While I don't consider myself an influencer, I also know that any educator on social media is an influencer. I'm hoping that I am doing this in a positive way and being helpful to other educators.
For a while now, I have posted about products I love, made video tutorials, and more to help others. This is why I'm very excited that for the first time in my educational social media experiences, I was contacted by a representative from a hardware company, Wacom. They saw my presentation listed on the FETC agenda and felt their product could help educators.
It arrived last week and I created an unboxing video so far. Since then, I have been testing the tablet in a variety of software to make an opinion before creating my next video and review.
In total, I plan to do a three piece series of YouTube videos:
Unboxing - Showing how it arrives and setting it up.
First impressions. Is it easy to start using? Is there a learning curve?
Follow-up. After using it for a while, what are my final thoughts?
I hope that this product is as helpful as they said in their email because I haven't used it before but after searching current YouTube video tutorials, it does look like something that can really help teachers.
I'm in the middle of a project and was trying to give an example of why project-based learning is so valuable. I remembered hearing a while back an analogy comparing step-by-step "project" lessons to recipes and are not true projects. The basic concept is that if every single student is turning in the exact same assignment then it's not a project it's a recipe. The whole goal of project-based learning is to allow students to explore different possible outcomes.
I knew I had seen a meme but could not for the life of me find the graphic. All my search results were leading me to lessons about actual cooking not a concept comparing lessons to cooking. This is why I turned to social media for help.
I posted on both LinkedIn and Twitter asking if anyone else remembered hearing about this concept. Within an hour I not only got an answer on Twitter, I also got a link to an article from 2017 about the concept.
About an hour before this post goes live, MIEExpert Cohort 11 premiered this short video that we have been working hard on. While my part in the video itself was relatively small, I did play a large part in the project as I edited the footage together.
This was by far the largest video project I have completed to date. While the video itself was shorter than most of my other videos, it required tons of editing, organizing, and more due to the amount of participants and individual clips. I decided to break down the steps we took to create this video.
The Idea
Earlier this year, Cohort 11 was assigned May as our month for the community call. As our turn was getting closer, the Fellows (myself, Karey Killian, and Rebecca Gratz) were discussing ways to make our call stand out from the previous cohorts. We had been discussing a video by Annie Agar that had been making the social media rounds a few weeks earlier and decided it would be fun to try and parody it. An idea was born.
The Script
We started by transcribing the original video and then modifying the script. We added Minecraft, Flipgrid, and more to turn the video from O365 to O365Edu.
The Cast
For our turn at the community call, we needed to select four presenters from Cohort 11. Amazingly because our cohort is just that awesome we had way more volunteers than slots. Reaching out to the potential presenters, we found our cast.
Recording
Originally we thought about recording a live recorded Teams call, but it was difficult to find a time that worked for everyone's schedule. At this point, we realized that there was a perfect platform available for recording, Flipgrid. Once the script was finalized we sent our cast the Flipgrid link and password. They all recorded on their own time.
I knew that I would want to have some group screens and reactions so I also asked all the cast members to record ten to thirty seconds of reactions such as laughing and looking bored. This ended up adding some great comedic moments such as Matthew Nickerson as Minecraft laughing while the teacher is talking and Dianne Krause as OneNote covering her camera in disgust at a purposely bad joke.
Editing
This was the biggest challenge and the reason I decided to write this as a full blog post instead of just a quick Tweet.
When I started downloading the videos from Flipgrid, I forgot that there was an option to download all the videos from a topic at once and it was taking me forever. Then I remembered how to get them all at once and it spend the process up dramatically. The next issue though also had to do with downloading the files. Each file was saved in an individual folder within the zipped file and was numbered, not named. Using the search feature on Windows I was able to isolate all the MP4 files within the main folder and transfer them out of the individual folders. Took a moment, but it wasn't difficult.
Next, I needs to sort the files based on the character and content. The content part wasn't difficult because each original zip file was from one topic, but I had to figure out who was who and the thumbnails were hard to tell.
Once I had all the clips downloaded and labeled, the next step was something that I might have been able to simplify if I had more Camtasia experience, but I did it a long-handed way. I took one character at a time and added all their clips to a track line. I then changed the label/bottom third on the video and saved it as a new file. This way, when I resized their screen for the individual vs the multi-view, the label resized appropriately with the clip. I wouldn't need to worry about font size and such because it will all stay proportional to the clip.
Now that I had each individual role sorted and labeled, I was able to start the real video. At this point, I realized i didn't have a template for a Teams call so I relied on my MIEExpert tribe for assistance. I started screen recording and then messaged my group asking for anyone that was online to just join the call for a few minutes. Once I had about thirty seconds recorded, I was able to have the intro screen and borders. Using my Camtasia tracks, I just overlaid our "teacher" over myself in the call starting up.
I created a track for each person, my background, and a few overlays. It ended up having fourteen tracks by the time I finished. I then cut the clips and positioned them in order of the script. I had to be careful of where I cut the clips because some people started/stopped recording too quick and I I took all the reaction shots and placed them at the end of the track so they were available to pull over as I continued.
This video took the longest to edit of all videos I've made so far just because of all the moving parts but I was very proud of my first draft. I uploaded it to YouTube, unlisted of course, and shared it out to the actors. I told them that there were a few issues I was hoping to play around with and fix but I wanted to get their opinions at that point. I then went back to work.
There were a few spots when I had the multi-person scenes that I had to stretch some clips to make them the same time frame. When you see faces that look slow or possibly frozen, they are. For example, some people said hello and waved for a clip that allowed me to cut some of the waving while others said "hello" and stopped the recording very quickly. By freezing a frame, it stretched it out so I didn't have a black screen for one person. This mostly happened during the multi-person screens and were small that you might not focus on the frozen person while the other window had the speaker.
The other editing challenge I had was the multi-frame shot at the 0:54 timestamp. I had shrunk the Windows actor and increased the Word actor. The problem was which clip was the top track. It was causing Windows to stay on top of Word in that top corner.
Sharing the Video
So I wrote this post and scheduled it to publish before I actually shared the video with the group. I hope that everyone enjoys it when they see it because it was a lot of fun, and a great editing lesson for myself. I would love to do more projects like this in the future with my friends and I'm sure the process will get faster with experience.
Thank you all for watching the video. Be sure to like and subscribe if you enjoyed it.
When I was in college, I did what was considered crazy by many of my friends. In a world before online classes were widely offered, I decided to take a semester away from college to get some real world experience. That "real" world was of course Walt Disney World. For six months, I lived in Buena Vista, Florida and worked in attractions at The Magic Kingdom. I took some courses at Disney University, officially referred to as Disney Institute, where I learned skills not taught in traditional college courses and earned my Ducktorate Degree.
Over a decade later, I still have mementos from that semester including the little magnet that was used to represent my position for the day at Jungle Cruise. They got rid of the magnet board and now use a digital assignment system, but those magnets still hold a sentimental value for all of us that worked before a computer told you where to stand for your shift. I also saved a Cast Atlas which was the behind the scenes map so I didn't get lost, and both my name tags. The dirtier/aged name tag is the one I wore every day in the parks, while the cleaner one was provided to me when I became a campus representative and helped future interns with the process at school before leaving for the program.
The first day of my Disney College Program, I arrived at The Magic Kingdom in the early morning, before most of the employees and obviously before the park opened for the day. That day it felt magical to see Main Street USA without the crowds. While I saw this as a magical experience only a few were able to witness, now it's sadly a common view as the park was closed for months.
The following week was spent earning my ears as I learned the ins and outs of the park, the history of Disney, and specifically The Jungle Cruise where I was assigned for the semester. When I was handed the 50 page packet and told to start memorizing the script, I was in shock. However, like every other part of the internship it turned into an experience I will always remember that helped me grow as an individual.
Main Street USA, Early Morning 2004
In the end, I may have been driving boats and telling jokes all day but I also learned those soft skills that we always talk about with our students. Here are just some of the lessons I learned during the semester that I still use everyday as a professional.
Accept Disappointment and Learn from It
My very first day during check-in, I was asked "Which is your favorite park?" Which I immediately replied Epcot. After a pause, the HR representative said "What's your second choice?" Disney's recruiters said that they tried to match positions based on majors. So as an education major, I thought I would be placed at Epcot or Animal Kingdom. Imagine my surprise when I was assigned Magic Kingdom. I was upset, but I knew that I wasn't promised a specific position and that it was the reality of my assignment. I let myself be upset for a bit and then moved on. Of all the college students assigned to Jungle Cruise that year, four of us were education majors. Maybe Disney realized something at the time that I just didn't understand.
Working with Others
Disney was the first time I was forced into a situation where I couldn't talk my way into a situation I preferred. In school, even when groups were created by the teacher, I tended to work with the same people that I had grown up with and knew. In college, I got to know everyone in my core classes and when it was group projects, we tended to gravitate to the same groups each time. At Disney, I was thrown out of my comfort zone and actually had to work with people that weren't always the easiest to get along with. This allowed me to learn soft skills such as conflict resolution and compromising because I couldn't just walk away when someone made me upset.
Another day on the river, Jungle Cruise
Public Speaking
As a Jungle Cruise Skipper, I was responsible for telling scripted jokes along the ten minute boat ride. While scripted, it still had to feel natural and not off. This got easier as the semester went along, but some other things I learned in terms of public speaking were just the general skills. Intonation, eye contact, and volume control. As a naturally loud person, I had to learn to hold the microphone away from my mouth and also be conscience of how loud I was being in general.
Non-Verbal Communication
Each day I would interact with over 500 people many that didn't speak English. This made non-verbal communication even more important as I directed them to seats, gave safety information, and tried to make the ten minute ride enjoyable when they couldn't understand the jokes. The classroom is the same thing. Teachers always talk about "the look" and it's true. Students can take a lot of social clues from a teacher's non-verbal communication.
Time Management
While working at Disney, I didn't bring a car to Florida. Therefore I relied completely on the transportation provided by the student housing. They had a variety of bus routes that went to all the parks, along with major shopping areas. For The Magic Kingdom, the bus stop was in the cast member parking lot which was about a half mile behind Splash Mountain. AKA, really far and not walk-able due to safety. I would then have to get on a different shuttle to the cast member locker room where I would change into my costume and clock-in. This process meant that if my shift began at 1pm, I really had to get the bus that arrived by noon so I had time to get the shuttle, then my costume, and actually get ready.
Expect the Unexpected
Part of the training at Disney included emergency preparedness. As a ride that took place on water, we had to prepare for weather related incidents along with other acts of craziness. While crazy things happen at Disney all the time, there are two specific incidences that I was somehow in the wrong place at the right time for and ended up needing to assist.
On February 8, 2004* I was working crowd control at the 3pm parade. After we put the ropes up, we would play silly games with kids until we had to clear the street. I was mid-Simon Says when a manager came over the walkie-talkie saying the parade was stopping after three floats and to wrap up the ropes. While we were putting the ropes and poles away in the storage closet, we learned why the parade was canceled; an accident backstage. This accident also led to a complete revamping of safety procedures for all the parades. Luckily no children witnessed the accident but every cast member there that day knew what happened and had to pretend everything was normal to preserve the magic for guests.
On March 10, 2004* I was coming through the hippo pool when I noticed people standing up on the boat ahead of me. As I slowed the boat I was driving down so we didn't crash, I realized they were standing because the boat was under water. That's right, only twice in the history of all Jungle Cruise attractions have boats sunk, and I was there the first time. While other cast members started wading the water to assist people across to dry land, I had to keep the forty passengers in my boat seated and calm. The remainder of the day was filled with paperwork and standing at the entrance of the ride to inform guests that we were closed.
It's Called Work, Not a Vacation
Throughout the semester, there were a few people forced to move out of student housing after their internship was terminated. Sometimes gossip would spread, and other times they would just disappear silently into the night. The most common story though was a sad trend. Many of the college students took the semester thinking it was a fun break from school. They would call in sick (and get caught) from work to go play in the parks, hang out at the beach, and a few other common excuses. The average Disney work week was five days, my "weekend" was Monday and Tuesday because weekends were busy in the parks, but I still got two days off a week where I could enjoy Orlando's many opportunities. Claiming to be sick and taking a day off never crossed my mind because I knew that calling out would leave everyone else in a bad situation. Each time someone took off a scheduled shift, the rest of the cast members would have reduced breaks and other changes to compensate for being short one person.
The same is true for teaching. Many teachers will overwork themselves and come in when they are feeling under the weather because they know the strain it puts on everyone else to be short-staffed.
Graduation Day, May 14, 2004
The semester at Disney was amazing and at the end I was sad to leave. I even considered staying an extra semester but my mother wisely convinced me to finish my degree. A decade later, I still remember the lessons I learned there and hope that I bring some of that Disney magic to all my students.
* Clarification of dates listed. I had to use Google to find the dates of these two incidents but there was conflicting information between message boards and Wikipedia. I did not record the exact date in a journal or anything at the time so I am using the dates that appeared the most likely to be correct.
Recently I've started to focus more on my networking. A post I saw on Linkedin really made me think. The concept of the post was how to get a promotion and/or raise. The content was about not waiting for others to notice you but to force them to notice you. Alright, not exactly force them to notice you but brag about yourself or make sure they're aware of your accomplishments.
I started to write a response to the post right on it as a comment, but realized that I needed to think my response out more and it was probably going to be longer than a quick response. So here it is.
The advice made sense but how do you accomplish that goal when you're an introvert? Some people reading this are probably thinking "Cori you're not an introvert. You never shut up." This is kind of (definitely) true, but listen when I speak because I'm normally rambling nonsense. When I'm in a situation where I'm trying to introduce myself, whether it be a social or professional, I just can't do it. I'll find I can't find the right words, I'll say um, ah, aaaaa, and am definitely making the conversation very awkward.
I've always had this problem with job interviews and I'm sure I've lost out on more than one position because of my awkwardness during the process. Now, I actually feel that introvertness in my current position. My boss tells me to list all my certifications and titles at the beginning of every presentation, webinar, or training session. When I said I don't feel comfortable doing that, a colleague was assigned to "introduce the speaker" and rattle off the list of titles and certifications that you see on the right bar of my website. See, I can show my accomplishments on my website, but I don't feel the need to brag about them. I'm not one of those people that puts every badge on my email signature because it will show my expertise. I have them in one place and that should be enough.
Yes, I have tons of certifications and for many of them I have worked very hard but they don't actually mean much. I mean, they do, but I don't think they're bragging worthy. The only title I have right now that I feel is worthy of bragging isn't even a title. I was selected as part of a national delegation last year for an international educator's conference. It's the only thing where I actually "beat the competition" to be selected. For many of my certifications, I just checked the requirement boxes.
Additionally, many of my titles that have been earned are collaborative accomplishments. When I became a Certified Innovator, I had a group of students and a parent help with the application video. I then attended a three day program where I worked with a team of other educators to complete a project for change. Let's not forget that while I attended that three day program, my colleagues all had extra work because they were down a teacher and agreed to give up their prep periods to allow me the time to attend the program.
When I got my degree, I had support from the school district I was working at during that time. The district reimbursed part of my tuition to help ease the financial burden of completing a degree. Many assignments required me to try things with my students and reflect. So without a class of amazing students that completed new lessons instead of the old curriculum ones, I would not have had the ability to complete my personal assignments. My administrator served as my advisor and supervisor for the internship part of my program. She had to meet with me weekly and completed paperwork to ensure I completed the requirements for state certification.
So yes I have a ton of accomplishments, but none of them are really mine. Back to the original point of this post, I don't feel comfortable drawing attention to myself when it's really not just myself. Every title I have earned belongs to all the people that helped me achieve them. My students, my colleagues, my mentors. I don't feel right bragging about stuff that would not have been possible without my support system that was in place. Some would say this could be defined as imposter syndrome. I don't feel like an imposter that will be found out. I just know that nothing I have accomplished belongs to just me and therefore have trouble bragging about it. I am grateful every day to my support system that has gotten me to this point.
I took a big leap last night. A few of Southeast PAECT's members have been conversing with a local celebrity, Second Lady of Pennsylvania, Gisele Fetterman. For those of you that don't know who she is (it's okay), I will admit that prior to a news article about her, I had no idea who she was either. Honestly, until Covid, I hadn't even paid that much attention to our Lt. Governor John Fetterman. Now I follow them both on Twitter because their back and forth banter is funny and a welcome relief from many political posts.
Besides their adorable teasing of each other, Gisele Fetterman also tweets about her many charities. One of these charities is what lead to our recent back and forth and my leap of sending an email. Fetterman recently shared her excitement for being assigned an adopted family to cook dinner for through lasagnalove.org. This started the discussion for me when I responded that I wish I knew how to make a lasagna and she responded we could learn together.
Flash forward to the next exchange with myself and one of our regional board members when I tweeted about doing a virtual cooking class for #TeacherSelfCare and she responded "Please invite me ❤️❤️❤️❤️". Seriously fangirling at this point. So I reached out to the rest of our regional board and then with them agreeing that it would be a great event, I sent an email to the Lt. Governor's office.
Now I'm waiting for a response, but I'm just proud at my professional growth to be brave enough to even reach out for something like this. The old me would have been afraid of rejection. Now I'm taking more risks because the worst that can happen is she says no and we'll be exactly where we are now.
Can we still host a virtual cooking class without Gisele Fetterman? Sure. Will it still be fun without her? Of course. So whether she can join us or not will not really change the event. However, if she can join us, her presence will be exciting for all our members who are currently working really hard to help students.
Image screenshots from Covert Affairs, USA Network
Think hard of things that didn't exist five, ten, even one year ago. My friend Ari posted an article, This startup wants to replace the white cane for blind people, on Linkedin that immediately reminded me of a show I enjoyed a few years ago. In the show, Covert Affairs, the character of Auggie was blinded while serving in the military and became a CIA operative. In the show, Auggie would walk around the CIA offices with a small laser device in this hand but would use a traditional walking stick when out in public.
While this example immediately came to mind from the article shared by Ari I thought back to a meme that was circulating a few years ago featuring Star Trek gadgets. Examples included the tricorder which can be compared to a modern smart phone, hand-held screens that can be compared to tablets, and more.
Looking a little more student friendly, we can explore the Jetsons. Yes I know most of our students are too young to know the Jetsons (I feel old) but a short clip of the show can be used to inspire students. Perhaps George on a video call with his boss, or Rosie the sarcastic robot maid. The Jetsons also originated in the 1960s but displayed so many concepts that now exist.
We are at an amazing time where if there's an idea, there's a way. This is why the concept of problem-based learning is so important for students. Give them a problem and tell them to solve it. Don't give them a pre-designed solution. Let them explore. Prototype. Fail. Try again.
It doesn't take long to find examples of amazing innovations being completed by students around the world. During an international science fair hosted by Google in 2019, the winning student projects were unbelievable.
Fionn Ferreira (Ireland) - Removing microplastics from water.
Celestine Wenardy (Indonesia) - Low-cost, non-invasive glucose meter
Tuan Dolmen (Turkey) - Harness energy from tree vibrations.
In a different competition from 2012, Jack Andraka, discovered a method to test for cancer that was less invasive and more affordable than traditional testing.
If your students have great ideas but you don't have a way to help them expand the ideas, reach out to your network. Use Twitter and Linkedin to find an expert in that field. Mentoring young minds is a rewarding adventure and many businesses will encourage this type of outreach. If it's something you want to keep in school but don't have the funds to help the students continue the project then help them learn about fundraising and grants. Talk to their parents about the possibility of crowd-sourcing. Obviously for safety reasons you don't want a student to create a Go Fund Me page, but their parent can.
Another easy way to help them get started is to do digital prototyping. They might not be able to build and test their idea, but start with the design. Teach them about presentation skills and create 30-second commercials for their idea's potential investors. Many major companies have grants for educational institutions. I can't be positive since I've never been on the judging side of these grant applications but I would think that involving students in the application and demonstrating community buy-in can only help make your applications stand out among the rest.
Keep inspiring your students. Challenge them to try new things. Yes it might be scary, but encourage and support them.
To leave you with an inspirational quote, in 1962 John F. Kennedy made a decision to fund the space program and gave one of the most inspirational speeches of the generation. A speech which has been viewed, heard, and quoted for generations since. Most people only remember the line about because it's hard, not easy. However I think the entire speech is inspirational and powerful motivation for students that are trying to explore and create with a goal of bettering tomorrow.
