Week 5 - Growing Pains

Week 5

Five weeks into working on the projects, we have students at different stages of work.  Most students have their proposals submitted on Google Docs and I have been emphasizing making their proposals very detailed so they can use it as a blueprint for their project.  My mantra has been, "Plan your work and work your plan."

This was the first week that I required students to start blogging.  I am compiling all the students' blogs on my site under "Student Blog" on the right column of my site.  Initially I had students email me their name, period, and the URL of their blogs.  That was a bad idea.  I quickly changed my method to collect the students' URL by creating a Google Form on my website.

On Blogger, like most publishing sites, you have the option of what text you want displayed on a hyperlink so I included a field for URL and a field for "What is the name of your blog?" so that the link to student blogs wouldn't be a nondescript url.

This made it a lot easier for me/my TA to add them to the Blogger page.

I also did a brief lesson on Internet safety.  The main point was not to allow creepers to post on your blog, nor to communicate with them.  Once all of my students have their blogs setup, I'll walk them through changing the settings on their blogs so that they can moderate their comments before they get posted.  This will allow students to review comments and they can allow or disallow the comment to be on their blog.

Students are excited to peek in on others' projects and I think they're excited to get comments from their peers.  The beauty of blogging is that it is outside and not inside.  If a student turns in a paper on what they've been doing on their project, I will most likely be the only person to see it.

If some students' blogs begin to get recognized, their blogging will become a conversation with the world outside our school.  This is the type of authentic audience I think that our students need in order to get them to begin thinking about what they are producing and what quality it is.

Please peek in on a student's blog and leave a positive comment. I'm sure they would appreciate it a lot.

Starting next week, I'll highlight one person's blog on the main post to help them gain a larger audience.

Until next time.

Week 4 - Savanna 20 Time

Week 4

Today I reviewed the directions on how to write the project proposal.  I peeked into a number of shared proposals that students shared on Google Docs.  Most of them did not follow directions and wrote out a phrase or sentence rather than explicitly stating what they were going to do for their projects.

I spent a little bit of time showing how they can turn their project from, "We will be reviewing movies," to "We are going to create a website where we review movies for a teenage audience.  We're going to share a teenager's perspective on films rather than the ones done by professionals who are more than double our age..."  Below is a screen shot from the first section of one student's project description.

The examples I used last weekend to show how to write the proposal were quickly forgotten, as many students had no urgency to complete or begin the project last week, as it is due tonight by midnight.

The other agenda item was to show students how to setup up a Blogger account.  Since all of my students have Gmail, Docs, and Drive, they already have access to Blogger.  Blogger also has a mobile app and allows students to blog from their phones in case they don't have a computer at home.

Below are links that shows step-by-step how to setup a Blogger account, avoiding beginner's mistakes, and the top 25 bloggers and their blogs.  What I did in class however was invite a student up to create their Blogger account on the computer that is projected to the class so they could see the process for themselves.  I had students title their blogs "Joe Rebel's 20 Percent Project."  I recommended they use their names and SHS (Savanna High School) for their blogspot url, for example www.joerebelshs.blogspot.com.

I showed them how to create a post and publish.

Students have a week between Wednesday and Wednesday to create one blog entry set at 150 words (from Kevin Brookhouser) and a picture of what they accomplished or worked on this week.

As far as grades are concerned, since we're spending 20% of our class time working on the project, their work will be 20% of their grade.  I will only be grading three things, which are all writing based.  They will be graded on their proposal, blogs, and a comment on another student's blog.

I know that grading should not be a motivator, but I feel I have to keep kids accountable for their work.

Pretty soon I'll have links to all the student blogs on the right side of this page for you to peruse.  Starting next week students should be in full swing working on their projects.

Resources

http://www.wikihow.com/Start-a-Blog-on-Blogger
http://www.wikihow.com/Avoid-Common-Beginner-Blogger-Mistakes
http://techland.time.com/2013/08/05/the-25-best-bloggers-2013-edition/slide/all/

Week 3 - Savanna 20 Time

Week 3

Today I shared with my students on how to write a project proposal (see resources below).  I want students to think about what they are going to do, how they will accomplish it, and how they are going to use their time.  Initially I made a handout on Google Docs that have the requirements, but I later added a document to my shared Google Drive folder for the 20 Percent Project called, "Proposal Template."

Now students can go click on the document, make a copy, and fill in the sections for their proposal.  I gave the students a naming convention, Period #-Proposal-Name, Name, Name.  Some of the students are familiar with Google Docs,  so once they rename the document, they can begin to work collaboratively on the proposal.

While some students began their proposals, others were still wrestling with what they were going to do for their projects.  I would classify the area of Anaheim in which Savanna is located as a working class neighborhood.  In our initial brainstorming sessions, many students wanted to do something related to sports like developing a training for soccer, baseball, or basketball since that is something they do, but now other more interesting and original ideas are surfacing.

One group, a Latino girl and a Caucasian boy, are going to take on teaching the Caucasian boy to learn Latin Dance routines by learning how to dance Batchata, Merengue, etc.

Another group is going to tackle learning and teaching Arabic.  Yet another will make bracelets for sick children for nearby CHOC.  One student was interesting in being a pen pal with a military serviceman, but I suggested she start a club on campus to recruit Savanna students to become pen pals as well.

One group is going to create a blog about color guard, giving advice, collecting memes, and a place for visitors to the blog to vent or share their experiences.  One girl in this group was so fired up that she was literally jumping up and down with some passionate fist pumps.

I don't know if I've seen this type of zeal in my students over regular projects.  So excited to see how Savanna students shine as they work towards beginning, fixing, improving, and finishing their projects.

Resources

20 Percent Project Requirements (Google Doc)
Project Proposal Template (Google Doc)

Week 2 - Savanna 20 Time

Week 2

Following what I thought was a great introduction to the 20 Percent Project,  I introduced the notion of blogging to my students (see short Presentation below) to give them a bit of forewarning before they'd start blogging about their project.  Not all, and in fact most, of the students haven't chosen a topic yet so I don't think they saw the value of blogging for today.

In addition, although we're teaching "Digital Natives" they're not necessarily adept at using technology or web tools.  I'm finding that I have to teach my students how to some very simple tasks, like writing in a subject for emails, how to create book marks on web browsers, and other things I find fairly simple.  In that vein, I'm anticipating that a fair number of students are not going to blog.  I'm making it mandatory, but for those truly without a smartphone or computer access at home, I guess I'll have to allow a physical journal of some type where they can document and reflect on what they're working on .

After showing the Presentation "Why Blog?" I gave them a homework assignment where they had to read and review a blog so they can familiarize themselves with what a blog might look like and what purpose it might serve.

Before moving into groups, I had students take an idea they had last week about what interests them and I had them turn them into a couple of ideas that could be a project.  This to me was the natural progression, taking an interest or passion and turning it into a project. I had each student share at least one possible idea they had so that students could join forces, borrow ideas, or discuss possible topics.

Finally, I gave the students about 30 minutes to move into groups or discuss possible topics.  I told the students that on 20 percent days, they could move around, eat, and have the freedom to let their creative juices flow--picture a poor man's Googleplex.  That was hard for me to release that time to the students.  Some of the classes had students working and researching and thinking, while others wasted time.  I guess that happens in every class, but it is something that I'm going to have to learn to deal with.  Below is a picture of some of my 11th graders working during that time.

Until next time.

Resources
Why Blog? (Google Presentation)

Week 1 - Savanna 20 Time

Week 1

Today I presented a Google Presentation I created to explain the 20 Percent Project to my 10th and 11th grade students.  I must give most of the credit to Kevin Brookhouser, who presented on how he ran his project so eloquently at the CA GAFE earlier this summer.  He inspired me to do this at Savanna.  I framed my 20 percent project around the notion of, "Creating something that will improve someone's life."

I began to explain what the 20 Percent Project was all about.  I used an example of creating a giant rubber band ball as a project the students could do for the year long project.  At first thought creating a giant rubber band ball sounds silly and childish, but if you were to consider how this project could benefit someone else, there lies the beauty.  The ball can serve as a symbol of teamwork.  What if all 2000+ students at Savanna gave at least one rubber band.  Then the ball would represent a community coming together.

In the process of making a giant rubber band ball, a student might consider questions like, "What if the ball was left for generations to add to?  What if the rubber band ball got too big to simply just wrap another rubber band around? Where will the rubber band ball be stored or displayed?"  Now the project requires research,problem solving, and students will need to talk to some one on campus on to figure out where to store such a giant rubber band ball.  The students began to see that a project like this is going to take a lot of 21st century skills.

I hope the students were as fired up as I was after this presentation.

Also included in the Presentation I collected some neat videos and websites that I thought would spark some creativity in my class for this project.  They're all included in the presentation and if you'd like to view it, you can click on the link below.

As Mr. Brookhouser suggested his students do, I started a blog as a reflective piece for the project and I included a picture of myself.  I noticed on Facebook that a lot of parents take pictures of their kids holding such a sign as the one below on a momentous day, so here is my first blog post.

Cheers.

Resources
Savanna 20% Project Explained (Google Presentation)