This semester I teach a computer graphics course...which is really fun, because it's oodles of Photoshop (or Pixlr, which is essentially an equally as awesome ONLINE Photoshop program that is FREE!!) fun and all of the computer-techie stuff I enjoy doing in my regular life. (Side note: it's so incredibly awesome that I get to teach classes that I am not only interested in, but actually do in my personal time so it's fun to teach and show students how to use these programs to better and enhance the things they're doing in school (or outside of school too!))
Anyways, so this year I decided to launch an 'iPhoneography' course for my students -- basically, I walk through some ins and outs of taking good pictures (and editing them!) with their iPhones (or smart phones, it's basically the same stuff regardless of what device you have).
I had posted that I was doing this on a few of my social media channels, and I got several friends asking me about the course I wrote and if they could have a copy of it...so I decided to whip it up as a blog post here so I could 1. quick reference it if need be 2. pass it along to my friends who were asking about it 3. maybe it'll be useful to other tech teachers out there to use in their own classrooms!
The presentation I made (click here for the direct link to it) is pretty self-explanatory I think...I tried to make it as easy to self-navigate as possible, so that my students had a very information-packed guide to reference if they needed to go back to anything we went over.
My students will be starting this project soon and I cannot WAIT to see what they come up with (hint: the project asks them to put to the test everything we went over in the iPhoneography guide...so they'll have to play with unique perspectives, use sun flares, etc...).
I'd love some feedback on my iPhoneography guide too if you want to give it! Is there anything I left out?! Or anything I got wrong?! Or something that you'd like to see me talk more about?! I'm open! Let me know and I'll add it--cause that's the beauty of Google Slides, I can add it and it auto-updates on your end with the presentation link so no need to re-post or re-send out the presentation...pretty cool, eh?!! If you're not using Google Drive, you really REALLY should be...but that's a post for another day! :)
First off, let me apologize for the huge lack of posts recently...teaching is busy, life is busier, and I've seemingly neglected my teaching blog here. BUT! I hope to make amends this year and have more than the pathetic 6 posts I had for all of 2015. Stay tuned.
Anyways, I felt compelled to write this post today for so many reasons, but the main one finally pushing me to do it happened yesterday. You see, it's course selection week here at the high school I teach at, and all of the freshman, sophomores, and juniors are carefully plotting out the classes they will take in 2016-2017. In talking with another teacher yesterday, she was telling me about a conversation she was having with one of her students about what courses to take next year. The student told her she was going to sign up for Computer Apps (one of the classes I teach) because, "That class is easy." Immediately my defenses went up and I felt the need to justify and defend my course to my fellow teacher. How dare they say my class is easy! It most certainly is not...wait, is it really actually easy?!
That conversation stuck with me, because obviously students at my school think my class is easy. And you know what?! It is. It truly is an "easy" class, but I loathe, no I HATE that it is referred to as that. Why?! Because even though the content we are covering may be being labeled "easy" by it's takers, it most is more than just an easy class: it's a practical one. It's one that the content learned in here can be transferred and applied into every.single.one. of their other courses, and even into their lives outside of school. It prepares them for the tasks they'll have to complete in their future schoolings and even college! So yes, it may be easy, but it most certainly is not JUST that. It is applicable. It is practical. It teaches skills that will be used in countless other areas of their education and lives.
Generally my students do very well in my classes, and I always get the comments that, "If everyone has an A, then you must not be challenging them enough" --translation: your class is too easy. Again, this irks me the wrong way. And I actually secretly wish my classes were pass/fail because of this. Anyways, again, when people make these comments, I immediately go defensive teacher and feel the need to justify to them that that is NOT the case at all, that they are learning practical application skills. You blow your tire and get a mechanic to fix it. They fix it = you're good to go. They don't fix it (or don't fix it right) = they failed and you're still stuck...until they make it right. Thus is the jam for my class: students do the work = they pass. Students don't do the work (or do it incorrectly) = they don't pass...until they make it right. My classes are "tech" classes after all.
The next time someone tells me my classes are easy or that I'm not challenging my students enough, I'm pointing them to this blog post. I teach 3 different classes: video production, computer graphics, and computer applications, and what I've said here applies to all of them. Yes, they may be labeled "easy", but the are so much more than that. They are...
...and so much more. We learn the ins and outs of all things Google. We learn how to build a website from scratch, learn how to create an interactive timeline and story map, and learn how to use social media to organize and prep for projects. We do lessons on how to take good pictures with your cell phone called iPhoneography, we learn what mobile journalism is and how it applies to the daily lives of high schoolers, we learn how to shoot, record, edit, and finalize movies in a complex editor, and we learn how to manipulate images and create new ones using Photoshop. Every.single.one. of these skills and content we do in my class are used elsewhere in our school--and then even outside of it. They are applying and transferring the knowledge they learn and acquire in my class to others. Call my class fun, exciting, enjoyable, creative, hands-on, time-consuming, challenging, frustrating, engaging--but don't call it easy. It's so much more than that.
It's no secret that I love technology. I love it a whole whole lot. I am so fortunate and blessed to be in a job that revolves around solely that: technology! I get to spend my time helping others with tech problems, teaching them new things they can do with a program or on their phones/computers, and, probably my favorite part, still teaching students in the tech realm. If I can't stay home with my babies, this is what I want to be doing.
One of the classes I teach is video production. This is such a fun class -- the students learn a ton about mobile journalism, videoing and interviewing techniques, editing, content gathering, and so much more. One of the biggest things I've taught them is NO VERTICAL VIDEOS...
(I hope you learned something watching that too!) -- I am guilty of recording video holding my phone upright cause, let's be honest, it's just easier to record one handed that way. HOWEVER, most of the time you really are cutting off a ton of "stuff" that you could be capturing if you just flipped your phone over and recorded horizontally! Crazy, isn't it?!! Try it next time you're recording a movie...
Anyways, so! I love my job. Earlier today was one of the big reasons why. Last week, I took a group of my students down to KSDK news channel 5. Well, this week they were in for a treat: my buddy Kay Quinn from KSDK was coming to UA to see our video production and broadcast setup! How cool, right?!! My students were sooooo jazzed that she was coming and that they'd get to show off some of their own broadcasting skills to her.
Kay arrived this morning and I gave her a tour around our campus and introduced her to a few people, and then she met with the day's broadcast team. I don't teach broadcast (although I'd love to if I was ever given the chance!), but I was able to be the broadcast director for today since a few of my students who are in my video production class are also on the broadcast team and were up to do shows this week.
The students wanted Kay to be a co-anchor for the day's broadcast, and she happily obliged! How cool is that, right?!!
They did a run-through of the show and then went live. It.was.awesome. I was beaming with pride for them because they did such an amazing job on the teleprompter, control board, directing, and anchoring. It went flawlessly!
The feedback the girls got about their broadcast was just terrific -- even now, well after the school day is over, I'm just giddy with excitement for them that they got to have this awesome learning experience! I hope it's something they truly never forgot.
So, this is just one of the reasons why I flippin' love my job. Getting to help orchestrate experiences like this for my students just makes everything I do worth it. I am fortunate to be in a teaching position that is very 'real life' applicable and I love love LOVE being able to show, give, and teach my students things that they can not only learn from, but apply to their real lives as well.
I recently published a post for Sopris Learning's EdView360 blog all about my top 5 favorite tech projects...and challenging teachers to try them in their classrooms this year.
You can click the link below and read my post...and then maybe try some of those projects in your own classrooms this school year as well!! Feel free to shoot me an email if you have any questions!
