Content/Action
Here you will find the EEV collaboration called Just Imagine that I have worked on over the course of the program. My group happened to continue the initial work from year one into year two, culminating in June 2006.
Collaboration Project
The collaboration project here was worked on by three different members of the TEAM program. They were Jeannine McGorisk, Margaret Ryan, and Nancy McGuirk. We created a site that would engage students and take them to places they might only be able to imagine in their minds. It was our mission to create a fun, student oriented place for children, teachers, and parents to find out more about the following topics. The topics in the site include Art, Poetry, Lifestories, Castles and Underwater. The project was developed over one and a half years. During that time our group developed our skills and felt more and more passionate about what we were trying to accomplish. Our project has been a great asset to the curriculums we teach. They include 6th, 7th and 8th grade ELA, 6th grade Social Studies, and elementary level Art. Click below to view the Just Imagine website.
Outcomes
Limerick images and Medieval shields
I love this project because it was student made. I value real, authentic work. We studied limericks as part of a unit on Poetry where we were able to use the Just Imagine website as a resource (G2-4). Students were made aware that their own limericks and images would be added to the website with the other types of poems (SV). We also used a site called Giggle Poetry as a resource for how to write limericks which was very helpful, as well as being a fun site to visit for its activities (G1-1, G2-5). We studied a third site, The Guinness Book of World Records, to get ideas for some fun and outlandish ideas for individual limericks that were written by the students. Because my class has 6 Inclusion students and an ESL population I was aware of the need to guide them carefully through the process. They needed individual attention and examples so they could create their own version of a limerick (G1-7). As they completed their work it was so exciting to scan in the images they drew for their poem. I was able to use my previous skills from Fireworks to insert images and poems (HM15). I did learn how to scan images which was a great skill to learn for the future projects I work on like the Medieval shields (G1-5).
Video ( Leonida, Peter, Joe/Eoine)
This was a major collaborative project that was a good example of making students aware of cultural differences and how to listen with empathy to stories of other people’s lives (G1-8, HM5). It took all three of us in my collaboration group to get the best results from this segment and the videotaping required. We worked hard at all the different steps involved in the pages associated with Leonida (G2-1,). In hindsight, we all had important roles, which arose somewhat naturally, but were needed at the same time for the project to work and reach completion. It really was a good example of Senge’s 5 disciplines at work (PM, MM, TL, SV, ST).
This was quite an inspiring story that led me to want to do more with the project. I think this topic could have taken on a life of its own. It was very rich material that was dealt with in a careful way due to the nature of the topic (G1-3). Leonida did get emotional at certain points in her discussion. In developing the pages for the website we had to agree on how we were going to present this story and what ideas we wanted to elicit from the students. This took a lot of planning, questioning, and thinking (MM, H13, H14). Learning how to incorporate video and use appropriatate programs to do so was valuable. It made me want to continue with the idea of lifestories and skills learned. I did so by interviewing Peter, and then Joe and Eoine (G2-5).
Just Imagine
My collaboration group was an excellent example of how systems thinking can work productively (G1-6, ST). We were a small system, however very functional. I was really able to develop my skills both technically and educationally during the project. A tool that was used that was so beneficial was the QuickTopic site that I used with my group. We never could have accomplished what we did without being in constant contact with each other which the QuickTopic site allowed us to do (HM2). I felt very comfortable with my group even though we had times where we got discouraged or felt immense pressure to complete sections of the site. Overall I am amazed at all that we created all by ourselves. I never would have guessed two years ago that Just Imagine would be what it is today (HM8)!