Date

Activity

Description

8/31/05-9/9/05

Laying the Groundwork

• Define Community

• Define Teaching

• Compose a list of important places in our community (places outside the classroom where learning happens)

• Compose a list of teachers in our community

Have students look up community and teaching in the dictionary. Share definitions. Share prior knowledge and create a collective defintion to display in the classroom. This can happen at the same time as a difinition for the “classroom community” is created.

Generate lists of important places and people in the community with an emphasis on where learning happens. This should be really open ended. Make giant lists on chart paper. Display the lists.

9/6/05-9/9/05

Selecting Teachers from the Community

• Students should choose first and second choices of people they want to learn about, interview and celebrate.

• Students will write about what that person does and teaches in the community.

• Students will generate a list of at least six questions They want to ask the people they chose.

Students will use a worksheet to begin to think about a single person in the community as a teacher. They will begin to see how one person really gives to a community. They will start to develop questions and explore what they want to know.

9/12/05-916/05

Planning the Interviews

• Schedule interviews

• Learning about digital photography basics

• Question Revision

• Establish interview procedure

Students will contact potential interviewees by phone to schedule an interview for the following week. Parents knew about this project before school even started, so some interviewees were already aware of the project. Students let the interviewees know about the project and make appointments for interviews.

Students take a 30 minute workshop on digital photography with Maria Foreman, our librarian and media specialist.

Students revise their questions so that they are more open ended. They convert yes/no questions into ones that can prompt lengthy responses and story telling.

Students create up the stages for doing an interview (with a lot of teacher input).  This will be composed on chart paper. An interview check-list will be generated from this discussion.

9/19/05-9/23/05

Interviews

Students will conduct digitally  recorded half hour interviews. They will then take digital photos of their interviewees.

9/23/05-10/28/05

Process Writing- Our Towns in the Future

Students will do a process wrting piece about their vision of a wonderful future for their towns.

Early October

Audio and Photo development and Processing

• Students will learn how to download their pictures onto a laptop computer.

• Students will take a digital  audio editing workshop

There will be a photo development/ downloading station in the classroom. Students will download their images, select and print them.

Students will attend an audio editing workshop with John Harrison (music teacher). This will allow them to select the pieces of their interviews that they want to incorporate in the final slideshow.

Throughout October

Students will collect images and artifacts of their interviewees.

Students will be able to borrow the school camera to visit their interviewees at home/work and take pictures of them. They can also collect artifacts from that person to incorporate in their final project.

10/17/05-10/18/05

Town Murals

Students will paint large murals of their towns. These murals will be the backdrops for their house sculptures.

They can sketch the general outlines of the towns by tracing the lines on large pieces of paper projected from overheads of town maps. They can fill in the details with collage, paint, etc…

10/24/05-10/28/05

House Sculptures

Students will design houses dedicated to and inspired by their interviewees. They will adorn them and fill them with photos and artifacts.

10/14/05-10/28/05

Digital Slideshow

Students will meet with Maria Foreman to incorporate the audio and images they want to include in their culminating slideshow.

10/28/05-11/2/05

Audio Reflection

• Students will write about what kind of teacher they are (or want to be) in their community.

• These will (hopefully) be digitally recorded as a separate audio piece.

Students will be publishing their process writing pieces and doing their house projects in class. They reflection writing may have to happen at home as a homework assignment. They can read key parts of their writing into the digital recorder to create a second final audio piece.

11/3/05 • 6:00 PM

Twinfield Union School Library

Teachers in the Community Celebration

• Potluck

• Sculpture exhibit

• Slideshow and audio presentation

Students can bring a dish to share. Some of the students want to bring their interviewees’ favorite dishes. The mural and houses will be on display. There will be a showing of the slideshow and audio refection followed by eating.