October has been a tech step focused month for me. I spent a little over 2 weeks with my 7th grade students working on fact and fiction (our Social Studies tech steps). I really worked on trying to take the time to truly incorporate the content with the project. In the past, I used a very generic concept that really didn't fit in to my content. I focused on the area of culture and used this tech step to teach it. This tech step helped me realize that the tech steps project overall can be used to enhance content and not just an something extra for us teachers to do.
Another fantastic project that I worked on this year that seemed to take flight was my scary movie project in my 7th grade Reading class. After the students learned about the basis elements of literature - conflict, suspense, foreshadowing, climax, the introduction and the resolution. Students were given the task to create a scary movie plot - but only the climax was to be filmed. The students (in small groups) had to create a written introduction that would be filmed wuith one character speaking - they were to incorporate an element of foreshadowing - as well as a written resolution which would be spoken at the end and would tie up loose ends. Then they had to write a script for their climax which built suspense and lasted 2-3 minutes long. This was a great way to examine whether students had understand the concepts that were introduced. We will actually be watching the films this week and my students are extremely excited and were excited throughout the entire process.
