An interesting and pleasant class : 

This Monday, we finally showed our work on voicethread to everyone and saw what each group did. 

It was very interesting and helpful, because each time, we had to give the good points and the problems of the story. I think it helped a lot to improve each story. 
It was also very pleasant to show our work, we were proud of it after all the efforts made to give an great story. We really worked hard on it, and I think everyone did. Each story was different and nice :). 

Then, we made a questionnaire for the teachers. There were questions about the story and the worksheets, to ask if children liked it, if some were bored, if they participated, if the teacher found it interesting, if he did everything, etc... Then, the teachers will send it back to us. I looking forward to it, just to know, you know... :)
It was interesting because everyone gave ideas, and permit to do a great questionnaire. 

About our group, the three of us were present this time. It was really good. We all worked a lot on our story and our worksheets, even if Brintha and I worked maybe more, but well, it does not matter. 
Sawing our work, I am glad to be in this group, we did well, even with the stress and everything. But, only the end matters and all the positive side. 

I hope our work will be a success, but we cannot know for now, we will see next time !! :D

Class of 03/25/2013

Hello everyone !

Ah finally! I am pleased to be back on this blog, to be activ again after all those days of intense and hard work. We were both, Alexia and myself, working hard on this project because we were both hoping that we could satisfy the children and the teacher. Below, you will find all those precious little details that helped our story to grow up, and also the work we did on the language, technology

Class of the 03/04/13

During last Monday, we discovered 2 new websites : 

--> Wordle.net : The point is to write a number of words you want to use, and then to arrange them in different ways (color, font, size). You also have a random button if you do not have ideas. I found this website cool and funny, but I would not use it. I have Photoshop and I learnt to use it for several years, I can do what offers this website on my own. But, for beginners, I found it truly cool. 

--> Voicethread : The point is to put our finished pictures on a "file", and to record our voice telling the story on each slide. There are several ways to do it. You can record your voice alone, draw or write on the slide, record with you webcam, etc...
I never used a tool like this one, and I am looking forward to it, even if I really hate my voice when I listen to it, but Brintha said the same about hers, so I was relieved in a way. It was funny to speak about it. 

Then, Salima had to leave us because she had a appointment. Brintha and I continued to think about our story design. We looked for the characters (what they would look like, which style they would have) and for the final design of the story itself... but, well, I will not tell what it is... We keep as a secret ;). But what I can tell you is that we thought a lot about what children of this age like, what kind of books and animes they love nowadays. It was interesting to discuss. Moreover, my experiences with children in schools and summer camps helped to choose the design. 

To finish, we talked about the software we would use like Sketchbook or Photoshop and some others. It was quite important to choose, because we will split the tasks to do, and knowing what software your comrades have and use is really helpful. Brintha also show me, the tools of Sketchbook and we began to do a first draft of a scene.

To continue about our group, I think we begin to understand each other, little by little, and to discover good points. That Monday was pleasant. We were laughing, sharing a lot, and working on our project at the same time. 
Being honest, I think now we understand how to work with each other, and the next monday will surely bring something good and interesting. 

Then, See You On Monday !

Class of 18/02/2013

Hello everyone,

During our last class, the teacher gave to each group, the class with which they will have to work for. Our class is a CM2 class, whose level of english is not so elevated. Thus, during our last lesson, we wrote our story and began to work on the worksheet.

Concerning the language part, the vocabulary that we had to use in our story is extremely limited as the level of the children is extremely limited too. Personally, I found this exercice quite difficult as our semantic field was really limited to some typical verbs and themes such as animals. We had to have some limits over the vocabulary and also the sentences had to be very "formal": subject + verbs + complement.

On the other hand, the work on pedagogy and the aspect of teaching was really interesting. We really had to imagine the capacity of the children at the age of ten approximatively. Perhaps we were asking ourself too much questions on their ability. Will they understant the term "let's" in "let's play". If we wanted the children to understand it, in fact, we have to pronounce it a certain way.

For the technology, we didn't realy think of it. Meanwhile, we thought about the final production, we thought that the idea of drawing the story by hand will be a good idea.

We were suppose to see each other during the holidays (on friday) to finish the story. But holidays made it harder, and also the other exams that we have during the following week. Thus, Alexia has finished writing the few lines of the story, and we all worked on the worksheet and gathered our idea on facebook and edmodo. Thus, our worksheet idea is ready and we tried to use each one's ideas. And I decided that I will do the drawings for the final production, I've been personally working on that.

Our Story Project :)

Last week we talked about the story. What it will looks like, who will be the hero, and we saw the difference between a story and a story line. A story line is for example the skeleton of the story and the story is all things which are around it.

We had had lots of ideas. Even if it was great and pleasant we take it very seriously. It is very funny to think about what type of stories children would like. We had founded some interesting ideas. I really like the end because it is really unexpected from the reader. But I can’t tell u more. We have lots of different  ideas but on Monday it will be more clear and Brintha will be with us it is great.

What it looks like to be sick!

Hello everyone,

I had a headache. It was a really terrible headache that I had, which stuck me to my bed for about one week. However, I am back, full of energy, motivation and excited by our project, which is in fact growing though little by little.

I also was in touch with Alexia, and she gave me some precious informations about our story, so we developed some ideas. I invited the girls to come at home on sunday, but I guess we all had lots of work to do,  so we'll see that during the holidays, hoping that everyone will be free.

I still didn't have the oppurtinity to write about what we did last week, being not present because of my headache, however, I'll post some more serious and interesting article about what we will do on next Monday !

May we all have lots of ideas !

Class of the 02/11/2013

On Monday, we started an interesting and quite important part : The skeleton of our story.

Language : We learnt some vocabulary around a story, especially the outline. I found the image truly interesting. The outline of the story is like a skeleton, and everything that is going to nourish it, is more like the blood, the veins, the skin. This image please me because it really helps to understand how a story is made and where to begin. It makes me think about drawing. When you draw, you do not do the  final drawing right away. First, you draw a sketch with the contours, with what will help you to do a first idea, a first vision. And thanks to this sketch, the real stuff will follow; you will full each part of the drawing, add some details, some shadows and colors, until the drawing is finished.

Pedagogy : We began to think about the main points of a story like the hero (age, name, gender), the style, the narrative person (1st person singular or 3rd person singular), etc... We chose each point according to what children would prefer. We really want them to have fun, to be interested and to identify themselves to the hero. :)
But, even with this idea in mind, it was not so easy to choose, especially in just 1 hour. Why ? Because these main points gathered form the skeleton.

Technology : We did not use technology this time. It was more about thinking.

Collaboration : This time, we were (again), 2/3. It is a pity, but that kind of things happens. Our comrade being sick, Salima and I made the skeleton. In an other hand, it was maybe easier to create the skeleton because we were only two, and so we both gave ideas and had something to say about it.
The difficulty is that Brintha could not give her opinion, and when you are absent twice, it is not easy to catch up, and in a way, you are less close to the other. It is more sad for her, but I explained to her what we chose, what we thought about and I think she will be fine. I will pay attention to it. And next time, we should be the three of us, so it is great and I am really looking forward to it !