I have created an assessment flowchart for new teachers who want to ensure their assessment are reaching students who do not find relevance, meaning, or accessibility in what you had planned for the class or course.
This flow chart was designed after research conducted with active teachers across two provinces, a special education teacher, Trevor McKenzie’s Inquiry book, the EduCrush podcast, and various sites around the lovely internet (linked in my networking project linked here). These sources all led me to create this flowchart that will help new teachers develop the assessment muscle that seasoned teachers seem to flex effortlessly (but takes me upwards of 20 hours in my infancy teaching stage).
This flowchart will take your assessment and ask questions of it surrounding oral skill aspects (and the surrounding anxiety there), reading skills and engagement, and writing skills and engagement. Each aspect of your assessment will be questioned and at the end of each line of questioning a series of resources will be provided that give inspiration and ideas for how to make your assessment more accessible and engaging for your students.
This project is an ongoing exercise and I plan to add to it as I gather resources. Once I no longer need it (once my assessment muscles grow big and strong) I will continue to update this resource and share it with new teachers in my community and online. Any way to decrease the anxiety around assessment planning while maintaining the drive to make assessments relevant and accessible for students is research well spent.
Please enjoy looking through this and drop a comment if you see something missing!
In today’s adventure we moved away from anything video related to 1) give my brain a break from editing so much video and 2) to try something intimidating to me in another way: photo editing.
I have shied away from photo editing for a long time because my partner is a photographer and if I ever need anything edited he is my go to. Today I decided to take matters into my own hands and edit a photo myself. Or, as the workshop decided, edit 4 photos myself. Please walk with me through this journey.
What
GIMP is a photo editing software that is on a similar level to Photoshop, but free. Historically it has been seen as the less powerful younger cousin, but in recent updates its abilities have increased and I found it a very useful tool. I will be working with GIMP 2.10.
To use this software you need to download it to your computer (it is free, as I mentioned before and the downloading process was very straight-forward). The workshop I followed led me through a series of four edits to make with four different photos. This process taught me how to crop and centre photos, how to make a photo black and white (and alter gradients and brightness in more than one way), how to expand the background of an image to fit a larger canvas, and how to work with text on photos.
Edit #1
Photo by Steve Johnson: https://www.pexels.com/photo/close-up-photo-of-abstract-illustration-4208443/Photo edited by Paige Guthrie
This is my first photo edit, the photo on the left is the original photo from Pixel and the photo on the right is my edited photo where I cropped it down. This was really easy for me, I have cropped hundreds of photos before and it was straightforward in this software. What a lovely change from my previous tech tutorials!
Nonetheless, here is a quick screen recorded video of me doing just that for your entertainment.
This was quick, simple, and got my confidence up for the next activities….was it false confidence? Let’s find out!
Once this was over I moved on the activity #2.
Edit #2
The second edit is by far my least favourite product I will post here. I left the photo oversaturated but did not realize until after I exported the image and compared them side by side (see below). I did, however, feel really great about my ability to remove the screws in the post. This is something I feel I will come back to GIMP to do with other photos when there are components I would like to blur out. (Face-tune anyone????)
Here is a sped up video of me trying really hard to figure out how to do this. As you can see there was a lot of back and forth between the workshop site and my GIMP software to work this one out but I am confident that I could do it again without assistance. This software is fairly straightforward and the drop-down menus are helpful when you are looking for something.
Edit #3
This edit taught me a brand new skill! I was able to take this cute photo and turn it into a letter sized page in GIMP! I was able to keep the aspect ratio the same and not blow up the image but keep the background colour the same across a larger canvas. This is a great skill to have and something I can see myself using in the future to create cute boards to laminate and have my students draw on, spruce up some worksheets, or create a smoother finish to put student work on before putting it up in my classroom.
Please enjoy this video of me creating my masterpiece.
But really though, how cute would this look as the background to a Spanish workout sheet about summer vacation plans?
I felt this went pretty smooth but it was not until I went back and looked at this video that I realized how much I was panning back and forth between the GIMP software and the workshop site. I may need to refer back to this site next time I use GIMP which is ok with me as I will have access to this site for a while.
Edit #4
This final edit took me for a ride. I did not look at the final product before starting this edit and I was shocked and surprised by what I wan able to do by cutting out the letters to have the background show through and creating a film over the rest of the photo. Layering is something I have recently felt I did not understand very well but this activity taught me what it is and why it is so powerful. Being able to shape each layer in its own way and have them work together and separately makes so much more sense to me now that I have done this edit.
Photo by jayant nasa: https://www.pexels.com/photo/green-leaf-trees-908518/
I was genuinely so proud of myself after this project because this is something my 13-year-old self used to obsess over and never could quite figure out how to do it! Now, fast forward a quick 12 years and here we are! Now that I know how to do this, Instagram better watch out….
So what?
Now that I have done this it begs the question why did this matter?
First of all, this software is free. It is a quick download and the learn time is relatively quick for how powerful the program is. One of the issues in technology in education is the financial accessibility. Programs like this are a great way to introduce students to the power of photo editing and open up the creative possibilities for them. This way, if a student wants to go further into photo editing and does want to invest in a paid software, they will have a basis to start with. This software, however, I think is powerful enough for what most students and teachers are going to want to do with it!
The more good, free, software programs available to us, the more we can use equitable programs in schools.
Now What?
Moving forward: I have decided not to delete this program from my laptop. This is a great way to edit personal photos. It will also be a great way for me to incorporate images into my upcoming flow chart project where I want to incorporate more images and AI just is not going to cut it. I want something that I have worked on and know is exactly how I want it to be.
I think this is a great program for students and hope to be able to bring it into the classroom. I think GIMP could be a great way to simplify digital storytelling and students could use photos they took personally, edit them with GIMP, and them show them as a series to describe an event or situation. Alternatively, GIMP could be a great way to help Spanish students remember vocabulary but creating images of the words they are trying to remember. Spending time editing a photo around a group of words could be rewarding and helpful!
While I think there are many ways teachers across a variety of subjects can find this useful in their classrooms, the most important part of this is its financial accessibility. Students have equal access to this and (provided they have a computer at home) can take projects home. I think the more we can do to incorporate software like this into the classroom, the more empowering it can be for students.
I have seen many Zoom recordings in my day but have yet to make one myself.I figured today was the day to change that.
I find these really helpful because I can go back and revisit a conversation I had, see a tutorial from a professor, or even just watch a lecture again. Now that we are back to mostly in-person learning, I still think this is a really useful way to record a presentation and share it.
Photo by Anna Shvets: https://www.pexels.com/photo/people-on-a-video-call-4226140/
Summary (What)
Leanupon.com website provides a super helpful set-by-step guide for creating your own zoom meeting recording. They take you through options for saving the file is different places, things you can record, and ways you might find this tool useful.
When you record your meeting on Zoom you have the option to either save to your computer or to save to the cloud. Saving to your computer will put the file directly on your hard drive and you can access and edit it there. If you save to the cloud it stores in your “my recordings” on your zoom account and you can more easily share it with other collaborators. For my project I saved both files to my computer because it made it easier to crop and share on my blog post.
Learnupon recommends using Zoom to record presentation, training sessions, and product sessions (potentially not the most applicable option for upcoming teachers, but you never know). The benefits of recording zoom meetings is to share with a wider audience who were unable to attend and to edit post meeting for a more professional finish. I would add to this, as a future teacher, that saving the meeting and recording presentations allows students to view the video when they need it later on.
To record on Zoom, you need to start the meeting as host.
During the meeting click on the button to record (or click on “more options” and hit record within the menu it provides).
Choose where you want to save the video (cloud or on your computer).
A recording message is played to you and displayed on the screen for all participants.
Once you are recording, you can screen share (especially useful if you are recording a presentation) and choose which screen you want to share. You can share the presenter, record a presentation as the speaker speaks over it, or record a presentation with a thumbnail image of the speaker in the corner. For my examples I did one where you can see me in the corner, and one where my voice is heard but I am not seen.
When you are done recording hit the record button again (or click on more and hit the record option) and a sound will play indicating to you and all participants that the recording has stopped.
Once the meeting has ended, if you chose to save the file to your computer, the file will convert to MP4 and save to your hard drive.
So What?
Now I know how to do this, why should I? I already found a use for a recording I have done. I recorded a whiteboard presentation on Zoom describing the conversation we had during our EdCamp activity in our class. This was a great way for me to learn how to do this and create something useful for this class at the same time. This was a way for me to share a verbal conversation verbally (which felt more authentic to me instead of typing it out).
Please excuse any lisp you might here, I was still recovering from a dental surgery during the filming of this and have some swelling which impacts my speech a bit.
Watching this video will not demonstrate what I learned by using this tool, it is only an example of what I have already used it for. Watching the entire 5 minutes is not necessary to understand the remainder of the blog post. Feel free to fast forward to see how I move the sticky notes around as I speak.
I am likely to use this method for an upcoming project where I am going to create a flowchart. I will use screen share to explain how it works vocally instead of writing paragraphs to describe the flow of the chart. Understanding how this works and realizing how simple it is has made me want to use it more because it is such a powerful tool.
Recording presentations is a great example of creating opportunities for students to listen when they are most likely to learn. School environments are often not designed to calm students enough for them to absorb. When you post things like presentations and slides with a voice over after-the-fact there is space for students to watch when they are at home and self-regulated. This can make the class time less frustrating for students because they know they will have the chance to access this material at a later time if they cannot absorb it in class.
Now What?
Before we dive into my journey with Zoom recordings please view this screenshot.
The entire process was a struggle. I spent a lot of time on it, and I did not really end up solving my problem but I got really close.
I had…trouble with this.
I have already demonstrated the whiteboard example I recorded. This was quite simple for me. I was able to jot down my ideas from my memory of the conversation with the built in arrows that work with the sticky notes.
My next goal was to record a presentation with a software other than Zoom. I chose to use a presentation I made for class last week which had a video embedded in it (because I see teachers struggle with this all the time and I want to be prepared). This was not straightforward and honestly, humbling. At first, I share the presentation on presenter view thinking that the recording would record the slides only and not see the presenter view. That was wrong. I recorded the whole thing in presenter view. I also realized the video would not work in the presentation.
At minute 3:20 you can see that I “paused the video” to see what the issue was. Here, I meant to pause the recording but only paused the screen share. I now know you have to hit pause recording which is next to the stop recoding button. Please enjoy that minute or so of awkward silence.
I re-embedded the video and did the meeting a second time. Success! The video was visible to the meeting. When I saved the file I changed the name before it converted and lost the file…oops.
At this point, I tried again with a new recording to play the video. I failed again to play the video and tired to share it on YouTube but did not realize I had not shared that screen with the Zoom presentation, so again…no video.
A fourth attempt, I recorded the meeting and tried to share the video. And, well, watch for yourself:
I muted myself so I would not interfere with the sound that was played but I realize you cannot hear the video at all.
Attempt number 5. We are now on the next day and I am determined to make this work. I started another meeting and went to share my screen and BEHOLD! You must share you computer audio when you share your screen to make it work! By trial and error I think I have done it!
No, this is not a full presentation, but I feel I have learned a lot through this process and have the skills to make a full presentation at this point.
Final Thoughts
Do not forget to share your computer audio when sharing video during a presentation! Also, make these videos during the middle of the day, not the middle of the night. Trust me.
I think that the product is worth the learning curve. But there is a big learning curve! For the reasons I discussed before, I think educational videos are really important to have as part of your teaching practice, but I think the key word there is practice, you need to practice making them.
For my first inquiry tutorial I chose something I felt was near and dear to my English literature heart: storytelling (but digital).
In my time both in high school and university, the study and creation of stories and has taken up thousands of hours of my life. It is the backbone of my career choice. I think stories are a powerful medium for sharing, teaching, and persuading. Why not make it digital?
When I started the tutorial process I realized it looked much the same as traditional storytelling. You brainstorm, you research, you storyboard or plan, you get feedback, and you gather media (ok, this part looks a little different on the digital space I guess). At the end of the day, the only thing that can make storytelling better, is to add media.
The coolest part about digital storytelling is the voice-over feature. Being able to choose when is shown and overlay it with your own voice is a great tool to communicate with! The University of Guelph website recommends using voice over, images and video clips, and music and sound effects to make your story more effective. It also says that digital storytelling is best used for personal, historical, or instructional videos. They also recommend getting feedback on your story once you have made it and being specific with the questions you ask the feedback-givers.
So what
Digital storytelling looks like a super accessible way to share information and stories with people. Much like our conversation in class recently, educational videos are a great way to share information that can be viewed at any point the student might need it, holds a lot of creative power, and can share information in unique ways. I think, used well, this medium of sharing information can allow for a lot of creativity in educators and students.
One drawback to be aware of is that there is a barrier to entry for these sites. Some of them are clunky (I speak about that in my story with Powtoon), have ads, ask for personal information, or require a subscription. With this in mind, which platform you use might depend on the digital agility of your students, and, let’s be honest, of yourself. How much patience do you really have?
Now what?
The next step seemed obvious, I needed to make a digital story. So that is what I did.
The tutorial used Powtoon, so I opened it up and opened a free account (which quickly took my email and all the accompanying data). Does anyone really know where their data is going when they create a new account? Not to worry, this is for educational purposes.
When I opened Powtoon I took a big sigh…this was going to take a while. Much like Prezi, this website felt glitchy and my 10-year-old laptop fan immediately started preparing to take off to outer space. I pushed on.
I wasn’t sure what I wanted to make so I opened templates and after a couple minutes of browsing, I saw a template for a book review. I had just listened to a book called “The woman in the window” during my 7+ hours spent in the car commuting to class every week, so I thought, “YEP! Thats what I am gonna do!”
Now, this process was painfully slow and the product is less than presentable.
I am going to present it here anyways.
Lucky us.
First, I saw that the template really laid everything out for me! I thought that was awesome because I wasn’t sure how detailed I wanted to be for this. However, the template assumed I wanted about one minute of story, which was accurate, so I started filling in the blanks. It asked for genre, author, date and main plot points. I thought this was a great beginner level book review! At the end it asked for strengths and weaknesses of the books and an overall analysis of the book. This felt incredibly thorough and I quickly (ish) filled it all in.
I screen grabbed the first slide before I filled anything in (see above).
I also screen recorded the first half of the presentation edits which I have sped up and embedded here for your entertainment. Please note that I am not creating a masterpiece here and am mostly playing around with how to do the voice editing (which happened after I turned off the screen recording).
Once I had all my slides ready to go I realized I hated the music the template came with so I deleted it instantly. I wanted to create a voice over but that ended up being a terrible decision. I realized my browser was not capable of making the voice over (only Firefox and Chrome, neither of which I want on my laptop).
I decided to record the voice over on “Voice memos” right on my computer and upload it. I recorded the audio and went to upload it, feeling very good about myself as it only took me a couple minutes to do. Until I went to upload it and realized the file type was not supported.
This mess made no sense and honestly made me laugh, they were trying to RE record my audio with another mechanical voice…technology really is wild sometimes.
After messing around with it for a while I caved and downloaded Chrome and recorded the voice over (again) no the Powtoon site in the Chrome browser. Not ideal. I got it done though and ended up with a pretty spiffy voice over which I added to the slides with some low-key free music available on the site.
At this point I was feeling pretty good about myself, lined up the slides to the audio and hit export! Only to realize you cannot save the video to your device with the free version…
All that said and done, here is the link to the video I crafted this evening!
click the photo to see the book review!
Thoughts
I think this was a super fun way to share something I have traditionally been asked to do on a poster. The ability to add music and photos is really interesting and if I were to put more time into this I could have made it thriller themed with photos and creepy music. There are a lot of possibilities to personalize the story medium to what you are presenting.
On the other hand, I think there is a lot of drawback to using something like this. Honestly, this was quite frustrating to create. I had to download another browser, record the voice over multiple times (and it still does not sound super cool), and mess around with font sizes that did not automatically adjust to the template. This program was not user friendly. Admittedly, this is not the only program out there capable of doing this, but it is the one I used. It has made me wary of using these or assigning students to use them because it was so frustrating. The content of the video took me 45 seconds to come up with but the video itself took me an hour all said and done. The ratio of content to medium is really alarming.
Considering it is my first time doing this, there is room to assume it would not always be this bad. However, I would feel uncomfortable asking a student to do this for a number of reasons ranging from needing to sign up, the frustration of using the site, and the ratio of time to make the content and produce the video.
All that being said, I think digital storytelling is a really neat way to share information, I’m just not sure Ill be making another one anytime soon!
