 Hi, I'm Erin Olson, and I'm Lesley Prollykeen. We are Instructional Technology Consultants with Prairie Lakes A.E.A. in Iowa. And we're excited to share with you part of our Connecting Creativity Series, an experience called Out My Window. Our perspective is shaped by our experiences. Those experiences are shaped by where we live. The themes of geography, place, location, human-environment interaction, movement, and region can be addressed through personal narrative. And when that happens, an appreciation for all that is experienced and all that is seen is heightened. Stories are the thread connecting us all. Using geography, photography, and poetry, participants can share and celebrate their story. Out My Window was born from a quest to have students gain global perspective while sharing that story with the world. The process reveals cultural awareness and understanding through poetry and photography. So the first part of the process is for students to take a picture, which is what Erin's daughter did here. We want them to take a picture out their window, thinking about the five themes of geography. My daughter wanted to capture the farm, the horizon, the grove, and she was thinking about this and framing it with our walnut tree, considering what photographers consider with the rule of thirds. The first photo edits were to create, mood, and help set a tone for the writing that would follow. Since this is our home, I wanted to warm the tones in the photo. I also wanted to deepen the colors to reflect the season of autumn. That was important. I loved the shadow effect that the picture had originally, so I wanted to enhance that even more. And just using PicMonkey and experimenting with the different photo edits, I was able to do this easily. You'll also notice that the image was cropped. I took out the few leaves that you could see in the far left corner because I wanted that barren tree to frame the backdrop of trees in full growth who still had their leaves. I liked the idea of that contrast. So the color changes along with the barren tree, with trees still leaves, I wanted to show change in this photo. After I completed some photo edits, I went to brainstorming and I started to think about the themes of geography in relation to what the picture revealed, along with what I know about our farm. As I started to brainstorm, I thought about the stories that have been told. I thought about what is there, actually there, and so I listed those things. The walnut tree and the soil and it's black. But the idea of a story stayed with me because there is such a rich story in connection to how my husband's family came to this area and even with how their livelihood, I guess. So that connection and the connection to the metaphor of land being a story is really what drove my brainstorm and I knew I wanted to do more with that. So one of the things that you'll notice as Erin talks about her brainstorm and as Erin sort of demonstrates some of her photo edits is that the five themes of geography are really threaded throughout the process. So it's important to note how crucial that understanding is for students to be aware of and to be able to demonstrate as they thread throughout. So for example, as Erin's thinking about region and what are the characteristics of where she lives, that's a concept that's going to need to be pretty well ingrained in her head prior to taking her photos and to starting that brainstorm. So you can really see the content knowledge shining through in how she goes about editing and writing. Just as it's important that that content and concept understanding exists in geography, so is it with ELA and you'll notice some things that I'm thinking about with even extended metaphor, the idea that the land is a story. So your writers would need to understand that. If that's what you're working toward, this is a teacher choice, what you want to work toward and what you want included. Also thinking about figurative language, so not only seeing what it is, but sensory imagery. So the English content and concept, the idea of perspective and how maybe that shifts over time, that easily fits into what we're doing. And a teacher can a front load with that instruction to make sure that that learning happens, but also that the showcase of understanding of that learning happens. After I brainstormed, I knew I had to go back to the image as I wanted to further support the idea of a story. So not only was I literally writing that connection, but I wanted to have that representation through my image with the next photo edit that you see here. I was ready to write and my brainstorm led to this. Under the autumn sun, through the harvest moon written in the folds on black soil, the story beginning six generations before, from Norway to Northwest Iowa. So for more than a century, sweet plenty providing while feeding the world. Evening sky shadows the season's corn, blankets the walnut tree fence, pages turning, but this remains. My choices as a writer, it goes back to extending that metaphor. So you will notice that I intentionally included that language, pages turning and using the word story and even the word folds. And then I also was aware of wanting to keep this as it's something that's happening now it's ongoing, since it does continue. And that's why I chose present tense with feeding and providing. I'm also proud that I use figurative language. You will see alliteration with plenty providing in Northwest and Norway and so there's some choices that I made as a writer to add not only to that metaphor, but to create a mood and tone. So I think the combination of text choice and photo edit helps accomplish what I set out to accomplish. Thinking about Aaron's writing from a geography perspective, I definitely could pull out several of the themes. So the most obvious would be location, referencing her Northwest Iowa pulling in Norway. But from there, we definitely pull in human environment interaction. So thinking about the crops and moving that and feeding the world and being able to, you know, grow crops that are going to feed people in other locations. Beyond that though, I definitely see movement in the idea that she's bringing not only her family, but those traditions from Norway to Northwest Iowa. So hitting on three of the five is actually a great accomplishment. Depending on the age of your students and the background of your classroom, whether you are a language arts classroom or a social studies classroom, will really dictate how deeply you can go into those five themes. And we've actually found that hitting all five is a difficult task. So it might be an extension for students, but it's definitely okay to focus on one. Maybe if you're working with a younger audience or two or three, depending on your classroom and your needs. I would say that that's also true with the concepts and content taught in language arts that you can make adjustments and maybe it isn't that you want to have every kind of figurative language device used, but maybe it's a focus and application of one or two. But again, that's your design and your implementation choice. One of the most important parts of Out My Window is that opportunity to gain global perspective and share your work with an audience. So one of the things that we've done is create an open Flickr group where students or teachers can upload their creations and have an opportunity to really expose their work to that outside world. So this is where we start pulling in the opportunity to learn from others. I can see people's contributions to the community. I can learn from that and I can comment and interact with others in that way. In addition to the opportunity to participate in that dialogue and really show that perspective and story, we'd really encourage you to use the comment section in the Flickr group to give students an opportunity to clarify the learning that we might see represented in their design choices. So sort of those nonverbal things just like Erin and I did today as we thought about the rhetorical choices and the text choices and also the application to the five themes of geography. We made that thinking very clear to you. We would encourage you to give your students that same opportunity where there might be deep learning in their choices that you wouldn't otherwise be aware of. Just as sharing process is beneficial for a teacher to see what their students have learned instead of thinking, wow, that was just a pretty picture. It benefits other students as well and other learners by showcasing that process and letting others learn from another learner's thinking. Sharing the process is just as powerful as sharing the end product. The other avenue that we've created for students to be able to share that perspective is through the use of a hashtag, which is hashtag OMW1415 so that students and teachers can continue sharing work through social media platforms such as Twitter or Instagram. Just giving them another avenue to reach out to an audience to share their work and to really celebrate their creations and who they are and their story. That also gives us another opportunity to have students and teachers provide feedback to the other sharing. And Leslie and I are both really passionate about encouraging positive interactions through being a digital citizen. And what an awesome opportunity that this is that it shows not only that you can share your voice with others and others can share their voice with you. So it's a great model of using a digital platform for learning and in a positive manner. That cultural awareness and continued geography piece and appreciation of perspective is really going to come in through that feedback piece. So we really encourage commenting on any of the platforms because that's how we learn with and from each other is through that conversation not just through the intake of the photo and the poem itself. One of the most exciting parts of Out My Window is the opportunity for you as the educator or for the learner to tailor it to meet their needs. Whether they're curricular needs or creative needs, we encourage adaptations. So whether that is a first grade classroom doing it as a whole group or secondary classroom using individual pieces and creations as part of performance poetry or as a method of exploring art processes and photography. It's really about your individualization and what makes sense for your classroom. There are so many variations and I think as educators you know your class, you know your students, you know your content, you know your concepts you're trying to reach and so do make those changes to work toward those goals using this as a starting place and you never know what could come of this. We found in the schools we've worked in that so many students found this as an outlet for their creativity and perhaps discovered a life's passion through photography or through writing and then what a gift. So we think about some of the writing that we've seen that could be given to to family members. It could be a tribute and in a sense. So really we encourage you to think about what goals you're reaching, your content goals, your concept goals, your students and design around that. We're going to share with you. Yeah so that being said we want to share with you some student examples so that you can see some of the creations. More of those are available on our Flickr group so you can really dig into what that might look like and really start sharing with your students. But these are some of our favorites. Out my window as part of the Connecting Creativity Series transforms how we look at and teach geography by making it a cross-curricular venture to connect with a global community. Honoring student voice and perspective in the process of not just consuming but creating content also honors the power of the human story. Traditionally geography is not viewed as poetic. The emotion poetry can incite connected to geography's themes is transformative. Imagine if more students globally gained an appreciation for people and their perspectives for their human story. Imagine how that would influence empathy. For more information about Out My Window and the Connecting Creativity Series visit our website. We can't wait to see what's out your window.