Today we are going back into the Canvas project that I have started. I want to try and investigate the ins an outs, the good and the bad, and what seems to work and what does not. I will be uploading some screenshots of student work to show what we have been trying to accomplish. They have all been asked and given me permission to share out on this blog. I hope you enjoy what we are trying to achieve.
Students are being forced to do work online, even those that come for a day or two, they are feeling so tired, and bored with it all. Naturally, not being a teacher, I thought, oh let us have fun with this, let’s see if we can’t make the students look forward to working on a BR (bell ringer) every day as they have to do one in every classroom they are not sitting in so we can account for them in our grade books. Yes, even I have to do this regardless that they are actually NOT my students but the local community college’s. Oh, the joy! Oh, the pain! Oh, the “really Ms. Anderson– do I have to?! ugh” which is what I get a lot nowadays. The other is just downright disengagement. I worry about that. Especially as my students are either juniors or seniors. They have plans, they have dreams, they have goals, but they don’t know how to achieve them without some guidance. I am hoping to give them some during this project.
My project is focused on “how to make them want to do something in my Canvas classroom”, when in reality, they just have to “punch in” to be counted present.
Let us delve in and let me show you some of our content and you tell me what you think of it all. I would be overjoyed to get your feedback! As well, any ideas to move forward with this project. My main purpose is to engage and teach a fun skill set that they can use in their future endeavors.
My first week of exposing them to a new skill was in the week of Sept. 28th- Oct. 2nd where we began with learning how to work in the world of MEMEs!
THE ONES BELOW ARE ALL STUDENT GENERATED WITHOUT ME GIVING ANY INSTRUCTIONS EXCEPT WHAT YOU SEE ABOVE.
Starting to give my directions on how to make one SINCE I was starting to hear back from students that they were unsure, frustrated, and did not know what to do.
Now we have students make a meme giving someone instructions!
Now we evaluate the process by asking for some reflection from the students themselves by giving them some questions which are below:
One last thought from a student:
1- Tell me what you like about memes in general.
– To me memes in general are always funny when the right context is used behind them. One of the reasons I like twitter so much is mostly because of the memes everyone uses when a new trend pops up.
2- Tell me what you do not like about memes.
– What I don’t like about memes is that sometimes the memes will be too insensitive or derogatory in some way. Memes are accessible to EVERYONE and that one person who is part of it will ultimately make a not-so-funny meme.
3- Tell me what you liked about making your own meme.
– What I liked about making my own meme was that the process of finding the picture I wanted to use and finding one and thinking “that’s the one for me”. It was very hard honestly.
4- Tell me what you learned by doing a meme on your own.
– What I learned by making my own meme is that my humor is horrible. I couldn’t think of anything funny to add. I ended up having to reference something I found funny.
5- Was it fun to do?
– Yes, it was.
6- Did you like this assignment?
– I very much so did like this assignment.
Now that we have completed one week of work, I would appreciate any feedback from anyone that wants to comment on this blog. I have issues with trying to engage the students lately, and the longer the school year goes on the harder it is becoming. The burn out is real.
Moving into week two we decided to move to something similar and use the platform called CANVA. Here I will be asking them to use some of the skills they employed by making the memes, and asking them to do just a tad more. Many of the classroom teachers like Canva and the students can definitely employ this into presentations moving forward.
Older and Hopefully Wiser 
The student work samples looked great and very clever. This would be a cool idea to do with my Marketing students (I’m going to work on that).
Here’s an idea for something in the future you could tweak and do with them: Here is a topic that I have proof of, that is hard for everyone no matter what age (teenagers to adults). Kids have a hard time reflecting and talking about themselves, especially in a positive way. A term you could introduce to your students- Brand Image. Myself, being a marketing teacher- this past week our topic has been branding (brand awareness, brand image, brand equity, brand loyalty). After discussing brand image and what that means and the factors that contribute to a company’s brand image (such as- price, quality, value, performance), I talked about how they are their own brand as well.
They represent every day, what they want people to think about their personal individual brand. They are their own brand- how you behave, your attitude, how you communicate with others, how you dress, how you present yourself, etc. For an activity- I had them answer this question: Describe your “personal brand image” based on the brand image factors (describe your price as a person, your quality as a person, your value as a person, your performance as a person).
Every response that I received back from them was along these lines, “I don’t know what my price would be. Probably not very much, b/c I don’t make a lot of money right now. I have no idea how much I am worth, etc.”
Some of them listed some good qualities about them self or what they thought others thought about them or what others have told them (I’m sure some of them have never heard anyone talk about them in a positive way…).
As I read all their responses all I could think in my mind was “YOU ARE PRICELESS!”- my thoughts had nothing to do with material or temporal things… I don’t know if that mind set just matures with age or spiritual beliefs, probably both, haha. It was very interesting. I wish I had time to dive even deeper into that conversation with each of them.
Just an Idea…
Keep up the good work Mrs. Anderson!
Ashley Heath
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