Check back soon! I am currently updating my work on the final review for the grammar section. I am actually revising now based on the study guide that the 8th grade teachers are going to create. I hope to have these posted by June 11!

Results

I have the results. Here is what the kids though of the videos!

4th Quarter Already!

Today is the end of the third quarter and I looking forward to creating at least 7 videos over the next few months. I am hoping that the next few videos will aid the students in reviewing for the final. I am specifically thinking that videos on the grammar portion of the final will be the best review for the students because a lot of them only need review of a few select topics. However, I will try to make a review video of each one so that I cover all of the topics.

Final grammar review

This week I used my outline forms to create my movies for the Final Grammar Review. I plan on reviewing about 7-10 topics and hope to have all of the videos posted by the last week of school. I am planning on also putting these videos on a blog style page, so that the students have a chance to comment and ask questions to help one another study. This is an extension of the study group page on my weebly.

My own reflection...

I know that I am not done with my work so far, but I wanted to begin thinking about my progress thus far. It seems to me that I needed a few weeks to get set up for this project. I thought that it would be difficult and annoying to create an imovie of each work that I wanted to create. Mostly because I would need to retype all of the information into the new movie. Plus the transitions and sounds really aren't necessary for all of the projects I am doing. I would love to try to create some of each. However, at this time it seems that Jing is the easiest most effective way to produce these review movies. The one negative I have found is that the Jing does not allow you to edit the video, so if you make a mistake while recording you have to do the whole thing over!!

Creativity!

I keep coming up with more ideas now that I am getting into this whole video making schedule. I have a few projects that I would like to load on the computer. I would then like to set them to music and comment on each project. The commentary would be simplistic, but it would give some feedback to the students. It would also be a cool display of the projects for the parents and other members of the school community.

Some Feedback!

Yea!! Had some feedback on my one of my blogs today from my students. I wanted to see what they were thinking about these videos..

Mike™

I really like the review movies. theyre simple and they get to the point.

Stanley

Mrs. Sepp the review movies are really cool! They explain everything more in depth and help out a lot.

Rebecca F

Mrs. Sepp-
I just wanted to tell you that I thought the review movies were a great idea and it really helped me study.

Sarah S

I really like that because you explain things into more depth the powerpoint and anyone who needs some really small detail to be cleared up can just watch the movie intead of asking you in person. Maybe you could reveiw some of the books we read too as we go along?

Sounds promising!! Glad I finally found something they enjoy that is educational!

Writing Videos

I talked to some of my students about the writing videos. They had a really great idea. They mentioned that it would helpful for videos to be posted of other student's work that I find exemplary. It would be helpful not only to post it, but to also go through an explain the positives and the things that I may have revised. Thinking about this for next year also.

Writing Thoughts....

For next year, I decided that I would really like to make a few videos pertaining to writing. I really think that having review videos based on the writing process used in class would help a lot of my struggling writers. I think at this point it would not be very helpful, unless I did a short review movie on the overall process, but I think I would like to start that next year. I think it would also be interesting to write with the students on some type of video.

Google Review - Peer Editing

For the third quarter the students will actually be working with a partner to peer review their work throughout the quarter. I plan on using this 5th video to review the steps for the process and reinforce the ideas that have been presented for completing a comprehensive peer review.

How to Share a Document

The peer editing process is one that the students always struggle with. It is probably most difficult to peer edit in class because the students rush through the work and do not take the time to really edit an assignment. I have found that allowing the students to do this work at home will allow them to take some time to really look at the work, possibly with their parents, to find errors that they have been familiarized with this year. The video I created not only discusses how to share a document, but also how to actually peer review.

Google Sign-Up

Video 3 created! I have posted a minute and half video that reviews the steps for creating and setting up their google accounts. I know that they cane easily find more instruction on the internet if they want to, but I went over it exactly like I did in class. I think that this allows the students to follow along much better at home because they are familiar with the process already. Again, these videos are not being used to teach new ideas. I think it is important to remember that these videos serve as reinforcement for concepts or a review of a process.

Reinforcement in Technology!

I am going to present Google to my students this week. It is usually a little confusing because we do not have time for each student to create an account in class. I usually show them using the projector, but it is often difficult for them to remember all of the steps involved in creating an account. I also have found that a handout does not help much because it is difficult for them to visualize, even if I include pictures. Therefore I am going to be working on a video that will help the students sign up for an account at home. I am hoping that this will limit the amount of e-mails I get from them asking for a few steps. I am going to try to troubleshoot a little bit in each video. At this point, I can usually guess the types of questions they are going to have about this process.