THIS IS MY LIFE: Week 4: Dust Echoes + M & M Candy Chart

Dust Echoes

http://www.abc.net.au/dustechoes/

The professor introduced us to Dust Echoes which is a website that has beautiful animations of videos done with flash player--- he said that it looks like they probably spent 1000's of hours editing and making the videos what they are.

This program could be important in teaching cultural diversity and the differences between people, places and things in our society. He showed us a video at the beginning of the class called SPEAR which was about envy, law, punishment and reconciliation, factors that can all be used to introduce a community, civics or citizenship block.That was just one video of 12 all of which have different themes. The website explains 12 Aboriginal Stories that are the following:

These videos can be a pre-cursor or the center for almost any subject and or any block. I'll definitely be using these wonderful videos in my classes.

It is helpful also because all these episodes come with a study guide that can be downloaded at http://www.abc.net.au/dustechoes/dustEchoesFlash.htm. Within this study guide there are explinations and supplementary material, such as, worksheets to explain all videos and to help tie themes together. These videos can also be utilized in comparison to different aborignial groups i.e. Australia, Canada, U.S.A, etc...

The professor then told us to choose a video out of the 12 and create a diagram using INSPIRATION 8.0, which we used previously in class. He wanted us to become familiar with these programs so we can use them with our students. So like a student, I chose the Brolga Song out of the 12 Aboriginal Stories, which is a video about relationships and the connections with the natural world.

This video was very beautiful, it was about a boy who was alone but wasn't because he had the natural land with him, where his fathers were. I really enjoyed this story and once I completed the video I noticed that underneath there were a couple of supplementary options to choose from. The first was to 'take a quiz' where students can test thier knowledge about what they saw and the general theme of the video. Second to chose 'match it up' where they can make and watch thier own one minute video.Here is what I made.

The professor also mentioned that once you students completed their diagram using Inspiration 8.0 the teacher could extend the lesson further by getting the students to create their own character and make up story based the theme they want to portray, such as, anger, war, relationships, etc..The students will continue to feel like their opinions are valued and will be engaged.

M & M Candy Color Chart

At the end of the class the Professor introduced us to Microsoft Excel. He wanted to show us how to make charts for our students. So he gave us a handful of M&M's and we had to use Excel to graph the number of M&M's for each color. This lesson can be used at beginner level, by just using the counter chart he handed out to us and also on the computer for more advanced levels. It can be used for literacy and math lessons and here is the chart I made.

Here is the link to the M&M's website http://www.m-ms.com/us/ where you can find fun games and other interesting activities for math or literacy lessons.