Electronic Brain Reports (a.k.a. Digital Stories)

Digital storytelling is when you turn into a robot and tell a story about something to an audience using your digital robot powers. 

Ok, not really, but I really sincerely believe students will find digital storytelling to be almost as cool as turning into a robot…

Never heard of it? Or perhaps not convinced? Well you are in luck, because I found a wonderful website that not only explains what a digital story is, but also gives you digital story examples, ideas, tips, resources, and tutorials on different software programs you can use to create them! Pretty neat stuff...

I have been working on a digital story of my own for the past few weeks, and to be completely honest, it’s been surprisingly easy!  Well, I should clarify.  The part where I made it “digital” was surprisingly easy.  I used Microsoft Photo Story 3, an incredibly user-friendly program that lets you upload photos, add text, music (MP3s or create your own), and voice-recorded narration (just be sure to have a microphone!).  

It was the “storytelling” part that was a tad bit vexing.  However, I think it’s important to note that while my preferred style of learning falls in the visual realm, I’ve been realizing more and more that my learning style differs with regards to input and output.  That is, I like to take in information that is coupled with lots of visual stimuli, but using visuals to present my own information is a far more difficult task for me. And that was wherein my problem lied for this project. It took me a while to figure out just how to address my audience (and to decide who my audience was ultimately going to be) and satisfactorily tell my story using more pictures than actual, physical, written words - something I am not used to doing. In fact, it took me an inordinate amount of time to organize my pictures in a way that (I felt) clearly conveyed the message I was intending to send. It may also be important to note that my story was about my niece and nephew, of whom I have an insane amount of pictures (I'm talking LOADS) and so this may have also contributed to my tribulations.

However, despite some of my hard knocks with it, I’m really looking forward to finding ways to somehow incorporate digital storytelling into the curriculum for my future students.  Maybe a digital story shared writing activity after a field trip to help memorialize the fun times had by all? :)

Praise-Crazed

Guilty. Totally, undeniably, guilty. I am praise-crazed. But something I have come to notice in my Kindergarten class is that the students are not often given much praise by the teacher.  And by this I mean mostly general praise like, “Great job on that!” or “Nice going there!” or "I like the way you [insert accomplishment here]." And actually, I think I like it.   

Throughout my graduate program so far, I’ve heard multiple professors warn against the consistent use of praise, such that it becomes something that the children seek to earn, like an incentive, or to the point that it loses meaning and just becomes some sort of artificial filler for those moments when you want to avoid the potentially awkward silence.  Our literacy professor, Dr. Groth, recently posted an article on Blackboard that addresses how detrimental praise can be (and why). Although the article asserts that most praise is harmful, it is o.k. when it is targeted, specific, genuine, and not centered around you (the teacher) but rather maintains the focus on the accomplishment of the student.  The article also includes some great suggestions for alternative responses when students do something "praiseworthy," like simply saying what it was you saw them do (a mere acknowledgment- without an evaluative component attached) or asking them questions (for instance, what they like best about what they read/wrote/created or what was the most difficult part of a project).

Unfortunately, giving praise is something that I do almost automatically, so I think it will definitely take some time to make the transition to these more constructive and student-focused responses. But I am certainly going to try...actually, starting tomorrow! Wish me luck. :)