Final Project Ideas

I have two ideas that I am thinking about for my final project. I originally planned to make a classroom wiki or a blog, an I am still going to do that, but I haven't decided exactly how I want it to work for me and for my students. I am also in conversation with a few other teachers who are sharing some pros and cons of each with me. Eventually, I am going to make a decision and get it started. I have a wikispace, but I need to design a specific page for my classes. Starting with my Gifted Seminar class of 8 students. seems like a good idea. The small number of students in this class will hopefully cut down on the number of problems that we run into. In other words, it might be easier to navigate any technology problems with 8 students rather than with 25 students. That way, when I try it with my other, larger classes, I will have already had some experience.

My other idea, and the one that I am fairly certain I will use for my final project, also involves my Gifted Seminar class. We are going on a field trip to visit the Philadelphia Mural Arts Program. We will be touring the city and visiting 40 different murals. Originally, I had planned to have my students create an informative brochure using pictures and information that they gathered during the field trip. The brochure would include a picture for five specific murals, and the artist and location of each mural. In addition, since the theme this year is "Relationships" and we are focusing on the community, the students would include an explanation of the relationship between the community and the mural's theme and the relationships between the artist and the neighborhood. However, I think this is the perfect opportunity for me to use technology to enhance the students' experience with this project. Instead of creating a paper-based brochure, to use Voicethread. They will still be fulfilling the same requirements of the original project, however we are adding technology and some collaboration.

Each student will create a presentation or a slide show using VoiceThread. (Thank you to Susan who showed me how she uses Voice Thread). They will upload photos of the murals and add text to document the artist and the location of the mural. But, the students will record their discussion of the relationships of the artist, the community, and the mural's theme. Although each student will creat their own presentation, they will be invited to view one another's work and post comments for their classmates. I am going to share this project with Gifted Sem teachers in the two other middle schools. If they encourage their classes to participate in the project, the students could share and comment on student work from all three middle schools.

I am still working out some details, but I am really hoping this will be successful. Keep your fingers crossed that all goes well on the trip and when they get to work on the projects. Suggestions and/or advice is welcome!!