First Grade Video Project
The first graders have been talking about a video project. It has something to do with Disney Princesses.
Date: 22:03｜Permalink｜Author：nelp
Third Grade PSA
This term, the junior high school third grade NELP students will be working on a video project. They have to create a public service announcement. It can be 30-90 seconds long.
The "protype" NELP class did a short video against war.
The first NELP class did a really amusing anti-smoking video.
The next NELP class did three videos: about manners on the train, drug abuse, and wearing uniforms properly.
The next NELP class couldn't finish their videos because we were too busy with the debate. However they had a lot of good ideas.
This time, we divided the class into two groups. I am REALLY amazed at how much work they've already done.
We watched a bunch of PSAs, including those made by previous NELP students. Today was our first day to work, and the students not only chose their topics, but by the end of class had already started scripting and storyboarding.
This really is such a fantastic class. They are SO hardworking! I can't wait to see their PSAs. I'm sure they will be great!
Date: 16:26｜Permalink｜Author：nelp
The Cave 2011
During the summer lessons in July, the NELP first grade girls worked on a special project: making a story.
We read a book called "The Cave" (written by Robert Waring, who teaches English at Seishin University). The girls' assignment was to write and illustrate a prequel to the story explaining about The Cave.
This year, the girls' story was about an evil teacher who badly abused the five girls in his class! It was a very violent story, and it didn't have a happy ending for the teacher (who looked a bit to me like Max Schrek's Count Orlok in the film "Nosferatu"!) but I still enjoyed it a lot. Here are some pictures.
Date: 16:12｜Permalink｜Author：nelp
Third Grade - Improvisation
This term, the junior high school third grade students are studying improvisation and extemporaneous speaking for their term project.
Today, the students improvised a situation loosely based on Monty Python's famous Parrot Sketch.
My only regret was that I didn't film them. They were hysterically funny and gave brilliant performances.
Date: 18:47｜Permalink｜Author：nelp
2010 Video Project
Thanks to Seishin teacher Jeff, I have learned something new and useful: iDVD. iDVD is an Apple application that can create DVDs that can be played on any computer or a regular DVD player. It can also make DVD menus. It is superbly easy to use, and I'm quite happy with the results.
Here are a couple of screenshots from last year's first grade video project:
Date: 17:56｜Permalink｜Author：nelp
photos from 2009-2010 (part 7)
Here are pictures of the junior high school third grade students: taking quizzes, preparing for their public service announcement video project, and preparing for our big debate.
Date: 21:38｜Permalink｜Author：nelp
photos from 2009-2010 (part 5)
Here are photos of the junior high school first grade students and their special projects video.
Date: 21:14｜Permalink｜Author：nelp
This term in special projects
The first graders are currently working on two simultaneous projects. The first is their class video. We're making a kind of documentary/game show about the school. We had a huge setback when we realized that what we had done so far was not really what they had in mind when we started, so we're going back to reshoot a couple of scenes, but I really believe it will be worth the effort.
Their second project is a research report and presentation about another country.
The second graders are currently writing a poem that they will have to recite in class. We've been talking about meter, rhythm, rhyme scheme, content and we're starting to talk about delivery.
The third graders are currently doing two projects. First, naturally, is the debate, which I must say is going very, very well. It amazes me how creative and hard-working the students are. I sometimes have to redirect them back on course (breaking up frequent games of "pen stacking" and other pursuits), but for the most part their work is first rate.
Secondly, the third graders are finishing up their Public Service Announcements. These promise to be really worth the effort, and I'm hoping to film at least one of the PSAs on Friday.
In the meantime, I'm putting the finishing touches on the First Grade Time Capsule (to be opened in February 2012), and on the Third Grade Final Slideshow. During our Spring Supplementary Lessons, I also plan to get the first graders to put together their "Introduction to First Grade" video that will be shown to the new NELP students in April.
Date: 10:30｜Permalink｜Author：nelp
First Grade Project
Well, it took a long time, but the first grade class finally finished their project for first term. It's a book: a very impressive book. I think in the 15 years that I've been teaching, I've never had a project turn out so well. The students put SO much effort into their project. I'm really, really proud of them.
Here's a look at the cover:
And even though my students will kill me, here's one of the pictures they drew for the book.
The book has 14 chapters, and is 12 pages long, not including the wonderful illustrations at the end. I asked the students what they want to do for their next project, and they said they want to do a newsletter! They are already deciding what columns to put into the newsletter and talking about who's going to do what!
They've really done a fantastic job on this project, and it's something I plan to keep forever!
Date: 15:10｜Permalink｜Author：nelp
Special Projects
Last Term, we did a few interesting special projects, and I'd like to update those.
In first grade, we did a Time Capsule.
Students made video messages to themselves and their classmates in the future. In February 2010, when they are in 3rd grade, we'll open the time capsule, watch the video, and try to remember what objects we put in the box. The students will definitely be surprised because I put a few things in there that I'm sure they've probably forgotten about. I can't wait to open this first one, and I can see that the Time Capsule's will become a tradition in the NELP program.
The videos aren't just for entertainment value though: it will give the students a little bit of an idea of how much they've grown, and how much they've improved over the course of two years. I think it will be a good exercise.
I will have to think about whether or NOT to allow NEXT year's NELP students to control the camera as my students seem to enjoy focusing on my balding head:
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In other news, unfortunately, my 3rd grade students were not able to finish the Public Service Announcement video that they were working on. However, they DID finish everything but the narration. What we have now is 28 seconds of edited video.
The purpose of the public service announcement project was to help the students to develop skills that involve expressing an idea within a very limited amount of time.
They eventually went with a video of dominoes falling: symbolizing the destructive effect of gossip and bullying. Their ideas were really interesting, as you can see:
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Next term I hope I can introduce a few new things in special projects to keep the students interested ... but right now it's a secret. SHHHHH.
Date: 11:27｜Permalink｜Author：nelp
e-pal program begins soon
This week, all of my NELP students wrote self-introductions which I will send to America, to the head of the Japanese club that will be corresponding with us in the e-pal program.
My first grade students had the interesting idea of making up 'secret names' for the assignment. This is something they already do for their 'secret notebooks'. For those who don't know, each student has a notebook that they use to correspond with another student in the class. Each week, they write to the student in their notebook, and on alternate weeks, another student's notebook comes to them. This means that they are writing to two students: the student who receives their notebook, and the student from whom they receive a notebook. For the 'secret notebooks' project, each student has a 'secret name'. Some of my students thought this would be cool for the e-pal program. I liked the extra layer of privacy and security that secret names provides, so I had ALL of my students do it. I really hope this program works out well.
In other news, there's a possibility that we may open up a SECOND e-pal program with a school in New Zealand! I really hope so.
Date: 16:31｜Permalink｜Author：nelp
New e-Pal Program
I just got some good news. I was reading my hometown newspaper online a couple of months ago when I read that one of the high schools in my hometown had just started a Japanese club. So, I wrote to the principal of the school and outlined a proposal for starting an e-Pal program to write letters back and forth. The students in the Japanese club are interested in Japan, Japanese culture, Japanese music, and so on. My NELP students are naturally interested about life in foreign countries. I thought this would be a great opportunity for the students at both of our schools.
Well, when I returned from summer vacation, I found a letter on my desk from the principal of the school: They like the idea too. So as soon as the students all get back from summer vacation, we're going to start writing letters each week! The letters will be part of our special projects class, but will be done as homework.
I really looking forward to this, and I'm sure it's going to be a lot of fun.
Date: 10:06｜Permalink｜Author：nelp
Learning Powerpoint
It's been a busy week!
Today in Special Projects, students began learning how to use Powerpoint. In the future, I hope that my students will be able to give Powerpoint presentations. Today, however, I just turned them loose with a few tasks to do and told them to 'play around with it ... experiment!' Students did just that.
It was a little confusing because half of our computers use Office 2007 with has quite a different interface that previous versions of office.
I'm really looking forward to doing this more.
Date: 18:52｜Permalink｜Author：nelp
Special Projects
Today was the first lesson of our first grade special projects class. Today we explored several places on the Internet where students can practice their English, including vocabulary and grammar. One of those places was the "Grammar Gorillas" site.
Also, I gave the students their first homework assignment for the NELP Special Projects class: students were each given a notebook. Earlier this week, students chose 'secret' names. Using these secret names, students will write letters to each other, trying to keep their identities secret for as long as possible. The students seemed very excited to start.
Date: 16:16｜Permalink｜Author：nelp