The Media Spot

An instant classic, the students at GSS at PS 32 in Gowanus, Brooklyn worked with TMS collaborators, Brian Smith, Jacqueline Arias, and myself, to produce this spoof of reality TV, and corresponding PSA, during our genre study afterschool video production workshop series.

After researching hazards related to the improper disposal of rechargeable batteries, students wrote a script with Mr. Marsano keeping them focused on the problem, and what the students wanted their audience to do about it. To "hook" their audience, students decided to take a serious tone with elements of humor.  Come on in and have a look at their PSA, the "making-of" process-based documentary, and our production notes. 

In June of 2009, 4 teachers at PS 334, The Anderson School (one of my AUSSIE schools) traveled to the Galapagos Islands to cap off the development of a school-wide multi-discipline curriculum-building initiative. To expand the potential value of this trip, we used a variety of technology-based resources including digital video and photos, collaborative online digital presentation software (Voicethread.com), an integrated online curriculum map, and a project blog to create and share re-useable custom resources, and to enable teachers to interact with students from the islands.

The teachers and students at PS 334, The Anderson School, a gifted-and-talented K-8 school Rhys has been consulting with through AUSSIE since 2008, were presented with a unique opportunity to integrate multiple technologies into an exciting opportunity bridging media literacy, traditional classroom learning, and natural science studies. All grade levels collaborated to create multimedia products that would transform their traditional curriculum and embrace the challenge of creating new learning materials to inform their own understanding of the world, while combining new acquisition and practice of technical literacy skills like video production, web development, Internet-based and collaborative annotation resources, with new literacy skills like researching information on the Internet and composing text-based documents on a computer, as well as traditional and real world competencies, like public speaking, teamwork and community building, and persuasive writing.

Australian and United States Services in Education, (AUSSIE) is a professional development company renowned for their math and literacy consulting in over 650 schools in New York, Australia and New Zealand. Digital School Solutions is AUSSIE's new team of educational consultants focused on providing customized embedded professional development for schools across the country informed by the NETS standards.

In 2009, we began consulting with PS 686, The Brooklyn School of Inquiry (BSI), a gifted and talented magnet school, to build media literacy concepts and integrated technology practices into their brand new curriculum, starting with K-1.

Good Shepherd Services is a "A social service and youth development agency serving vulnerable New York City children and families". We began working with GSS in the Spring of 2007

We've been working with PS 124 since 2006 to integrate technology and media education into their curriculum through grade-team unit planning and curriculum mapping meetings, direct classroom production work, and professional development workshops.

Rhys is an inaugural member of the editorial board of the Journal of Media Literacy Education (JMLE), an online, open-source interdisciplinary journal that supports the development of research, scholarship and the pedagogy of media literacy education.

The Generation Connection is a non-profit inter-generational summer camp in Gainesville, Florida. Since its inception in 2002, TMS has served on the board, and has been integrating video production and media literacy into the camp through the TGC Clips of the Day. In 2008 we began working with TGC to expand the camp to new locations -- bringing the TMS video production experience along, of course.