wiki site is a web page that can be viewed or modified by any person using the internet.
Wiki’s are excellent tools that teachers can use to allow students to collaborate on certain topics. This summer one of our high school language arts AP teachers created a wiki on her Wetpaint webpage and students had to post discussions about their summer readings. It was amazing how enthusiastic the students were with the summer work assignment. In their words, the students said, “We only had to post and not write an essay”. The students never realized it was the same assignment but the discussion board served as their writing portion of the summer assignment.
I would use a Wiki in my media center so students could write books reviews on books that they read. This is an excellent way for students to interact with others on their reading interest. Of course, the drawback would be that someone might post inappropriate thoughts but of course the student’s name would be attached to his posting. Other opportunities for wikis in the media center could include calendar sharing and live AV conferencing.
I think Wiki’s are great collaboration tools and maybe some people only consider Wiki’s as storage cabinets. The difference between the two would be how the person using the Wiki perceives its usage. The more thought and input that the wiki designer puts into the site the more useful the site will become to students. In this digital age, students will use high order thinking skills if there is a link to technology.
The drawback at my school would be that we do not allow chat rooms. I would just have to convince my technology department the educational value of using this tool. A solution may be to host our own wiki on the school server or locked some pages of the wiki from public view.
Wiki’s are excellent tools that teachers can use to allow students to collaborate on certain topics. This summer one of our high school language arts AP teachers created a wiki on her Wetpaint webpage and students had to post discussions about their summer readings. It was amazing how enthusiastic the students were with the summer work assignment. In their words, the students said, “We only had to post and not write an essay”. The students never realized it was the same assignment but the discussion board served as their writing portion of the summer assignment.
I would use a Wiki in my media center so students could write books reviews on books that they read. This is an excellent way for students to interact with others on their reading interest. Of course, the drawback would be that someone might post inappropriate thoughts but of course the student’s name would be attached to his posting. Other opportunities for wikis in the media center could include calendar sharing and live AV conferencing.
I think Wiki’s are great collaboration tools and maybe some people only consider Wiki’s as storage cabinets. The difference between the two would be how the person using the Wiki perceives its usage. The more thought and input that the wiki designer puts into the site the more useful the site will become to students. In this digital age, students will use high order thinking skills if there is a link to technology.
The drawback at my school would be that we do not allow chat rooms. I would just have to convince my technology department the educational value of using this tool. A solution may be to host our own wiki on the school server or locked some pages of the wiki from public view.
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
The Wonderful World of Wikis
Who knew that we would so quickly shift from the wonderful world of libraries to education being such a multi-media event! The shift is dramatic and encouraging, however I think there are many who are still reluctant to jump on the band wagon. I too, would have been one of those who lagged behind simply because it is easier to keep doing things the way I always have as opposed to taking the time to learn something new. The most beautiful revelation I have had is that most of the new ways of creating and presenting information are not all that time consuming to learn. I read a note on a friends fridge that said "Fear is a feeling, trust is a choice." We must get beyond the fear we feel and trust in the future of education.
What does this have to do with Wikis you ask? Well, wikis are one of the new ways to present information that could be a good catch. The media specialists at Harrison High School where I spend much of my time, created a Wiki using a free source so they were limited to 100 who could join. But, they forged ahead thinking that if this really caught on, they could worry about that later. So, they worked and planned and created a Wiki that provided email sites for each department and links to websites that would be beneficial to them. They also included a generic site for postings of information that would be appealing to everyone. Teachers could also post any relevant ideas they had that could help others.
Great idea...right?!?! Well, they only had 3 teachers join. I asked what they thought might be the issue? Overwhelmed was the reply. Ever feel that way? Every day your kid comes home from school with a new blog you are supposed to visit, or you buy something new and are supposed to visit that website as well. Weather, news, information, emails, school, work, church, etc. The list goes on for sites you must visit. Training was the other reply. Possibly if the teachers had an in-service to be trained on how to use a Wiki, see how easy it is to use and realize the teaching advantages it would create, then they might be more interested in taking the time to visit.
What does this have to do with Wikis you ask? Well, wikis are one of the new ways to present information that could be a good catch. The media specialists at Harrison High School where I spend much of my time, created a Wiki using a free source so they were limited to 100 who could join. But, they forged ahead thinking that if this really caught on, they could worry about that later. So, they worked and planned and created a Wiki that provided email sites for each department and links to websites that would be beneficial to them. They also included a generic site for postings of information that would be appealing to everyone. Teachers could also post any relevant ideas they had that could help others.
Great idea...right?!?! Well, they only had 3 teachers join. I asked what they thought might be the issue? Overwhelmed was the reply. Ever feel that way? Every day your kid comes home from school with a new blog you are supposed to visit, or you buy something new and are supposed to visit that website as well. Weather, news, information, emails, school, work, church, etc. The list goes on for sites you must visit. Training was the other reply. Possibly if the teachers had an in-service to be trained on how to use a Wiki, see how easy it is to use and realize the teaching advantages it would create, then they might be more interested in taking the time to visit.
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