Need Help Applying for Google Teacher Academy

[Janice Friesen]

After listening to the great experience that Cheryl, Alice and others had at Google Teachers' Academy I have decided that I would like to apply to the one that will be in Denver in August. Please share any advice you have for me.

Thanks, Janice

[wendy samson]

Thank you so much for watching. It was fairly excruciating to put it together. I did notice that several of the videos that were from accepted teachers were a tiny bit over. Do you think I can get away with those extra seconds or not?

Wendy

[Alice Barr]

My understanding was the 1:00 minute rule was strict, but maybe some others have other info...

[coakes]

Hello Wendy, I hear your pain, it was the most difficult thing I put together in a while, my youtube video. One minute, is really important!!!!! I would speed up your words in the word bubbles you might gain time there. I know easier said than done. I love your representation of your project, that is the message and I got it.
Cheryl

[Sarah Sutter]

Wendy,
Great video! I agree with Cheryl about shaving off those extra seconds - and the word bubbles is the place to do it. Rather than do the motion transitions, how about flashing them on the screen? People read text really quickly, especially in small bites like that. I also love the lesson idea - if you have the lesson itself posted somewhere I'd love to share it with our ELA teachers.

Good luck!

[wendy samson]

thank you so much for the feedback. the video has been trimmed and now is the perfect 60 seconds. :) below is the url for anyone who wants to see it--

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XJ_uAqQcUs4

as for the lesson, while i don't have a plan for it written up, later today i will compose a summary of what i did and post it here for you. thanks again for the advice.

[coakes]

Wendy, the trimming made a great difference. I love your closing sentence! ready for this revolution

[Janice Friesen]

Just a short comment from Turkey: I tried to watch the video and apparently youtube is blocked in the whole country! Maybe I am wrong. I will try again.

[coakes]

Janice, from my webhead friends, whenever we are working on Web 2.0 tools, we need to poll the whole global community and get the pulse on what is blocked and what is open, enjoy your trip. Keeping track of these blocks will be a great blog post!
Cheryl

[wendy samson]

Hi Sarah,

Below is a summary of what I did with the music/language arts lesson I highlighted in my Google Teacher Academy video.



Hard Times and Music



I always look for any excuse for a song and I knew that Hard Times would be a particularly hard sell to this particular group of students, so I brainstormed as many songs that I could think of that illustrated the theme of hard times, trying to cover as many genres and time periods as possible. In order to break out of my own narrow frame of reference, I asked different people as well, and I did lyrics searches using key words that reflected the idea as well. Obviously I had to go through lots of inappropriate songs to come up with my choices. :) Next year I think I will also access my local public radio station for suggestions; the local college station has an incredibly wide ranging, eclectic mix of music programs on the weekends so I know the songs there would be really unique.

I did a song pretty much every day. On the days the projector wasn't down the kids were palpably disappointed. I would have the lyrics up and the YouTube video to accompany it if it was a good visual companion to the lyrics. After playing the song, I would ask the kids to discuss how the theme of hard times related to the song and then we would dissect its poetic elements, as well as how its sound complements its message.

When we had finished with the unit, I had them write their own songs focusing on the them of hard times, either alone or with a partner, using Google docs so we could collaborate with one another. After the songs were finalized, they composed music using Garage band, practiced and recorded.

Overall, it was an excellent experience, but next year I want to make sure to have the music teacher come in and give them advice on the music portion as quite a few of them went too wild on the Garage band portion and the sound didn't complement the lyrics or the sound was just too disjointed--like a kid doing a PowerPoint for the first time and every transition is different and distracting. Plus, this lesson can translate to basically any piece of literature.



A partial list of songs I used:

"Allentown"
"Pearls"
"There's Nothing Soft About Hard Times"
"My Hometown"
"Johnny 99"
"Hush-a-Bye Hard Times"
"Trouble on the Line"

There's really no end of songs that apply.

[Sarah Sutter]

Wendy,
Thanks so much for posting the lesson. I'm definitely going to pass it along and get some ELA teachers interested.
-- Sarah

[Janice Friesen]

Hi Everyone,

Well, I heard back from Google and I did not make the cut, It is OK. Making the video and applying was a good experience and now I can use all of your good advice on the next application. How about you Wendy? Anyone else going?

Janice

[coakes]

Janice, thanks for sharing, I am sure this was a good learning experience and you will make it! So glad you put t his out for a discussion.
Cheryl