Comments on: Conjunction Junction, what’s your function?… http://www.ed421.com/?p=22 Stephanie Sandifer Wed, 08 Sep 2010 20:19:57 +0000 hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.0.1 By: Stephanie http://www.ed421.com/?p=22&cpage=1#comment-9 Stephanie Tue, 25 Apr 2006 15:04:48 +0000 http://sandifermedia.com/ed421/?p=22#comment-9 Wesley -- 1) I'm jealous -- I'm sure the theatrical production you attended was wonderful! 2) Our kids...authoring... I AGREE! It is encouraging that many schools are jumping on the video production bandwagon (although, based on my own experiences in this district, I do have some concerns about who the schools are hiring to teach video and graphics classes)... Music, animation, video, etc... those media are so seductive to our students and the power of these media to engage our students can not be ignored. Content is content -- content (as in "standards") can be delivered in so many different ways. Students producing animations or videos -- to their own catchy compositions on any subject in any class -- will do more to result in deeper learning of the subject matter than the worksheets, TAKS workbooks, and lectures that our students are subjected to day in and day out. The problem of course is "time" -- it takes longer to write a song, or produce an animation, or video than it does to "cover the materials" and have the students do worksheets or workbooks. One personal anecdote -- I've seen students stay on campus past 8:00 pm in the evening -- by choice -- to work on video and animation productions... getting them to stay after school for TAKS tutorials is nearly impossible... Wesley –

1) I’m jealous — I’m sure the theatrical production you attended was wonderful!

2) Our kids…authoring… I AGREE! It is encouraging that many schools are jumping on the video production bandwagon (although, based on my own experiences in this district, I do have some concerns about who the schools are hiring to teach video and graphics classes)… Music, animation, video, etc… those media are so seductive to our students and the power of these media to engage our students can not be ignored. Content is content — content (as in “standards”) can be delivered in so many different ways. Students producing animations or videos — to their own catchy compositions on any subject in any class — will do more to result in deeper learning of the subject matter than the worksheets, TAKS workbooks, and lectures that our students are subjected to day in and day out.

The problem of course is “time” — it takes longer to write a song, or produce an animation, or video than it does to “cover the materials” and have the students do worksheets or workbooks.

One personal anecdote — I’ve seen students stay on campus past 8:00 pm in the evening — by choice — to work on video and animation productions… getting them to stay after school for TAKS tutorials is nearly impossible…

]]> By: Wesley Fryer http://www.ed421.com/?p=22&cpage=1#comment-4 Wesley Fryer Mon, 24 Apr 2006 03:11:32 +0000 http://sandifermedia.com/ed421/?p=22#comment-4 Stephanie: I can still recite most of the Schoolhouse Rock jingles too from my cartoon watching days in the 1970s, clearly these were powerful communicators. I had a chance a year ago to take my family to see a theatrical version of Schoolhouse Rock that was written by students at Texas Tech and performed in their lab theater. It was great, and a lot of fun! I wish companies were sponsoring the creation of more catchy, thematic jingles like this. Of course, our kids should be authoring them too! Stephanie: I can still recite most of the Schoolhouse Rock jingles too from my cartoon watching days in the 1970s, clearly these were powerful communicators. I had a chance a year ago to take my family to see a theatrical version of Schoolhouse Rock that was written by students at Texas Tech and performed in their lab theater. It was great, and a lot of fun! I wish companies were sponsoring the creation of more catchy, thematic jingles like this. Of course, our kids should be authoring them too!

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