It’s not uncommon for today’s children, brought up in a fast-paced, digital world, to become bored and uninterested when visiting cultural institutions. It doesn’t have to be that way though. Sometimes the first step to enjoying art is to look forward to a museum visit as something that is fun. Social media can provide a great way to engage young people during a trip to museum, landmark, or other cultural institution. At the same time, it might just connect them to a new community of others who share a love of arts and culture that they didn’t know they had.
Here are some fun and innovative ideas for teachers and parents to try on their next field trip.
Music lessons offer children many benefits including aiding mental, physical, emotional and social development. Does your child’s school support this? If not, you may want to share the following benefits of learning to play music.
Boosting Brain Power -
Taking lessons to learn to play an instrument significantly improves brain power. Research from the University of Kansas suggests that learning at a young age will have an impact on a child’s cognitive skills as they grow older.
Improving Memory -
Young people that learn to play a musical instrument have been shown in studies to have an improvement in behavior, memory and intelligence. All types of lessons for music stimulate multiple patterns of brain development, which is what helps to increase memory.
Looking for some inspiration?Take a few minutes to check out http://www.inbflat.net and when you go back to your students, show it to them.I was absolutely blown away by In Bb2.0 courtesy of Chris Lehman’s recent Twitter/Facebook post.
In Bb 2.0 is a collaborative music and spoken word project conceived by Darren Solomon from Science for Girls. The project invites the world to participate in an amazing musical collaboration by singing or playing an instrument, in Bb major for 1 – 2 minutes and uploading it to YouTube and emailing the link to the producer.If all is done well, the video get’s added to the collection at http://www.inbflat.net where it joins the other videos that are posted.The videos can be played together, some or all, started at any time, in any order.
As an innovative educator, I instantly wondered what implications this has for teaching and learning and what kind of projects can our students collaborate on to make their own beautiful music?
March is a time when many school teachers celebrate women’s history. If you are among those who are taking some time to recognize accomplishments of women, here are some ideas that innovative educators can use to enhance teaching and learning around this topic.
Have students research and select an historic woman they admire and make their own movies starring this woman in various possible settings such as 1) A meeting with President Obama 2) A discussion with classmates 3) A meeting with your school principal 4) A topic of your choosing.
Xtranormal’s mission is to bring movie-making to the people. Everyone watches movies and they believe everyone can make movies. Their revolutionary approach to movie-making builds on an almost universally held skill—typing. If your students can type something, they can turn it into a movie.
Since the Seneca Falls Convention in 1848, women have demanded their voices be heard in the social and political arenas. In celebration of Women’s History Month, Remix America will temporarily suspend the “This Day in History” featured video to highlight seminal moments in Women’s History. How better to celebrate these women than to provide students with original source material to study and discuss? Every day in March, visit the site for a new clip highlighting the speeches and essays of these rebels, these visionaries, these pioneering feminists.
Students can interact with all of these videos by using the online, free video editing tool to cut and remix these clips into Women’s History montages. Innovative educators can also visit the Remix America Blog to find featured content and commentary about why these source materials are important and relevant to today.
Capitalize on your student's interest in social networking sites like MySpace and Facebook and Create a Social Network learning environment for your students. Innovative educators are coming up with all sorts of creative ideas to use social networks to engage students. How about creating a network with women historical characters? Students can take on the persona of a historical woman they admire, create their personal page for that character with questions you and your students agree upon, engage in discussions, join groups that character would be involved in engage in chats as the woman they have selected, upload videos (which can be rated and commented on), and publish blog posts. One of the most popular social network creation tools, Ning is allowing educators to create free educational social networks. For more ideas about using social networks in education visit Ning in Education. If you've never participated in a social network I invite you to get the experience of participating by joining The Innovative Educator Social Network. This will enable you to have a better idea of how you can incorporate a social network into your teaching and about the value of Social Networking for Innovative Educators.
Note: In some school districts Ning is blocked. Create your social network remotely and work with your administrator or technology specialist to unblock the site you have created in advance.
Have students select and research a woman they know that they admire and create a Voki that either shares, 1) how she has contributed positively to women in her life 2) why it is important to recognize women’s accomplishments 3) a topic of your choosing.
Voki enables students to express themselves on the web using a talking character.
Students can customize their Voki to look like and/or take on the identity of lots of other types of human and nonhuman characters. Vokis can speak with the student’s own voice which is added via microphone, upload, or phone. Students can also choose to insert text and have the Voki use a variety of existing voices with more than a dozen different male and female accents to choose from.
Once the student Voki’s are created they can be inserted into a class blog, wiki, website, and more. From there the school community can comment on and discuss one another’s work and keep the conversation going.
These are just some ideas to inspire innovative educators in their upcoming work with students in recognizing women’s contributions. I invite readers to share your thoughts, feedback, or experience implementing one these ideas or one of your own.
(Editor's Note: Some of my readers know I started my career as an innovative educator serving as a library media specialist. I’ll always remember the song from my childhood – If you’ve got any question at all…you can call…on the li-brar-ieeeeeeeeeeee. It is a field that I truly love and one about which I am passionate. A few years after becoming a library media specialist, I managed iQuest a program that provides professional development for librarians across New York which allowed me to connect with and strengthen ties with librarians across the city. One of those librarians was Sara Paulson-Yarovoy with whom I have worked on many projects over the past several years. Ms. Paulson has served as a library media specialist since 1998 and currently works at "47" The American Sign Language & English School in Manhattan.
Recently Paulson updated her Facebook status with, “Sara is happy for school librarians today! Thanks to NYTIMES and Stephanie!” So, I asked her to write a post about the story she was celebrating. Here it is.)
It was fabulous to read the article and see the video of NYC school librarian Stephanie Rosalia in action, as an essential part of New York Times’ conversation on the future of reading.
Elementary and middle school students are hungry for online living (listening to music, watching YouTube, chatting with friends) and Stephanie is pushing them one step further: to find interesting online reading. Librarians in NYC schools also teach kids how to download audio books to their computers or mp3 players. Your students live online and 21st century librarians know that’s where you reach them. (For examples visit TIE's Online Books).
Mirroring the research that good teachers are more important than small class size, cited by Nicolas Kristof in the NY Times op-ed Our Greatest National Shame, we witnessed that good librarians are more important than the library collection. Good librarians will create one, weed one, and shape one, from both digital and print materials, to reflect the needs of the curriculum and the interests of their students.
The NY Times article enable readers to witness a good librarian in action. The story and accompanying video provided a look into the life of a certified, committed, communicative information specialist, collaborator, and teacher--all rolled into one--working the room. She taught the metacognitive skills of finding online, print, and audio reading material that will help kids help themselves to become better readers.
Like all good librarians, Stephanie Rosalia teaches students to access and evaluate information, and create new media (webpages, podcasts, comics, animations, videos, images, and audio) to deliver their work, based on their research. Through creating media and reflecting on messages media give, kids learn media and information literacy, two sets of 21st century skills, and collaborating teachers learn along with their students.
Rich noted that Stephanie was a “rarity.” So where are all the good librarians? Where are the innovative principals and school districts that will harness their collaborative position and information expertise to create competitive 21st century schools?
Quote: More than 90 percent of American public schools have libraries, according to federal statistics, but less than two-thirds employ full-time certified librarians.
Response: Instead of pointing fingers, let’s assume it has to do with the changing nature of the delivery of information. Some schools created the computer lab instead of transforming a library of old books into a library media center, as envisioned in the seminal 1998 ALA publication Information Power: a place to access, evaluate, and create new media. In large schools, some librarians work in collaboration with a reading specialist; in others, with a technology teacher. In small schools, librarians must play dual roles, and certified librarians have the skills to do so. But the key is collaboration between specialists in a resource-rich environment. Think personnel, not resources. Students need mediated access. It is not too late!
Quote: School librarians still fight the impression that they play a tangential role.
Response: The disintermediation myth that the Internet will take the place of libraries is no longer credible, but myths die hard. The best proof is the increasing demand for information literacy instruction in higher education. As Stephanie said, if you start in middle school, it is too late. Students need a head start.
Thank you to Motoko Rich who created a great piece of media, which information specialists can use to articulate what they do and communicate the heightened role they have as teacher today. It is very timely.
Stephen Kotkin capped his recent Times business book review of “The Race Between Education and Technology,” written by Harvard economists Claudia Goldin and Lawrence F. Katz, with the historical truth that, “Greater investments in human capital once put Americans collectively on top of the world.”
With the new stimulus plan underway, will American educational leaders—especially in inner city schools like the ones we work in—place “greater investments” in library/information specialists who are qualified to teach K-12 students 21st century online information skills? In students across the digital divide, preparing them for daily life and work in a web-based communications world?
Note to readers: If you are interested in guest blogging on The Innovative Educator, please email me a short bio, story idea, and information about the audience with whom you will share the post at lnielsen.professional@gmail.com.
Those who know me are aware that I tend not to be much of an outwardly emotional or sensitive person. I'm direct, to the point, have my eye on the prize and focus on doing great things and getting the work done. That's why I'm always amazed and impressed when something moves me. Over the years as I've become better acquainted with myself and what makes me tick, I've come to realize that what moves me are powerful ideas and stories...of course, but when expressed through the arts this hide-your-emotion woman is often at a loss.
When ed tech star CoolCatTeacher Tweeted this, I was compelled to take a look at what she was talking about especially since I rarely see educators Tweeting about crying. coolcatteacher Watched this video 4 times - crying - YouTube - Inspirational Video On Increasing Your Confidence! http://tinyurl.com/4a9en8 .
So, I bravely clicked on the link challenging this unknown video to move me.
Guess what? It met the challenge.
I wonder how many of our students have this or some other gift inside them waiting to be unwrapped and celebrated. How are educational institutions positioned to help that happen? Do we have what it takes to, as one judge articulated, help turn a piece of coal into a diamond? Shouldn't this be a primary focus in how we educate our students?
The back story is also of interest. This video was brought to YouTube by Saifuldinho who shares on his YouTube page, "My mission in life is to inspire, move and motivate teens to chase after their dreams through the power of motivational and inspirational videos. To look for where the majority of people is going, and run the other way. To hear what the majority of people are saying, and do everything but what they say! Why? Because 'The mass of men lead quiet lives of desperation.' I want to empower you to be part of the top 3% of the world. How? Visit my video blog at www.asksaiful.com to get daily motivation.
Need I say more about the importance of tapping into the environments in which our students are living, thriving, and in many cases, doing wonderful and powerful work for authentic audiences. Our students can teach educators to impact the world in ways we may not even know exist. ------------------------- From Saifuldinho on YouTube:
In this video, watch Paul Potts sing his heart out at Britain's Got Talent Competition.
He doesn't look like a singer, he's been training all the way up to the competition but he lacks belief in himself. Now, he's sold over 2 million copies of his record - simply because he believed in himself when others didn't.
Really made me cry when he sang in this video.
Brought to you by The World's First Teen Personal Development Video Blogger
