#being recorded both visually and audially | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

universalinfo · 1 year

Text

Why there are separate Oscars for sound mixing and sound editing?

While the glitz and glamour of the Oscars may be associated with the A-list actors and breathtaking visuals, the unsung heroes of the film industry work their magic behind the scenes. Enter the wizards of film sound design, the maestros who manipulate sonic elements to create immersive experiences that transport us into captivating worlds.

At the Academy Awards, two distinct categories honor these audial architects: Sound mixing and sound editing. In this blog post, we’re going to explore why these two categories differ, uncovering the artistry behind each and the vital roles they play in bringing movies to life.

Unraveling the distinction between sound mixing and sound editing

You might think that sound mixing and sound editing are interchangeable terms. But hold on: there’s a lot of difference between them, and we’re going to break it down for you.

Let’s start with sound editing. This is the nitty-gritty, down-and-dirty work of capturing and creating every single sound effect that you hear in a movie. Whether it’s the sound of a car engine revving, a sword being unsheathed, or a monster roaring, sound editors are the ones who make it happen.

Sound editors are like audio detectives, always on the hunt for the perfect sound to match the action on screen. And let’s not forget the fun part of their job: creating brand-new sounds from scratch. Sound editors are like audio wizards, conjuring up bizarre and otherworldly sounds that have never been heard before.

Now, let’s move on to sound mixing. Sound mixers take all the individual sound elements that the sound editors have created and blend them into one harmonious soundscape. Think of them as audio chefs, carefully selecting the right ingredients and spices to create the perfect dish. They adjust the levels, the panning, the EQ, and all sorts of other fancy-sounding stuff to make sure that everything sounds just right.

So, in a nutshell, sound editing is all about creating individual sounds, while sound mixing is about blending them to create one beautiful sonic masterpiece. Both are crucial to film sound design, and both require a unique set of skills and expertise. It’s like comparing apples and oranges. Sure, they’re both fruit, but they’re different in taste, texture, and appearance.

The intricacies of sound editing

Sound editing is like a treasure hunt for the perfect sound effect. Imagine a scene where a character is walking through a forest. The sound editor would have to capture the crunching of leaves underfoot, the rustling of branches, the chirping of birds, and the whisper of the wind. But wait, what if there’s a bear in the distance? The sound editor would have to create the sound of a bear growling, even if they’ve never heard one in real life. It’s like a game of audio charades where the sound editor has to use their imagination and creativity to create the perfect sound.

But it’s not just about capturing or creating the sound effect. The sound editor also has to manipulate and process the sound to fit the scene. They might add some reverb to make it sound like the action is taking place in a large space, or they might EQ the sound to emphasize a specific frequency. It’s like baking a cake: you can have all the right ingredients, but you need to mix them in the right way and bake them at the right temperature to get the perfect result.

And let’s not forget about the fun part of the job: creating new sounds from scratch. Sound editors are like mad scientists, always experimenting with new techniques and tools to create sounds that have never been heard before. They might record their voice and manipulate it to create a monster’s roar or use a watermelon to create the sound of a head being smashed. It’s a job that requires imagination, creativity, and a willingness to think outside the box.

But it’s not all fun and games. Sound editing is a time-consuming and detail-oriented process. A single sound effect can take hours, if not days, to capture, create, and process. And when you’re working on a big-budget blockbuster, the pressure is on to create a sonic landscape that’s both immersive and believable.

The craft of sound mixing

So, what exactly is sound mixing? Well, sound mixers are the maestros of the auditory realm, taking all the different sound elements (dialogue, music, sound effects) and blending them. They’re like the master chefs of audio, creating a delicious auditory feast for our ears.

But it’s not just about throwing all the ingredients into a blender and hitting the mix button. Sound mixers have to delicately balance each sound element, making sure that the dialogue is clear and intelligible, the music swells at just the right moments, and the sound effects pack a punch without overpowering everything else.

Just imagine a scene where our hero is having a heartfelt conversation in the middle of a bustling city street. The sound mixer would have to make sure that the dialogue is front and center, so we can hear every word our hero utters. But they also need to weave in the sounds of car horns, footsteps, and distant conversations to create a realistic urban ambiance. It’s like a juggling act, keeping all the elements in perfect harmony.

And let’s not forget about the spatial aspect of sound mixing. Sound mixers use their audio wizardry to create a sense of space and depth. They can make sounds move from left to right, from front to back, and even make them swirl around your head in a mesmerizing audio dance.

But here’s the real magic of sound mixing: it’s all about the emotions. Sound mixers are master manipulators of feelings. They use their craft to enhance the mood of a scene, whether it’s through the haunting melody of a horror movie, the triumphant swell of a superhero theme, or the tender notes of a romantic ballad. They take us on an emotional rollercoaster ride, tugging at our heartstrings and making us laugh, cry, or jump out of our seats in fear.

Celebrating the differences between sound mixing and sound editing

Now that we’ve explored the intricacies of sound mixing and sound editing, it’s time to appreciate the unique contributions of each discipline. While both categories are vital to film sound design, the Academy Awards recognize their distinctions by honoring them separately.

This division allows for a more nuanced recognition of the specialized skills and creative processes involved in each field. By celebrating both sound mixing and sound editing, the Oscars shine a spotlight on the individuals who dedicate their talents to shaping the sonic landscapes of our favorite films.

Conclusion

Film sound design is a captivating blend of technical expertise and artistic creativity. Sound mixing and sound editing, although different in their objectives, work in perfect harmony to create immersive auditory experiences that transport audiences into the heart of the story.

While sound editing focuses on capturing and crafting individual sound elements, sound mixing blends them to achieve a balanced and cohesive soundscape. For that reason, both disciplines deserve recognition for their unique contributions to the cinematic experience.

So, the next time you sit back in a movie theater or cozy up on your couch for a film night, take a moment to appreciate the artistry of film sound design. Listen closely to the whispers and roars, the subtle nuances and thunderous crescendos.

Behind every sound, there are dedicated sound mixers and sound editors who bring their passion and expertise to create a symphony that enriches our cinematic journeys. The Oscars may have separate categories for sound mixing and sound editing, but together they form an extraordinary partnership that elevates the magic of the movies.

Content source: https://rianhunter.com/sb/why-separate-oscars-for-sound-mixing-sound-editing/

#Sound designing #Sound editing #Sound mixing

3 notes · View notes

libermachinae · 3 years

Text

Cradle

Available on AO3 Summary: Post-battle roll call. Notes: For @soundwaveweek, prompt was ‘poetry.’

---

The MTOs were stressed. He could understand that, and in fact had little choice but to. Coming online in a crashing shuttle was a less than ideal way to begin life, and the hours of listening to gunfire and artillery going off just outside their prison-slash-shelter almost guaranteed the sorts of injuries no tool could fix. Soundwave had no idea whether the silence that followed the Decepticon victory would have been a welcome reprieve or the most hellish stretch of the experience, but his torch cutting through the crumpled hatch had broken its hold on them, and now they were frantic.

Their thoughts cut him like millions of grains of sand caught up in the exhaust of a shuttle launch. There were questions, the standard Who is that?, Am I going to die?, and Is that supposed to happen? Then the observations, It’s dark, It’s light, He’s blue, He has a gun, and I have a gun.

Mostly, though, they were giving off impressions that could not be condensed so neatly into words, not without at least a few days’ practice to understand the ebb and flow of language. Without it, Soundwave could feel the crush of the darkness, the burning slice of the light. When he announced himself on arrival, his voice came back to him thirteen different ways, shivering or sliding or in boxes, an impressive feat for a group whose sum total life experiences were the inside of a dead shuttle and each other.

The volume increased as he approached them, both due to proximity and their own increasing anxieties. Their thoughts were loud enough to be knocking against his helm, adding to the cacophony the echo of his own internals, but he soldiered on, approaching the first cradle, its occupant staring at him with a mouthless expression that nevertheless seemed to snarl.

“Designation,” Soundwave demanded.

“Megatron.”

Hisses and whispers and flares. Soundwave wished he could turn down his sensitivity, but with all the cassettes investigating other casualty reports, he couldn’t risk making himself that vulnerable, even if it meant he would be taking a splitting processor ache to berth with him that night instead of recharge.

“Your designation,” he said, with no patience to start with.

The MTO stared at Soundwave, optics glancing first over his face and then the length of his frame. He started to speak, aborted the effort, attention straying to his comrades before snapping back to the officer. His thoughts were bright, sour, and runny, becoming more disorganized the longer Soundwave stood waiting for an answer. Now he was tearing through his data packs, the disorganized folders spilling open with instructions on how to shoot, who to shoot, which way to run—

“No designation,” Soundwave concluded, feeling a part of his psyche slump with resignation. “Serial code.”

The uncomprehending stare slid again to the other MTOs, whose own thoughts echoed the globular confusion. A few of them were in the same process of upending their entire storage libraries, and although any one of them could have accurately pinpointed the coordinates where their plummeting ship had disappeared off the edge of the battle map, not one of them could provide him the very basic information he needed to complete this task and leave these soldiers for the recovery teams to salvage.

Soundwave made a quick visual inspection of the MTO, who tried to lean away—not far, given that he was still suspended in the cradle—now that his defensive bluster had dried up. No printed serial code, nor was there on the MTO beside him, a quiet mech who barely glanced at Soundwave as he came close. No serial codes, either printed or coded.

“Any identification markers?” Soundwave asked the room at large. A flicker of movement: Soundwave looked down to the mech at the end of the starboard row, the one installed opposite the sole casualty, aside from the ship itself. His thoughts had been quieter than the rest, colorless and inflexible in a way that had suggested a concussion, but Soundwave’s question had provoked a brief flare. He was looking up: on the ceiling above his squadmate was painted the number 2.

That, unfortunately, was something that could be plugged into a database, checked against the shuttle manifest and production logs, and be used to reverse engineer a serial number. Success, though, depended on this being a legitimate deployment, and certain signs were suggesting the opposite, though none so definitively as to trigger a full investigation. Soundwave put out a recall signal to Frenzy and Ravage, wary of how isolated the shuttle’s final resting place was, and tuned his sensors up higher…

Only to immediately turn them down again as the minutiae of the newbuilds’ thoughts flowed like acid rain through fresh gaps in a roof. He could read the rudimentary threat assessments they were running on him and taste the swell of emotions too new to differentiate yet; the bravest among them had started to free curiosity from the mass, and they plugged it into every observation they made, building questions on top of each other until the thoughts were heavy enough to bend under their own weight. Within the shuttle, everything felt compressed and heavy on top of him.

“Calm down,” he commanded, and winced at spikes of anxiety impaling him from multiple directions.

What a waste, he thought as he recovered from the burst, of his time and their lives. Nova Point was captured, the Autobot base overrun, and Starscream’s choice to put him on recovery meant vital logistics standards were being delayed. The already lengthy identification process would easily be doubled if this much of his processor remained dedicated to his hypersensitivity sensors, and he was vulnerable as long as the soldiers’ thoughts were filling his audio feed. Soldier was even a generous word for the mechs he’d been tasked with risking his life for. Their minimal data packs and emotional instability would make them ill-suited to the promotions occasionally offered to MTOs. They would be getting hauled out of one wreck only to be pressed into another, one that would more likely than not reach its intended destination.

Soundwave did not fault Megatron for leading a chunk of their forces off to the distant front lines on other worlds, but he did long for his leader at times. Megatron would know what was best, whether to forge ahead with the recovery efforts or leave them here to—

“A new row of unlit lanterns is marched in, And I can’t remember what my world looks like In the dark.”

The recording was poor quality, torn from a processor moments before it went offline. Soundwave kept hoping to find the rest of the poem, but bots who survived that time were few and far between, and they guarded their secrets fiercely. Because it was short, he let it play out, and when it finished the attention of the MTOs had narrowed.

“What was that?” the first one asked.

“Untitled,” Soundwave said, which wasn’t entirely accurate. He had a recording of a secondhand account that referred to the poem as ‘The Chain Runners,’ but had never been able to confirm it. He could have asked, but then he would have to tell Megatron he kept the old poem, and that wasn’t a conversation he was ready to have yet.

“But what was it?” The MTO jerked in his cradle; despite the clatter of plating, it did nothing to free him.

“Identification: a poem.”

The complete absence of understanding was a hole Soundwave could have fallen into. A couple accepted that as an answer—a poem must have been another form of marching order, the only communication style they had been brought online to understand—but the others prodded him with their curiosity, audials straining to catch another blip of that strange voice.

“That wasn’t you,” one of the others said.

“Negative,” Soundwave said. “Speaker…” He stopped, remembering how the first MTO, now gazing at him with useful curiosity, had snarled the poet’s name. Had that been out of a sense of pride? A desperation to answer the question, using the only scrap of information they had? Or had it been in worship, choosing his lord’s name to be his first word to the real world? The clashing, violent thoughts did not readily bear an answer to Soundwave, but they did give him pause as he considered his response, long enough that the MTOs’ anxiety rose up once more in a wave.

“What’s it mean?” one of them asked.

“Definition subjective,” Soundwave said. He still had so much work to do. “Silence requested.”

“It’s a code.”

“Negative.”

“Then it’s gotta mean something.”

Soundwave grasped uselessly for words, wishing Ravage were there already. He was better at this. Soundwave wasn’t good at conversation, but most of the time he could get out of it by virtue of the fact that the people he ran into were either his subordinates and afraid of him, or at about equal level and jealous of his proximity to Megatron. It was so rare for him to enter a room without his reputation having already made the rounds for him, he had no basis for navigating this.

He couldn’t come up with anything, and the longer he let the silence drag out the louder the background of thoughts grew to compensate. At a loss and desperate for relief, Soundwave dove into his archives and pulled a file at random, plugging it into his speakers without even scanning the contents.

“The revolution failed because the lords were unamused. The smoke that rose from the burning corpses of their clerks Soured their palmful drinks, And the chants which rose to their balconies, Calling for their heads, Were out of tune with the afternoon symphony.

(The first chair would be tossed out at intermission, And the crowd would suck closed empty fuel lines While inside, the lords sipped in peace.)”

Even with his speakers playing at a high volume, the relative noise inside the shuttle dropped instantly. Their minds were still working, turning over each word like they could find the meaning hidden underneath, but without the fear of the unknown it was quieter and reflective.

“If you still say your knuckles ache, Lay them here, on my knee. I cannot take from you That pain, But I will map the seams of your palm. I will memorize you, Memorialize. I will chart your construction And between your seams find…”

Crunching data while listening to Megatron’s voice was second nature by now. Soundwave stood in the center of the wrecked shuttle, seeking out the identity of the MTOs, while around him they leaned and twisted in their cradles, hunting down the poems like the twinkle of an enemy across a battlefield.

#maccadam #transformers #soundwave #soundwave week #my writing #oneshot #cradle

34 notes · View notes

gbsoriginals-blog · 5 years

Text

more than the eye can see (w1)

This week we explored ideas around multi-sensory experience, beyond just the visual and audible.

Reading

Both Paterson and Marks talk about the hierarchical nature of the senses. The compulsory Visual Communication module reflects this in its explicit visual priority, especially as traditional media (i.e. photographs, magazines, film) are unavoidably tactile.

Paterson writes about the "predominance of the visual" (Paterson, p1543). He refers to the "under-exploited complexity of rich tactility for the purpose of communication" (Paterson p1547), pointing out that historical research into haptics has most often been about non-normative experience i.e. the experiences of differently-abled people. There is an assumption when technology is being developed that its users are able-bodied. I was interested to read that when a person is blind, the visual cortex is repurposed, allowing for non-sighted people to learn Braille more easily than sighted people (Paterson p1550).

I really enjoyed reading Marks. She considers aesthetics and beauty, and how sound and visuals (or optics and acoustics, in the words of Paterson, p1546) are limitedly considered the only vehicles of beauty (Marks, p123). The ‘distant’ senses of sight and sound can experience art, while the more ‘proximal’ senses of smell, touch and taste are more primal. Marks’ thoughts on smell and memory are particularly touching. There is a process of (1) smelling, (2) associating, and (3) knowing (Marks, p125). This feels so familiar to me, the dissonance of smelling a scent which reminds you of a place, distant in time and space, jarringly knocking you out of the present moment, until you can place the memory and the trigger-scent’s source. Another explored by Marks which I found interesting was the idea of smell and class, considering the privilege of living a life where I am so rarely exposed to deeply unpleasant smells.

smells are inextricable from bodily events that are repressed (Marks, p127)

Project

I enjoyed The Blind Legend game. It was so friendly. It made me smile. I felt nostalgic and happy, I love playing games like this with children in real life. Somehow the lack of visuals made the game more of an escape.

The game is from company DOWiNO, making games, apps and films for change. This game is part of a larger goal to inform, educate and raise awareness around disability and other social issues. According to the DOWiNO website, the game is targeted at the general public, designed for both blind and sighted players to have a new gaming experience with the emmersive 3D sound.

Video games, aside from Sims 3 and a wide array of dress-up games I played as a kid, have seemed like an unknown field to which I missed the foundational lessons. Many video games I've found overwhelming both visually, audially, technically and in terms of the actions I've needed to take.

I found the audio and controls of A Blind Legend familiar - the concept is so human, playing hide and seek with the added challenge of being blindfolded. I played with my eyes open because I was in a public space, I felt closing my eyes would be weird. I want to play with my eyes closed to see how the experience can be more imaginative.

I like that it imitates a real-life environment which is familiar, placing you in a role which you can relate to. If I were to suggest improvements, I think the child's voice should be louder or quieter, not just switching sides of the ear. I felt I was walking quite far but the child seemed close by audio, it broke the suspension of disbelief slightly.

Task

A map of the student breakout room.

(for audio see audio post)

For this task we mapped the edge of the student breakout room from a tactic and acoustic point of view, recording the room’s sound and describing the textures as we experienced them.

We found we lacked the vocabulary to describe the textures, repeatedly using the same words to describe materials which were different. Our vocabulary lacked nuance, using visual words to describe textures. When touching the glass at the end I was so pleasantly surprised by the experience, I said I should touch things more, because you can experience pleasure from touching things like grainy bumpy glossy glass.

#week 1

1 note · View note

thuynguyennational-blog · 6 years

Text

Phonics Toolbox

Toolbox link: https://padlet.com/leavamom/sugndq68hvju

Phonics

ELA COMMON CORE STATE STANDARDS

In order to be an effective educator, it is critical that we are aware of the state standards that the students are required to master. I have included this resource because it is important to have and refer to. As educators, we cannot effectively teach our students and set them up for success if we do not know ourselves the skills that they should master. By having access to, and knowing, the state standards, we can plan effective lessons and know when and where we can assist the students that need extra resources.

ZOO PHONICS

This phonics video is called Zoo Phonics. With each letter of the ABC’s there is an animal that represents the letter. Zoo Phonics is all about sound and symbol representation and uses body movements to help the students remember what the letter sound is. This is a kinesthetic learning approach and I feel that it helps all students learn by doing. Once the students get all the Zoo Phonics down, they will be on their way to be a great reader and will have phonological awareness.

Phonics in Song

PHONICS SONG 2

This phonics song works through each letter of the alphabet while also naming the letter sounds. I searched for phonics sounds that presented correct sounds. Having taught ESL, I have noticed that a lot of students were naming the letter sounds with an extra sound at the end, such as for the letter ‘m’ the sound would be presented as /m/-/uh/ instead of the proper /m/. I believe that students should be presented with resources that will set them up for success. If students were to learn the letter ‘m’ as /m/-/uh/, it would be difficult for them to properly blend it such as in /m/-/a/-/t/-mat. Phonics Song 2 is appropriate for different learners because it includes audial learning by listening to the song, and it is good for visual learners because the video includes pictures that coordinate with each letter and sound.

JACK HARTMANN YOUTUBE CHANNEL

As a substitute teacher, I have come to learn the effectiveness and versatility of Jack Hartmann’s work. He is a proponent of movement in learning, so a lot of his videos encourage the students to get up and move while they sing the songs, whether it be walking in place, jumping up and down, or dancing. In a technological world where a lot of people sit stationary on an electronic device, I believe that it is important to incorporate movement into learning to promote a healthy lifestyle. Jack Hartmann’s videos are versatile and can accommodate different learners because he provides the audial learning in his songs as well as the physical element for students who tend to move around a lot or are fidgety.

VOWEL PHONIC SONG

This video is singing the vowels slow and then fast to the tune of BINGO. This video helps the students recognize the tune of the song and sounding out the vowels. This will help students learn how to pronounce the vowels in the correct way and identify them. I believe by having a familiar tune to introduce the vowels to the students will help them memorize what the vowels are. This song would be appropriate for visual and audial learners because the letters of the alphabet and corresponding animals with those letters are displayed on the screen while it is being sung to the tune of BINGO. This song would work for students of different grade levels because for this specific video, the song only sings the letters of the alphabet but for other grades, you can modify it to blends or digraphs which makes it a little harder.

THE VOWEL SONG: LONG AND SHORT VOWEL SOUNDS

I chose The Vowel Song: Long and Short Vowel Sounds because it not only reinforces which letters are vowels, but it also helps students to understand that each vowel has two sounds. I also chose this song because it has a catchy tune that I believe would capture the interest of students. Because of the catchy tune, this song would be a good song to get the students moving and have a dance party while they sing it. The song is slightly fast-paced so it may be difficult for new English Learners to catch on to the words and song, but I like that there is a lot of repetition, such as “/a/-/a/-/a/-/a/-/a/-apple.” The repetition will help English Learners practice and learn the sounds better.

WHEN 2 VOWELS GO WALKING

I chose When 2 Vowels Go Walking because it helps reinforce the long vowel sounds by teaching students that when two vowels are presented together, the first one says its name, which is also the long vowel sound. The song has a catchy tune that would capture students’ attention. I also like that there were examples of different vowel pairs, such as in “toe,” “pie,” and “boat.” I believe that this song would be beneficial for students of different English knowledge levels. It would help native speakers understand that when they see two vowels together, they say the first letter’s name. It will help English learners learn the long vowel sound by identifying when they recognize two vowels together.

Digraphs + Prefixes + Suffixes

PREFIX & SUFFIX SONG

I chose this YouTube video because it explains what a prefix and suffix is by singing and it displays the words and pictures in the video, which helps the students understand the word and keeps them engaged visually and auditorily. I think this teaches prefixes and suffixes in a fun way and children can learn and advance in this activity because you can always change the easier prefixes and suffixes to ones that are a little more advanced. This will help students learn more of what prefix and suffix means so that even if they do not know a word, they may be able to guess what the word means. This would not work very well for the upper grade children unless they are below average and need additional help in this area.

MATCHING PENCILS

I chose this activity because I think it is a fun way to teach kids. This activity incorporates UDL into teaching because every child learns differently so this will help students that are visual and hands on learners. This activity helps the students be able to see the spelling of the words because sometimes children have heard some words but do not know how they are spelled. This activity will help students visually see the words in front of them while being a hands-on activity. This activity can be done in the classroom or at home with parents and this will help the students register the spelling of the word with the phonic sound of the word. I think this activity is appropriate for other grade levels by switching up the words. For a higher-grade level, you would choose more advanced words that fit into the grade level you are trying to teach.

BLENDS AND DIGRAPHS

This chart is helpful for students that are learning the sounds made by blends or digraphs. You can turn the chart into a board game if you record sounds of blends of words and make a chart of pictures and or words that have the same sounds. Then you can play the sound and have the child listen closely to the sound and have them pick the corresponding pictures and words that have the same sound as the one they just heard. I picked this because teachers can use this in the classroom and parents can use this at home with their children as well. If learning involves a game, children will most likely be more engaged. I feel that this activity helps children successful meet the target area of learning blending sounds and digraphs because it not only makes them listen to the sound, but they also must think about what other objects, animals or items have the same sound. It helps the children learn to think more deeply. This activity will work best with students who are visual, auditory and hands on learners. I do not think this activity will work for the upper grade levels because it is about learning blends and digraphs, however; I think it would work for upper grade levels but with a different content.

ROLL A WORD PHONICS DRY ERASE ACTIVITY

I chose this activity because it helps students see and write what they can come up with and roll a real word or roll a nonsense word. Both ways, it lets the students blend and write out the words. Coming up with a real word will let them see and sound out a word and with a nonsense word, it will keep the activity entertaining and keep the students engaged. Also, by writing out the word; it will help their fine motor skills and allow them to practice their handwriting skills. This activity will work for children of different grade levels based on the level of difficulty of the words and will work for visual and more hands-on learners since they will be rolling and writing words down.

PHONICS MINI BOOKS

These free mini books to download help students learn new consonant digraphs with coloring the pictures that go with the digraph. Also, the students can trace the letters as they occur in the mini book. With each mini book, the students will learn the five most common digraphs which are: ch, ph, sh, th, and wh. These mini books would work with kindergarten through second grade students.

DIGRAPHS

This video particularly appealed to me because it is a fun and educational video for young children to learn letter sounds. Even as an adult, I found it fun and it drew me in the first time that I saw it. I also let my five-year-old niece watch it and I heard her singing parts of the song later in the day. Jack Hartmann really knows how to make learning fun. This video specifically is about digraphs and the sounds it makes. He also gives many examples of words that has the sounds of the letters that he is presenting. Jack Hartmann’s channel, not just this video is very educational, and I would definitely recommend his channel to anyone with young children and you can always play his videos in the car if you have a longer car ride and want to keep the kids busy. That way they are learning and not just watching a random video to kill time. I do think that this video and Jack Hartmann’s other videos will help students learn digraphs because if they forget what sound two letters make, they can think about this video and sing or replay it in their head. This will help them remember what sound the letters make and what words have those sounds. This video will be appropriate for visual and auditory learners because you can hear Jack Hartmann singing the song and he also displays it on the screen. I think this video will work for multiple grade levels depending on where they are academically. I am sure you can tweak the sounds or letters and change up the words for the upper grade level students.

Word Work

WORD WORK

This Reading Mama provides a lot of great phonics and reading resources. She is a homeschooling mom that creates her resources based on the curriculum that she is teaching her own children. I liked her ideas on Word Work activities because she includes a variety of options such as “Write words in a fancy way” or a simple activity such as “Spell words with magnetic letters.” The activities she has listed are adaptable and can be adjusted for students of various grade levels. For example, we can ask younger students to write their fancy words by dotting them and ask older students to write their fancy words in cursive. Our younger students can spell CVC words using magnetic letters, whereas older students can spell sight words or vocabulary words. Her Word Work ideas are generic and adaptable.

FIRST GRADE LEARNING GLUED SOUNDS-AM, AN, AND -ALL

I picked this program because it offers worksheets and activities that will help students learn glued sounds such as -am, -an, and -all at an extremely low price. I think this will help new teachers get an idea of some of the worksheets or activities that they can use or use as a reference when they are making their own. I will be a new teacher one day, so I think this is a useful resource to get new teachers going. This will help students learn how to sound out words that end in -am, -an or -all and that most words with the same ending will rhyme. I think this will work on multiple grade levels based on the words. The lower grade levels can have much easier words such as can-van or call-wall. The upper grade levels could have more challenging words to work on.

WORD PLAY

I chose this program because it is a differentiated word study curriculum. It comes in a digital format and it works for first, second and third grade. This program offers nine weeks of instructions based on phonics, spelling, and word families through games, worksheets and poems. It also comes with a comprehensive teacher guide, lesson plans and is a great resource for teachers. The only downside is that it is not free, but the price is not expensive. This program will help students become more successful in the target areas of phonics because it focuses on phonics and spelling. It uses a wide variety of ways to teach the content such as word cards, games, poems, worksheets, sound boards, and pocket chart pieces; so, I believe this will address many different learners.

Literacy

DIARY OF A NOT SO WIMPY TEACHER

Diary of a Not So Wimpy Teacher originally caught my attention when I was scrolling through Instagram one day. The blog name caught my eye because at the time my fourth grader had found interest in the “Diary of a Wimpy Kid” book series. As I began to read her biography, I felt an educational connection to her because her philosophy matched mine. I am a strong believer that students learn better when they are active and moving; so, does she. I believe that learning should be fun and a big dance party; she does she. I believe that it is our job as educators to differentiate our teaching to accommodate each individual student and meet their needs; so, does she. I find her resources for differentiated learning useful and beneficial for each student, regardless of their knowledge or skill level.

TIPS TO HELP STRUGGLING READERS

I had chosen to include tips on helping struggling readers because I have witnessed the frustration in students’ faces when they are trying to read but aren’t as fluent as they hope to be. It is our job as educators to be able to read the signs that our students are struggling, whether it be visual cues or from data collected, and know how to help them through it. This blog post includes a lot of different activities to build reading and phonological skills. Included in this blog post is also a lot of tips that would help even the fluent readers. A tip I particularly enjoyed was “Build confidence.” Even the most fluent readers may not be confident in their skills and we should reinforce their skill and raise their confidence so that they enjoy reading and don’t feel that it’s just a task that they need to complete.

PHONICS CLIP CARDS

I chose this because it is reusable, and it helps learners work on fine motor muscles that is important for writing while learning phonics. The best part of this is that it offers more than one hundred clip cards for free! These clip cards can be used by teachers as well as parents at home if their child needs extra practice or support. These cards will have a picture with the word of what the picture is with some of the letters missing. The child is to pick the missing letters from the choices on the right side of the picture and then use a clothes pin to clip the missing letters. You can also make this an independent activity by marking the correct answer on the back of the card with either a star or happy face, so that the child can self-check their answers. They can use this on their own time and at their convenience. This activity is appropriate for children of all ages; all you must do is change the level of difficulty of the words. These clip cards will help learners that are more visual and hands on because they get to decide which letters are missing on the card and pick the correct answer.

TEACHING GUIDE

I picked this teaching guide because it is a good resource for teachers to use as a guide. It talks about the process of explicit and systematic phonics teaching. This guide also offers a list of websites for additional information and support which teachers will find useful if they want to learn more about how to teach phonics. This guide simply offers a lot of information on how to teach phonics; therefore, I believe this is useful for all teachers especially new teachers to have. This guide will be helpful in helping teachers teach their students to learn the information so that they can reach their grade curriculum and not fall behind. I believe this guide will work for different grade levels but some of the content or instructions maybe need to be modified to better meet the needs of the students in different grade levels.

KEEPING UP WITH MRS. HARRIS

I had originally come across Keeping Up with Mrs. Harris’ Teachers Pay Teachers store when I was searching for different ELA activities for my students. I liked the organization that she had to her activities and resources. As I looked into her biography, I learned that she holds a Master’s degree in Elementary Literacy and Reading. That helped build my confidence in the effectiveness of her resources because this subject is what she specializes in. Her resources are adaptable to students who are beginners and older students as well.

Apps + Games

ABCMOUSE

ABCmouse is an educational website that expands on the student’s reading, language, math, science, social studies, and arts skills with animated activities and games. This website is good for all students because all the lessons they learn, they are motivated by ABCmouse’s tickets and reward system. Throughout the lessons the students are learning through animations, games, books, puzzles, art and songs. Also, this website offers a progress tracker, so the parents can see the progress their child is making by their academic level and curriculum subject. This website works for students who are in preschool all the way past the second grade.

STARFALL

Starfall is another great educational website that will help students who need different UDL methods in learning like students that have learning difficulties, special needs and/or English Language Learners. This website offers the students to play, explore and feel intrinsically motivated. This website is also an app that the students can download at home as well and do some independent work. I think Starfall would be great for the classroom because it covers Common Core State Standards and can be individualized for the student, which will help them become more fluent in the target areas.

TEACH YOUR MONSTER TO READ

I included Teach Your Monster to Read because it is an app that my own children enjoy playing. The monsters that are in the game captured their interest because they are silly and fun to interact with. The game also accommodates various skill levels from beginners learning phonics sounds to children who are reading complete sentences but need more practice. I am a fan of this app because it helps my 5-year-old learn to identify the letters of the alphabet and it also gives my daughter sentences that she can read to practice and improve her fluency. It helps various age groups.

LEARNING LETTER SOUNDS

I chose this game because it will make learning more fun for young children. The child must listen to the sound and then choose which picture, out of the four, matches the sound that they are making. I feel that this will help children learn what sound each letter makes as well as help them link it to an animal or item. This game will keep the children engaged and works well for students who learn best visually, are auditory learners and for children that are hands on. However, I do not think it will work for more advanced or upper grade children because it only teaches sounds, so it is more for younger grade level children.

LALILO

Lalilo is an app that is created for teachers by teachers. It is versatile because it can be accessed on a table, iPad, or on a computer. This app piqued my interest because nobody knows more about the areas that different students struggle in than teachers do. I chose to include this app because it allows the opportunity for individualized learning. Teachers can personalize the exercises to each individual student and it also provides data on their progress. As educators, data is critical; it gives a snapshot of what level our students are in and help us determine the plan of action to help them improve. Due to the fact that exercises can be personalized, it is appropriate for different grades or skill levels.

PHONICS APPS

This website shows different phonic apps that the students can use through an iPad or Chromebook. With the different types of phonic apps the students can learn phonics in an entertaining way. Through these apps, the student is learning phonics without realizing that they are learning in their own way and at their own pace. One of my favorite apps that I have seen students use is the app called Alphabet Sounds Word Study. It has helped the students recognize the beginning, middle and end sounds of words. Overall, I feel these apps are great UDL methods for all students especially the ones that have a difficult time learning in a big group setting.

KIZ PHONICS GAME ONLINE

This game teaches students online and develops their skills in areas such as reviewing short vowels, consonants, blends, and digraphs. There are different levels in the game and with each level the students pass; they would go on to the next level to learn a new and/or develop a new phonic skill. I like this game website because I feel it challenges the student to improve and do better with each level they pass. This website also offers hard copies of the program that you can purchase separately. These games will help the children be successful with the variety of phonic games they can play and it will keep them entertained, while not knowing that they are learning.

Learning Phonics to Teach Phonics

INTERVENTION STRATEGIES FOR STRUGGLING READERS

I chose this because it is a more personalized way to focus on the needs of the struggling reader. It helps you find patterns in a struggling reader and will allow you to focus primarily on that skill deficit. Cindy Kanuch, who is a reading specialist presents tips on how to work on the skill deficit efficiently and effectively which will save time and could help students improve in as little as one to two weeks! This is such a good resource for teachers to help the students they have that are struggling. I believe this will help different learners and students from different grade levels because the goal of this strategy is to find out the area or areas that the student is struggling in and focusing on them one at a time. The way we identify which areas the students are struggling in may need to be adjusted according to the student’s grade level, but this should be adaptable for various learners and grade levels. This resource will help teachers give the students the extra help they need in order to fully understand what they are struggling in; which in turn will of course help the students become more successfully in the target area.

PHONICS REFERENCE GUIDE

I picked this reference guide because I thought it was a good guide to help students learn when there is a short vowel sound and when there is a long vowel sound. I specifically like this because after the reference they give you some examples of what they are talking about. This guide is a good guide for students who need some additional help with phonemes, and for children; incorporating learning into a game form is an excellent way to keeps them distracted from thinking they are learning. With this guide, students will become more successful in learning about phonics, blends and digraphs because this guide provides extra support for those who are struggling. This guide can be used by both parents and teachers which I think is an important part of my decision in choosing this guide. I believe parents need to play an important role in their child’s education and it makes a big difference when they do. I believe this will work for all different grade levels and different kinds of learners because this is a guide with ideas on how to approach phonics, blends and digraphs. This guide will help generate many other activities that parents, or teachers can come up with to meet the needs of their learners. You can come up with charts, worksheets, a board game, a play or videos for students that prefer those.

20 PHONIC ANCHOR CHARTS

I chose this website because it shares twenty different phonic anchor charts. With each anchor chart, the students can learn and gain confidence in understanding phonics and blend. Anchor charts help students get engaged in the lesson that the teacher is teaching and gets them involved in participating in the classroom. Also, the students can reference to the anchor charts once teacher hang it up in the class for the students to see. This helps the students because they can access the anchor chart independently and can refer to it if they needed to. In addition, Anchor charts are appropriate for multiple ages in the classroom.

PHONICS PLAYDOUGH

With this fun activity, students can identity each letter in the word while playing with playdough. With each letter the student sounds out the word while squishing the playdough ball below each letter. This activity can be done in small groups or by yourself. Also, this activity lets the students show the teacher how they can be responsible with the playdough and demonstrate to the teacher and other students how they can follow the activity directions and read words by sounding them out. This phonics playdough activity can be useful in Kindergarten all the way to second grade where the student could add in blending the words.

FUN WAY TO TEACH PHONICS

This video makes learning sounds of each letter more fun because it will seem like they are just watching a short video, but they are learning the sounds of individual letters then the sounds of two letters put together to form words. The letters are moving around so children will need to pay attention and follow along. I think this will only work for younger children because of the way it is set up. The characters in the video would be more appealing to the younger grade levels. I chose this video because it will not make it seem like they are learning, but simply watching a video. If the information is presented repeatedly, then it will work its way into long term memory and the children will remember the sounds more, which will also lead to them learning how to sound out words that they do not know.

DOUBLE “EE” EEL

This activity is great for the students because they can make a fun eel while learning about the double “ee”. The students can enjoy putting together and playing with the double “ee” eel while learning all at the same time. When the students work on this activity, they are learning about the letter sound relationship about the long and short “ee”. Making a craft with your students while still teaching them about phonics keeps them engaged and interested. It helps keep the class involved and helps the students work on their communication skills while talking about double “ee” words. This activity could be adaptable to the upper grade levels because you can just replace the words to more difficult words that are appropriate for the grade level.

HOW TO TEACH PHONICS TO FIRST GRADERS-FOR PARENTS

I specifically picked this because parents need ideas on how to help their child learn as well, not just teachers. Also, this is a guide for parents that gives them ideas on what they can do with their child and it recommends that parents talk to their child’s teacher so that they can all work together to meet the needs of the child. If parents are unsure of something, they can always ask the teacher to see what they think or what they recommend that you do with your child at home. Tablets and smartphones are useful tools in education; however, it should be used correctly and for ideal periods of time. Some parents use it to distract their child by allowing them to play games, etc. but they are not games that are teaching their child anything. This is when they are being used incorrectly. This will help students become more successful in the areas of phonics because if parents are doing this at home also, then the child is getting twice as much exposure to the content and they will be able to pick up things more quickly and learn more. I think this is appropriate for different learners because it offers different ideas and activities you can do with your child and you can adjust it according to your child’s needs. Also, for students in a higher-grade level, most books and apps will have different grade levels that you can choose from, so this will work with many different grade levels.

Using Resources

We included a resource section because it is important to know how to utilize technology in our classroom. With the growing technological advancements, it is important for us to teach our students how to maximize their resources to benefit their learning.

GOOGLE FOR EDUCATION

Google provides a vast range of resources to use. I am particularly fond of Google tools such as Docs, Slides, Sheets and other tools similar to Microsoft Office because it allows our students to collaborate on their work. They can edit their documents in real-time and work together on assignments without necessarily sitting right next to each other. We can teach them how to collaborate on their work from home if necessary. The Google Teacher Center also provides training for educators to show them how to maximize Google tools to maximize teaching and learning in the classroom.

CALIFORNIA TEACHERS ASSOCIATION

One of the Teacher Performance Expectations (TPEs) is to continually learn and develop as an educator. The California Teachers Associations provides different opportunities for professional development whether it be reading an editorial on Language & Literacy or attending workshops to learn how to implement differentiated reading strategies. It is also a great resource to connect with other teachers, not just your grade team at your school.

0 notes

jeremystrele · 7 years

Text

Zoe Meagher · Experience Developer, Museums Victoria

Dream Job

by Elle Murrell

Zoe Meagher works her dream job as an Experience Developer at the Melbourne Museum. Photo – Caitlin Mills for The Design Files.

Zoe with specimens in the Melbourne Museum’s test space for the forthcoming exhibition ‘Inside Out’ for which she is overseeing the experience development. Photo – Caitlin Mills for The Design Files.

Behind the scenes with Zoe, who has worked for Museums Victoria (across their three locations) since 2009. Photo – Caitlin Mills for The Design Files.

Some of Zoe’s amazing notes – she’s an exceptional illustrator – on a visitor experience test cart she had made to assist with prototyping exhibitions and gaining feedback. Photo – Caitlin Mills for The Design Files.

‘When I was studying I didn’t know that this was something I could aim for,’ says Zoe. ‘So I just did the bits and pieces that I wanted to, little by little, and it ended up building into the experience that helped me secure this role.’ Pictured is one of her illustrations from a meeting.

Just going about her day-to-day alongside a gigantic polar bear. Photo – Caitlin Mills for The Design Files.

Zoe and fellow experience developer David Perkins (of Client Liaison music-video fame, they joke!). There are five Experience Developers at Museums Victoria. Photo – Caitlin Mills for The Design Files.

Zoe describes her role as ‘almost like a museum dramaturge’, weaving curation as well as audial and visual element of an exhibition together into an overall experience.

Zoe will often cruise around the Museum testing out her audio tour prototypes. Photo – Caitlin Mills for The Design Files.

Zoe Meagher studied a course that doesn’t exist anymore, to gain a job that wasn’t created until a couple of years ago. The Creative Art graduate’s path to Museums Victoria Experience Developer certainly reveals the dynamic state of the current employment landscape.

An ultimate go-getter, and today’s imperative: ‘a generalist’, Zoe is one of five experience developers at the Museum, and she is currently working on its forthcoming exhibition, ‘Inside Out’.

As part of the project team, Zoe advocates for the visitor, constantly questioning: what does someone actually experience in an exhibition, why should they care, and what’s the best way to communicate the interesting aspects? ‘There is always something cool about an object or topic here, it’s just about finding the key to unlock that for people, and to communicate it,’ she tells, as a 100-year-old taxidermied baby rhinoceros gets wheeled passed, post face-lift.

Today, the 30-year-old schools us on why you shouldn’t wait for an invitation or a big break, but pursue what you love bit-by-bit and look widely for experience and inspiration – such as abandoned Melbourne Airport buildings, Australia’s first supercomputer, or the recently discovered TRAPPIST-1 planetary system, for example.

The talented performance artist and skilled illustrator modestly acknowledges she’s been lucky a LOT, but as we talk, it quickly becomes clear Zoe’s incredible work ethic and enthusiasm have been the drivers of her success, rather than any matter of chance.

At the close of our interview, she struggles to distinguish her future goals from her aspirations for the Museum, as intertwined as they are – the ultimate indication that we’ve really found someone working their dream job!

The most important verb in the get-your-dream-job lexicon is…

Cross-pollinate!

I think it’s really important to look for experience and insight outside of the specific field that you think your dream job is in, because you never know what is going to end up being unexpectedly relevant further down the track. When I was attending university, I was also waitressing the whole time and I remember thinking, ‘this is never going to be relevant to anything I want to do in the future!’. But being able to work under pressure, learning resilience, and how to talk to anyone came out of that.

What all of your experience adds up to is something that is going to be unique to you.

I landed this job by…

I studied a Bachelor of Creative Arts at Melbourne University, majoring in Visual Media and for my Honours year I wrote on film theory, did some sound design and produced a folio of drawing. It was kind of this Jack-of-all-trades degree, a good mix of theory and practice, but unfortunately it doesn’t exist anymore.

Following university, I started working for Museums Victoria in 2009, in a customer service role at Scienceworks – I was looking for a place that I enjoyed being in, and like so many ‘90s Melbourne kids, I’d had really happy memories their, so it was my pick!

After a couple of years, I moved to customer service at Melbourne Museum, and later into the education and community programs department where I was working on lessons for school groups. Next, I was at the Immigration Museum doing the same work but full-time – so I have the trifecta of working at all three venues! – before taking my current role.

Alongside to all of this, I have continued to work as a performance artist.I really like focussing on little-known historical stories and one project that I did, before I started in my role at Melbourne Museum, was actually at the Melbourne Museum with the support of the Next Wave Festival. It was an audio tour and performance about the CSIRAC Computer, which was Australia’s first digital computer. Through this, I got to know some people working at the Museum – that’s my version of volunteering or interning, making connections and gaining experience.

This position was externally advertised and I was persistent; when I got this job, it wasn’t the first time I applied for it. The first time I wasn’t ready, but then I tried again. I had also done a performance at an abandoned building at Melbourne Airport not that long before the second application, and some people doing similar work at the Museum happened to attend. They were able to see the relevance of what I was doing in performance, to what I could do in this role.

A typical day for me involves…

It’s always different and it really varies project to project. Usually I will be across a few different projects at one time, but at the moment I am really focussing on the end of year exhibition: ‘Inside Out‘.

I have been working on the audio layer, so the curator and I have been doing lots of interviews with subject specialists from both inside and outside of the Museum. Last week we interviewed an Egyptologist, and later that afternoon a tattoo artist from Preston! Tomorrow it’s an iconic Australian fashion designer.

Getting to interview and meet all those people is really exciting, and then I go away with the recorded audio and figure out how that will fit into the script for the audio layer of the exhibition. I put a very rough edit into the headphones so I can wander around (looking very strange) and test it to see if it is doing the job that we need it to do for the visitor.

In the afternoon, I usually go and sit down with the curators, designers and the creative director and see how all our respective work is fitting together, to see if it is weaving together into a story that we can share with the visitors.

The most rewarding part of my job is…

Having conversations with the people that actually visit the museum, because this means I get to understand our finished product!

Also getting to collaborate within this organisation is really rewarding; the unique mix of people who work on each individual aspect of a project, makes each one super inspiring and its own kind of unique beast! It’s really interesting to see what can spring out of the unexpected collaborations.

On the other hand, the most challenging aspect is…

…I think, sometimes just answering that basic question of : why should someone care about these things? Because for some of the items we have in the museum, it’s not that obvious. The CSIRAC computer is an example; it just does look like a big metal box with a whole heap of wires sticking out of it, and many people will just work straight past it.

The flip side is getting to seek out the story of a particular thing, through talking to people who really know and love it – the curators, researchers and scientists in the building. Getting to witness their passion, drawing that out of them and feeling that spark too, before working out a way to convey it to the visitor turns the challenge into another highlight.

The culture of my workplace is…

The people who work here are very passionate about what they do, and they bring a whole lot of love to the museum. Everyone is also very supportive of one another, but people are also supportive of one another’s individual aspirations, their interest and passions outside of the museum. Our workplace culture allows people to have their own lives too.

I continue to do my performance art under my art name, Zoe Mars. Recently, I did a little audio tour and projection for the Gertrude Street Projection Festival in collaboration with a composer. It was about the TRAPPIST-1 planetary system, which was identified earlier this year. You could download it and stream it, and it was to scale, taking you on the 40 light-year journey from Earth to the TRAPPIST-1 planets over the course of 15 minutes. I also created these projections that were based on 70s sci-fi illustrations, it was a lot of fun.

I’m always…

…sketching on my iPad during meetings. I find it can be a really helpful to storyboard or draw a diagram that communicates an idea or concept. I was also always doing this at school too.

Sometimes I’m doing it so much that it starts to look like I’m not listening, but I am. As I interpret things they just come out the other end of the pencil

My idea of the perfect workplace is…

I think one that encourages playfulness, calculated risk taking and experimentation, but also one where you get the opportunity to collaborate with lots of different people, I think that is really so valuable.

Practically speaking, a workplace where baked good are plentiful.

And also one where the line between colleagues and friends is a little bit blurry. Here, we’ll go out together after work and see theatre or live art shows. And just having that, being able to be friends, makes the workplace much more wonderful.

The best piece of advice I’ve received is…

…not to wait around for the one big project, or one big opportunity, but instead to dive in and find small ways to start doing the things that you want to be doing. Collectively they will unfold and turn into something bigger. If you don’t, I think there is a danger of always only talking about that big thing that you want to do and never actually getting around to doing it. Then it becomes too intimidating to ever start… ‘Just do it,’ – some wise words from Shia LaBeouf… and Nike, but this advice actually came from my partner Mathew. He used to work in live art too, and is just one of those people with an excellent work ethic who is always doing things and never hesitating, not waiting for an invitation, just going ahead and trying stuff out.

Over the years, the Museum has…

Well, the job I have now didn’t exist three years ago, so that is one big change.

Another one would be the approach to now developing, not just exhibitions or programs, but experiences that mean something beyond just delivering information to people.

I am also really pleased to see a big growth in collaboration with people outside of the Museum, as well as making it much more accessible. There have been really beautiful initiatives over the last couple of years, like The Autism-friendly Museum that provides resources for families who have members on the autism spectrum. Another one called I Want To Go To The Museum, makes it easier for people who would otherwise find it difficult to visit, by assisting with transportation, costs, cultural differences… and just making it more open and welcoming for everyone.

In the next five years, I’d like to…

…find ways to work with even more objects that are currently tucked away in storage. Of our 17 million, only around 1% is on show. I know that there are some really excellent supercomputers that are just waiting for someone to come along and love them – I would LOVE to be that person!…computer history is so so rich, and there is really interesting feminist history with computing as well. A lot of the early operators and programmers were women, because people thought it was a clerical position, and then as soon as it started to get more prestige a lot of women got pushed out of the industry – I could rant about that for age!

The work that is happening here is changing all the time, there are always so many interesting things going on, who knows what’s going to happen in this place over the next five years.

If you had said to me three years ago, ‘You’ll be able to work with virtual reality by 2017!’ There is no way I would have believed you, but that is something that has emerged all of a sudden. The scope for new kinds of technology to affect how we experience museums is really exciting.

I definitely want to continue with my personal art practice. And I want to go and see lots of live art and theatre so I can find ways to incorporate unexpected inspiration from other disciplines into what we do at the Museum!

Melbourne Museum’s ‘Inside Out‘ exhibition opens on December 23rd and runs until February 11th. For more information, visit the website, here.

0 notes