Opening Staff Meeting - Sharing Our Learning from CJPTTF

In preparation for our first staff meeting of the year, our Director of Lifelong Learning, Marilyn Stern, asked Jennie and me to prepare a segment on how other teachers might benefit from what we had learned through our fellowship.  Jennie and I chose to introduce some of the tools we had found as fun and useful ways to share content.

We set the context of technology in the classroom through segments of the Youth Portrait of Cameron video and an explanation of what it means to work in the cloud, including some of the basic information needed to use the netbooks given to us from CJP and our newly purchased Chromebooks.  Jennie demonstrated Media Midrash http://mediamidrash.behrmanhouse.com/, Quizlet http://quizlet.com/, Vokis http://www.voki.com/, Diigo and Diigolet https://www.diigo.com/.  Sandy introduced Time Toast http://www.timetoast.com/,   Tagxedo http://www.tagxedo.com/app.html and shared the Common Craft video created on the video camera during one of our Fellowship sessions.  Several staff subsequently met with one of us to learn how to access and use the new equipment and/or use resources from the list we provided at this opening staff meeting.

Follow this link to the resource list we compiled and shared with our staff:      Technology Research and Tools                                     

4.  

Hillel and Shammai Lesson

This is a lesson presenting the famous Hillel and Shammai "On One Foot" debate. It is part of a larger history unit that spans the course of our year.

The lesson is presented in the form of a web quest scaffold in a google presentation. The students will start by watching a movie on youtube and then prepare for a class discussion to make sure everyone is on the same page in their comprehension after the video. 

Then the students will make their own videos using their computers' webcams or one of the hand held video cameras our school has available. They will be making a series of two videos with their group, one a short video explaining how to tie one's shoes (sub ten seconds) and another longer video explaining how to tie one's shoes (a minute or longer.) 

As the students move through the lesson they will add their own slides on to the end of the presentation, the first being a slide with both of their videos uploaded. Afterwards, to take the idea an move in a more intellectual direction the students will read an article from DOGO, a kid friendly news source, and then create a short video or comic strip with the tools at Primaryaccess.org to explain their article in a Hillel and Shammai like manner. 

Once they have loaded this into a slide at the end of the presentation they will choose one other group's article and presentation, look through it, and comment. 

Reflections: I have found in teaching lessons in this style it is very important to put the right group of kids together. Technology seems to be able to exacerbate bad group dynamics, as everyone wants a turn and anyone who is not proficient in the use of the computer tends to feel a tremendous amount of pressure from their classmates. I have seen that different groups will try to share the computer in different ways, such as one student using the keyboard and another using the mouse. Creating clear rules about how the computer can and should be shared seems important to reduce the risk of problems arising in the groups.

Shabbat With Moses - A retreat

Shabbat with Moses: A retreat for Grades 3-6

One of our projects for the Teaching Technology Fellowship  at Beth El was a movie making retreat during which our students created a video of the life of Moses.  The retreat lasted from Friday evening until Saturday evening and the goal was to shoot the footage on the retreat and edit it when we got home so that we could show it to the students and their parents on the last day of school, which is also our Fiftieth Anniversary Birthday Party.

We shot the video in three separate sessions, working around the usual Shabbat retreat activities (dinner, Maariv prayer,  Breakfast, morning prayer, sports, Havdallah).  We used the new video camera we got at the last session on a tripod, and a second camera for close up shots We knew we would not have time to make the scenery so we shot against a green screen (a trick we learned from the Cameron video).

We began the first session by teaching them three songs that were written for the movie. Then the students heard the script and recommended people for parts (We allowed students to reject the part if they chose, but we did not allow them to volunteer.  They had to be volunteered by someone else).  Then the students in the act went off to rehearse while the rest of the students worked on making props (They made the Nile River,and  a doorway) We shot the scene before lunch.

At the second session the teen volunteers shot a funny scene of their own making (a video within the video about Moses killing the taskmaster) to the "live audience" of the students interacting with the teens.  Then we shot the three songs they had rehearsed in the morning. 

At the final session, which was held after free time, we incorporated our traditional retreat talent show into the video by presenting the short talent skits as performances that were done before Pharaoh's throne.  While they were presenting these, another group rehearsed a second scene (the burning bush) , and we shot that scene as well. 

The final scene was shot on the Sunday following the retreat , when we were back at  Beth El.  The final movie is still being edited.  When it is done we will upload it to the wiki.

The retreat was a huge success.  It was wonderful to see the students of different ages cooperating on the project, and the combination of music,drama, and art allowed everyone to find their strength.  The students are excited about seeing the final result.

Judy and Mark

We are teaching a unit on Passover. Students will learn about the Seder Plate and Passover Songs.

• Students will learn the parts of a Seder Plate by going to a website that will describe the Seder Plate.
• In teams, they will be given a section of the Seder Plate. Then they will google an image, write a definition about it and print this information on posters.
• The teams will then practice saying their definitions and will be video taped.
• The videos will be uploaded into a "choose your own adventure" Seder Plate.
• The students will make Pharoah hats and learn the song Pharoah, Pharoah.
• Using video Star app on the iphone, they will be videoed singing and dancing to this song. It will be a music video.
• The key technologies: Computers, Video camera, iphone 
• Students will be be using digital storytelling that will be uploaded to You Tube

I think the hardest part is realizing how time consuming using technology can me.  It is also difficult when students is absent to keep them still involved when they missed the week before.  I do think the students are more engaged and just loving using technology.