Collaborative Project Reflection

Fellow GL Lisa Garcia and myself spent the end of 2nd semester teaching a technology unit with our students.  Our objective was to create a product that demonstrates the benefits of AVID and shows the successes of seniors.  To accomplish this goal, we taught and utilized Moviemaker and Photostory.  Our theme was Oh The Places You'll Go.  It was both an effective instructional time as well as a meaningful emotional one, as our classes were preparing to say good-bye to each other.  Over the two years together, we have become a family...it's hard to let go. 

It was also filled with technological snafus.  My computer has had problems almost the entire year.  And so I couldn't upload music to our Moviemaker file.  This taught me as well as our students how to be problem-solvers.  When we showed our video at AVID family night, we played the music on a seperate computer while choreographing it to the video on another computer.  It. was. splendid!  So many parents came out to support the seniors.  AVID truly is a program worthy of keeping here at ACHS.

Throughout this unit, it was such a joy to see the creativity unleashed in my students.  One of our fist tasks was to create the story map which would guide our filming and editing.  This became an organizational structure, which of course I loved emphasizing as an English teacher.  :-]

One of the moments I am most proud of was when a student suggested we film us watching an already filmed segment.  This was for the purpose to demonstrate a student becoming famous.  Then it was literally like watching them on TV.  What a great idea!  Here are the links to watch the unedited videos for that scene.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Q3OhR1zzMbk
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=a81rGT1c3XA 


The other exciting part as I reflect on teaching this unit was the engagement of my students.  I had been dealing with senioritis for most of the year from my AVID students.  This unit improved attendance and motivation.  Several of them even said "This is why I come to school."  Now that's awesome!