Chapter 8
Podcasting, Video and Screencasting, and live Streaming
Multimedia Publishing for the Masses
Reflections: Random thoughts the author has inspired…
In the very first paragraph the author mentions the incredible growth of http://www.youtube.com/ . I love you tube! Extremely creative! Well, I have a connection. Last academic school year, the sixth grade team decided to recreate the theme “Around the World”… Well, my team had to represent Asia. We had a vision for our students to make a thousand cranes. Just a little background on that topic…
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
Cultural significance
Eternal flame of peace, with cranes, in Toshogu shrine, Tokyo, Japan.
Traditional Japanese Origami cranes
A thousand paper cranes are traditionally given as a wedding gift by the father, who is wishing a thousand years of happiness and prosperity upon the couple. They can also be gifted to a new baby for long life and good luck. Hanging a Senbazuru in one's home is thought to be a powerfully lucky and benevolent charm.
Sets of origami
paper are sold widely in Japan, with Senbazuru sets including 1000 (or more, in case of mistakes) sheets of paper, string, and beads to place at the end of each string to stop the cranes from slipping off.
[1] Commonly the cranes are assembled as 25 strings of 40 cranes each.
[1] The size of the origami paper does not matter when assembling a thousand paper cranes, but smaller sheets consequently yield smaller and lighter strings of cranes. The most popular size for Senbazuru cranes is 75 by 75 millimetres (3.0 × 3.0 in). Some people cut their own squares of paper from anything available, such as magazines.
Origami paper used for Senbazuru is usually of a solid color, though printed designs are also available. Larger size origami paper, usually 6x6 inches, often has traditional Japanese or flower designs, reminiscent of
kimono patterns.
The Thousand Origami Cranes has become a symbol of
world peace[citation needed] through the story of
Sadako Sasaki, a Japanese girl who tried to stave off her death from
leukemia as a result of radiation from the
atomic bombing of
Hiroshima during
World War II by making one thousand origami cranes, having folded only 644 before her death, and that her friends completed and buried them all with her. (This is only one version of the story.
Hiroshima Peace Memorial Museum states that she did, in fact, complete the 1,000 cranes.)
Her story is told in the book
Sadako and the Thousand Paper Cranes. Several temples, including some in
Tokyo and
Hiroshima, have eternal flames for World Peace. At these temples, school groups or individuals often donate Senbazuru to add to the prayer for peace. The cranes are left exposed to the elements, slowly dissolving and becoming tattered as the wish is released. In this way they are related to the
prayer flags of
India and
Tibet.
In Western countries, the custom has been extended from giving a
senbazuru to cancer patients, to using them at funerals or on the grave.
Well, back to the story… I bought fancy paper with fancy directions…Well; you guessed it …The process of creating even one crane wasn’t simple at all… So we went to You Tube and found a video on how to make a Japanese paper crane…
How To Make An Origami Peace Crane
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=R9VF3gdf_Hk
What a life saver that was! The students became Origami Masters! Our students decorated our classrooms! The hallways were filled with extra large beautiful white origami cranes all made by sixth grade students. This experience for some students will be one of the most memorable of their academic career.
I love the third grade teacher’s idea of Reading Workshop, where students can think about plot, characters, and themes of books that they read. Excellent, I’d love to try this!
In the area of podcasting I thought of one project students could participate in would be to interview their grandparents about their life when they were a young child. This would be an invaluable experience for the child as well as the grandparent. Also a project that I already do is to have students read biographies, dress up as that person and tell about their life through their perspective. Uniquely, the student would be able to watch themselves after their presentation. One other idea that I thought of would be to have one student be the news reporter and conduct an interview with that famous person that they read about in their biography series. These would in fact be authentic pieces of work as well as a wonderful learning experience. Finally another idea that the author inspired me to think about would be to have students conduct a “Reading Connor”. In other words, students would read their stories, plays, poetry, that they created in class. What a wonderful way to end the academic school year!
To conclude the last idea that the author inspired me to think about was to create a once a week live streaming on “What’s Happening at the Ahern”. The topics that students may explore are what unique learning experiences are taking place in different grade levels and classrooms, during extra-curriculum activities, in the cafeteria, out on the playground and with our specialist teachers too. Watch out the “Daily Two” you just might have some competition!
Signing off till next time…
http://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/b/be/PaperCranes.jpg
