Book Trailers are a way for readers to preview a book and as students get the technology into their own hands, teachers are using it as an activity for students.

At our school we are looking at this. Here are some questions that we are thinking about.

• What language arts objectives mesh well with a book trailer format?
• What are the options for the book trailer? / How does the book trailer change based on what the needs are for the language arts objective?
• What are some different styles of book trailers?
• How much structure do you give students when doing their book trailers?
• How do you share the Book Trailers to create an authentic audience for the trailers?

I am going to write about each of those topics. I also feel like my understanding of those topics will change along the way.  For Nudging I made both versions public.  For these I might treat them more like a wiki entry and update them as I learn more.

 

 

I re-read my post about Nudging, and there is a LOT of I and me. The first paragraph has an I in every sentence.  Heck, the first sentence has three I’s.  Let me try rewriting it to be less me, me, me.

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At my school we do the high stakes testing in the classroom. If you were a parent, where do you want your 9 year old to take their test? In the classroom where they learned the material, or in the gym with 100 other students?

This means every day during testing we are setting up computers, privacy folders, mice, headphones, and clipboards.  The students take a test.  Then, everything gets taken down and moved to a new location.

The problem is getting all the equipment back.  Even if you just lose one item per room per day, it adds up to a lot of money.

Headphones are the worst.  Each quarter we lose 150-200 dollars worth of headphones. Losing six hundred dollars a year on headphones is unacceptable. For that amount of money we could have a second STEAM Night!

After rejecting a few bad ideas (making people sign out for them separately, writing grumpy emails) I tried to think of a nudge.

I’ve never read Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein’s book Nudge.  I should. The Freakonomics Podcasts has a few good episodes on the subject. The general idea is figuring out what small changes you can make to have a high impact.

For my nudge I decided to make a headphone wrap.  The Wraps needed to be . . .

• CHEAP:  We made them with blue duct tape and blank PVC Cards.
• CONNECTED  The headphones can’t separate from the wrap
• Organized: They can’t come back as a mess.

After way too many models and google searches, I came up with t

his.

It seemed to do its job.  100% of the headphones were returned without me having to nag.  One was damaged (a student took off the tape), but that was pretty easy to fix.  Even when they were not wrapped perfectly, it was good enough to keep everything organized.

This nudge was for something pretty small, and frankly not earth shattering. I wonder how we could nudge student achievement.

 

I don’t think I’ve ever ready Richard Thaler and Cass Sunstein’s book Nudge, but I probably should. I probably first heard about Nudge from one of the Freakonomics Podcasts on the subject. I try to keep it in the back of my mind of how I can nudge people in a direction I want to get them to go.

My latest nudge has been with testing equipment. Whenever we test on the computers we put out a lot of equipment, which we often do not get back. The worst offender are the headphones. The last few testing sessions I think I may have gotten a 60% return rate.

After rejecting a few bad ideas (making people sign out for them separately, writing grumpy emails) I tried to think of a nudge. How could I nudge people to return them.

I decided to make a headphone wrap for each that could not be taken off. It would be clear which headphones belonged to “testing.” Then, as an added bonus, hopefully they would come back wrapped.

After way too many models, I come up with this.  The headphone cable is taped into the opening, so they do not come out.  On later models the entire wrap is covered with electric blue duct tape, so it is easier to find.  And the wraps on the side are straight instead of diagonal.  

But, it so far, it seemed to do its job.  They were all returned without me having to nag or do a checkout system. One was damaged (a student took off the tape), but that was pretty easy to fix. So, a pretty good nudge.

This nudge was for something pretty small. I wonder if I could nudge some more instructional issues in the right direction.

I really wanted for Trello to work. And maybe if I had a group engaged in the process it would be different.

I found myself just sending stuff to Trello and not always doing something with it. It became the dumping ground topics I was trying to avoid.

So I returned to paper. I’m trying out the Bullet Journal System. And my Bullet Journaling is super sparse. None of the fun things one sees on Pinterest.  Just the basic system.

And so far it is working well.  But, lets give it a few more months before we declare victory.

This blog is often a struggle.  There should not be writing just to write. Each entry should move my “art” forward.

Not anyone else’s art, just my own. It is temping to write something to show a polished version of myself. Or to sooth my ego about some imagined slight. Both of these would just be ways of hiding.

The STEAM Night reflection was difficult. A paragraph or two into the draft the writing would become a humble-brag. I needed delete everything and start again.

So the question I need to ask myself which every post is, “How does this move my art forward?”

 

We did a STEAM Night, next year we could do . . .

• another STEAM night, because they are pretty awesome.
• something more specific, like a Family Engineering Night.
• a Portrait of a Graduate Night.
• an exhibition night for Project Based Learning.
• A student designed museum project
• A Breakout EDU Night.

 

 

My school hosted a STEAM night. We, the STEAM Night committee, created a rotation where students went from one event to the next. First, we had some computer time in the first grade classes so kids could visit the Hour of Code or Math Playground websites. Second we found a neat activity where students created necklaces based on the binary codes for letters. Third was a tower challenge where they had to build at least one foot high that would resist an earthquake (shaking the desk) and strong winds (fanning with a clipboard).

It went well. Teachers seemed to like it and so far the feedback from the community has been good. But, reflecting on the night, one thing that now bothers me was the lack of student voice. There was not any. It was sort of the same dynamic we normally have at school. Teachers create activities. Students do activities.

But, there was nothing there that was student created. There could have been a student lead session where students were in charge.  Maybe a night where students showcased some of their work? Maybe a whole Project Based Learning night where they shared the final projects.

I do not want to take away from what we did, I am proud of it. It was a departure from what we have done in the past. But, eventually the question is, where do we go from here. Bringing in the voices of our students seems like a great step.

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PS: The schedule in the paragraph does not match the schedule in the picture. We had four different versions of the schedule, each one starting in a different place.  That way there was an relatively equal starting distribution between the 4 different activities.

Listening to Tim Ferriss’ podcast with Kara Swisher got me really upset. She recounts a moment sitting with a principal. The principal goes on to say that “all children are special” and Swisher disagrees. She continues to rant about how if “all children are special” then no children are special and the word special loses all meaning. Some people, after all, are better than others

Swisher misses the point. Educators need to believe that all children are special to do their jobs. It has to be a central tenant of their thought process, the same way doctors swear to “first, do no harm.”

Imagine you are sitting with a student who is struggling with algebra. You’ve tried everything you know on how to help that student. But really, not everyone is going to be a mathematician, and how many people really need to use algebra. The majority of the kids are doing great in your class, so it is not you. And really, all children are not special.

But, all children ARE special. That belief helps teachers not give up on students and on teaching.

A child walked into my office almost an hour after school had ended. They had lost something rather expensive and they did not know what to do. She was not my student. It was an hour after the end of school, an I frankly had a project I was working on and her problem would  work itself out by tomorrow because I am sure it would have turned up.

But, all children ARE special. And she was hurt and upset. And since all children are special, you need to care for them. So we walked around the building together and eventually ran into another teacher who found what she had lost.

I am frustrated to have lost that time to work on my project. But, I don’t regret it. Because all children are special and I had the privilege of helping someone who was hurt and scared.

I am privileged to work with so many special people, and I feel sorry for people who choose to see it otherwise.

I’ve never been the most organized person in the world, but my workspace was out of control.

I realized that it was more and more storage and not a good office. I also wanted to experiment with standing desk. I am not sure how I feel about it yet.

This would probably be more impactful with a before picture, but those are really too embarrassing.

The standing desk is really a set of shelves, but they are about the right height for typing. And yes, the main monitor is sitting on a printer box. The top and bottom are still junk piles. I got to make that better.  But, work in progress you know. On the middle shelf I have my Noguchi filing system (Still working pretty well!).

The space that used to be my desk is now clear-ish.  I use it to have a landing space and place to organize my day. That way I can sit with teachers or students (I have two more chairs nearby) let their stuff be front and center.  There are two baskets underneath my table.  One is place to hold random equipment that needs to be organized in storage elsewhere.  The other (which you can’t see here) is stuff to shred.

I did a video for our our school and played it on the in house morning news show and posted it on Facebook.  The PTA did a fundraiser and the winning class got to tape the AP to the wall with duct tape.  It was a great idea and our AP was a champ to play along.

Tt is a pretty good video, not great, but pretty good.  It is a bit slow for the first minute, but it is a engaging watch after that first minute.

On Facebook, it has done ok, but not as good as I would have hoped.  I usually feel that any post that does more views than we have total likes as a win.  And this should have, but it didn’t.  We had maybe 15% less?

So, how could I recut the video.  The current video is . . .

1. Introduction from PTA president (0 – 1:03)
2. First 5 people put tape on the Assistant Principal.  (1:04 – 2:06)
3. The rest of the tape is put up in.  Every 8 seconds the speed doubles, flight of the bumblebee plays. (2:06 – 2:48)
4. Back to normal time.  (2:48 – 3:28 )
5. Close up of the AP’s feet, hanging 1 foot of the ground. (3:28)

For Facebook, the start is boring. For the school the kids know the PTA president, the teacher in the background, the AP, and the kids.  For Facebook, which the first impression you get is a full minute of watching people talk, not as good.  In part 2, it spends too much time in normal speed. Not by much, but like 15 seconds less would have been enough Part 3 and on was good.

So I need to re-cut it so the taping is teased at the front. So people know why they might watch it.  And the PTA introduction probably needs to be shorter.  Or maybe do something towards the end.  Or on a voice over?  I’m not sure.  I’ll have to play with it.