Flat+Stanley


 * __Description of Assignment__**

Flat Stanley was a collaborative project. Who is Flat Stanley? In the 1964 book, //Flat Stanley Adventure//, by James Brown, Stanley is "made flat" when a heavy bulletin board falls on him. He is able to visit friends because he can be folded and placed in an envelope to be mailed. The Official Flat Stanley Website is located at http://www.flatstanley.com. In this variation of the collaborative project, each individual in the class acted as a "class that is participating in the project." Flat Stanley visited each participant's chosen locale so Flat Stanley would be able to "see the sights" in the mid-Atlantic area. The collaboration will be the sharing of Flat Stanley's individual visits through a Website. Each class member received an electronic Flat Stanley to 'groom' and 'dress' and take to fun and interesting places. Two variations were available one to print and color with crayons. The other to electronically color in PhotoShop Elements (or any photo manipulation software) and print. Flat Stanley's adventures were recorded with digital software, digital video and audio recordings. Three photos of Flat Stanley were manipulated through digital editing to be made optimal for website placement. Flat Stanley adventure was then created in a table with the photos and audio. Then each individual story was placed in the collaborative project using a wiki.

FLAT STANLEY GOES TO PARKSIDE SCHOOL Today I met Ms. B. She decorates our school for every season. || This is Grandmom Vicki. She likes to send birthday cards. || media type="file" key="Unknown.mp3" width="240" height="20" ||
 * [[image:bgoldman.jpg]] ||
 * [[image:new_miss_vicki.jpg]] ||
 * [[image:flat_stanley_snack.jpg]] || At lunchtime I ate a snack. ||
 * [[image:richards.jpg]] || This is the music teacher. She taught me how to sing.

__Reflection__ I am well acquainted with Flat Stanley and his various adventures. On fourth grade class that I taught explored this story in detail. I had my students write about what it would feel like to be flat and to draft a chart with pros and cons. As I recall there were some very interesting observations as well as descriptions of what it would be like to be "cube' Stanley and "circle" Stanley. This assignment is an excellent motivational tool for students. It ecourages students to familiarize themselves wth digital picture taking. Itbegins the exploration of photo editing. It supplies a format for utilizing the images collected. Using Audacity was a real learning experience. In the past I have used Garage Band on the Macintosh platform to record and manipulate my voice. It was interesting to experiment with another medium. Especially on that is free. I will certainly introduce this particular assignment to my teachers as an exercise that includes many opportunities to make full use of 21st century technology skills.