Collaboration Project Reflection

This project and the work involved in getting to the final student product was the most rewarding experience of this course. The curriculum design coupled with the collaboration component and the use of technology created a rich learning and teaching experience for my students, my teaching partners and me. I worked primarily with the music teacher. She taught my students several songs relating to immigration either through different cultures and their music traditions, song generated by immigrants in America and relating to their experiences in a new country, or new music that has been created from the inspiration of early musical traditions brought to America by so many different people and cultures.

There was wonderful addition to the music portion of the unit, our art teacher became involved. She had the students draw still life using antique artifacts that either the students brought from home or she provided. She talked with the students about the special objects the immigrants may have chosen to bring to America and what they may have represented. The students then drew the objects using black ink and either quills or old fashion ink pens just like immigrant children would have used when in an American school learning to read and write English. The student products are outstanding. We have created a wonderful display of the students’ work for the school to enjoy.

The integration of the technology into this unit motivated my students and engaged them in new ways. They were excited about the new skills they acquired; doing screen shots, creating files for images, using a flash drive, creating a PowerPoint, exploring Google Earth, using digital cameras, Photo Booth and working with iMovie. Even though we had a few glitches (mostly printing or connecting to iMovie) the experience for my students was very positive. I was especially pleased the other day when I listened to one of my special education students talk an Ed. Tech. through how to do a PowerPoint slide. Can it get any better than that? Oh, we are going to share our movie with the whole school at an assembly. Yeah!!!!

In thinking about all we did for this project the words; play, imagination, empathy, and creativity keep popping into my head. I loved seeing how my students became immigrants and showed their learning in ways that were empathetic and thoughtful. But at the same time they used their creativity and playfulness to create their movie.
It’s magical when this happens. And I truly believe that working with other teachers who bring their ideas to a unit provides the students with other perspectives and ways to connect to the topic. It’s a richer experience