Saturday, February 23, 2008

I'll take some good ideas to go, please...

How can I get some help for myself and my staff on literacy, when the teacher who could teach the latest techniques is not able to come to our school? Send me and a camera. All we need is 10 mintues.

We have a great couple of teachers who are doing sample lessons on writing techniques for primary students in other teachers' classrooms on the other side of town. We can't all go; substitute teachers cost money. So just send me. I need the first 10 minutes of the lesson, where the literacy teacher explains and models some technique in teaching writing. I record it on my camera, and then with a little work on Windows Movie Maker (I can hear people groaning out there but it's not bad and it is free for me to use at my school), and then I can burn it to DVD. I can add still shots of student work samples (with permission). I could have students narrate these still shots with what they were thinking and learning when they were doing their writing. This would not take time. All we need is a camera, a video camera, a mike if the kids are going to narrate their work, Audacity (for capturing and editing sound clips) which is free, Windows Movie Maker (or iMovie as I am a Mac guy at home) and a $.35 blank dvd. We could put several lessons on each dvd, or just one. It wouldn't be polished. I don't do hollywood. Just the facts ma'am.

The question is, will the district be interested in giving me a substitute teacher for the 1/2 day it would take to record and make the dvd. I have to prove it can be done starting at 9, and finished before lunch. I think it can be done. I also have to prove that this would be a worthwhile investment as substitute teachers are expensive. Perhaps others may be able to use the DVD? Perhaps this could be the start of a bigger project which would be worth investing in? Stay tuned.

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