Greek Mythology Unit with 6th grade - Danielson's Domain 3b and 2b

Click here to see Greek mythology presentations video -

MY REFLECTION

WHAT: This artifact is a video that I made with my two teams of 6th grade students and is part of a unit I did in collaboration with two 6th grade teams and their LA teachers. The teams were the Avatars and the Challengers. 

SO WHAT: This is an example of Danielson's Domain 3B: Collaborating with teachers in the design of instructional units and lessons. It is also an example of Danielson's Doman 2B:  Establishing a culture for investigation and love of literature. Students had numerous days in the library as part of this unit. They were able to choose a Greek God, Goddess or Monster to research and present an argument with their research as evidence of why that character is the most powerful in Greek mythology.

Students learned how to research using books and library databases and websites; how to cite their sources; how to share their work on Google docs with me and their classroom LA teacher. 
They came back to the library another day, dressed in character to present their research findings in the TRMS video lab. I was involved in the production, filming and editing of these videos including choosing art to go behind students that was appropriate to their presentations. 

Finally the classes came back another day to view and take notes and evaluate their own and other's videos and reflect on their projects and outcomes.

I think this project is an important example of collaboration between me and the classroom teachers as we plan the project together and execute it together. It is also a great project for students to get to use the TRMS library video lab and learn how to present themselves both verbally and with appropriate costumes or props to convey their message. Students really cared about this project and it got them excited about literature and technology and created a culture of professionalism and love of literature.

NOW WHAT: I plan to meet with the teachers who did this project to get feedback on what parts of this project worked well and what we need to modify for next year. This is the second year we have done this project. One thing I have already suggested to the teachers is that 

Timberlane's Got Talent VIdeo

Student Talent Show Video

Click here to see Student Talent Show video -

MY REFLECTION

WHAT: This artifact is a video that I made with my 8th grade advisory students after one of my students after we were brainstorming together of what we should do for our next video project. We heard one of our students singing a song on the morning announcements and got the idea of a student talent show.

SO WHAT: This is an example of Danielson's Domain 4c  of Professional Responsibilities of Service to School: Communicating with the larger community. This video is now posted on both the school website and the website VIMEO and is something that showcases the talents of boys and girls in our school from all grades sharing what they consider a special talent. Not only does this video reach out to the larger community with the engaging talent acts of our students, but within our school it helped the library reach out to all students no matter what their talent was and draw them into the library and the video lab within the library. 

Today the video began running at lunch and I walked into the cafeteria during a 6th grade lunch to find the entire annex in the cafeteria filled with students watching and singing along to songs they knew and showing real interest and excitement about the videos they were watching.

In addition to the positive outreach this video created with the school community and the larger community, I believe it was an excellent learning experience for my students in the 8th grade advisory. They were able to repeatedly practice their video and editing skills and use their creative problem solving to find appropriate artwork to enhance the videos on the green screen.

NOW WHAT: In the next 10 days students will be watching the video in advisory or on their own, or in the cafeteria. I am putting the link for this onto the TRMS Library's website and students can watch and vote. I think the next step for me and my advisory is to see if we can draw enough TRMS staff into the library to do an adult talent show, that would also be a good community building activity.