Periscope- where's the heart emoji??

Every year my students perform scenes from A Midsummer Night's Dream for their Embedded Assessment. I record them and save them. I'm not really sure why I've saved all  these performances for the past few years. There had to be more purpose in this-both for me and the students.

Periscope is my newest tech tool in the classroom and I must say I love it. Today we tried it out with our AMND performances. My student teacher and myself have been tweeting about today for the last couple of days trying to get the word out about the performances and to reach a wide audience.

My students performed live or showed their video taped their scenes. We live broadcasted them via Periscope which also posted a live feed or taped to my Twitter account (@MrsBushLA) This allowed my students to have a live audience! It also gave a purpose for performing. It wasn't just for me and their classmates. It was also for the wider audience we reached. Viewers were able to tweet and comment on their performances. Okay- we didn't have tons of viewers (it was our first time, after all) but I think there's hope for us!

8th Grade Love and Shakespeare

Tomorrow will mark the third day I've been out this week. All the days are for perfectly valid reasons-jury duty, district meeting, and training. Right now though my students are preparing scenes from A Midsummer Night's Dream to perform. I'm missing out on such a fun time where they are planning what they'll be doing next week. 

I was at work today. I enjoyed watching them pour over their scripts, discuss with each other their character's motivation, and their plans for next week. I even had two hams in my 7th period class who decided to use curtains as their togas for the play. 

I like meeting with the groups and seeing what they're doing, guiding them to incorporate the comedic effects, and listening to the conversations they have about the play. I'm sad I'm missing it this week. I really can't wait to see what they come up with! I love my 8th graders!!