ECDC Service Project Voice Thread

On Wednesday morning in the ECDC, my group (animal 7, Maritza and Xavier) had very little work left to do in order to complete our project. They had already expressed an interest in the life cycle of the cicada so we thought that it would be a great idea to use our inquiry skills in this situation and ask HOW they grow up into such ugly insects. We had already gathered all of the pictures and written out our script for the voice thread so all we had to do was record it. This surprisingly went off without a hitch! The three of us went into the hallway with a laptop and a microphone and recorded our voices within 30 minutes. Maritza and Xavier were so excited to hear their voices on their very own blog and see their pictures up there as well.

Along with completing my work with the ECDC students, I have also gotten in touch with my online correspondent, Ashlyn, and asked her to comment on both the students' voice thread and blog. Once she does this, the students will be able to see that other people appreciate their hard work and it will be exciting for them to hear the comments of people they have never even met.

Although this project got off to a slow start, working with Ms Reynolds' class was extremely successful. We all worked hard and got the work done, no matter how many setbacks we had (such as lack of computers).

Here is the voice thread that I created with group 7 about the life cycle of the cicada:

ECDC Service Project Week 3

When I arrived at the ECDC on Monday, my group (animal 7, the cicada, Maritza and Xavier) was drawing the life cycle of the cicada. They had been doing research outside of the classroom and were creating a cicada life cycle poster. This poster included a lot of information that they gathered through inquiry-based learning. Maritza and Xavier both wanted to know HOW the cicada grew into such an ugly insect, so they decide to learn about the life cycle.

Not only did their poster include the process of a cicada growing from an egg to a nymph to an adult through metamorphosis, but they also each drew pictures individually of an adult cicada. In the corner, they also listed their favorite facts about the cicada. They both expressed that this is the information they want to be using to make our voice thread.

We have already gathered all of the pictures for the voice thread and Maritza and Xavier have helped me write out what they want to say. When I visit the ECDC again on Wednesday, all we will have to do is add the voice to our pictures in order to complete our voice thread.

Here is a picture of the posterboard that Maritza and Xavier completed:

ECDC Service Project Week 2

Wednesday was my first day to meet with the students in the ECDC. I was working with group 7 (Martiza and Xavier) which was assigned the Cicada. During our time in the classroom, I first had them show me their KWL chart from the first day and show me all of the research they had done outside of class time. They did a great job of gathering information and filling out the L column of their KWL. They also had a lot of success looking at pictures of cicadas on the internet and gleaning facts from those. For example, they learning that the cicadas have orange wings and red eyes from this.

After we filled out the entire KWL chart, we started our first blog post. The students were very excited to have their own personal blog and even typed most of the sentences themselves. We then attached their KWL chart to their blog which they thought was amazing. You can see our blog for group 7 here. When we were done with our first blog post, I explained to the children that we would be adding other posts as well and then showed them some voice threads and talked about how we were going to make our own that would be all about cicadas.

I have been in contact with my online partner (Ashlyn) and have discussed how we need to have a storyboard done by the end of Monday's meeting with the children. I plan go to the ECDC again on Monday but I know that this is a large task for only 45 minutes. Because of this, I plan to get as much of the storyboard done with the kids as I can and then pass the file along to Ashlyn so that she can work out all the kinks.

I am excited to meet with the kids again next week. They seem passionate about their research and I think it is fun for them to have us helping out. Hopefully Monday will go just as smoothly as Wednesday!

ECDC Service Project

For my service project, I will be working in the ECDC. Things have not exactly worked out as expected so far since the children have had other commitments to tend to. In the mean time, I have been working on planning and preparing to meet with the students.

An important part of this service project is sharpening our inquiry-based learning skills. I need to make sure that when I meet with the children in the ECDC, I am letting them do their project while I am only there to oversee and spur them on in the right direction. Because of this, I have been preparing many open-ended questions to ask the students so that they can describe to me what they imagine their project to become.

My job is a little different than the people who are working at CCMS because I will not be working with the students outside of the classroom and will not have parental involvement. Since we have not been able to meet the children yet, we have been trying to set up as much of the project as we can without the initial introductions. In order to make our first meeting go smoothly and efficiently, I have already set up the blog space for Ms Reynolds' class so that as soon as the children describe their project ideas to us, we can blog about them on the various blogs set up for the different animal habitats.

Although we have gotten off to a slow start, I think that the service project in the ECDC will be a great success. We will get an opportunity to work with multiple students and help them with their projects while also perfecting our technology skills that we have learned throughout the course. I look forward to meeting the students next week.