Exploring Audacity

Audio Editing

This week our main focus was to learn how to work with audio using the computer program Audacity.

Students learned how to:

• download audio files from both the sd67 portal and from sound effects websites
• import audio into Audacity
• cut sections of audio
• add a second audio track
• move audio tracks

A screenshot showing audio tracks in Audacity.

Students chose one of the audio recordings of the 'When Suddenly...' stories we had made in earlier classes and then chose sounds effects to go with the stories.  The emphasis was on exploring and learning new skills and not trying to come up with a final polished product.  

We are using Audacity because the school district has it on its list of approved software, but it would be my first choice anyway since it has lots of great functions and it is free, open source software.  If any of the students really gets into working with audio, they can download a free copy for Mac, Linux or Windows.  See the Audacity tab on this website for more info as well as short some short video tutorials on how to do the basics in Audacity.

Microphone Skills and Storytelling

This week we tried a different storytelling activity called 'Once Upon A Time'.  Before starting the story each person was asked to think of a person, place or thing.  We then went around the class with each person contributing a sentence to the story, but they had to include their person place or thing in the story.  It was pretty fun and we got some interesting stories!  We recorded the stories again using the field recorder.  Students are getting quite good at holding the microphone the correct distance from their mouth and at a good angle so as to avoid getting popping sounds (plosives). 

Coming Up

Pretty soon students will be ready to do their own recordings and editing them.  That's when things will really get interesting!

Thanks for checking in to see what we've been up to.

Peach City Radio!

This week: visits from Peach City Radio!

Peach City Radio 

Most of the classes were visited by board members from Peach City Radio. We learned that Peach City Radio is a community radio station and is run entirely by volunteers.  Currently Peach City Radio streams online (here) and also archives shows for on-demand listening (here).  I have attended a number of workshops and information sessions that Peach City Radio has hosted and they have been instrumental in me being better able to help the students with their work.

Each of the presenters from Peach City Radio gave their unique perspective on and experience with radio.  We listened to segments from each of their shows and students asked lots of great questions about making radio.  Below are photos of each of our visitors.

In most of the classes our guests were able to listen to the radio shows that students have been working on.  Students were able to ask questions one-on-one and receive feedback from radio experts!  This was a real highlight for both the students and our guests.

In almost all of the visits each class recorded some station IDs for Peach City Radio (the entire class reciting "We're listening to Peach City Radio" or something similar).  The station IDs recorded by Tim Tweed with the Tuesday morning class will air on the stream tomorrow, Monday March 17th, at 9:59 am (Tenatious-T shout out) and 1:30 pm (Peach City Radio shout out).

Peach City Radio has offered to host our student shows!  In the weeks ahead I will be putting together half hour episodes containing student content.  Before any student work is posted, parental consent will be sought as well as permission from the students.

Our guests, and the shows that we listened to were as follows:

Jackie Del Rizzo

• visited the AIM class
• does the Penticton Top 40 Under 40 show
• we listened to part of this show as well as some other clips that Jackie brought

Tim Tweed (the Tenacious T!)

• visited the Tuesday morning grade 3/4 class
• does Sounds From the Tenacious Hi-Fi, Under Cover, and Arts on the Radio
• we listened to part of this Under Cover show about musical plagiarism

Craig Henderson

• visited the ASPIRE class and the Thursday afternoon grade 3/4 class
• does Craig in the Community, segments of Meadowlark on the Air, and writer and producer of The Big Broadcast
• we listened to part of Craig's interview with talented voice actor Alan Marriott as well as this ad recorded live at The Big Broadcast

Larry Saidman

• visited the Wednesday grade 5 class
• does Larry Saidman's Top 200 Albums of All Time
• we listened to part of this show where Larry interviews local musician Spengla Yves

Dave Del Rizzo

• visited the Thursday grade 5 class
• does Left Off the Dial and Caught in the Act
• we listened to part of this Left Off the Dial show as well as to some other clips that Dave brought

Trustees Stopped In

Also joining us this week for one of the Peach City Radio visits were School District 67 trustees Ginny Manning and Linda Van Alphen.  They enjoyed getting a chance to listen to the student projects as well as to see the students in action as they worked on their shows.  It was a great opportunity to showcase what we do in the Gifted Program.  

Thank You!

A big thank you to all of our guests this week for taking time out from their busy schedules to come and share their expertise and to find out a little more about what we've been up to!

Grade 1/2 Class Experiments With Audacity

The Penticton Grade 1/2 class has been involved in recording 2 short stories, but up until this week they hadn't had a chance to use the audio recording software Audacity.  As with the other classes their first introduction was a chance to play and experiment.  The students quickly figured out how to record their voices and then they were off and running, trying out various effects.  There was a lot of uproarious laughter as they listened to their voices sped up, slowed down, with echoes etc.  After the break we will experiment more with Audacity.

Spring Break

We're off on Spring Break now.  Classes will resume again the week of March 31st and continue until the May long weekend.  After that time I will be meeting with all parents to discuss how the year went and to plan for next year.  This is also when I do assessments for students who have been referred to the Gifted Program. 

Thanks for checking in to see what we've been up to... This Week In Gifted!   

Radio Show Brainstorm & Chris Walker

It was a busy week.  Here are a few of the things we did, this week in gifted!

Radio Show Brainstorm

All of the students are or will be creating mini radio shows.  These mini shows will be packaged together as part of one large radio show.  The challenge is to come up with a name for the large radio show.  (One of the AIM students suggested the analogy that all of the students' mini radio shows are like chapters in a book.  Now we need to come up with a title for the book!)  All of the students from the seven gifted program classes will be suggesting names and helping to decide which one will be 'the one'.  This week most of the classes spent time brainstorming possible names.  We talked about the DOVE principle of brainstorming:
Defer judgement
Oddball and outrageous ideas encouraged
Vast number of ideas
Expand and elaborate on the ideas that you have and the ideas of others
Over the next few weeks we will go through the process of narrowing down the list of names and deciding upon 'the one'.

CBC Radio's Chris Walker Visits

On Thursday Chris Walker, the host of CBC Radio's Daybreak South, visited the Penticton grade 3 - 5 groups.  Wow, what a presentation!  Chris talked about the technical aspects of radio (what radio waves are, how the sounds are transmitted from the radio studio to our radios etc).  He shared with us some video that he'd shot the day before with a couple of his colleagues who talked about what they do.  Chris also set up a mini recording studio in our classroom complete with mixing board, various kinds of microphones, speakers, and his laptop with his editing software.

We got to listen to one of Chris's favourite interviews.  It was interesting to hear him explain how the interview took an unexpected turn, and how he put the piece together.

The students had lots of excellent questions for Chris.  Some were based on what Chris shared with us and some were based upon the research students had done the week prior.  These are just a few of the highlights from Chris' visit.  If your child was at the presentation, hopefully they will tell you more!

Flag Finale

This week the Penticton grade 1 / 2 class presented the flags they designed to their peers and explained the symbols that they used and why they used the colours that they did.  Students did a great job of incorporating what they had learned about flag design.  The completed flags will be displayed in the classroom for the next few weeks before heading home.

ASPIRE Experiments with Audacity

This week was the ASPIRE students opportunity to try out Audacity.  Students learned how to record, delete, and cut audio.  They were then encouraged to explore the different effects that are available in Audacity.  Students experimented with effects such as echo, reversing audio, wah wah, changing pitch and many more!

January 13th to 16th

Here are a few of the things we did... this week in gifted!

Storytelling Continues

Julia Cox visited the rest of the Penticton classes this week.  Regardless of the grade, when Julia asked "would you like to hear another story" the answer was always a resounding yes!  Students learned how determine how quickly or loudly to read a passage by following the clues in the text and and in the images.  They also learned the importance of pauses to increase tension in a story.  The students will be able to put what they've learned to use in their audio recordings and in the storytelling activities and games that we play.

Grade 3/4 class.

Grade 5 class.

Grade 1/2 class.

Audacity

This week the AIM students were introduced to the audio recording software Audacity.  (Audacity is a free open source software program for recording and editing audio.  It can be downloaded here.)  They had the opportunity to explore and 'play' with the program.  They found out how to record audio, delete sections of audio, and add effects such as echoes, changing the pitch and speed, as well as reversing the audio.  In future classes they will be making audio recordings sharing what they have learned in the communication research project.

Researching and Writing Scripts

The ASPIRE students spent time doing more research on their communication topics.  Students will be sharing what they've learned by creating a short 'radio show' on their topic.  To prepare for their shows students spent time preparing their scripts.  We focused on ways to engage your listener.

Questions for Chris Walker

Next week Chris Walker, host of CBC Radio's Daybreak South, will be speaking to the Penticton grade 3, 4 and 5 students.  In preparation for his visit students listened to a segment from his show.  The Wednesday and Thursday classes enjoyed this segment on using the net to name your child.  They then spent time doing some research on Chris Walker and coming up with good questions to ask him when he visits.  Essentially, the students were asked to prepare to interview an interviewer!

Note: For the week of January 21st the Tuesday morning class is rescheduled to Thursday afternoon (12:30 - 2:30p) and the Wednesday morning class is rescheduled to Thursday morning (8:45 - 11:40a) so that students can hear Chris Walker.

Scytales

I wrote about scytales last week.  This week it was the AIM class' turn to try them out.  They enciphered their own messages, and deciphered messages created by their peers.  Some even experimented with using scytales to make enciphered drawings--neat!

And We're Back!

Winter Break is over and classes are up and running again!  Here are some of the things we did, this week in gifted.

My Winter Break in 3D

The Summerland AIM and ASPIRE students were charged with making a 3D creation that represented something they did over the break.  They had 30 minutes and access to paper, tape, glue, markers, recycled items (egg cartons, plastic containers etc), play-dough and building toys.  The photos below show most of their creations, though not necessarily in their final form (link).

Scytales

The Summerland ASPIRE class were introduced to Scytales.  A scytale involves a cylinder wrapped with a strip of parchment (we used paper).  The message is written on the wound strip of parchment.  When it is unwound the order of the letters do not make any sense.  It is only by winding the parchment around a cylinder of the same diameter that the message can be deciphered.  

Storytelling with Julia Cox

Julia Cox, the Youth Librarian at Penticton Public Library, visited the Thursday classes.  Julia read stories to the students and discussed the fine art of storytelling.  Students learned about clues such as the size and amount of text on a page that let you know how quickly or loudly to read a passage.  She also talked about the importance of engaging your audience by making eye contact.  These are just a few of the many tips she shared.  The students in both classes were wonderful audiences.  When Julia would ask if they wanted to hear another story, the answer was always a unanimous "Yes!"  Julia will be visiting the other Penticton classes next week.

Fabulous Felt Flags Finished!

The Penticton grade 1-2 class picked up right where we left off in December.  At that time they were flag design experts, part way through assembling a flag of their own design in felt.  After this week's class, almost all of the students have finished putting together their flags.  Next week students will share their flags with their peers and explain why they chose the colours and symbols that they did.

Radio Shows

The Tuesday grade 3-4 class and the Wednesday and Thursday grade 5 classes worked on their communication research radio shows.  Students are finalizing their scripts and many have recorded some of the spoken word content of their show.

First Term Winding Down

This week was the last week of gifted classes for everyone except the AIM class (Monday's AIM class will continue up to and including December 16th.)  It has been a great first term!  Here are some of the things that we did to wind things up.

Marshmallow Challenge with the ASPIRE Group

20 sticks of uncooked spaghetti, 1 metre of string, 1 metre of masking tape, 1 large marshmallow, and 18 minutes in which to build the tallest structure that will support the marshmallow.  This is the challenge that the ASPIRE class faced.  Working in pairs they attacked the task with enthusiasm!  The first successful towers were erected after just over half the time had elapsed.  Interestingly enough, these were the only successful towers to be built within the time limit.  Marshmallows, it seems, are heavier than they look!

After the challenge we discussed the difficulties the task presented and what worked for the two successful groups.  The Marshmallow Challenge and the lessons learned from how people tackle it are described in this TED Talk by Tom Wujec.  Interestingly, recent MBA graduates do consistently poorly on this challenge, while recent kindergarten graduates do consistently well.  Last year the Penticton classes did the Marshmallow Challenge and I wrote about it here.

Radio Shows

The Penticton grade 3 to 5s continued to work on turning their communication research into a short radio show.  Many of the students are close to completion.  We listened to some great work by the following students:

• 'Bug Talk' by Jordan and Braiden on how ants communicate
• Connor's show about binary and ASCII
• Nicola's breaking news about Braille

Each of these projects demonstrated key aspects of audio recording that we had been learning about; providing appropriate music / sound effects, speaking clearly, and making the material interesting and engaging.  There are lots of other great projects nearing completion, and others we just didn't have time to listen to this week.  Students will get to hear those when we meet again in January.

Flag Construction

As I've mentioned on earlier posts, the grade 1 and 2 class has been doing a lot of work on flags.  Last week they designed their own flags and drew sketches.  This week we attempted to recreate their flag designs, first using construction paper and then using felt.  This was more ambitious than I had anticipated, but the students were very patient and did a great job.  We just didn't have quite enough time to finish all of the flags, but hopefully we will complete them in our next class in January.  Below are photos of two completed flags.

Gerry's flag

Katie's flag

Research, Audio and Storytelling

The AIM students continued with their communication research this week.  Some of the students also started to learn how to use Audacity; the software we are using to record audio.

AIM students also tried their hand at writing and presenting 5 card photo stories.  In previous weeks the ASPIRE class as well as the Penticton grade 5s did this same activity.  Students were shown the photos below and asked to come up with and present a story to the class that involves all five of the images.  We talked about the basics of a good story and then the students got down to it!  We were treated with some very funny stories.  After each story students were asked to give appreciations; pointing out what the storyteller did well in their story.  Students are getting quite good at giving specific, positive, and constructive feedback!

Below are the photos that were the basis of the stories (link).

Schedule

The ASPIRE class and the Penticton classes have wrapped up for the first term.  AIM class (Summerland grade 1 - 3) will continue up to and including December 16th.  Classes for everyone resume the week of January 6th which is the first week back at school after winter break.  You can view a calendar with key dates for our classes here.

Recording, Storytelling, & Designing Flags

Here are some of the things we did... This Week In Gifted.

Research

This week all of the grade 3 - 5 students started or continued researching their topics under the broad theme of communication.  A few bugs were worked out in Trout Creek that lead to things working better on the computers for the ASPIRE group.

Designing Flags

As was mentioned in two earlier posts, the Penticton grade 1-2 group has been learning about flags and the basics of good flag design.  This week they put what they learned into practice by sketching out designs for their own flags.  It was difficult to stick to using just a small number of colours, but I think you'll agree, that these students have come up with some wonderful designs.  Next class they will be making good copies of their favourite flag designs.

Recording

The Penticton grade 3 - 5 students continued to work with Audacity again this week.  The goal was to record what they had learned from their research.  Once they have that audio, they can start to add music, an intro and any other sound effects that will compliment their work.  The students are learning a lot and are enjoying sharing the tips and tricks that they are picking up as they go.

Last Week of Classes

The week of December 2nd is the last week of classes for the ASPIRE group as well as for all of the Penticton classes (*AIM classes will continue running up to and including December 16th).  That means that there will be 2 weeks where students are attending their home classes, but not attending gifted class.  During this time I will be conducting assessments for new students who have been referred to the Gifted Program.  Gifted Program classes will resume for all students the week of January 6th (the first week back after winter break).  In January I will be sending home a brief report of each student's progress in Term 1.

WW II Deception, More Flags, and Audacity

What a week!

Audacity

Last week the Penticton grade 3, 4 and 5s tried to work with the audio software Audacity, but the technology was not working for most students.  This week was a whole different story.  Everyone was able to get the software working and students started recording, editing, playing with effects, downloading music and sounds...  the list goes on!  This class was all about 'playing' with the software and finding out what it could do.  Students were encouraged to take risks.  It was exciting to see how engaged the students were, and to see them sharing their new found expertise with each other.  At times it was very loud in the classroom (something about recording your voice makes students yell) and at others it was very quiet as students listened through their headsets to their recordings.

World War Two Presentation

The Summerland classes (AIM and ASPIRE) were treated to a presentation by ASPIRE parent and World War Two history enthusiast, Myron Dueck.  Mr. Dueck created a presentation that discussed WWII in the context of our theme; Top Secret Communication.  Mr. Dueck gave students a brief summary of the events leading up to WWII as well as the war itself.  He talked about the Enigma Machine, which the students had been introduced to in an earlier class, as well as methods of deception used by the different sides in both WWI and WWII.

USS West Mahomet in dazzle camouflage, 1918. 

One method of deception that Mr. Dueck describes was the use of dazzle camouflage .  It was used on ships mostly in WWI .  Instead of trying to camouflage something as large as a ship, the idea was to paint it to make it difficult to tell what type of ship it was, how many ships there were, and which way the ship(s) were heading.  The photo to the left shows a ship with dazzle camouflage.

In addition to the images in his slide presentation, Mr. Dueck also brought in some artifacts from his WWII collection.  The grade 1 and 2 class, who are currently learning about flags, would have been interested to see the German flag from a U-boat.  It was specially constructed to enable it to withstand being submerged in water.  Students also got to see a bayonet, as well as some ceremonial daggers, a grenade (empty of course) as well as other items.

The students had lots of questions and the hour that we had originally planned on for the presentation stretched out for almost an hour and a half and at that, Mr. Dueck left them wanting more!  A big thanks to Mr. Dueck for giving this presentation, and a thank you as well to the AIM parents for accommodating a change in schedule so that the AIM students could also be there for this presentation.

More Flags

The Grade 1 and 2 class continued to learn more about flags this week.  First of all, the students looked at flags from various countries and discovered that there are 6 main flag colours: red, blue, yellow, green, black and white.  Other colours are used, but they tend to be less common.  We wondered what Penticton's flag looked like.  Did you know that it looks like this?

Penticton's flag.

The students quickly figured out what the different symbols on the flag represented.  We then looked looked at the North American Vexillological Association's 'Good Flag, Bad Flag' section to learn more about good flag design.  The students quickly learned that with flag design, you really want to keep it simple, avoid complicated designs or lettering and stick with 2 - 3 basic colours.  Next class students will be designing their own flags.  We'll see how they follow the guidelines of good flag design.

Thanks for reading and finding out what we did... This Week In Gifted!

Research and Flags

Here are some of the things we did... This Week In Gifted.

Flags!

The Wednesday afternoon grade 1-2 class started looking at flags as a way that we communicate who we are.  We looked at the Canadian flag that is flying out front at Wiltse Elementary.  We brought the flag down to the bottom of the flagpole and many of us were surprised at how big it was.  We talked about what it means when a flag is at half-mast.  The students then went on the computer to explore different flags of the world.  Many of the students were inspired to make coloured sketches of the flags they found.  Below is a slideshow with some of our favourite flags.  Included are some of the student sketches and then some of our favourites (the flag images came from Flags of the World and The World Flag Database.)  

Researching Topics in Communication

Last week students brainstormed a variety of possible topics under the broad theme of communication.  This week the Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday grade 3, 4 and 5 classes all spent some time doing research on their topic.  The ASPIRE students (Summerland gr 4 & 5) faced challenges as the computer system was operating very S L O W L Y.  The students are finding out some interesting things in their research.  For instance, Olivia found out that when there is a noisy background frogs communicate by flapping their hind feet in the air.  Who knew?

Audio Recording with Audacity

The Wednesday and Thursday morning grade 5 classes have been the guinea pigs for trying out Audacity.  Audacity is a free open source software program for recording and editing audio (it can be downloaded here).  We will be using this program to record our radio shows.  We encountered a few problems with the program not launching, so not all were able to try it out.  Great problem solving though by Connor and Josh.  Hopefully the bugs are worked out now and it will work for everyone.  

The Wrap Up

These were a few of the things we did this week.  Thanks for checking in with us!