Writing Marathon

It was refreshing to take part in the UIWP Writing Marathon this morning.  The premise is very simple:  You join a small group of people, you walk to a spot somewhere on campus, you write about something (anything that really happens to be on your mind at that moment), and then you share what you wrote with your participants.  Lather, rinse, repeat for a few more stops before reforming with the entire group for lunch.  The process concludes with everyone sharing one thing they wrote from any of their stops.

We cashed in on the weather and it ended up being a cool and absolutely beautiful day to be outside!  I elected to be a part of the biking group.  This allowed us to travel to spots a little further out of the way and cover a little more ground.  The rides between each stop were energizing.  Getting some blood flowing and feeling some wind in your face on a bright sunny day tends to have that effect...

1st Stop, Cafe Paradiso

Our first stop was at Cafe Paradiso, a local coffeehouse institution that I have never actually been inside.  It was a typical coffeehouse vibe, which is subtly loud, but the sounds often become ambient the longer you stay there, especially if you are focused in working on something by yourself.  I don't really often notice how loud coffeeshops really are until you try to have a conversation with someone sitting directly across from you.

Continuing from a conversation I had at home the night before, I started writing in a stream-of-conscious format and ended up writing about things that make me happy.  One of the things that came out of the process for me was surfing.  I haven't been able to step in an ocean, let alone attempt to catch a wave, in nearly a decade.  It has taken a lot out of me since surfing was such a large part of my life for a period of time.  As I reflected on this more, I determined I was not only missing the physical act of surfing, but I was also longing for a close-knit sense of bonding with friends that happens when you travel around and share an intimate experience together like surfing.

To continue reflecting on this more now, I can even recall and list the specific phases of a solid surf safari.  Riding in the car together, drinking coffee, hunting for the "right spot" on the "right day," making a collective decision on where to park and unload the boards, paddling out, reading the waves, (hopefully) catching a few, and then paddling in to return to civilization.  The obligatory food and or drinks afterward always seems to emanate from a place of serenity.  It often seems as if any problems you might have had before you let rinse off you in the water (at least for a little while)...

2nd Stop, Japan House and Gardens

Our second stop was the Japan House and Gardens.  Again, this was a beautiful place I had been walking and driving by for years, but had never taken the time to stop and explore.  The complex was visually amazing, but I was more absorbed by the calming and peaceful energy I felt.  I took this feeling of energy and translated it into my writing for this period and reflected about energy, especially how energy can flow and transfer not only between people but also between people and places.  I plan to return to the Japan House soon.  Next time, I will bring my camera...

3rd Stop, Mt. Hope Cemetery

Our last stop was the campus cemetery, another place I have passed many times by have never entered.  The energy there was obviously quite different from our previous two stops, but it was still inspiring for thought and writing nonetheless.  I have always felt cemeteries were serene and have enjoyed walking through them wherever I have lived.  This stop presented the briefest time to write and share, so I chose to reflect upon a specific set of gravestones I sat beside when I wrote.  They were from a husband and wife.  The husband had passed away long before the wife.  The wife appeared to have remarried as she had a third name on her stone, and it appeared as though her second husband's stone was next to her (albeit slightly further away than her first husband).  Also, I gleaned from the dates of the second husband that he too passed before the wife, leaving her to live her last 30 years without a husband.  Thinking about this specific scenario also reminded me of the resonating lyrics of the song "Gravedigger" by Dave Matthews:

Gravedigger
When you dig my grave
Could you make it shallow
So that I can feel the rain
Gravedigger

Overall, I thoroughly enjoyed the writing marathon and would love to attempt something like this again.

My Post from the Library

Yesterday I had a very productive treasure hunt around the University of Illinois library for items relating to my inquiry project about computer programming and writing.  It took me a while to find some of the books, as a few were children's books, and the two others were in the main stacks, but I eventually tracked everything down and stayed in the foyer of the main stacks reading through my books for nearly 90 minutes!

Here are some of the pics I snapped of my search, my books, and some of my reflective thoughts while reading the books.

My Inquiry Project Goal for the Week

I was refreshed with some new energy, new questions to ponder, and new resources to explore today for my inquiry project.  I am sticking to the topic of How to Use Computer Programming to Teach Writing Skills, but now I have more to research.

For instance today I added several things on my padlet.  The most important might be the guiding question for my entire inquiry project.  Originally, I had written it as a single question, but after thinking about it, adding more detail, and changing some phrasing I decided to write them as two guiding questions:

1. What is the "Goldilocks" (i.e. "just right") point where I as the teacher can enable students to do their own thing, encourage them to express their inner creativity, but yet complete the assignment?
2. What expectations, guidelines, or rules can I put into place for assignments that are not too overly constraining, constricting, or rigid, but yet also allow for students not to feel lost in the veritable ocean of computer programming language?

My goal for the rest of this week in regards to my inquiry project is to continue my research while allowing these two guiding questions to keep me focused and not get too lost in playing.

Specifically, I also want to explore some specific resources that were suggested to me.

• Inform 7
• Inklewriter
• Twine

I have already taken some time to explore Inform 7 today and learned a lot about Interactive Fiction (IF).  Tomorrow I will investigate the other resources.

My Student Work Analysis

Background

In my 8th grade Video Production elective class I have all my students draft an original short screenplay.  I often do this project at the end of the fall semester, but I must move it to an earlier deadline in the spring semester because I submit all of my student screenplays to the Pens to Lens Student Screenwriting Competition.  The deadline for this competition is generally at the end of February.  For this competition, filmmakers from the greater C-U area meet and discuss which student screenplays they like or connect with and a select few student screenplays end up being produced into real life (or sometimes animated) short films.

I allow all my students to draft their screenplays in a Google Doc using the "Screenplay Formatter" Add-On.  I will often show a brief demonstration of how to format the screenplay using the Add-On, but I generally tell my students not to get overly side-tracked on the formatting as I will often help them out with both major and minor formatting errors before I submit their screenplays.  I want my students to focus on telling an exciting and original story that has a beginning, middle, and an end.  I am very open to the content of my student's stories, generally I just tell them to keep their films to a PG-13 rating in terms of language, violence, and other situations :)

My Reflections After Sharing My Student Work

Reflection on First Week's Learning and Experiences

Writing Time

Over the course of this first week I have used my morning free writing time to focus on drafting a curriculum for my 6th grade "Introduction to Technology" class.  I have had a nice head start from using a previous document from a former teacher of the class.  Overall, I like the way he had set up the class.  He and I both had very similar goals to teach incoming 6th grade students technology skills.  The major difference between what he had written previously and what I have been changing is the method by which students will turn in and submit electronic assignments.  Several years ago UMS was using a building wide server system.  Obviously, it was a learned skill for students to access, download documents from, and upload documents to the server.  Now that I have the ability to use separate Google Classrooms for each section of my technology classes, I don't have to worry about teaching anything related to the server... However, I will have to spend time teaching my students the ins and outs of using Google Classroom.  Again though, I view this as a valuable technology skill since I know of many teachers in all grades at both UMS and UHS who are using Google Classroom in a variety of ways to facilitate electronic and online components of their classes.

I have managed to put the old technology learning standards in my own words, although now I see the standards have been updated and I will need to do the same with the new standards... Oh well... Good practice.  I was also able to chart out a list of the specific programs I will be using in the course (basically all Google for Education Applications:  Docs, Sheets, Slides, Drive, Classroom, etc.).  For each program I listed out specific skills and tasks that I wanted students to be able to do by the end of the class.  I also copied and added to the list of essential questions that correspond to each application.  I am now in the final piece, planning out lessons and assignments for each of the 9 weeks the class will be in session.  I'm thinking I will just plan 8 weeks and allow the final 9th week to be a free week of either catch-up or exploration for students depending on their needs.

Demos

This week had some very nice demos.  I definitely would like to use some of the examples in my classes if possible.  In particular, I think the demonstrations on zines and memes would fit in nicely with my classes.  I'm thinking that the 6th grade class will probably be the best place to fit these ideas in, but perhaps, maybe they might be good lessons to prepare and have "in my pocket" in case I need an extra lesson or two for whatever.

Student Work Analysis

I wasn't quite sure what to think about the student work analysis portion of this whole process, but now after having sat through several other participants analyses, I am now actually very excited to go through an example of one of my student's scripts.  Since the scripts are somewhat long, I know I will only be able to choose one example, I guess now I will have to make a decision about which example I want to use.  I am very excited to hear feedback from other people about ways to improve the product and quality of my students' final assignments.  I see now that is the end game result of taking an entire hour pouring over a single student's piece of work in a roundtable discussion format with several other professional teachers.

Inquiry Project

As I noted in a previous blog post, I have changed my inquiry project topic to computer programming.  I have had great success finding a ton of resources online for teaching the basics of computer programming.  At this point, I really have to invest some time into learning how to manipulate and program something like Scratch.  The more familiar I can become with how to use the application, the better I will be able to see how I can use that application as a vehicle to teach skills in the classroom at a variety of levels.  Again, this is great for me... I have always put off taking time to play around with and make mistakes using Scratch, now I have a perfect opportunity to do just that :)

My Inquiry Idea Sharing Space, Using Padlet

Change of Plans...

After having gone back to the drawing board, I have decided to change my topic for my inquiry idea.  Originally, I was going to research the benefits and/or consequences of having music in the classroom when students are working (both in terms of writing as well as working on other subjects).  I decided not to pursue this idea because I think I already have a notion of the information I am going to find out.  I don't think this would serve as a great opportunity for me to learn something new that I can incorporate into my teaching.

Enter my new idea... Computer Programming.  I have been meaning to learn/teach myself this subject for some time, and I know that there is some expectation that as a technology teacher, I will be responsible for at least introducing the concept of computer programming to my students.  Really, this seems to be yet another win-win scenario for me.  This gives me an opportunity to devote time and energy to something I have had on my educational to-do list for some time (computer programming).  Also, I am benefitting from using the structured time and shared setting of the UIWP to "make" myself explore and get work done.

As far as teaching computer programming, it seems like there is already a very solid and well-laid out free curriculum up for grabs on the website code.org.  I began browsing through it today.  At first glance, it appears to be very detailed.  In fact, I may have to cherry pick here and there because I don't think there is any way I can complete the entire course curriculum and teach the photography skills I would like to teach all in a single 18 week semester... Perhaps some units may end up getting the axe...

Here is an overview of the middle school computer programming curriculum, called Computer Science Discoveries:

https://curriculum.code.org/media/uploads/CSD_1-pager_final.pdf

Here is a link to the full curriculum:

https://studio.code.org/courses/csd