Progress Report

It has been a busy week, and every spare moment has been devoted to our book publishing. One of the children (as an author) asked if I (as Mildred) had heard back from Gianni yet, and I suddenly remembered I still had their manuscripts in my bag. So I said I hadn't yet, and then wondered what on earth I will do with them. It is the perfect opportunity to say he only liked one, and all work on that one together. But they have worked so hard on their illustrations while they wait, and they really do look good. So I guess I shall have to make Gianni say he would like the whole set, or series, or whatever a bunch of books is called.
We tried scanning and emailing a couple of finished pages to ourselves, then added text in a shape on the computer using pages. This produced a very professional looking page for one book, and it was awesome because we printed it off and I had it as an example to show another group my expectations - as CEO of the company. This particular group had cut out the text roughly, glued it onto A4 sheets of paper and drawn pretty terrible illustrations with felt tip, no background, no colour, no thought as to how it looked, and then stapled the pages together crooked. I told them it was a great draft, they said it was the finished book, I told them it was rubbish. And then I felt mean. But not that mean, because they'd put in no effort at all. Now that they have seen what other groups have produced, they're using hyperstudio to illustrate, and screen capturing each page to print. Two boys from a different group have joined them, and are using their ICT expertise to show them how. Their work looks a million times better.

An example of a page, so far!

Using hyperstudio to create illustrations

Check out the kina!

Jacob knows what he is doing, he is a bit of an expert!

Ellie is obviously just having one of those days!

A bit of office gossip going on here!

One of the scanned and emailed illustrations. I need to buy another set of watercolour paints.

So now I had best create another fake email and get that sorted for tomorrow. It is so nice to see them working together better in groups.

Photosynthesis

 

My ICT extension group completed their animation about photosynthesis yesterday. We chose photosynthesis as it related to our Inquiry study (with the seaweed being a plant and all) and was a concept the children found difficult to grasp. Not surprising really, since everyone I've talked to reckons they didn't learn about it until high school. But anyway, this is what they came up with.
We used mostly hyperstudio, the absolute best ever software, and put it together on imovie.

Theft of Intellectual Property

Yesterday I went over the Drama Contract again, just to remind them all of our agreement. Then we went into role and began with a staff meeting in the Security Room (yes, that is where they chose to meet) and as we chatted about our progress with the book writing, I looked over to the open laptop and exclaimed, "oh wow, look everyone, an email has just popped up on that laptop over there," to which everyone swivelled their heads to see a printed off fake email blu tacked to the screen.
Another email had arrived from Gianni Amarmy, (Jessica worked out the anagram - Imaginary Man) stating that he would be forced to terminate the contract if we did not get the manuscript into the post by close of business today.
That got them moving!
Frantic word processing (they knew it was only the text that was required) and a bit of a check and they were all ready to go by the end of the day. Finally.
But when it came time to read out their manuscripts, a tension arose. I had been given one groups manuscript to check over, so I copied it and changed the main character from Kylie to Rylie with the twink and a vivid. Then I secretly gave it to another group and asked them to try passing it off as their own work. It went better than I expected. The looks on the faces of the people who originally wrote the text was classic! I was taking photos and trying not to smile. The funny thing was that although the group knew it was theirs, they didn't interrupt or say anything until I asked if something was wrong.
This resulted in a huge discussion about copyright, plagiarism and protecting our work, and how we could prove anything. The company decided that they would fine the group $10 in the end, makes me wonder if they have any concept of value of money, and then we put it behind us. I didn't want it to be an ongoing thing. Interestingly, during discussion afterwards, they asked if this kind of thing happened in real life.

The fake email that popped up. Looks pretty realistic in the photo!

Concerned colleagues, they know they have to get to work!

Watercolours! These illustrations are looking good though!

This group are well under way with their book.

Still typing up a manuscript. And finding rhyming words!

The stolen manuscript. Izzy's face is horrified!

The group look at each other in disbelief. Morgan isn't in this group, but she knows something isn't right.

Still not saying anything, but not quite believing this...

It's word for word, exactly the same as ours!

Izzy gives them a "look"

The accused stand their ground

Confrontation

It's pretty obvious which group own the manuscript, but then again...

I had to put all the photos in so you could see their faces!
Before I go, I just checked my comments. Thanks for the advice, I will think of a team building activity and try it. Although it seems that when faced with a deadline they can work together better. And why does team building make me think of sporty things? I'll try to keep an open mind :)

Strange Coincidences

Not the greatest work ever, but I was just seeing what it could do!

After writing my last post, which included how I was going to show the class an app called Sketches, a funny thing happened. I was working on the ipad (playing Candy Crush) and an ad popped up for a new drawing app for kids called Drawing with Carl. I downloaded the free one and had a bit of a play, then decided to break my rules about purchasing apps and bought the full version for $3.49. It is awesome, but glitchy because it keeps quitting out of what I've done. I expect they'll fix the glitch as it's only a new app. I think the kids are going to love it and can use it for their illustrations for their books if they want to. I had a practise go creating the character for my book and sent it to my email and printed it. It has little mouths you can add which record voices too! I had a bit of fun with that!

And the other funny thing was that when the group creating the rhyming text were trying to create rhymes, they found a site called rhyme zone online. And then tonight I was reading the Interface magazine, and it is mentioned in there!

I also want to say before I go...
I do understand that using the Mantle of the Expert approach is not all about creating an end product, and my last post goes on a bit about an end product, so I will justify why it is important that we produce a book.
The EMR programme is all about marine reserves, and part of the programme is actually taking action. The action we are taking is to publish a book to explain or show something we have learnt or want to promote that relates to marine reserves. And the other reason is because I love doing stuff like that. Wow, I sound so professional in this blog!
I checked out everyone elses blogs too, and I made some very nice professional sounding comments on them all, and I have gained quite a few good ideas for the future, so thank you everyone else!

Not Taking Over

Another week has flown by and I am freaking out a little tinsy bit, I really hope to get these books finished by the end of term. In my head, Room 7 produce a most amazing book, printed, published, gorgeous illustrations, beautifully bound, with a brilliant storyline. In real life Room 7, we now have about 6 books being written, with some strange ideas, illustrations far from what I know they are capable of producing, and one group so intent on making their text rhyme, that the story has changed to fit the poem.
On a more positive note, the children are still very enthusiastic authors and illustrators!
I just wish I could figure out a way to make them see that if they worked together and used the strengths of individuals within the groups, they would be able to achieve something awesome. Right now it's kind of like, yeah, that'll do, but I want it to be more than just 'that'll do' and I know that each group is made up of talented artists, writers, problem solvers and ICT people. Some leadership skills are emerging, with a couple of children delegating jobs within the group, and their books are starting to come together. I hope they all work it out soon! It's frustrating.
I promised myself I wouldn't intervene too much, but I think I'll have to meet with a couple of groups and offer some feedforward that is constructive, without trying to take over. That is my biggest worry, that I'll take over and then it will be my ideas and not those of the children.
I almost did that with the 'rhyming' group, trying to show them how to stick to the story but turn it into a verse. I had used a story with a tragic ending that I'd made up as I went,
 to show them how to create a storyboard. I ended up writing my whole story in verse. Maybe I shall publish mine too :)
We had a visit from Camellia from EMR. She came to see where we were at with our project (out of role) and to congratulate Jessica on winning the Poor Knights snorkeling trip. Jessica didn't know she had won until after the class had presented all of their learning (about marine reserves etc) to Camellia, and when we told her she was so happy she nearly cried. Mrs T and I were so happy we had chosen her, she truly did deserve it.
Next week I am going to show the children this super duper app I have had on the ipad for ages called Sketches. I muck around with it sometimes but the kids don't seem to use it as much as Temple Run and Minion Rush, funny that!  Anyway, they have been using the watercolour paints to create backgrounds for illustrations, I know - watercolour! of all things!
But Sketches have all the watercolour brushes, crayons and pens in one nifty app that is easy to use. I created a couple of images suitable for my book, and then last night I figured out how to email it to my computer so I can print it! I didn't have my email set up on the ipad so I had to do that as well. But I am really excited about this, and can't wait to show the class on Monday, we could illustrate our books with it, and that would be pretty cool!

One team present their 'story so far' to the rest of the company.

Camellia congratulates Jessica

Jessica with her prize info. Look at how happy she is!

In the Holidays...

The magnomen have multiplied! Maybe they aren't all men?

Proud graduates!

Just kidding, I am not going to tell you about the holidays. Except that we returned and were able to get straight back into our company, pretending we'd been on glamorous, expensive, far away journeys, and continued where we had left off.
At the end of last term we had received replies to our letters that we posted to Chris Gurney. She is amazing, she replied to each letter, answering all of their questions (which was probably very repetitive for her as most of the class asked the same or similar questions) and the children were so excited to get real letters in the post!
She also emailed a powerpoint presentation that she uses in schools to show the whole process of writing a picture book. We watched it in role, and the class were very upset about how authors have no say in what the illustrations would be like when they wrote a book. Fortunately in our world we don't have that problem, we can illustrate our book however we like.
I made certificates for the University of Whatif too, and after marking and grading each assignment I was able to give nearly everyone a lovely certificate with an A, B or C grade. Nearly everyone, as a couple had not completed tasks, and one never handed hers in. I felt a bit mean, but then I thought, if it really was real... 
On Monday we called the imaginary DSIR on our imaginary phone, and they sent special containers for us to put our book bugs in. After capturing the bugs we had to call the courier to collect them. The imaginary DSIR wanted live specimens, so we sent two people into the shop to check out the damage first. They gave the all clear signal so we entered the shop and collected the bugs (which we had previously stuck around the classroom written on post it notes) and all I kept thinking throughout the process was that our new girl was probably wondering what the heck we were doing and that maybe her new teacher was a bit mental.
With the bugs gone, and an empty shop, the class were keen to start writing the collaborative book. Gianni had emailed asking what we were doing and we were keen to show him that we were onto it.
Collaborative is like cooperation, which reminds me that during the holidays I saw an original episode of Sesame Street, and Oscar was orange! And cooperation is mentioned like a million times on Sesame Street. Back on track... the class, in role, really do not want to write this book as a whole team. And they want to choose who they work with. And that would be fine if I didn't have 2 children who are consistently left out. So in the end I divided the team into three groups. Group X and Y are fabulous. Group Z are, to put it nicely, a unique group of individuals. Individuals being the operative word. Thinking Interdependently? We shall see how we go.

Brodie reads the printed out email sent from Gianni. He is wondering why we are taking so long to get back to him

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Individual letters from a real live author!

Post it note book bugs

Waiting for the imaginary DSIR to send a courier to collect the book bugs. One got squashed.

Jessica and Nahia are devastated at the destruction of our books.

Although Chris Gurney showed in her powerpoint how she begins to write a book, we thought it would be quite good to outline the story using a story board. This would be a much quicker exercise if we weren't also Striving for Accuracy in our draft copies. I did not ask them to practise this Habit of Mind for this particular task. So far we have gorgeous detailed illustrations and beautiful writing ... in felt tip on newsprint.