The Power of Pink, Video #2

This is the story of what I went through the year I got my pink slip. While that seems like such a normal thing nowadays, for me, it was a year that I will never forget.

Chapter 13 Reflection, The Digital Storytelling Toolbox: The Tools Teachers and Students Need to Tell Digital Stories

After going through the actual video production process this past week, I was reminded about how much actually goes into the making of a video. Then after reading chapter 13, I was reminded about why I often stress about this whole process. Ohler talks about how there are always new and updated products coming out related to software, etc., and how it’s basically impossible to stay up-to-date with all of that ever-changing information. He also mentions how so much is available if you spend a little time searching for it online...and that right there is my main problem. I always want to find the best possible program or product for whatever it is I’m doing, and spend WAY too much time online during these searches of mine. Looking for programs, reading specifications, going through the reviews, debating on price...that time adds up so fast! I appreciated Ohler’s suggestion to make a deal with yourself that, “you will spend no more than X amount of time looking for something,” (Ohler, 2008, p.167), but wonder if I would actually be able to follow that piece of advice. For the sake of this class, I am actually going to try that though, and when working on our videos, I am going to try to specify a short amount of time that I can spend doing my searches, after which I need to decide on something and just go with it. In a few weeks, we shall see whether I can actually succeed with that goal!

The other thoughts I had while reading this chapter involved all of the different suggestions Ohler had on specific materials. I feel like I have a lot of the basic technology needs for my classroom, but definitely am guilty of wanting more even though it really isn’t necessary. I feel a little silly admitting it, but all of Ohler’s explanations and talk about the wireless microphones is really making me want to invest in one...like now! I’m not even entirely sure what a wireless mic is (obviously I have an idea, but I’m having trouble picturing using one with students, and just am not sure about the look, ease of use, etc.), but now I really want to get one to use in my classroom as I attempt to start some DST in the near future. Luckily Ohler also has his list of resources in the back of the book, so I will give that a look before I decide on anything. It just seems like having one of these could really help make the DST process easier, and with younger kids, I am all for anything like that! So overall, I definitely fell into the category Ohler talked about of people who want the new gadgets, but because of his other good suggestions, I think I will be able to make some good decisions about what I need or just want, and then go from there. 

Chapter 12 Reflection, The Media Production Process, Phases II-V: From Preproduction to Performance

After reading through chapters 11 and 12, I feel that I have a pretty good basic understanding of Ohler’s five phases in the media production process. Nothing seemed too out of the ordinary, and I wasn’t left with too many questions just reading about the different steps. However, even while reading the explanations, I found that I was making internal comments to myself that certain bullet points seemed a little unnecessary, or not entirely essential for all projects. One example would be the first bullet in phase II, developing a media list. While I do feel that this is important, actually writing all of those things down just seems counterproductive to getting the project done. Yes I could take time to write it all out, but when time is limited, as it always is in a classroom, I’m not sure I (or my students either) would need to take the time to carry out this entire step. Ohler mentions, “Don’t be surprised when students don’t want to spend a lot of time with this step,” (Ohler, 2008, p. 150). It’s hard for me to want to persuade my students to do that though, when I’m not entirely convinced of the process either.

Then, after going through the media process myself today, I found even more areas that just did not work for me personally. Going back to phase I, I understand the story planning phase is necessary as far as generating ideas and solidifying the story core, story map, and storyboard. However, it seems a bit backwards to me trying to write out the whole storyboard if you are using media (pictures or videos) that is already available.  I fully support the story core and story map process, and felt that it definitely helped me narrow down my focus, and give me a more clear idea of what I was doing for my video. But I didn’t agree with the story board process being done at that point, as I already had the pictures that I was going to use. My story was clear, and I knew generally what images I wanted. But to write it out on paper would have meant changing things, drawing arrows, spending a TON of extra time that I didn’t have trying to get my thoughts in order. Instead, I deviated from the rules a bit, went through my pictures, created a folder for images that I knew I definitely wanted to use, and then put them in order directly on the computer. I felt that was a form of storyboarding that worked for me, although it was going against what Ohler mentions, as I was using technology before I was supposed to. It worked though...as I then was able to go to the written story board and just begin coming up with my narration that would go along with my images. I didn’t draw the pictures because I had them right there on my screen. But I used the written story board to help with that part, which seemed to work for me.

As far as phase III goes, I found that this part was almost done for my simple story, since I had already gone through the process when I found and ordered all of my pictures. I just had to simply add them into the movie maker, and I was good to go. For more complex videos, I would take more time with this step adding music or recorded narration. But my thinking is that if we kind of merge phases II and III using technology, we can save time, and streamline the whole process. That’s how I felt it worked for me as I would have wasted SO much more time if I hadn’t been able to get the pictures together right on my computer.

Finally, phases IV and V weren’t too tricky either since I already had the information ready to go. I found that for Windows Live Movie Maker, adding the transitions and effects that I wanted FIRST was the way to go. When I added my captions in and then changed the slide duration or transition time, it messed around with all of my captions. When I redid it and saved the captions for the end, I didn’t have that problem at all. Lesson learned! As far as the performance phase, I was able to upload my project onto my blog fairly easily, and all in all, I found that going through this process was helpful for me to see what worked for me and what didn’t. I know every project will be different and when working with students, this is always true anyways. But I do feel that I learned a lot and have much more respect for the storytelling process as a whole now!

All About Me, Video #1

This is my first attempt at making a video using Windows Live Movie Maker. Although it doesn't tell an entire story, it does give everyone a brief glimpse into my life, and what is most important to me. My family, my dance background, and my life as a teacher all helped mold me into the person I am today.

Chapter 11 Reflection, The Media Production Process, Phase I: Developing the Story

In section III of Ohler’s book, he begins to explain the process of Going Digital, and starts with phase 1, the story planning phase, of his media production process. Like many others have already posted, I was reassured with the beginning of this chapter, as Ohler explained that with just a little training, every teacher could produce a reasonable digital story, (Ohler, 2008, p.132). While the digital process is important, none of it will work without the basic elements of a story, which is why phase one is so important in order for the whole project to actually work. It helped me to see the Media Production Process chart on p.134 (Figure 11.1), as it gave me the basic elements that would be covered in each phase, something I often need before I can focus on any one section. And then, Ohler gave a specific example of that chart in use with a real classroom project, Figure 11.2, which is the other thing I usually need before anything will make sense, (Ohler, 2008, p. 136). I often have a hard time really beginning a project if there are no examples of past completed projects, not because I want to copy what was done, but because I need something concrete to show me what I’m working towards. For that reason, I’m grateful that Ohler included this section in the chapter.

Ohler went on to explain the many steps in the story development process, using Figure 11.3 to depict the actual process, (Ohler, 2008, p.142). While all of the explanations were helpful for me to understand how I would actually try to create this process in my classroom, I couldn’t help but feel quite overwhelmed at the amount of work that even simple DST projects require. It’s not like I thought they were simple, but this chapter is basically only covering the very beginning of the entire process, and with my third graders, I can imagine this taking absolutely forever! That scares me! However, I know that I need to remember that everything is adapted based on the age and experience level of the students we are working with...but it’s hard to remember that when I think of my students who still struggle writing sentences!

I think I’d obviously have to adapt the story development process by giving a lot more specific instruction, either whole class, or in leveled groups. I would also most likely have to keep everything either written or oral for this first part, as including technology at this point might just destroy the project before it had a chance to even start. With work though, I can definitely see my students getting more adept at this process, and the effect it would have on their writing in general would be huge! More than anything, that is something I took from this chapter, how important the writing piece is to all of this. Since that is one of our biggest daily struggles in my class, I can definitely see how using DST to inspire them to improve their writing skills would be a very beneficial thing!

Chapter 10 Reflection, Other Kinds of Stories: Other Story Forms and Story Perspectives

I found this chapter to be a bit different than the previous chapters as it delved into parts of storytelling that we often forget about. Ohler took the time in chapter 10 to discuss some other ways of storytelling, even though he expressed his reluctance to do so, at the risk of risking sounding too inept, (Ohler, 2008, p.124). This was appreciated, as I know I do the same thing in my teaching all the time, skipping over the areas that I’m not totally comfortable with, simply because I don’t want to teach something “wrong.” But Ohler is right when he says that by at least talking about it a little is better than not mentioning it at all. While I’ve read some other postings by those in our cohort about the use of art stories and music videos, I thought I would pick another area of this chapter that connected with me on a more personal level.

His description of stories told by indigenous tellers was interesting, as it made me think about some of what I teach each year with regards to Native Americans, and a field trip we often take to the Maidu Interpretive Center in Roseville. My third grade class just went on this field trip a couple of months ago, and the kids got to visit the Maidu Indian museum as well as travel along the trails of land that was actually used by the Maidu Indians so long ago. They got to see petroglyphs carved by the Indians and heard stories about Native American tails. I’ve gone on this field trip six times over the years, and each time the kids seemed to gain something different from the experience. Reading this chapter made me think about our trip this year though, as one of our docents took the time to tell my class a story during their museum tour. I’ve never had one of our docents do this, and the effect it had on my class was immense. Just by putting on a hat and wagging around an animal tail while telling this ancient story, my kids were truly enthralled. Of course, the docent did a great job with the telling of his story, and luckily it was “Western” enough to make sense to my third graders.

At the end of the day when the kids were asked what their favorite part of the whole trip was, the vast majority of my class chose the story they were told...and there were a lot of other exciting things that they got to partake in throughout the day, so this was a bit of a surprise. But it made me realize what Ohler was getting to in this chapter, that no matter what kind of story it is, the interest is definitely there. Stories can stick in our minds far longer than simple facts will, and this was definitely true with my class on their field trip. They remember a few things from the day, but the one they still enjoy talking about was that silly story. It kind of makes me smile thinking about how simple it was for them to find enjoyment, and how I need to definitely try to utilize that thinking in my teaching as much as I possibly can. And just like Ohler mentioned, exploring the area we live for native storytellers is a great way of helping kids connect to the world around them, (Ohler, 2008, p.126). I know the impact the Maidu Center docent had on my class, and can only imagine how they would react if we were able to find more native storytellers to help them connect to our environment.

Chapter 9 Reflection, More Story Maps: From Aristotle to Present Day

It was interesting to read chapter 9 and then read the posts from others in our cohort, as I found that the information I took from the chapter actually was unlike a lot of what others got from it. While the concepts were the same, the various opinions about the range of story maps were quite different, and that really shows what it is like in real classrooms. What works for one student might be of no help to another, and what confuses some kids completely might be the one example that finally clears something up for someone else. I appreciated that Ohler took the time to give a variety of other examples of different kinds of story maps because this really is how the real world is; we have to seek out the examples that make the most sense to us personally, and just agree that not everything will work the same for all people.

The first example of Aristotle’s dramatic diagram, (Ohler, 2008, p. 115) was of no help to me at all. I actually sat there for quite a while trying to understand how it was supposed to help me before I decided that it wasn’t worth it, and I should just move on. My brain just didn’t connect with that example. At that point, I was a little discouraged about what the rest of the chapter might be like, but luckily did find some story map examples that made more sense to me and the way I think. While the simplified Joseph Campbell map was a little easier to understand, it still didn’t connect with how my brain works, but when I finally got to the Treasure Map Story Map diagram, (Ohler, 2008, p. 116) I found one that seemed to agree with my thinking style. Because I look at stories from beginning to end, and always visualize some sort of line, the use of the peaks and valleys throughout the story line really helped me visualize what was going on.

After reading through this chapter, I was reminded again of how important differentiation is in the classroom, and how not going out of our way to provide numerous examples of the concepts we teach could be confusing the students that we are simply trying to help. If those of us in our cohort could have so many differences of opinions about which story maps work for us, the same would be true in the typical classroom. And unfortunately, because our time is so limited in the regular school day, I know we don’t all have the time to differentiate instruction as much as we might like. But this chapter did a good job of helping me see the importance of trying my best to always reach as many students as I can, just as Ohler did by explaining so many varieties of story maps in this chapter.

Chapter 8 Reflection, Transformation Formations: How We, and the Characters in Our Stories, Change

In chapter 8, Ohler does a good job explaining how the transformation process can affect characters in the storytelling process. While he gives many different examples of ways of understanding the concept of transformation, the simple definition that stuck out to me was that transformation was, “slaying internal dragons through attitude adjustment based on learning and realization,” (Ohler, 2008, p.107). We can try to explain the process of transforming to our students, but I found this simple definition to be very succinct and to-the-point, something that is necessary when working with younger kids in today’s world.

Since a lot of people have already talked about Ohler’s description of how Bloom’s taxonomy can correlate to different levels of transformation, I thought I would focus on the beginning of the chapter and Ohler’s identification of his eight levels of transformation. While I do have a lot of experience as a teacher using Bloom’s taxonomy levels, I found Ohler’s eight levels of transformation and his explanations for them to be make a lot of sense. Actually, I think I connected more with his levels than I did with Bloom’s hierarchy provided. I appreciated the specific explanations, and the categories seemed to be more appropriate for making sense to younger children. I feel that I would have an easier time explaining how characters transform through ways of inner strength or moral issues, rather than trying to explain about Bloom’s analysis or synthesis examples. Yes, it could be done, but simply for ease of use with the younger children I work with, Ohler’s levels just appeal more to me at this time.

I can see how using Ohler’s levels of transformation, kids could really gain a better understanding of how characters actually transform throughout a story. It really helps me to see specific examples of stories or movies that depict the exact levels, and I would absolutely need to do that with kids in my class. To best make it work for younger kids, I would probably look for popular kid movies that my students are interested in, and then apply each of the levels to some kind of transformation a character made in that story. The ones Ohler used were helpful when I knew of the movie, such as the example from the movie Dirty Dancing, but when I hadn’t see the movie, I was left just trying to make that connection on my own, (Ohler, 2008, p.109). Actually, for my students, I think I would almost have to have a variety of examples ready so that I would hopefully be able to reach as many kids as possible. Since this is how I learn, using examples to make everything make sense, I would probably start with that in my own classroom as well.

Chapter 7 Reflection, Story Planning Considerations: Tips, Techniques, Lessons Learned

Chapter seven covers so many different lessons that Ohler has learned about the story planning process, and would be very helpful for any teachers hoping to truly implement this process in their classrooms. Just like in most good classes, Ohler began by explaining how he taught his information and broke it down so readers/teachers can truly see his procedures. I found many different strategies and ideas that could be used in any classroom or with anyone interested in the art of storytelling. Anyone that has tried to teach kids how to write a story knows that coming up with ideas, brainstorming, understanding the elements of a story, etc. are very difficult for them to do on their own. They need a lot of repetitive practice and constant examples to help them through this process, and Ohler’s information in this chapter does a great job with that.

My favorite section of this chapter was his part about finding stories as this is what gives my students (and myself actually) the most trouble. When kids are told to write a story, some of them will just start writing with a million ideas flowing through their heads. But many others just sit there staring at the paper without a single thought to put on the page. I struggle with this in my teaching, and the questions Ohler used to help get ideas flowing helped me see that I could do the same thing in my classroom. However, I do wish that Ohler had provided more examples of more specific questions as this really is an area that I think my students will have a problem. He stated that after he had asked a few clarifying questions that he found, “...that it doesn’t take much for the ideas to begin to flow,” (Ohler, 2008, p. 98). Unfortunately, I’m not sure that would work with my third graders, and think younger kids would probably need a little more specific guidance to get them on the right track. I still appreciated the section though because it made me think more about how I could come up with more ways of helping my students.

Finally, I found the last page of the chapter to be very true, and reading Ohler’s thoughts about following and breaking the rules definitely made me think about my own teaching over the years. Ohler was describing an event from a photography class he took where the instructor went over all of the specific rules that must be followed, but then gave an example of something that broke all of those rules. His instructor then stated, “Break the rules after you understand them and can use them effectively,” (Ohler, 2008, p. 106). That simple statement given by Ohler’s instructor truly speaks to the learning curve of teaching anything. I remember my first two years of teaching making sure I did absolutely everything by the book! My teaching partner laughed at me and was often annoyed that I wasn’t willing to break the rules with him, but because I was still learning and under a great deal of observation, I felt the need to do things the way I was told to. However, just a few years down the line, I quickly realized that some of the things I was doing were not necessarily the best way to do them, and have since changed a lot about the way that I teach, effectively “breaking” the rules. We obviously can’t do this just on a whim, for no reason, but I think knowing and understanding when to “break” the rules is a very valuable teaching skill, and one that can help mean the difference between students producing “okay” work or “exemplary” work. I’m happy Ohler ended this chapter that way, as it really made me stop and think about my teaching, ways I have changed over the years, what I can do differently now, and how I can teach better in the future.

Chapter 6 Reflection, Applying Story Maps: Seeing the Core, Mapping the Story

When I first started reading chapter six in Ohler’s book, I struggled a bit with the visual story portraits shown as examples of his previously explained stories. While I had understood his references to the stories, seeing the story portraits/story maps written out didn’t really help me understand what his point was. However, since I know that I often don’t understand the visual representations that work for some (such as concept maps), I continued reading in hopes that something would make the reading more clear. For that reason, I was happy when I got to the very next section, as I felt the part about him telling the story he shares at workshops he teaches was the most valuable section in the chapter. In this story that he tells out loud in typical storytelling fashion, Ohler leads his participants through the process of story mapping, and helps them to see the value in the steps he takes to create his stories (Ohler, 2008, p. 89).

Although I have read some other comments by colleagues who didn’t necessarily appreciate the tediousness of his telling of this story, I actually found it very valuable, and the most interesting part of this chapter. Yes, the way that he left sections out and changed parts made for some moments of wondering where he was going, but I found it very similar to what teachers need to do to reach students in classrooms every day. It really helped me to go through that process with him, and related that back to how it would work in my own classroom with my own students. Ohler stated at the end of this chapter that if we had heard a lecture about a similar topic, we most likely would have forgotten it in a week, but that there was a good chance we would remember his story (Ohler, 2008, p. 94).

He was so right, and that is exactly the struggle I feel teachers need to go through to find the best ways to get kids to remember the information they need to learn. We can lecture all day every day, but the kids most likely won’t remember much at all. But if we can somehow change that lecture into something interesting, a story perhaps, or an activity, anything really that will capture their attention, then we have a much better chance of them truly learning. That simple fact is what I appreciated most from this chapter, because it really reminded me about how important that aspect of teaching is when kids are learning something such as storytelling.

Chapter 5 Reflection, Thinking About Story: The Story Core, Story Mapping, Story Types

Chapter five in Ohler’s book contained a wealth of information about how to start thinking like a storyteller. All of the information provided about good traits in stories, the guidelines for a story core, and the uses for storyboarding and story mapping, are necessary when beginning to delve into the world of digital storytelling. I appreciated all of the background knowledge about the story core, especially about the explanation of the problem/solution part being something like the new you/old you (Ohler, 2008, p. 73). Trying to get that very basic part of a story to be understood by young children is very difficult, and some of the examples provided by Ohler could definitely help when working with children just beginning their journey of storytelling.

The other part of the chapter that really stood out to me as valuable for teachers was the section on story mapping. As I was reading it, I kept thinking that there was going to be some grand and elaborate new way of teaching that Ohler would end up explaining. I thought that maybe his depiction of story mapping was somehow going to be very different from the way teachers everywhere have to teach it every day. However, I found that there really wasn’t any fantastic epiphany, and that although his examples of story mapping weren’t exactly the same as what I teach in third grade, they truly were very similar. This made me feel very good! Teaching third graders to write stories when they are still struggling with writing basic sentences, paragraphs, etc. can be quite challenging. Using story maps though has always been a way that we try to get them to understand the parts of a story, what the problem is, how important the characters are, etc. It’s not really something that is stressed in most of the curriculums I’ve used, but is something that I’ve had to teach nonetheless, because my students needed that background knowledge to be able to begin their writing. And it was very nice to read that what we have been doing was something that has actually been proven to work!

I felt that all of the information in this chapter was very useful as it reminded me about the values of using story mapping in my classroom, and why it can truly help the kids we are teaching. Over the years, I think I have lessened my use of story maps due to lack of time for what was actually part of the curriculum, but now remember why they were so important in the first place. I saw again by Ohler’s explanations of the story elements how kids can benefit when they are explicitly taught these specific skills. And I also found that I absolutely understood and agreed with Ohler’s clarification about why he discourages students to use computers when creating story maps (Ohler, 2008, p. 80). Obviously with kids who are still learning to write, it is hard enough just to get their thoughts on paper, let alone trying to get them on a computer. But truly, even for older kids and adults, having the ability to just sketch things out, using pictures or words, is definitely an invaluable tool. It really does save time later on, and not having the hindrance of trying to make things perfect on the computer is so helpful as well. Any of us who struggled with the creation of concepts maps using computers would definitely understand that sentiment very well!