Artists in the classroom

I know this doesn't really have a lot to do with our committee work but we have started our ArtsSmart project today. The Grade 5/6 students are once again working with Gabriel Yahyahkeekoot and Shane Bellegarde of Acimo Productions from Regina. Our goal is to produce 5 short films around the theme of acceptance by the end of the week. Shane and Gabriel are also working with a group of students at the high school who will also produce a number of films. On Friday we will have a mini film festival to showcase our students work. These films may also be posted to either teachertube or possibly youtube. One of my goals for this project is to become familiar with the editing process and the software that has been brought in.

Update: Well it took me a while to get back to this post but my students really had fun with the video project. It wasn't without its problems however. Software and hardware issues kept us from getting a completely finished set of films but those who came to our film festival were quite impressed with all the work both the elementary and high school students had accomplished. I can't say enough good things about Shane and Gabriel: how well they worked with my students, how enthusiastic they were about the project, and how dedicated they were to getting a finished product for our students. They literally spent hours trying to solve the problems, along with a few others - thanks Ryan, Ryan, Craig and Owen! Here are a few pictures of the week.

Facebook

While I can understand the hype and the point about social networking sites like Facebook, I 'm growing more frustrated and more bored with it. How many silly little applications do I actually have to add to keep in touch with my little group of friends? Why do they need access to my personal information in order to work? How many new and improved versions of those same applications are there? I like the fact that I reconnected with some friends from high school and university, but now that I have their email addresses, what do I need my Facebook account for? And, tell me, how do people realistically and logistically keep up with 100+ friends? It's just another form of the old popularity contest isn't it?

I was just talking with a friend of mine the other night about deleting my account when lo and behold I come across this on Techdirt. Now, I understand the idea that once it's on the internet it's always on the internet, but as the person who created the account/profile I should have the right to say "Remove all my info please". I know - read the fine print rather than just clicking agree. Dont' they, however, have a responsibility to make it abundantly clear to those signing up for an account that they will not be able to delete their account? After reading the comments, I do feel a little bit better about deactivating my account should I choose to. Or not - 2504 steps to closing your Facebook account. I need to start deleting things.

Here I go, again...

Somewhere along the way, I lost my original blog. It wasn't much of a loss really, as I hadn't posted anything of significance. I'm trying to get my head around the idea of blogging but a twist of that old adage keeps going through my head, if you don't have anything interesting to say, don't say anything at all.

This has been an incredibly hectic year that at times is going way too fast. After 12 years of working in Special Education, I jumped at the chance to return to the classroom. Teaching at the 5/6 level has been wonderful, scary, time-consuming, frustrating and all those other things that teaching on a daily basis is. Getting my head around what I had to do in the classroom has taken a long time, in fact, I'm not sure if I've quite got my head around it yet. Its a work in progress, everyday.

For .25 of my teaching time I teach computer skills to all of our classes, which really doesn't give me a lot of time (about 75 minutes/week/class). The last 2 years of computers has been a bit of a learning curve alone. I got to teach computers because I was the teacher with an interest in and a little bit of knowledge about computers (just enough knowledge to be dangerous). I finally mastered our Linux/thin client system with limited admin privileges when we were given a brand new Dell lab and I had to retrain my limited knowledge of Open Office to Windows XP. I'm getting there; there are still days when I have to look for something before I show my students how to do it.

After becoming a part of the in-school technology support teachers committee, I've realized how little I know about so many things with regards to computers, the internet and Web 2.0. I'm trying but another adage pops up - you can't teach an old dog new tricks. I don't necessarily believe that, I just think it takes a lot longer for an old dog to learn new tricks. So be patient with me. I may have more questions than insights - actually, I know I will. I have been exploring a few things on my own and I'm trying to figure out a logical way to bring a staff of widely varying technological competencies along with me. I may have to get a student to teach me, instead.