"IT'S ALIVE!" Bringing Critical Thought to Life with Mary Shelley's Frankenstein

Victor was a learner. He had a passion for acquiring new information and using it to innovate and create. In Mary Shelley’s famous novel, Frankenstein, the title character, Victor Frankenstein, stated that “It was the secrets of heaven and earth that I desired to learn...” In the story, Victor exposed an unchecked curiosity for learning as well as his own tragic flaw. Although learning is generally a positive process, understanding how acquisition of valuable information goes together with personal and societal ethics is something that a learner must fully grasp when encountering content, if they intend to apply it successfully. Through critical thinking and discourse, fostered by student choice and individualized learning opportunities, students are able to think differently about a text and draw conclusions about its relevance to their current world.

The type of critical thinking required to comprehend and analyze encountered information and its connection to real life areas of advancement is an absolute necessity that ninth grade ELA students experience as they encounter Shelley’s text in Pre-AP/GT English courses at Eaton High School. These students explore, consider, and discuss the “moral liability” of “knowledge” and “progress” as a part of a problem based learning opportunity that allows for student choice while also facilitating real world connections to the text. As part of this project, students in ninth grade Pre-AP/GT English are presented with the driving question of “Does knowledge or progress ever become a moral liability?” They are asked to utilize resources and processes of their choosing to explore both sides of an area of advancement and then choose varied platforms and tools in which to communicate their findings in ways that answer that driving question. The findings are curated into a “Live Binder” that is shared with peers and other school and community members.

Students are given a wide variety of options for how to present up to date research in ways that not only answer the given problem but also present both sides or an issue and advocate for a perspective that has been developed through meticulous research and and discussion. Some students choose to use WeVideo or YouTube to help create and edit videos in the format of interviews or commercials, while others use similar tools to create podcasts or radio shows. Some prefer approaching their topics through graphic design with visual advertisements in Canva, or written argument in journal or blog entries using Blogger or Smore. Whatever the platform, a truly beneficial part of this experience comes in when a student is given the freedom to choose a tool or resource that they are confident in using and that communicates their voice effectively while helping to share their knowledge with the community around them.

As students develop argumentation, research, and independent communication skills throughout this project, they are able to display those over the course of a week set aside for formally sharing findings with the school community. While presenting their inventive and relevant creations, these students confidently defend their research and conclusions in a dissertation style setting, which is not only challenging but truly impressive to witness. It is in a forum such as this where it becomes apparent that our students are not only being given the freedom to explore content and required texts but they are also being provided opportunities to develop their own viewpoints on critical societal issues while shaping an ethical compass of their own, all while being able to connect it to their reading.

Victor Frankenstein also said, “I will pioneer a new way, explore unknown powers, and unfold to the world the deepest mysteries of creation.” However, what Victor was lacking was a true understanding of what to do with that information, which students in our freshman Pre-AP/GT English classes are acquiring and applying through research into their own opinions, in-depth analysis, and critical discourse. These invaluable learning experiences are things that will help to not only develop lifelong learners but also facilitate learning that encourages an approach to new discoveries with a critical eye and solid ethical grounding.

Blogging Challenge

The Librarian at Schluter Elementary has challenged the entire 4th and 5th grade to become bloggers! She started the challenge out by having each class come to the Library. The classes brainstormed what a blog was and what they could blog about. The conversations naturally led to having passions, and that's when the spark was ignited! The second the students realized they had choice in what they were able to blog about, they suddenly got interested in this challenge. Each student had to brainstorm what they wanted to write about and the title. Then used Blogger to execute the challenge!

Mrs. Pospisil used her connections and reached out to people in the district to be mentors for the student blogs. She wanted their voices to be heard! 85 people jumped on board. Principals, Assistant Principals, Librarians, Instructional Coaches, and people at the Administration building all wanted to be a part of the challenge of mentoring students in a digital world. The mentors respond by leaving a comment on their assigned students blog once a week. This ongoing process encourages students to keep writing for their authentic audience, while building a relationship with their district mentor.

Blogging gives students a way to reflect, grow, and learn about themselves as a 21st century learner. We need to vary our methods of reflection and blogging is a great outlet for many people. It offers ongoing documentation and long-term reflection. 

Here are a few student blogs to check out:

An Addition To Math

All Elephants

Imagine.Dream.Think.Real

The More You Know 2018

Mucking Through Historical Blogs

Students in Mrs. Proudman's class have recently created blogs from the perspective of historical investigative journalists from the end of the 19th century.  These journalists looked into the dark side of the so called Gilded Age in American history, often dragging topics into the light for others to see, earning them the moniker of "muckrakers."  For this project, each student was assigned their own muckraker to research and learn about.  But instead of writing a report or a standard presentation about their subject, the students used Blogger to create blogs about the journalists.  "I really liked making the blog," said Carlos, a student in Mrs. Proudman's class.  "It made it more fun because we were able to use our imagination more and make it more of a story than a report."

Student working on the Blogger site

According to the project instructions on Mrs. Proudman's example blog, students had to imagine they were going on a "Ride-A-Long" with their journalist as they investigated an issue of the time. Students then created a blog with multiple posts to document that journey, including biographical information about the journalist, photos or pictures from the trip, and transcripts of what happened.  This allowed the students to explore the time period and the subjects in a more immersive way.  "The project was very interesting," said Carlos.  "It allowed us a chance to time-travel back and see their own views, how things looked like to them."  A good example is this blog on Samuel Hopkins Adams, which writes from a perspective of a third person traveling with Mr. Adams.   As the students wrote their blog posts, they took time to ask themselves "What does it feel like? What do you see? What do you smell?"  Some of the blog even took this a step further and wrote their posts from the first person view of the muckraker themselves, such as this blog on Nellie Bly.  The beauty of this project is that not only did it give students a chance to use their imagination to explore the time period, but it also allowed them the choice of how to present and relay that information.  They could write from different angles, include pictures, videos, or anything else they wanted on their blogs.  Students even took the time to comment on their peers' blog posts to leave both praise and constructive feedback.  Take a look at some of the blogs linked above or some more examples below, and enjoy your trip back in time!

Blog on John Spargo
Blog on Lincoln Steffner

Putting it Together: Interior Design Goes Digital

Eaton's Interior Design class is using design skills to decorate spaces throughout the high school. With Eaton still in its first year, staff offices are still in the process of being decorated. This is a great opportunity for students to make an impact by contributing to the visual appeal of their campus while meeting the requirements of their education. Students understand the relevancy of their work when they make connections between the curriculum and other things around them. As part of the Interior Design curriculum, students learn design elements and design principles, which is about balance, unity, and harmony. These topics were previously taught in a lecture format, but this year it was transformed into a design blog project, yielding impressive results from students.

"Because Eaton is brand new, we were given the opportunity to design a room. We were able to take the elements and put them into an actual project that will stay tangible and on the wall forever." -Mrs. Broughton, Eaton Interior Design Teacher

Interior Design students have designed two Eaton offices so far. The first office was a different office at Eaton, their first real-world connection to interior design, with a customer (i.e., staff member), a budget, and a wonderfully designed office as the result. During that first project, students researched design techniques using other people's blog tutorials. Students took direction and inspiration from these tutorials, so a question came up: What if they had their own tutorial, rather than just using others, creating one for themselves? Hence, the second project, the focus of this article, was the opportunity for students to take the project even further. In addition to applying their design skills by decorating an office, each student created a blog tutorial for their individual design piece. 

Emily's Design: Ombre Wall Art

Emily's final product

"We put how we did it on the internet so everyone can see how to do it themselves." -Emily

Emily's Blog: embellish28.blogspot.com

Megan's Design: Floating Shelves

Megan's Blog: thingsnstuffmeg.blogspot.com

"I learned how to put something out there and be more professional about it. I've created blogs before, but now I'm more professional, and I know how to use technology better for school." -Megan

Megan's final product: Floating Shelves (shown with other items)

Taking it Even Further

Mrs. Broughton used a project rubric for assessing the blog posts, including the student's voice and the content specific to interior design. The goal was for each student to have such a high quality tutorial that they could add it to Pinterest to share with the world. They were successful, and Mrs. Broughton pinned the student products on Pinterest. The pins have since been shared with others in the Pinterest community. 

Emily’s pin for the wall art: pin.it/V1nsg9e 

Megan’s pin for the shelves: pin.it/kuw2Zpt

Moving Forward

Students are planning to design another Eaton office and will create more tutorials. Every time they improve, they will gain expertise. In the end, students will have many different tutorials in their blogs, which will be linked in their ePortoflios. Student learning improves over time when they are able to recognize exemplars within their own learning and share it with others, and this project does exactly that. Next time you visit Eaton High School, check out the Tech Room to see the students' design in person!

21st Century Reflection

Students are taking chances and deeply reflecting at Gene Pike Middle School. In Mrs. Fitzgerald's class, her students were given one task: start a blog on Blogger and share about something you find interesting. Since all NISD students have Blogger accounts through their Google account, Mrs. Fitzgerald had them utilize this platform to ease them into the reflective world of blogging. From that simple direction, students took the initiative to begin a web-based chronological log of their thoughts outside of class. They began blogging  about everything from a project they did for a class to collections of music from their favorite video games. The students began writing, creating videos and embedding them into their blog.  Mrs. Fitzgerald is the librarian at Pike and her class is open to all 8th grade students.  This assignment was able to meet each student at their own level. They have all taken ownership over their blogs and have begun curating in numerous ways.

One of the students, Carlos, decided that he wanted to make his blog about how to defeat different levels of various video games.  He knew that his audience would enjoy learning how to get through the levels.  Since this is a blog, it is still a work in progress and you can check back later to learn even more from Carlos.

Carlos's Blog

As their blogs began to take shape, students participated in a feedback session with classmates and their teacher. Students were encouraging each other to explore topics that they can blog about.  The students are currently working on a way to embed their blogger page into their ePortfolio.

To extend the depth of their learning Mrs. Fitzgerald has encouraged the students to customize their ePortfolios as well. Alexa has begun this process. She is also one of our NISD Advocates at GPMS.  She has taken her ePortfolio and used it to help students and parents learn how to navigate through Google Sites. She is using this platform to reflect on herself as a learner and to give insight into who she is as a member of a thriving community.

Alexa's ePortfolio

Students at Gene Pike Middle School are blogging into their future!

Blogging Your Passion

Sixth, seventh and eighth graders at Chisholm Trail Middle School are expressing themselves differently these days. Under their newly formed aliases, they have identified topics they are passionate about and have begun publishing posts to their very own blogs. Their teacher, Ms. Brown, began blogging over the summer and instantly knew she wanted to share this outlet with her students. You can follow Ms. Brown's blog HERE.

Before beginning their blogs, classes created a Blogging 101 poster. It was discussed how blogs are used for a variety of purposes. Some bloggers even get paid! As a class, they generated ideas to blog about: cooking, fashion, sports, video gaming, etc...Total buy in for this endeavor came when Ms. Brown made two promises: 1. she would never grade their blog and 2. she would never tell them what to blog about. It was for their own personal interest as they explored their passion and shared it with others. 

Each class period begins with "independent interest" time. That time is designated for students to read or write. More and more students are choosing to use that time for blogging and publishing a new post. Students are begging for blog time each day. They are engaged and motivated to publish something new for their readers. 

Additionally, blogging lessons are integrated into their lessons each Friday. Students have learned how to view statistics from the traffic their blog receives, as well as, identify where their readers are located globally. It has been exciting for them to gain followers and see that some blogs have even been visited by readers outside the country. Ms. Brown has also taught mini lessons on the various design elements available through Blogger. Because students have created their blogs through their Google accounts, it's a true work in progress that can follow them indefinitely.

Kat (a.k.a. Glitter Girl) is the author of a fashion blog, The "Kat" Walk. She says, "Blogging is fun because I get to choose what I want to blog about. I'm really into fashion and I feel like if I can share a piece of fashion advice, I may be able to save someone from a fashion catastrophe". She goes on to say that blogging is trendy and that more and more blogs are becoming popular because of today's social media craze. 

Bailey (a.k.a. Frenchie) blogs with a true passion for writing. Her blog, And They Say Writing Got You Nowhere, is a collection of her writing she is most proud of. She says, "My blog is a collection of poetry and fiction work. I like people to see what I've done and what my best is. I like for others to see my strengths. I like to write, and the fact that we get to blog makes me feel special. Ms. Brown has non say about what goes on our blog, so I feel I can be as create and descriptive as I know I can be without fear of someone saying I can't."

Be sure to check out these blogs! Glitter Girl and Frenchie would love some new followers.