Flat Stanley Project

My lesson plan was designed into two parts, Part 1: From Saipan To (The Destination) to be completed by the students and sent with Stanley, and Part 2: From (The Destination) to Saipan, to be completed by the recipient and be sent back with Stanley to Saipan. After I had the students be introduced to Stanley by reading the book Flat Stanley, I walked through each step of completing the Part 1 section with the students. On the first day, I explained to the students the general purpose and layout of the project, and we started to work on filling out Question and Answers sheet about Stanley, assigned homework to take Stanley around for a day and keep a time log of what you did with Stanley the whole day, and created our Stanleys. On the second day, we completed our Stanley workbook by filling out the journal log, writing a friendly letter to the recipient and sealing our envelopes! The students were extremely hard workers and we were able to get everything done in two 90 minute class periods!:)

I absolutely adored the small yet talented 6th grade class of Ladera, and all in all we had a blast together making our Stanleys, interviewing each other, taking pictures and sending him out. The class also created a life-size Stanley (by tracing a first grade student on a big construction paper!) and hung it beautifully outside the classroom door (the first scene of the video). The students were very welcoming to me as "Ms. Judy," and although it was a very short time that we spent together, the small classroom environment made me feel like I was at home. So a quick shoutout of Thanks! and I miss you! to the wonderful 6th grade class at Ladera!

The next time in planning and guiding a Flat Stanley Project, I hope I can get to set aside a special time for the project all throughout the semester. Although we were able to get Stanley made and sent out in just two class periods, I feel that I could have integrated more Language Arts into the project in reading and writing about Stanley and his travels, and also would like to have sent Stanley to several different parts of the world.

Wow- I learned so much from this experience that I really don't know where to start! I think this Service Learning project ties in perfectly with the class as it deals with using technology directly in taking a log in your classroom, and I learned so much about video clips, YouTube, blogging, and other components related to this project through this Service Learning. I was only able to use a few, but I highly recommend for future students to integrate as much software and technology you can in completing this Service Learning project for a richer experience with technology for both you and your students. The Flat Stanley project itself is phoneminal - the idea of sending Stanley all over the world and having him sent back with letters, logs and pictures of his travels is a great way to get the students connected with the world, even from the tiny island of Saipan. This project definitely takes penpals to a next level, and I hope more schools will be able to join the project and help the students of the CNMI explore the world!:)

Click here to see pictures from the Flat Stanley Project.
The following is a video collaboration of the project.

My Weebly Portfolio

Here's the link to my first ever Weebly Portfolio!

judykim.weebly.com

Teachback: The Use of Digital Video and Media to Enhance Classroom Learning

Media Literacy is the key to success and survival in the 21st century, and as teachers of the Net Generation, we should all be very well be aware of the importance of Media Literacy. I placed the main focus of my presentation on the definition and highlights of Media Literacy based on information I was able to find on Center for Media Literacy website, an organization I found through using the MERLOT (Multimedia Educational Resource For Learning and Online Teaching) search engine. On enhancing classroom learning through digital video and media, I believe that if the teacher has a strong understanding of Media Literacy and has mastered different integrated ways to ensure his/her students are media literate, it will enhance learning in all classrooms.

In using SlideShare, I found it to be pretty convenient and self-explanatory. I first had some troubles uploading my PowerPoint Presentation due to its size, but after I was able to resize the Power Point, the process went very smoothly. There won't be anything in particular that I would want to do differently using this program in the future.

In a classroom curriculum, SlideShare will be very convenient in getting every student's Power Point Presentation available to all the students in the classroom even at home. Students can also access the teacher's Power Point slides on the daily lessons posted on SlideShare conveniently from their homes.

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Rubric Assessment Tool - Flat Stanley Project

The most important criteria for grading my students for their participation in this project is the friendly-letter writing part of the Flat Stanley Project, in which the students had to choose at least 5 different topics to discuss in the letter while also explaining the purpose of the Flat Stanley Project to the recipient. I hope that through this project, my students were able to gain a further understanding in the planning, writing & mailing process of a friendly letter, since the Net Gen students are no longer used to the proper use of snail mail after the traditional postal service has been replaced by e-mail.

Using a rubric is an excellent source in assessing students' work since it provides a clear, detailed explanation of what is expected from the students in the assignment. If the rubric is presented to the students in the beginning of the project, it will also act as an effective guideline for the students to follow as they are planning and completing the project. As for the teachers, the clear descriptions provided in a rubric will help the them stay focused on what they are looking for in the students, and not use any biases and/or mistakes in assessing their students' work.

I used Rubistar to create my rubric, and the website was extremely user friendly and convenient. It already had the basic criterias laid out for me to use, in my case letter-writing,

and it also made it available for me to make changes in the descriptions that they've provided to better suite our class project. One flaw in the website could be that the limited number of formats available online, but teachers can always create their own rubric using the format that is available on the website.