5.02.2009

Individualized Education Plan


"To learn, read
To know, write
To master, teach."









As a tech novice I had a lot of options to choose for my IEP. For my educational philosophy and digital story I used iMovie, but felt that I could further improve my skills if I incorporated this program into a project for my students. I also felt that I needed more practice with the digital story format because my digital story was more of a report than a story.

So, for my IEP I chose to use iMovie to create digital stories with my students. To prepare myself to teach this unit I conducted more research about the storytelling process and about the iMovie program. I found some great resources that I was able to incorporate in to my unit:

Into the Fire is a collection of digital stories created by teenagers who live in war torn countries.
Story Center has excellent examples of digital stories and other great resources.
Tech & Learning had an interesting article about the case for digital stories in education during the age of standardized testing.
The Apple site has a great tutorial on how to use the iMovie program.

I decided that a great end of the year project would be to have my students choose a country to research and then present what they learned as a digital story in which they narrate the story as a student who lives in that country. I outlined the basic guidelines of the project – what topics and technical elements they would need to include in their story.

Students learned the basics of storytelling and watched examples of different digital stories. They then gathered information about their countries and found visuals for their projects. Once the information was complied they then began to design their movie. I think the biggest challenge was being the problem solver when technical issues arose. Luckily, I was fortunate to have students who were very familiar with the program and they were able to help their classmates and well as teach me.

This unit has definitely helped me improve my skills using iMovie and has increased my appreciation for digital storytelling as a way to teach students about different topics. I think one of the most significant things I learned however, was that my own students are great resources. As I taught them, they also taught me.

To explore more of the project visit the links below:
Lesson Plans
Project Handout
Project Rubric

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