Suffern Middle School in Second Life

Crazy busy as always - yet reveling in what sometimes appears to be a chaotic stream of creativity that is Ramapo Islands, more and more of the work being done has been managed by the teachers and students, without me. What do you mean you didn’t need me????? Oh -yeah, well, I guess that was the whole idea … Oh.. OK.

Enter Marc Jaffee, music teacher extraordinaire…

A little bit about Marc.

MArc graduated from Suffern Middle School. Many of his colleagues were his teachers. He is an accomplished musician. Since graduating from Ithaca College with a B.M. in Composition, Marc Jaffee has given over 1000 performances, written and performed nine albums, and composed four musicals. He has also taught over 1500 students and developed a Digital Music program for public schools .
Most recently, Marc was seen in La MaMa Experimental Theater’s Production of Sam Shepard’s “The Tooth of Crime” which received top reviews from the New York Times and The Village Voice.

March has been working with cutting edge technology and has brought his students into the digital music arena with a rigorous curriculum that has resulted in students projects that boggle the mind! When I approached him about the possibilities of using Second Life, he needed all of about 6 minutes of convincing. The minute he learned that his students could stream their compositions into a virtual performance venue he was signed up and on board. the project has now extended itself to an island of shops where the students are learning to market and promote their own music, as well as establish sound business skils. Their shops each house a juke box type vendor where visitors can listen to clips of the compositions and our next step is to link these vendors to an online distribution site. Also planned is an inworld concert which will stream live performances as a culminating event to the school year.

Last week I spent every day in the classrooms with the three groups working on the Digital Storytelling project. Sans our posse (Bernajean Porter, Kevin Jarrett and Marianne Malstrom) the teachers and I were determined to see the project through with the high level expectations set forth from the onset.

Each class I entered the kids were hard at work, at the computers…digging into the nuts and bolts of gathering their resources to tell their stories…Kids were in Garage Band, on the Internet gathering royalty free images, in Second Life capturing machinima and building sets… a gratifying sight indeed..right? Well, in a word, wrong. As I approached each group and listened to their collaboration, it became very clear to me that there was a big problem… True to my coaching, I listened first so as not to shift the ownership of the discussion. After observing a reasonable amount of exchange by the students, I interjected the million dollar question, “Tell me your story?” In almost every instance the kids then launched into a description of what their story would look like - but not one group actually told me a story, no less a story that needed to be told! After a bit of redirection I then asked the second million dollar question, “What is the lesson learned?” Again - blank stares, hedging, and maybe something off the cuff - without conviction without passion resulting in my response—”so what?” Brutal? Yep - that’s my job.

It became clear to me that the product construction had taken precedence over the product development- that the kids were much more comfortable jumping right into the technology than they were with the earnest blood, sweat, and tears of the writing! I saw that the bells and whistles had taken center stage and I knew that substance was now an endangered entity. And so, it was back to square one- writing, writing, and more writing!

Time for a Sheehy soapbox: time for a revisit to purpose and a call to excellence. I remind the kids that they are charged with writing a story that is from the heart, that is told from the emotional self, and is a story that needs to be told. I add that they are again the pioneers, and that the work they are doing will set the stage for the future. Shamelessly I challenge them with the fact that their names are going to be forever attached to this work, and they have an opportunity to create something magical.

They have made wonderful beginnings, through a pretty grueling process, but their stories are still fragmented, and need emotional tension, clear conflict and resolution and most importantly, a lesson learned!

We spend the next two days writing - tugging, pulling, prodding each other to get to the heart of the story - and by Wednesday - I can honestly say - they have arrived. Each group now has a written narrative, with a clear lesson and they are invested in their work. There is a whole different feeling in the room - due to the fact that they know they have fought the hard fight - My job was to cheer them on - to ask the tough questions - to refuse to let them settle for less than their absolute best. Wednesday they moved on to their story boards - painstakingly aligning their stories with their parallel poems, and blocking their scenes and images and sounds to illuminate the story.

Again, the teachers and I support the work but the kids are in charge now - and the snippets of their conversations confirm that they have indeed become storytellers!

Thursday the nuts and bolts begin again - back to the computers, grabbing the digital cameras, resisting the lure of Google images for copyright safe resources and writing their own music in garage band! We have a long way to go - and the teachers are feeling the pressure of curriculum that awaits as time passes. But the work will continue alongside the demands of the next units. The kids show up in the library at lunch, they are logging in from home and the coming week we will be supported in world and via Skype by our incredible support team. Firesabre awaits the list of artifacts and objectives we will need supported and Bernajean, Kevin and Marianne are devoting yet more hours as they can.

We have taken on a mighty, mighty task. We refused the shortcuts. We know the world is watching.

Forgive my disappearance. At some point this last few months I had to step away from many of my projects and endeavors in order to keep vigil with my sister, Mary Jane, as she concluded her days here with us. She lost her battle with lung cancer last Saturday and through the support and understanding of many, I was able to spend that time by her side. For this I am forever grateful.

I am going to direct you now to a blogpost that describes the last weeks at Ramapo better than I could right now. Kevin Jarrett has written an eloquent and extensive report of our latest leg of this incredible journey and I will defer to his energy for now: Please read, “You Got the Love? “

The Tech Club, now up to forty-seven members, has produced some incredible work on our islands. Many of the kids wanted to “own” land but instead were instructed to submit a business plan and if approved they were given a parcel of land of which they would serve as “custodians”. The plan had to support a build that would be beneficial to all of the Ramapo Islands community. Some that were approved are, The Free Foundation, The Community Center, The Amusement Park and now one student has submitted plans to build a Delorean type vehicle- with fueling stations and a race track. Here is the schematic that Struveana submitted:

Here are some pics of Mr. Tepper’s Spanish class project. The kids each created a display for a traditional Spanish celebration - Sweet 15, Day of the Dead, Feast of Three Kings and others. Then they invited the high school Spanish classes to join in a day of virtual celebrations where each student presented the cultural background of the celebrations and how they chose to depict it. Later there was music dancing and burritos and chips and salsa!

Liza Medina concluded a fant astic project today and the kids were set loose for a celebration at teh end of the period. Below are some pics just for fun but check back soon for examples sof student work and the teacher’s reflection!

Liza Medina has designed a project investigating characterization using historical fiction with the central theme of the American Revolution. Students were experimenting today with different looks - and some discovered our colonists outfits!!! Wrong century! Her lesson plan and accounts will folllow but had to get these pics up to brighten your day!

This class was really successful and we will move them to voice next week.

Tuesday and Friday of this week I am spending the day at Suffern High School - working with the 9th graders(who already have accounts from last and some 10th graders (new accounts)in the foreign language classes. Once again, what the momentum to bring the kids in started with a few brave teachers (who succumbed to the pestering pressure of a few good teen avatars!) Kudos especially to Ms. Alessi who teaches Italian. After taking my in-service teacher workshop for SL, she jumped right in developing her curriculum and collaborating with other educators to help develop best practices.

Firesabre, our content creation firm, listened to our ideas for the island and are creating the builds with teacher input including shared photos. Take a look at teh pics to see the rearkable work they do! We have started with basic architecture in the style of the particular cultures each language might represent and along with the kids we will be creating artifacts, holding events and conducting academic exercises. Voice will be enabled on this island but students are only able to “keep their headsets” if they stick to speaking in their language of study. The first exercise the Italian classes will be conducting will take place in the cafe where they will be sordering from a menu and role-playing servers and customers. In addition the kids will be researching differennt regions of Italy in order to identify and recommend cultural artifacts and scearios for the build!

Let me tell ya - Decka has done it again! Her latest and greatest teaching tool, “POINKEY’S PODS” are transforming learning on Ramapo! Here’s how they work:
Like Decka’s Decks, they are enabled by the facilitator and are used to accommodate discussion, only this time, rather than supporting 5-7 avatars the pods are designed to accommodate 1 to 1 discussion and — here’s the clincher—- they are timed so that after a set amount of minutes the chairs reset themselves into a new pod with a new avatar automatically. Kind of like “speed dating!” LOL!

NEWS ALERT!!!! As I was writing this post (SNOW DAY GUILT—-MUST DO WORK! What happens to arrive in my inbox - but a complete write up of the experience from Gayle Yodowitz -. This has inspired me to rename this post - from “POINKEY’s PODS ROCK” to “RAMAPO TEACHERS ROCK” I will writie more later about the technology - but let’s look at what is really important– THE LEARNING! Here it is (yes - Ramapo teachers are amazing!)

LEARNING HOW TO MAP THEIR WAY TO SUCCESS IN SL
Gayle Yodowitz, FACS educator
Darby Wind, SL Avatar on Ramapo Islands
While middle level students are too young to choose a career, it is a great time for them to begin exploring careers. Career planning is a lifelong process, with self-knowledge being the beginning of the journey. The Family and Consumer Science curriculum for 8th graders at Suffern Middle School consists of Career Exploration and Financial Literacy. The career exploration unit addresses three questions: Who am I? Where am I going? and How do I get there? The first question involves many self-assessments taken by students from a variety of sources that help them identify aptitudes and particular aspects of their personality. The assessments generate lists of potential careers. Many students are surprised to see some of the jobs on their list. However, when they compare and contrast their personality characteristics with the responsibilities of the listed jobs, they begin to see that although the jobs may be worlds apart, the types of people geared for each job share similar interests and characteristics. A quote I like to discuss with the students is “Do what you love and love what you do.” and how they have the ability to find a career that makes them happy, successful and financially supports their lifestyle.
At this point, the students select a career they would like to learn more about. This is just some basic research- job responsibilities, advantages, stressors, related jobs and job outlook for the future. We discuss how technology might impact their career in the future. The students also research a college or vocational school that will provide them the education needed for their researched career using an online post secondary search website. Embedded in this search are understandings about admissions expectations, expenses and ways to finance their education. Lastly, I have the students examine the high school curriculum book to become familiar with, not just the required courses for graduation, but also all of the electives available. If students have an interest in engineering, film directing, sports broadcasting, writing or being the next top chef, they should know what electives might be offered that could give them a snapshot of a career in that area. Students also check out the high school activities book to see what clubs or sports they can join.
Okay, so here is where SL comes in! As part of their assessment, students (avatars) play the role of interviewer and interviewee “in world”. Before the interviews take place, students spend the first week in SL developing the following skills: changing their avatar’s appearance (be unique but appropriate- like in the real world), be able to navigate around the islands by flying, walking and TPing, join the Group, make friends, communicate in world (via instant message (no problem Ms. Y!), chat and creating a note card), using the camera to take a snapshot of themselves and uploading it to their profile.
Now, they are ready to be interviewed about what they learned through class activities and research. Students have learned about Costa’s Levels of Questioning and have developed interview questions for all three levels. I have taken their questions and put them on a note card that is sent to the Group to be used during the interviews. While developing these skills in the virtual world, students must work on being good listeners so they can follow directions, use their critical thinking skills to troubleshoot and solve problems and work in a collaborative atmosphere.
Chaser Brody, my SL guru and mentor, offers me the opportunity to use these awesome pods that allow avatars to interview each other in pairs. Every five minutes the pairs automatically swap to new avatars. Being one who thrives on cutting edge opportunities, I accept!

Chaser facilitates Poinky’s Pods with my class of avatars- and they’re off into space to complete their assessment…in their favorite mode of conversation- Instant message style! Before the class ends, students create a new note card (naming it with their class period and real first name); copy and paste the “IM interviews” into the note card and drop it in my inventory. Now, using a rubric, I will grade their work based on two roles- the interviewer and the person being interviewed. As a result of this process, students have had to take what they have learned and share that knowledge with others. They have had to “think on their feet”- not knowing what questions they will be asked, but being able to address each question because they prepared for the interview by creating the questions and practicing interview techniques. Using Costa’s Levels of Questioning challenges students in higher level thinking skills.
As an aside, there were some glitches. The pods in one class initially went up, leaving some avatars without an interview partner. Someone, by accident, stepped on a power cord and turned off an entire row of computers. Two students were off task. However, just like in the real world, we addressed each issue, resolved it, learned from it and moved on.
Wait a minute! Isn’t everything the students accomplished and learned considered transferable skills for the future? You bet they are! A recent survey of business leaders identified the top qualities that employers look for in potential employees are- communication skills, a capacity to learn, critical thinking skills and ability to work with others. Didn’t this project enable students to learn how to map their way to success using 21st century literacy skills? Absolutely! I hope they think of me and Chaser someday when they are in SL being interviewed by a college admissions person or at a global conference representing the company they work for!

(Students will soon be writing their reflection about the career project. Then, they will start their entrepreneur project in SL. I can’t wait- and neither can they!)

Peggy’s note: Reflections will be posted ASAP and photos are coming as soon as we get back into school!