Wednesday, April 23, 2014

Guest Speaker: Jessica Ross

As a middle school technology teacher, I'm starting to see that my students need to see how technology will drive their career choices. Certainly, not every student I have will be an engineer for Google, but a fair amount of them will use technological devices every day for the rest of their lives. I want them to realize that using technology is more than playing games or doing homework. The real awesomeness of tech use is being the person who creates things.

So, I invited Jessica Ross to talk to my students about video production.  As you probably know from Jessica's 20 Year Profile, she is the head of media at Kona Ice, working to create all their videos.

Jessica did a great job connecting to my class of 10 boys and 1 girl while showing them the progression of her video production. One of her main points is that technology is always changing. She demonstrated that by showing how her videos have improved over the years because of the cameras and other tools she has at her disposal.  In only six years after graduating from college, she has upgraded cameras three times to keep up with the changing technology.

I found it interesting that Jessica started video production while in high school.  She had tons of practice in her field before she ever went to learn it at college.  This continues as a resounding theme of people in the world of technology. They didn't wait to learn it in college or on the job. The seed was planted years earlier.

Jessica pointed out to the students they have a leg up on the world of technology because they have grown up with it. Since they live in a world inundated with technology, they are able to do so much.  The key is to leverage that power to become an awesome creator, not consumer, of technology.

Here is my Twitter blow up of the presentation.
  1.  Retweeted by 
     19h
    I had an absolute blast talking to 's technology class today about my job and why technology is important. Hooray technology!
    Expand
  2.  19h
    How do we market to millennials? No commercials. 90% of time online is thru app not web browser.
    Expand
  3.  19h
    You have a leg up because you are growing up with technology.
    Expand
  4.  19h
    Now @janedeckersmith is showing on our big screen in class. is bringing them all to the room.
    Expand
  6.  20h
    "You guys have some really fast internet here."
    Expand
  7.  20h
    has given back over $13 million to communities.
    Expand
  8.  20h
    now showing video of . alert!
    Expand
  9.  20h
    "I started creating dumb little videos while in high school."
    Expand
  10.  20h
    "I realized that people create TV shows for a living and get paid for it. I wanted to do that too."
    Expand
  11.  20h
    and uber awesome videos

     Expand
  12.  20h
    Showing off her videos to show progression of her cameras and software. Great stuff!
    Expand
  13.  20h
    "One constant in technology is that it is always changing."
    Expand
  14.  20h
    Guest speaker in T4T today:
    Expand

My students wrote up a summary of the presentation, and I thought I would quote some of my favorite lines. 
  • She started editing in high school. She edited small random videos at first but she started liking it. 
  • She also makes (or at least made) storyboards and scripts. 
  • I cannot say I have had Kona Ice but I am definitely looking forward to. They raised 13 million dollars and then gave them away to people in need. 
  • She first started just making fun videos and started getting better tech and made even better videos so she started to work at Kona Ice and worked on the videos and video editing.
  • What surprised me is that she didn’t start filming and editing sooner than high school.
  • One thing that surprised me was how good cameras are today.
  • I was surprised that she could make a job by creating videos of her friends and could get paid for doing it.  
  • I learned that it is very fun to have a videoing job. You can make a lot of different videos with the job she has. If I were to be offered the job she has… I would definitely take it.
I truly am enjoying this guest speaker series and hope to add one more to the roster before the end of the school year.

Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , , , ,

Tuesday, April 15, 2014

Mrs. Orton: A Lesson in Doing Everything Possible to Help Your Students

Meet Mrs. Orton.  (No, she doesn't normally dress like The Cat in the Hat.) She has no idea I'm writing this post.



Mrs. Orton is wrapping up her fifth year at our school.  Two years in 5th and 6th grade, one year in 4th grade, one year where she started in kindergarten but switched to 1st grade when another teacher had a long-term illness, and this year completely in 1st grade.  That constant shifting should be an indicator to you she has a willing and helpful spirit that says, "I'll do what is needed."

Earlier this semester, Mrs. Orton announced that she will have her first baby in September and will not be returning to our faculty next school year in order to be a stay-at-home-mom.  She will be sorely missed by students and teachers.

Our school's commitment to Accelerated Math for grades 2 through 10 means that we are letting IXL subscriptions run out, and our 1st graders will be left without an online math program after Spring Break.  So, Mrs. Orton agreed to get her kids trucking on the MathFacts in a Flash section of Accelerated Math. The learning curve here won't be too steep but she will need some training and figure out some new things.

Imagine if you were looking at the last month and a half of your job. Would you take the time to learn a new program? Personally, I would coast through to the end, but not Mrs. Orton.  She is and always has been the kind of teacher who will go over and above what's expected in order to help her kids learn the best way possible.

Who do you work with that inspires you to dig in and do more to help the kids? 

Posted by at No comments:

Friday, April 11, 2014

Lessons from an Aspiring Author

I'm an aspiring author. About a month ago, I finished the writing phase of my book and have now put it in the hands of people who have graciously offered to proofread it and edit it.

My book is actually a rewrite of the blog I wrote while we were in the process of adopting our daughter from South Korea. To say that it's important to me is an understatement. Becoming a dad is the single most cool thing I've ever done, and it's all there in the blog/book.  I spent hours writing it, then hours rewriting it and editing it.

My first editor/proofreader got back to me last week with her suggestions.  Gulp! I had a lot of mistakes. I was told about picky punctuation and grammar errors. I was told I needed more ebb and flow of emotion. I was reminded to move the plot forward and avoid unimportant side stories and minor characters. She was absolutely right. She discovered my laziness in sentence structure, writing skills, and proofreading.

But it hurt.

 I had this sick feeling in my gut. I wanted to defend every mistake, every post, and every person named. Instead, I sucked in a deep gulp of air, wrote her a thank you email and a glowing review for her personal job search, and decided to attack the manuscript anew with her suggestions in mind.

My book will be better because of her input.

 Years ago, I was a sixth grade language arts teacher. My students did a ton of writing, and I graded with a fine-toothed comb. I was famous (or infamous) for being super picky.

The capstone project of sixth grade was a Country Report that took a full six weeks to research and write. Students and parents poured hours into the process and became an expert on that country. Then, I got my hands and my red pen (or whatever color I had handy that year) on it and found mistakes all over the place. I reasoned that students were required three proofreaders and were allowed as many as they wanted. After all, they had numerous opportunities to fix mistakes before I found them.

However, I trampled on their babies.

 I don't think I fully comprehended how they and their parents felt till I got my list of mistakes back from my proofreader. Don't get me wrong, I still think teachers need to point out mistakes and help students fix them. I still think students need to be held to a high standard. But now I know about that sick feeling in the gut.

The other day, my daughter fell on her bike. As I was helping her up, someone popped his head out from behind a nearby house. "Mr. Dunlap?" It was a former student I hadn't seen in years. He was only in our private school for two years, and he wasn't exactly known for being conscientious about his work.  "I learned more in my time with you than I did anywhere else. You really stuck with it."  I'll remember that conversation for years to come.

There is a constant tug of war between holding students to a high standard and helping them see the worth in their work. I spent most of my career lopsided on the high standard side.

If I could have those years back, I would try to work in more coaching sessions to help students make their work better. My excuse would have been that it would be too time-consuming to coach 50 students on their 10-page papers, and I would have been completely right.  Maybe I could have coached them on two or three random paragraphs to show them how to make things better.

Since I can't have those years back, I need to take these lessons into future projects I have with students. It's always better to help lift students to those high standards than judge them when they don't get there.




Posted by at No comments:
Labels: , ,
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)