Fabulous news! ALL project members should read this.
The folks at TRintuition and TeachersFirst have been talking about this project and the fact that many teachers and students are just getting their feet wet (while some are still scanning the waters from the hill above). We have therefore decided to EXTEND the Building Learners Project timeline through the end of the 2008-2009 school year (until your school ends in May/June).
Our hopes in extending the project:
- More students and teachers will be able to produce more projects- or decide to get started!
- Students will become more familiar with all the tools and possibilities, producing more sophisticated or better projects after the “bells and whistles” phase passes by
- Teachers will discover more of the tools to manage groups
- Classes may be able to collaborate on a project with another school (post on the blog if you seek such a contact)
- The project can document the best ways to support teachers in this three-way collaboration of teachers/web tool/teacher resource site
- This documentation can lead to a “model” that we can share with others at conferences, etc. And we might ask you to join us in presenting (teachers and/or students!).
TeachersFirst’s promise to you:
We will award prizes to the most effective projects completed by students (and teachers) involved in the Building Learners Project. Bells and whistles are not nearly as important as evidence of learning. The name of the project is, after all, Building LEARNERS. Keep the prize possibility in mind, but know that learning is the best prize of all.
If you have a teacher-colleague who is not involved with BLP but would like to join you in the project, email me. We have room to add some others. Perhaps there is a classroom down the hall or across the community from you with a teacher-friend you would like to invite to collaborate. Just let me know: cshively(at)sflinc.org
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At TRintuition, we’ve now begun producing videos on creating and managing groups, which will update and supplement our text materials.
From the information that’s come back to us, our videos on building screens and projects, all 3-5 minutes long, have been helpful and worth taking the time to view. Please share with us any suggestions you have for new videos or to improve the current crop.
Here in the BLP blog, we’d be happy to answer any questions - the best ways to develop a project idea in the workBench, ways to improve screen designs, etc.
Jonah, who created the workBench interface, has just completed the first in a new series of videos we’re starting on “How this Screen Was Made.” If you have a moment, take a look at his first effort and give us some feedback:
http://blog.trintuition.com/?p=151
If in your situation, 45 student accounts is an arbitrary cut-off point that leaves out some kids that you want involved, let us know, and we’ll increase your number of student accounts.
We all now have lots more time and space to experiment and share in our efforts to build and be learners. That’s a good thing!
Thank you so much for extending the deadline!! We’ve had some computer issues. The videos did not work well on most of our student computers. I tried projecting the videos and watching them as a class. That didn’t really work. The videos are designed to work at an individual pace. The students were too anxious to get started. We also had electrical outages and days missed for various reasons. I was thinking of abandoning the project, but I hated to walk away from this opportunity! I finally gave the class a quick teacher lead tutorial. That is all they needed to get started. The students are really getting into creating a web site. I am so glad I didn’t give up.
Thank you!!!!!
Kathy Hrabik
This is indeed fabulous news! We just finished a practice project and I was trying to figure out how we could get a “real” project completed before our time ran out. Now I don’t have to worry - thank you so much! And the students will be so excited too - they love working with this tool.
I just watched Jonah’s video. It will be a really good way to show students some things about design elements and ways they can be creative with their pages. Since that is not one of my strong points I will be learning right along with the students. I am looking forward to his next installment!
Again, a big thank you for extending the project!
Among my top favorite comments in the world are any in which students really love making things with the workBench.
Thank you both so much for the enthusiastic comments! It’s infectious, and I’m all smiles. We’re hoping the extra time will give you a real chance to experiment at your own pace.
We’re about to start putting up videos on creating and managing groups, and I think Jonah just put up another one of the “How this was done” videos in the TR blog (blog.trintuition.com). This one has you planting grass and trees and learning about negative space.
Be sure to ask us any questions that you might encounter. If you don’t keep us busy, we start to feel like doorstops.
to jzawacki:
“I will be learning right along with the students”
I am very glad to hear your openness to sharing the experience with your students. My BEST teaching experiences were the ones where we all learned together. Those were the lessons and units I know changed lives (both mine and the kids’). No one said the learners we are “building” in this project had to be in student chairs! We are delighted to have such positive response.
Why not invite a teacher buddy from down the hall to bring in his/her class and join with your class? You have built in “peer tutors” now! Let us know if there is another teacher you would like to include.