Five-year-old Maggie Swanson holds a Nexus tablet computer up to a small colorful drawing of a turtle. The tiny blonde girl scans a paper barcode next to the picture and a recording of her own voice pops up on the tablet screen.
“When a turtle gets very scared, it can pop his head right back in its shell,” she says in the recording.
Maggie looks happy to hear herself.
“It’s me,” she says.
This innovative interactive mural is the work of Sandia Vista Elementary kindergarten teacher Michelle Garmon, an instructional technology pro who constantly looks for ways to build students’ computer skills.
Last year, Garmon was named a local Public Broadcasting Service Digital Innovator, an award that comes with free monthly trainings and access to digital media.
She used her new skills to create the pond storyboard incorporating the voices of her class.
First, the kids studied aquatic life such as fish, cattails, ducks and turtles. Then Garmon used her laptop’s Audacity program to record the students explaining what they had learned in their own words.
The project built the children’s vocabularies, digital skills and science knowledge – and it allowed them to share their own feelings; for instance, cattails look a lot like corn dogs.
“They loved working on this – they all had a hand in it,” Garmon said. “I get goosebumps when they really want to learn.”
PBS was also impressed with the storyboard.
Garmon’s project was recently featured on the organization’s national blog for innovative teaching.
Garmon, a lifelong fan of “Sesame Street,” said she jumped up and down when she heard they were interested.
“I almost fell out of my chair,” she added. “There are a lot of really good things happening in education right now, and it is kind of overshadowed by the bad. It’s good for me and good for the class and the state of New Mexico.”
Next, Garmon will work on a Thanksgiving mural project that incorporates recordings of the kids talking about gratitude.
“These projects take the walls away from the classroom and lets the world in,” she said. “It’s so inspiring to me.”
