The students were the highlight of our success today. I was so impressed to witness the following:
- critical thinking skills... I was prepared to watch students video one another successfully. However, I was unprepared to see the students video one another and then independently watch the video together, discuss the video on so many levels (critiques on sound, quality, camera angles, skit issues, acting, etc...), collaborate on how to make the next video even better, and then helping one another make the video better. I was so focused on the logistics of preparing for this day that the students independently took over the production of the video and promoted quality skits. Wow sums up how I feel about this.
- motivated and engaged learners... A look at the pictures from today clearly demonstrate this.
- risk taking... In a year where learning to make mistakes has been a theme, watching my students take risks naturally today was a most rewarding experience. I got to sit back and observe them as they trusted one another and themselves to be successful.
- My class completed the task for today! Mr. Sonnenberg and Mrs. Fromen were instrumental in helping us pull this off with their expertise and guidance. Thank you to Mrs. Ruzzo and Mrs. Snyder for assisting in our success today too! The students: learned video/camera basic skills from Mr. Sonnenberg, acted out and filmed six videos (after several takes of each), learned how to upload the final video to YouTube, Google Plus, and Airdrop... all within a two hour time frame!
Hindsight is 20/20!
- I should have had a better system for giving each group a specific iPad that they were responsible for and that I had documented for my purposes. What happened: we used 12 iPads and skits were recorded with random iPads. It ended up being fine, but I will manage this better if I do group work in the future.
- Mr. Sonnenberg, Mrs. Fromen, and I met to reflect post-lesson and agreed that teaching the AirDrop isn't necessary in moving forward with the other 3 iPad classes. We did it in case I want to use Explain Everything to help with the video creation. However, YouTube has easy video editing and the students can upload here easily.
I loved teaching today because I didn't need to instruct the students during these 2 hours. They used skills that can't be taught, and it was so refreshing to observe. My favorite quote of the day when asked why students liked using the iPads today by one fifth grade boy, "I was proud of what we did in my group today. It felt frustrating when we had to take another video, but it feels good that I can be proud of it now."
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