4/24/23
Kelsey Meyer
Today was our final day on this project with our Wellington Middle High students. We all led our own parts of the lesson- Juana delegated the tasks for the workday portion of our class period- Students with unfinished videos needed to work and finish them by 9:50 am (giving them 50 minutes of work time). Students who finished their videos were instructed to pull up their videos on the iPad to prepare to airdrop them for me so I could add them to our presentation. After their group had done that we had a mini activity of having them make sticky-note flipbooks.
While Juana was starting class, Caroline and I were practicing with technology in the theatre room. We got the computer hooked up to the screen, made sure that slides and the sound would work, and figured out how to utilize the dual-screen system with the extended display settings.
When back in the classroom, we circulated- I collected videos from groups that were done and added them to our presentation, Caroline and Juana peeked in on students' final details for their movies or their doodles that made up their flipbook animations. While walking around the classroom it was clear some students had more desire to finish up their work and or complete the simple "flip book" than others. it was our job to not only help the students finish their projects before screen time but to also try and engage the students that weren't giving as much effort into their work. Caroline had noticed that a table of students were not wanting to use their time wisely after they finished their project, she tried to talk with them to give ideas of what they could be working on. On the other hand, there were students who too this time in class to get everything possible done they could. As we continue to grow as teachers we need to work on making sure all of our students are using their class time correctly and learning what they need to.
During this time we especially focused on helping Group 9 (The Community Garden). There was a partner missing from their group for the bulk of the project, one partner was very dedicated to the project and had a very clear talent for art and a specific creative vision in her mind, and the other partner seemed confused or uninspired to help with the project. The absent partner was not in attendance this day either and the 2 other students had to do a lot of work to get started on their project- they did not start filming until their 3rd/final full day for filming. We as teachers made sure to assist in keeping the other partner focused and helpful- coloring in the lettering on signs that outlined the seasons that pass through the timeline of the video. The other student focused on getting the film in order, integrating the frames and slides that announced seasons in a way that made sense, and wrote out an explanation of the video to explain the natural community of the flowers and their presence in a community through being part of the community park. We really wanted to help this group finish because the project was clearly very meaningful and important to get finished to the student who was kind of leading the group. She seemed very upset at the prospect of it not being totally finished, so we all really tried to ensure that it would at least have a plot and make sense- their set and characters were well made, but we had run out of time to commit to the original idea.
All students were able to finish and all videos were uploaded to the presentation. Students then got in line, were reminded by Mrs. Mills as to what good hallway etiquette while in class should look like, and we walked to the theatre room. We set up snacks for the students- juice boxes and fruity candy provided by myself, and bags of chips from Mrs. Mills. Students were dismissed by row to grab a bag of chips, candy, and juice. We went over rules for this activity: respect the space- clean up after yourself and your peers, no snack trash in the room when we leave, respect your peers and their work- don't talk while a movie is being presented, stay off your phone, don't make fun of the movies, and enjoy-sit back, relax, snack on some candy, and watch some student-made movies! I assured the students we were extremely proud of them and their hard work, they have put so much work into learning a new material (oil clay) and a new technique (Claymation) as well as creating meaningful plots and stories that represent community. We made a quick culture of ensuring to clap for each movie when it finished to celebrate all the hard work that each team did.
We announced each student's name with their work, and played ragtime music while the movies played- like old-time-y silent movies seem to be associated with. We also had an "intermission" where students could get more candies and talk about what they liked and how the movies discussed communities. The discussion was a bit of a struggle, and we just called on random students to get them to talk.
The students seemed to really enjoy this presentation of their work, and were very well behaved during the showing of the movies, clapped at the end, and cleaned all their trash.
Some WAYS we would improve THIS LESSON in the future include:
Circulating the room more evenly during the work day portion of the class- not all teachers needed to be working with Group 9 the entire time. We could improve by just having teachers switch off on who helps the group who is struggling the most.
Have a teacher dedicated to working on flipbook activity- we could've announced the expectations for the work day portion of class, and then followed up by having a teacher show students how flipbooks are made and how to get started on one.
Allow time to grab snacks at start of "movie day"- We planned the final day very precisely- down to the minute, but failed to consider how long it would take for students to grab snacks. This made us go a little over on our time with that class.
Incentivize the Intermission questions-instead of offering a second round of snacks, incentivize answers during intermission/after second round of movies with candy- "What was your favorite movie?" "What was your favorite part?" "How does this story discuss community?"
GROUP 5
GROUP 7
GROUP 1
GROUP 2
GROUP 3
GROUP 4
GROUP 8
GROUP 9
GROUP 6
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