12 Digital Teachers Trained in Fall of 2007!

Digital Teachers had an exciting semester!

From September to December the project trained a dozen KIPP Bay Area teachers. 5 have implemented in 7 classrooms and have helped produce over 60 films in the areas of Language Arts, Science, and Social Studies!

KIPP House Rock: Science, Writing and Digital Storytelling

Katie Dobroff and Kim Roman started the year with science public service announcements. Three classes of 6th grade students took their digital storytelling skills to teach us lessons on general health, healthy eating, global warming, substance abuse and violence.

Students reviewed each other's work in their homerooms and selected the best films of each class. One student even experimented with scoring his film in GarageBand.

These films were showcased at KIPP Bridge's fall showcase on December 19, 2007.

The Laptop is a Tool for Social Justice

Leyla Akincilar lead her 8th graders at KIPP Bayview Academy through a lesson on social justice and racism in October. While the students were reading Harper Lee's To Kill a Mockingbird, her students created films on various aspects of the Civil Rights movement of the 1960s and on through today. The poems, plays, and raps expressed the students take on Emmitt Till and the Jena 6.

Cinematic and Historical: a Digital Poetry Slam

Elmer Rivera and Jason Patrone of KIPP SF Bay teamed up to have students create poetry films on historical figures. In their English and Technology classes, the 8th graders researched historical figures, took digital photography, and created their own digital artwork with Photoshop Elements to create short poetic dedications to such figures as Madame C. J. Walker, Selena, Leonardo Da Vinci, and Juan Escutia. Their work culminated in an all-class video poetry slam on December 14, 2007 where the students reviewed each others films and selected the best films of the class.

VIP Filmmakers Speak on the Radio and Showcase Their Work

Finally, two of our students were featured at the Streetside Stories Fall Showcase and Holiday Party on December 14. This showcase was a celebration of Streetside Stories work throughout the fall. Each youth artist was recognized with a certificate, a VIP goodie bag, had their work featured in our media gallery, and had the opportunity to appear live on the radio (94.1 KPFA)!

Aster and Ayana were interviewed about their piece Liquor Stores, a short and sobering piece linking liquor stores in West Oakland with violence in the community. They were amazing!

Can Someone Remind Me Again… Why Am I Doing This?

We know you are tired, overworked and overcommitted. Your dedication to your students is unprecedented, which of course, is why you signed up for this. So, before you begin your digital storytelling lesson, you might be interested to know what other participants have said about their classroom experiences. Here are some Digital Teachers’ testimonials to inspire and affirm your commitment to this program.

Once you’ve implemented your digital storytelling unit, please tell the rest of us what it was like. What feedback can you share to inspire, or prepare other teachers for this process?

“Thanks again for providing such an incredible opportunity for me and the kids. I can say without hesitation that this has been one of the best things I have done as a teacher.”

“I had kids become computer wizards, who’d barely touched a computer and they were really able to tap into their creative energy to bring something that was informative and different to their peers.”

“This was especially a privilege, because many of them (students) don’t even own computers themselves. They were able to explore on one-thousand dollar equipment and that must have felt good and given their esteem, to be entrusted with something of great value. I feel that it affirmed that they themselves, are valuable beings, capable of proving themselves trustworthy and responsible.”

“My students and I feel extremely fortunate to be a part of this program. It made better leaders out of all of us.”

“This was, without question, one of the best things I have done as a teacher.”

“This is a great program for our school. I love having the resources to produce film and video and take our technologists to a new level.”

“Our Oscars awards ceremony gave our whole school a great way to celebrate each other and our accomplishments. Thanks for giving us this opportunity.”

“I love using the technology. It was fun to make my movie, and as I did so, I was able to see more and more how ELA standards can be incorporated.”

“I have taken several visitors (to see Digital Teachers) in the last few weeks and every one has remarked on the amazing output not to mention the process.”

“My take on the DSP is that it was a great outlet for our kids to really express themselves in ways they may not have had access to and that to me, is great.”

In the Beginning…

Every good digital story begins with a concept - a small idea, in which your students’ budding creativity is fashioned into brilliant visual imagery, intoxicating voiceovers and carefully edited masterpieces, which emerge as crafted works of digital art. And it all comes down to you (no pressure, right!) How will you engage them… hook them into the content with your own digital story and lesson plan?

Our Digital Teachers implemented a variety of lessons in multiple subject areas, which integrated content standards with core curriculum. Below you will find a synopsis of teacher assignments from 2006-07 used to engage 5th – 8th grade students in their social studies, language arts, performing arts, and technology classes.

Pull out your yearly scope and sequence plans, scour over your unit’s themes, and please add your ideas to this list.

7th grade, Performing Arts
Students created films for a Black Film Festival relating to the African American experience. They chose modern and historical figures as the basis for their stories.

6th grade, Reading
Students were asked to choose one animal and to develop a movie that represented “A Day in the Life…” of that particular animal.

7th grade, Social Studies
Students took concepts from Ancient Rome and related them to modern life.

5th grade, Reading
Students depicted significant events in their lives when a “change” occurred.

6th grade, Writing
Students were tasked with updating School House Rock, by creating PSAs on science concepts.

7th/8th grade, Theatre
7th & 8th graders created music videos for social justice oriented songs that theatre students wrote and recorded in school over the past five years.

7th grade, Technology
7th graders were given the prompt: “I used to be, but now I am…” Students interpreted this phrase in various ways and transformed these personal poems into telling digital narratives about their lives.

5th grade, Reading
5th graders created dynamic poems that used figurative language, including similes and metaphors. The theme was “taking an ordinary object and making it extraordinary.”

6th grade, Social Studies / Technology
6th grade students created real estate ads to convince viewers to move to different kingdoms in Ancient Mesopotamia.

8th grade, Social Studies / Technology
8th grade students adapted written accounts of colonial American conflicts, such as the Revolutionary War and French & Indian War.

5th grade, Writing / Social Studies
Students created powerful stories about the African slave experience, specifically focusing on their journey through the Middle Passage.

7th grade, Technology 

Students created poems for their technology class based on an historical figure. They received the prompt, "This Is A Poem For..." and illustrated their stories using original images created in Photobooth, or edited digital images downloaded from the web using Photoshop.

2007-08 KIPP Digital Teachers Program Kicks Off!

Welcome to another school year, KIPP Digital Teachers!

KIPP Bay Area Schools first implemented Digital Teachers during the 2006-2007 school year, thanks to a generous multi-year grant from the US Department of Education - Office of Innovation and Improvement. Thirteen teachers from four KIPP schools (KIPP Bayview Academy, KIPP Bridge College Preparatory, KIPP SF Bay Academy and KIPP Summit Academy) participated in professional development with Streetside Stories. 5th through 8th grade educators from subjects such as Language Arts, Social Studies, Performing Arts and Technology learned how to integrate Digital Storytelling into their curriculum. Through the guidance of the Digital Teachers Coach from Streetside Stories they implemented Digital Storytelling in 27 classrooms and with almost 700 students. The student production teams created over 250 films!

Our school year culminated with a multi-school film event, the KFAs, where the best digital story of each school was showcased. A panel of community filmmakers and media professionals selected student winners from each of the four schools and an overall KIPP Film of the Year Award.

Watch these nominated films from 2006-2007 that made it to the final round.

For the 2007-2008 school year we've recruited another 20 teachers to participate in our program.

Be on the lookout as our Digital Teachers produce some of the most dynamic academic content with teams of student directors, writers, and artists!

Welcome to the Site!

Hello, and welcome to the Digital Teachers blog. We hope this site will serve as an interactive resource for you while integrating digital storytelling into your curriculum. The goal of our blog is to facilitate peer communication and mentoring among our participants. Given the fact that KIPP teachers are some of the busiest people we know, we wanted to provide a relatively easy and direct means for you to share valuable insights with other teachers - at your own pace and at your convenience.

If you are new to blogging, the simple instructions below will describe the best way to share feedback.

1. Click on the post heading where you'd like to leave your comment.
2. Click on "Post a Comment"
3. Type your comment under: "Leave your comment" section
4. Type in word verification
5. Under "Choose an Identity" - click on Name/URL
6. Type in your Name. Leave URL blank.
7. Click on PUBLISH YOUR COMMENT

Now onto our story...