So I only got about 4.5 hours of sleep last night since I thought it would be a good idea to stay up and work on another Photo Story after working on my Storytelling for HOURS.
I guess it was worth it, because I personally think it turned out good (one minor glitch) and I got the seal of approval from the family!
So about this Storytelling, like I said in a previous post, I thought it was pretty simple to make.
Am I completely satisfied with it and want to show it to the entire world? No.
Do I think it is a decent enough piece, especially for a first try at such a thing? Yes.
Someone commented and said that since I said it was about my first year of teaching, I should focus on the eduational part of it. Well yeah, that was pretty terrible too since I had no idea what I was doing, 17 year old boys don't think they should listen to a 22 year old girl, I had no administrative support in anything, and the school in general pretty much sucks.
But I said that it took a personal toll, didn't I? I think that's more what I was wanting to focus on. I guess I should look more into adapting it to show exactly what I wanted, so I will have to think about how to do that.
My **nugget** I guess was that I wanted to show that I had a terrible first year of teaching with everything happening and it made me not want to teach. And then I realized they can't break me, and I am now back to being really excited about teaching!
I put in all of the personal things to kind of show that my life was going pretty shitty anyway, and then built up and tried to focus more (guess I need to find a way to emphasize this) on the investigation and all of that crap.
It wasn't really the students that did anything wrong. Yeah there were a couple shitheads that made things hard. Inappropriate boys made stupid comments without thinking about how they could hurt people(which doesn't travel well, especially when you are under investigation for misconduct). Bitchy little girls who are, well, bitchy (and unfortunately know they have power over you because they can say whatever they want... make up stuff that never happened, etc.). But overall, I had good kids.
I guess I will have to look at how to restructure, emphasize, highlight, add different photos, scrap something, IDK! I'll have to do something to get the message across a little better,
Thursday, July 19, 2012
Wednesday, July 18, 2012
Another (much better) Photo Story
So I had this idea come to me while I was doing my Digital Storytelling assignment, and I just couldn't sleep until I finished it. So here it is, almost 2 am, and I am just now getting to where I am ready for bed.
This is the story of my beautiful cousin Ciera, her husband Tinker, and their beautiful new baby, Dillon. Ciera tried for 4 years to have a baby. She had multiple miscarriages and finally turned to adoption. A previous attempt at adoption left them broken hearted and empty handed.
And then, seemingly out of nowhere, here came Dillon.
I took one of Ciera's Facebook status updates and used as the last slide because I thought it was really powerful and beautiful.
I'm so happy for this family to finally be complete!
And this time around, it was SO easy to make. I still used Movie Maker to put the scenes together. Added the audio to Audacity, formatted into a WAV and uploaded into Movie Maker, then turned it into a youtube video. So easy and fun to do.
This is the story of my beautiful cousin Ciera, her husband Tinker, and their beautiful new baby, Dillon. Ciera tried for 4 years to have a baby. She had multiple miscarriages and finally turned to adoption. A previous attempt at adoption left them broken hearted and empty handed.
And then, seemingly out of nowhere, here came Dillon.
I took one of Ciera's Facebook status updates and used as the last slide because I thought it was really powerful and beautiful.
I'm so happy for this family to finally be complete!
And this time around, it was SO easy to make. I still used Movie Maker to put the scenes together. Added the audio to Audacity, formatted into a WAV and uploaded into Movie Maker, then turned it into a youtube video. So easy and fun to do.
Digital Storytelling
This is my story created for the Digital Storytelling assignment.
It's titled "Moving On" and tells the story of my horrible first year of teaching.
So far, this has been my favorite assignment from the get go. I have enjoyed the others, but this was really fun to make. I liked being able to tell "my" story using voice, music, text, and photos.
I think this could be a really great assignment for the classroom. It fits in perfectly with the idea of memoir writing, and I am hoping to get enough time in the computer lab that I will be able to do this. I'm really excited about the possiblities that go with this.
In class we talked about different things our stories could be about. Then we narrowed them down to one and talked it out with a partner. I think most teachers have had that year from Hell, and while mine might not be the absolute worst (I mean, I didn't get fired) I think it ranks up there pretty high. I wanted to tell this story, because it has shaped not only who I am as a teacher, but who I am as a person. And I think a lot of people can relate to that on some level.
Putting it together was actually pretty easy, even with the bumps in the road I inevitably hit. I spent a lot of time gathering my pictures, and then I saved them to Flickr since I wouldn't have the same computer at home. I saved what I had already done in Movie Maker to my flash drive.
Of course when I got home, the new version of Movie Maker that I started on isn't compatable with the one on my computer, so I had to start all over. Oh and guess what, you can't right click and save photos on Flickr... so I had to gather all of my pictures all over again.
I have only used Movie Maker once before, and I don't remember it being exactly like this, so it took me a minute to figure it all out. I got all of my photos on there and then went through the timings until they were right.
I downloaded Audacity and did my recording, while playing music from my boyfriend's phone in the background. He's always so helpful, so I let him pick out the music, and I think it sounds pretty good with it. I played the movie I had been working on so that the voice matched the show. After it was recorded, I just had to export it into a WAV file, which was super easy, and I was good to go.
Back to Movie Maker to add the sound, and Viola! The movie was made and all I had to do was click the publish button and it linked it up to YouTube. It took a little while for it to publish on there, but it finally did and looks awesome.
After a day of good conversations with classmates where I was encouraged to "just try it" and some help from my boyfriend about not getting stressed, I felt much better about making this than I did the other assignments.
I'm actually going to go back and try my hand at Photo Story and podcasting again now that I feel less overwhelmed by it.
Day 3 is in the books, and who knows what Day 4 is going to bring!
Tuesday, July 17, 2012
And Day 2 Comes to a Close...
Today started off just like yesterday... with me totally lost and feeling like I was the only one who had no clue what was going on.
And then we had the amoeba of trust, where I voiced that I was completely lost, and everyone else gave some sort of insightful comment. Just a typical day in my life.
Today we worked on Photo Stories. I must say I liked them much more than podcasts. I am more of a visual person, so I liked being able to see things rather than hear them. And I think photos are much easier to manipulate than voice recordings.
I came prepared, with a couple different stories I could tell, just incase one of them didn't work out like I wanted. I "played" around with different things, and learned how to use some different programs to build my story.
I like Flickr. Easy to use and make a slideshow.
Google Presentation seemed easy enough to use, but it wouldn't accept all of my photo formats, so I had to scrap it.
Scribd wasn't very impressive, so I kind of scrapped it too.
I still love PowerPoint. So easy to use and navigate.
authorStream was really cool. Good to know that you can so easily make a video out of a powerpoint and then share it on places like mobile devices.
Overall, I would say today was alright. I'm still not super confident about stuff, but I think the more I mess around with stuff, the easier it will get.
I feel really rushed in this class. I know the overall theme of yesterday was podcasts, and today was photo stories, and tomorrow is going to focus on one main thing, and so on and so forth.
But like Keri was talking about before, I'm a smart person, and I don't like not getting it. My boyfriend bitches at me all the time for trying to take the easy way out. But I am used to things being easy. And if something wasn't easy, I would move on to something else because I think there is too much out there to experience to waste time on something you don't immediately enjoy.
But now, there is no moving on. I just have to buckle down and do it.
Will I use a podcast in my classroom? Most likely not.
Am I glad I at least know how to use it if for some reason I am told I have to? Absolutely.
I just need to learn to go into things with an open mind and open heart and take it for what it is. I didn't really know if I would enjoy SI this year, and look at all the wonderful things that came out of it.
Am I going to love every minute of this class? No.
Do I think kids love every minute of my class? No.
Am I getting to experience new things with new people? Yes.
Is that worth the pain in the ass that some of this technology is causing? ...... Yes.
Will I have a breakdown by the end of this? Maybe, but I will try to save that for after 4pm. :)
And then we had the amoeba of trust, where I voiced that I was completely lost, and everyone else gave some sort of insightful comment. Just a typical day in my life.
Today we worked on Photo Stories. I must say I liked them much more than podcasts. I am more of a visual person, so I liked being able to see things rather than hear them. And I think photos are much easier to manipulate than voice recordings.
I came prepared, with a couple different stories I could tell, just incase one of them didn't work out like I wanted. I "played" around with different things, and learned how to use some different programs to build my story.
I like Flickr. Easy to use and make a slideshow.
Google Presentation seemed easy enough to use, but it wouldn't accept all of my photo formats, so I had to scrap it.
Scribd wasn't very impressive, so I kind of scrapped it too.
I still love PowerPoint. So easy to use and navigate.
authorStream was really cool. Good to know that you can so easily make a video out of a powerpoint and then share it on places like mobile devices.
Overall, I would say today was alright. I'm still not super confident about stuff, but I think the more I mess around with stuff, the easier it will get.
I feel really rushed in this class. I know the overall theme of yesterday was podcasts, and today was photo stories, and tomorrow is going to focus on one main thing, and so on and so forth.
But like Keri was talking about before, I'm a smart person, and I don't like not getting it. My boyfriend bitches at me all the time for trying to take the easy way out. But I am used to things being easy. And if something wasn't easy, I would move on to something else because I think there is too much out there to experience to waste time on something you don't immediately enjoy.
But now, there is no moving on. I just have to buckle down and do it.
Will I use a podcast in my classroom? Most likely not.
Am I glad I at least know how to use it if for some reason I am told I have to? Absolutely.
I just need to learn to go into things with an open mind and open heart and take it for what it is. I didn't really know if I would enjoy SI this year, and look at all the wonderful things that came out of it.
Am I going to love every minute of this class? No.
Do I think kids love every minute of my class? No.
Am I getting to experience new things with new people? Yes.
Is that worth the pain in the ass that some of this technology is causing? ...... Yes.
Will I have a breakdown by the end of this? Maybe, but I will try to save that for after 4pm. :)
5 Frame Photo Story... and all that went with it
Final Photostory
The New Lord of the Flies
What a fun, crazy experience this was. While I can't say it was easier than the podcast, it was definitely more exciting.
Kyle was a really good sport, and the "story" concept was actually his idea. And of course I figured if he was going to put on camo face paint and crawl around pretending to shoot flies (instead of actually trying to shoot flies, which he does, a lot lately) I would definitely let him. I appreciated him helping to use Paint (which I remember now that I hate) in order to create the last photo.
We played around with a few different scenarios of what could happen in the story, but this was definitely the most fun one.
With the first photo story, I spent quite a while deciding which program to use. I ultimately went with Flickr because I could easily find it on Windows (as I hate Mac) and because some of the other programs I tried (such as google presentation) wouldn't let me use the last picture because it was originally made in Paint.
Once I decided on it, it was super easy to put the slideshow together. As something quick and dirty to get started, I liked it.
When it came to adding more to it, I had no idea if Flickr was even an option. Where could I put pictures, words, and music all together and then make it move from one to the other?
PowerPoint! Duh!
So I found some intersting music to add to it. Rehearsed the timings. Set the transitions. And then added it to my blog!
Oh wait, no I didn't!
This was the part that wasn't so super fun. I couldn't figure out how to get my PowerPoint.
I tried putting it on Scribd, but that didn't work. The pictures were all blurry and there was no sound.
So, after some searching for ways to put a powerpoint into a youtube video, I had not so awesome results.
I changed the format of the video on PP and then uploaded it to YouTube. Decent picture quality, but no sound.
Back to searching on ehow, and I came across an article about authorStream. This place was genius! So easy to turn it into a video straight from the original PP and then I can just add the link to my blog and it plays on their website just like it would on YouTube. And the pictures are good, and it saved my sound!
Overall, this was much more enjoyable than yesterday's assignment and I will probably make more!
The New Lord of the Flies
What a fun, crazy experience this was. While I can't say it was easier than the podcast, it was definitely more exciting.
Kyle was a really good sport, and the "story" concept was actually his idea. And of course I figured if he was going to put on camo face paint and crawl around pretending to shoot flies (instead of actually trying to shoot flies, which he does, a lot lately) I would definitely let him. I appreciated him helping to use Paint (which I remember now that I hate) in order to create the last photo.
We played around with a few different scenarios of what could happen in the story, but this was definitely the most fun one.
With the first photo story, I spent quite a while deciding which program to use. I ultimately went with Flickr because I could easily find it on Windows (as I hate Mac) and because some of the other programs I tried (such as google presentation) wouldn't let me use the last picture because it was originally made in Paint.
Once I decided on it, it was super easy to put the slideshow together. As something quick and dirty to get started, I liked it.
When it came to adding more to it, I had no idea if Flickr was even an option. Where could I put pictures, words, and music all together and then make it move from one to the other?
PowerPoint! Duh!
So I found some intersting music to add to it. Rehearsed the timings. Set the transitions. And then added it to my blog!
Oh wait, no I didn't!
This was the part that wasn't so super fun. I couldn't figure out how to get my PowerPoint.
I tried putting it on Scribd, but that didn't work. The pictures were all blurry and there was no sound.
So, after some searching for ways to put a powerpoint into a youtube video, I had not so awesome results.
I changed the format of the video on PP and then uploaded it to YouTube. Decent picture quality, but no sound.
Back to searching on ehow, and I came across an article about authorStream. This place was genius! So easy to turn it into a video straight from the original PP and then I can just add the link to my blog and it plays on their website just like it would on YouTube. And the pictures are good, and it saved my sound!
Overall, this was much more enjoyable than yesterday's assignment and I will probably make more!
Bastard Child of Anarchy
I started watching the HBO series Deadwood a few nights ago. I'm only in the first season, but I really like it. I think Historical Fiction is great. Makes all the crap we learned in high school actually seem interesting.
Anyway, I can't get over this cast. Lippy from Lonesome Dove. Blackbeard from Pirates of the Carribean. The dad from Beetlejuice. The badass from Justified. One of the Carradine brothers. And a handful from my all time favorite cast, Sons of Anarchy. They all come together to make a wild west full of guns, whores, and filthy language. I love it! (And I think Deadwood's use of the word "cunt" is rivaled only by that of SOA's creator Kurt Sutter on Twitter.)
Seeing all these people from SOA makes me super excited from September, when Season 5 will begin. Over the past few years, I've gotten really into that show. I think that motorcycle culture is completely fascinating, and I proudly wear my "What Would Gemma Do?" tee-shirt.
Why am I so attracted to this show? There's a few reasons.
One, Charlie Hunnam, who plays Jax, is gorgeous.
Two, I love motorcycles. I haven't really had a lot of good experiences with riding them, but I still love them.
Three, it's cool to see such dangerous stuff without really having to experience it. I worked at a bar, and the night that all the Vagos (who are completely dangerous criminals who have been associated with murder, rape, drug trafficing, etc) came in while I was wearing my SOA shirt, I was about to shit myself because I thought they would take offense. So I can't imagine actually seeing the stuff that they do first hand.
Four, it turned me on to Emma Goldman. While I may not agree with everything that she stood for, she was kind of a badass.
She had a quote that just spoke to me.
"Anarchism stands for the liberation of the human mind from the dominion of religion and liberation of the human body from the coercion of property; liberation from the shackles and restraint of government. It stands for a social order based on the free grouping of individuals…"
I don't know why, but I thought of Digital Writing kind of as the anarchy against the standard writing procedures.
For years it has seemed that there is a "governmental" rule for what writing is, how it should be taught, and how it should be assessed.
Digital Writing breaks all of that. It liberates us from the mind set of how we should be writing anad what we should produce. The body of writing comes in all of these new forms that reach all of these new people and places. There are no shackles and restraints in Digital Writing because the sky is the fricking limit! Just when you thought you knew the best way to do something, something new comes along. Not more 5 paragraph essays and 6+1 traits and all that bullshit that we had crammed down our throats and therefore felt the need to cram down the throats of our students.
I believe that Digital Writing does stand for order based on the free grouping of individuals.
We all have a mind. Let's use it.
Anyway, I can't get over this cast. Lippy from Lonesome Dove. Blackbeard from Pirates of the Carribean. The dad from Beetlejuice. The badass from Justified. One of the Carradine brothers. And a handful from my all time favorite cast, Sons of Anarchy. They all come together to make a wild west full of guns, whores, and filthy language. I love it! (And I think Deadwood's use of the word "cunt" is rivaled only by that of SOA's creator Kurt Sutter on Twitter.)
Seeing all these people from SOA makes me super excited from September, when Season 5 will begin. Over the past few years, I've gotten really into that show. I think that motorcycle culture is completely fascinating, and I proudly wear my "What Would Gemma Do?" tee-shirt.
Why am I so attracted to this show? There's a few reasons.
One, Charlie Hunnam, who plays Jax, is gorgeous.
Two, I love motorcycles. I haven't really had a lot of good experiences with riding them, but I still love them.
Three, it's cool to see such dangerous stuff without really having to experience it. I worked at a bar, and the night that all the Vagos (who are completely dangerous criminals who have been associated with murder, rape, drug trafficing, etc) came in while I was wearing my SOA shirt, I was about to shit myself because I thought they would take offense. So I can't imagine actually seeing the stuff that they do first hand.
Four, it turned me on to Emma Goldman. While I may not agree with everything that she stood for, she was kind of a badass.
She had a quote that just spoke to me.
"Anarchism stands for the liberation of the human mind from the dominion of religion and liberation of the human body from the coercion of property; liberation from the shackles and restraint of government. It stands for a social order based on the free grouping of individuals…"
I don't know why, but I thought of Digital Writing kind of as the anarchy against the standard writing procedures.
For years it has seemed that there is a "governmental" rule for what writing is, how it should be taught, and how it should be assessed.
Digital Writing breaks all of that. It liberates us from the mind set of how we should be writing anad what we should produce. The body of writing comes in all of these new forms that reach all of these new people and places. There are no shackles and restraints in Digital Writing because the sky is the fricking limit! Just when you thought you knew the best way to do something, something new comes along. Not more 5 paragraph essays and 6+1 traits and all that bullshit that we had crammed down our throats and therefore felt the need to cram down the throats of our students.
I believe that Digital Writing does stand for order based on the free grouping of individuals.
We all have a mind. Let's use it.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)