Engaging seniors anytime after spring break is a seemingly impossible task. Therefore, Mary Davenport and I created a unit which allowed our seniors to use technology and be creative through the lens of Dr. Seuss' "Oh, the Places You'll Go". When I informed my seniors they would be creating a presentation using Movie Maker and Photo Story about their journey through AVID to present during AVID Family Night, they lit up with excitement. Using technology allows students to express themselves in ways they can't do with glue and poster board. They can find meaningful pictures, use appropriate/fun text, and bring it all together with some music. The students felt empowered by this assignment, and wanted to learn more about how they can use these programs when they are out of school. I showed them films I have made with my family, and the Photo Story I created at the beginning of the year for my students. They loved learning about the two programs, and were eager to begin making other films/Photo Stories after the graduate.
Through this process I started thinking about how I can incorporate more of the excitement I saw in mt AVID students in my other classes. So many times we are forced to stick to the curriculum and the pacing guides and we lose sight of our own creativity as teachers, which in turn makes it so we don't allow our students to be creative either. Next year, instead of paper after paper in my English classrooms, I will use other means and use my data to show why students learn more when they are excited about the assignment than when it is the same thing they did last time. Of course I will still have traditional assignments, but I want to make sure I am showing my students learning can be fun too.
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