TEL.A.VISION | It's Your Story

Summer Update From TEL.A.VISION

Posted on 26. Sep, 2009 by Ringmaster in All Posts, How to Help!, Supporters

Dear Friends,

This past three weeks, with the start of school, we had a record number of new accounts and over a 1000 new TEL.A.VISION  videos created. We have had a very busy summer preparing for the new school year. We will shortly be introducing new school pricing that will allow schools to buy TEL.A.VISION for a classroom, school or district without using a credit card.

We have realized one of the best uses for TEL.A.VISION is in Special Education. We are just finishing a new Special Education Curriculum, written by Special Education teachers from McHenry County, Illinois under the direction of Dr. Christy Chambers. The curriculum will show Special Education teachers many ways to use TEL.A. VISION in the classroom including using it as part of a student’s Individual Education Plan (IEP). We have been accepted to speak at next years Council for Exceptional Children (CEC) conference.

We are just finishing an agreement with Best Buy for a contest on their @15 web site, www.at15.com. The contest will start in January and build on their research on empowering youth. There will be winners for an individual video and classroom project. The winners will show their work at the ISTE/NECC Conference in Denver in June 2010.

We have been accepted to give a presentation at the TIES Conference and will be working with TIES to offer special pricing to their member schools.

We have received a donation that will allow us to take TEL.A.VISION to the 155 students at the Dunwoody Academy in Minneapolis. We had planned to introduce TEL.A.VISION into all Minneapolis Schools this fall but because of budget cuts are now looking for donations to help make this happen.

We are in the process hiring a telemarketer to call on School Principals and Special Education staff. The position would be working from home and include salary and bonus. If you know of anyone with sales experience that you think might be interested please have them contact me, george@telavision.tv.

If you have any questions or comments please feel free to contact me.

Big News From TEL.A.VISION

Posted on 05. Jun, 2009 by Ringmaster in All Posts, Media, Social Media and Vision, Supporters, TEL.A.VISION Stories, Web 2.0

5th Graders at Clear Springs Elementary on Parents Night

The BIG news is that TEL.A.VISION  is becoming a non profit. Actually, it has always been a not for profit but we are just making it official. This will allow us to seek funds from foundations and individuals. I know that we will probably be rejected 10 times before we find someone willing to help fund us so if you know any organization or individual willing to be one of the first to talk to us let us know.

It’s hard to believe we launched only 8 months ago. In that time our partner Haberman has done a great job of getting us in all of the local press as well as the Christian Science Monitor. We had a successful TEL.A.VISION Day with a 24 hour broadcast of TEL.A.VISION videos on the Internet ( Thank you Steve). In May we did our first NYC press tour and from that will be covered in a 4 page spread in District Administration (Thank you Sue), a feature in Family Circle and have been told we will be in Scholastic and Time For Kids.

We have some exciting partnerships we are  working on.

1. Having 6th, 9th and 12th graders in the Minneapolis Schools create vision videos as part of graduation requirements,
2. Working with TIES Education,
3. Partnering with Youth Services of America to create Service Learning videos,
4. Working with The Discipline of Peace and Culture of Peace Initiative to create Peace videos,
5. Discussions with SEARCH Institute and Templeton Press on creating a Vision Curriculum with Dr. Benson’s New book “Vision“
6. An invitation to visit the staff of the Fetzer Institute.

While all of this holds great potential the most rewarding work has been to see the difference TEL.A.VISION  is having on youth. Three projects stand out.

1. Working with the Divas of North Minneapolis. The Star Tribune did a nice article on them.
2. Spending a day at Angelo Patri Middle School in the Bronx with 18 young people creating a new vision for their school ( The video is below). Their Vide Principal cried when she say it.
3. Parent night at a Clear Springs Elementary in Minnetonka, where 75 people showed up to view amazing videos created by 5th graders .

We’ve started a new contest called “100 words for $100“. Tell us how you have used TEL.A.VISION and win a chance for $100.

Thank you all for your support of TEL.A.VISION. If you would like to receive regular updates on TEL.A.VISION sign up in the upper right hand corner.

Teachers Driving Web 2.0 Use in Schools Says National Research Survey

Posted on 30. May, 2009 by Ringmaster in All Posts, How to Help!, Web 2.0

While many stakeholders are involved in developing policies on the use of Web 2.0 technologies in K-12 education, new research suggests that teachers are the most important group driving adoption. This is a finding of a recent commissioned by Lightspeed Systems and Thinkronize Inc.

There is a persistent gap between how today’s “digital” kids learn in school and how they work and interact outside of school, a trend that underscores the critical need for districts to keep pace with technological advances and adapt to students’ learning needs.

“The research indicates that the movement toward Web 2.0 use to engage students and address individual learning needs is largely being driven in districts from the bottom up – starting with teachers and students,” said Dr. Jay Sivin-Kachala, vice president and lead researcher for IESD. “Furthermore, the results show that many districts are using or planning to use Web 2.0 tools in teacher professional development, which suggests that teachers will become increasingly comfortable with these technologies and better able to teach students how to use them safely and productively.”

Other key results of the survey include:

* The three most frequently cited reasons for adopting Web 2.0 technologies are: addressing students’ individual learning needs, engaging student interest, and increasing students’ options for access to teaching and learning.

* Online communications with parents and students (e.g., teacher blogs) and digital multimedia resources are the Internet technologies most widely used by teachers, and a majority of districts have plans for adopting these technologies or promoting their use.

These results reinforce what we have found with TEL.A.VISION. Teachers find that TEL.A.VISION is a technology that addresses student’s individual learning needs, engages student interest and teaches them about digital multimedia resources.

The full survey is available here.

Vision – Awakening Your Potential to Create a Better World

Posted on 27. May, 2009 by Ringmaster in All Posts, Power of Vision

If you’ve found your way to the TEL.A.VISION blog you must be interested in vision. Our friend, Dr. Peter Benson, from the SEARCH Institute has just written a book called “Vision – Awakening Your Potential to Create a Better World”. It is available here from the Templeton Press.

I’ve read the book and believe it is the perfect compliment to creating a vision video. Our hope is to create a curriculum on vision that would include reading the book and creating a TEL.A.VISION video.

Here are the publishers comments from the book’s order page:
According to Peter L. Benson, the capacity to generate vision is among life’s most beautiful and unheralded gifts. To him, a vision is more than just a goal, more than just a dream of what could be—it is a summons, a pull towards the future, an inspired call to make real that which should be. In Vision: Awakening Your Potential to Create a Better World Benson takes readers on an uplifting exploration of this powerful concept.

Once I started the book I couldn’t put it down. I’m sure you will enjoy it also.

TEL.A.VISION Video Leads to Minnesota Student Service Award

Posted on 14. May, 2009 by Ringmaster in All Posts, TEL.A.VISION Stories, Vision Videos

When Heather Palmer, a teacher at Valley View Elementary School in Edina Minnesota, wanted to do a service learning project with her sixth grade class she first turned to the curriculum developed by the 6 Billion Paths to Peace Project. 6 Billion Paths to Peace is an effort to inspire people to focus on our interconnectedness and reflect upon the individual contributions that each of us are making to a more harmonious world.

Heather teaches in a French Immersion class and wanted the students to have a way to practice their French, while considering what they will do in their lives to bring about Peace.

To bring this all together she had the students develop a TEL.A.VISION video, where each student wrote their statement in French and in English and added a photo to their words.

Here is a look at their prize winning video:

TEL.A.VISION Adopted by all Youth

Posted on 24. Apr, 2009 by Ringmaster in All Posts, How to Help!, Vision Videos

We started piloting TEL.A.VISION by working with 120 5th graders at a suburban school. The students and teachers readily adopted it. One Teacher said,”I can think of nothing I could have done to get to know my students better.”

Next we took TEL.A.VISION to a Junior High and 350 7th graders completed TEL.A.VISIONs. The students were near unanimous in calling the project their favorite homework assignment of the year. One girl, who hadn’t completed an assignment all year finished her video and in her diary said “Its about time someone asked us what we wanted.”

We created a Vision for an alternative School in Switzerland and the teacher said ” This is the best behaved I have ever seen our children.”

A class of slow learners did TEL.A.VISION  videos. The teacher said ” These are kids who don’t read, don’t right and don’t participate. We were blown away with what they accomplished.” ( One of there videos is shown below.)

Recently a group of teenage girls of color, the Divas, completed beautiful TEL.A.VISION  videos. They did a beautiful job and the teachers are already using the videos as a way to reinforce studying habits and appropriate behavior.

A few weeks ago I was at the Red Wing Juvenile Corrections Facility. The warden loves the idea of having the residents create TEL.A.VISION videos. I asked one resident if he would like to do one. He said he already knew what he would say in his:

• I make my mother proud
• I get my GED and graduate from High School
• I find a full time job
• I hang with friends that appreciate me

What we have seen is that all youth regardless of economic status, age, race or personal circumstances want the opportunity to dream of their futures of hope and possibility. Please help us spread the word.

DIVAs aim for right notes

Posted on 21. Apr, 2009 by Ringmaster in All Posts, Power of Vision, TEL.A.VISION News

Project DIVA connects caring adults who act as mentors with girls planning where their lives will take them.

Photo by Neal St. Anthony

In a front page business section article in today’s Star Tribune columnist Neal St. Anthony features project Divas and the difference creating TEL.A.VISION  videos has made in their lives.

“I have a vision of my future that helps me stay on track,” said Caprice Whimper, 16, a student at Dunwoody Academy, a charter school. “I want to be an ‘A’ student. And I want to be an ‘OB-GYN’ doctor. I take care of young siblings. And I always have wanted to help women and kids.”

Teara Hinton, 14, another North Side resident and student at Armstrong High in Plymouth, also envisions a medical career.

“My aunt is a nurse,” Hinton said. “I want to be a doctor, a pediatrician, and work in the city with kids.”

The Divas were training other youth to do TELA.VISION  videos at the Wired for 2020 event sponsored by the Minnesota Mentoring Partnership, www.mentoringworks.org

Here is an example of one of the Diva’s videos:

TEL.A.VISION and Minneapolis Public School Graduation Requirements

Posted on 08. Apr, 2009 by Ringmaster in All Posts, Media, TEL.A.VISION News

In a feature story in today’s  Southwest Journal, TEL.A.VISION’s new relationship with the Minneapolis Public Schools is explained.

Tel.A.Vision will be incorporated into Minneapolis Public Schools My Life Plan, a post-college planning activity that is required for graduation beginning next school year. Creating a vision video will be one option for seniors to complete the My Life Plan requirements.

For Minneapolis Public School students, the vision videos they create using Tel.A.Vision will focus on post-high school college and career aspirations.

Southwest’s Jastrow said high school seniors would have the option of creating a vision video for their capstone project, the final step in completing My Life Plan. For their capstone project, seniors must produce something — such as an essay or art project — that both reflects on their high school career and also looks ahead to life after high school.

Jastrow said the district’s AchieveMpls coordinators and licensed school counselors recently were trained in using Tel.A.Vision. Several of the adults created their own videos within an hour or so of being introduced to the program, which means Tel.A.Vision should be a snap for today’s tech-savvy kids, she said.

Jastrow said students are drawn to interactive media. And like generations of teens long before the Internet Age, they crave control.

That’s exactly what Tel.A.Vision gives them, she said.

“They’re able to combine music and pictures [with] their thoughts and personality,” Jastrow said. “They can put their stamp on what it will be.

TEL.A.VISION Brings Teachers & Students Together

Posted on 11. Mar, 2009 by Colleen Matschi in All Posts, TEL.A.VISION Stories

“Teaching is about building relationships with your students,” says Jim Amaral, Global Concepts teacher at Oak-Land Junior High, who has brought TEL.A.VISION to 700 seventh graders during the past year.  Jim will tell you that one of the greatest gifts of TEL.A.VISION is not only witnessing students learn more about themselves, but that the process truly builds stronger relationships between students and their teachers, parents and peers.

Jim sees students, who might not normally participate in class or complete assigned work, choosing to engage in the TEL.A.VISION project.  The students are truly enjoying the multi-faceted approach which incorporates their creativity and multiple technologies.

Photo by Andy Blenkush of the Stillwater Courier/Lake Elmo Leader

As a result of this experience, future Oak-Land 7th graders will continue to create their own TEL.A.VISION.  The students have enjoyed the project so much that Mr. Amaral is working with students to identify additional global topics/assignments to which they can communicate their work via TEL.A.VISION.  The next step for Oak-Land is to collaborate with students in other schools, states, even countries to share student visions for their lives and their world.

The key to the success of TEL.A.VISION is having students share their videos.  In sharing, everyone gains insight into not only that student, but themselves as well.  The whole basis for TEL.A.VISION is to give students the opportunity to spread their visions of hope and possibility throughout the world.  In the process, unique visions combine to achieve a common goal of peace.