Once Upon a Digital Time...

   My students and I started the year with narrative writing to culminate in a "Core Memory" Project as inspired by my love of this summer's Pixar film "Inside Out." (You can click here to see a relevant clip from the movie:  What the heck does "core memory" mean?)

  I tried to use this week's project to create a sample of what their narrative might look like in a digital world. Once again, my reflection is all about the balance and pay-off of time invested.  I just spent eight hours making a movie that is less than 3 minutes in length.  I already had some familiarity with making a movie with pictures, so that saved me some time, but I did invest a good chunk of time learning some new tricks: using pictures from the web, adding video, checking out universal streaming, getting bamboozled by zamzar, and splicing songs that I didn't want to use when I couldn't figure out how to get the song I really wanted to use off of my iTunes account.  I spent a lot of time worrying about the visibility of my writing when it was incorporated onto a picture.  I fretted quite a bit about how long a slide of text should play in case someone needs more time to read  it --- and looking at the final product, I know that I should have made those signs longer. And right now, I'm sweating a bit that my video is taking so long to upload that I want to cry. I spent far less time on the writing elements that we've worked on in class. I did have a circular ending that tied back to the beginning - but beyond that, I'm not sure how well I'd score on an 8th-grade PARCC narrative rubric.

What I'm really wondering, dear Tech One Friends, would this time have been better spent on planning narrative instruction? on narrative grading? on my own narrative writing? on, dare I say, sleep?  And how does this equation transfer to my students?

Despite the harsh warnings from the first article from this week - seriously HARSH warnings - about upgraded analog assignments, I am nevertheless going to plunge in and try digital storytelling with my students next week. Fortunately, by completing this assignment, I can now point out what I did well in my story and what needs to improve.  In any case, I plan on directing any parent phone calls to Sara and Phil.  Or, perhaps, I'll create a fascinating digital story of my total breakdown as a writing teacher. Stay tuned.