Stop Motion Animation on a Budget in your Classroom.

We all love a good story, getting hooked as it keeps you on the edge of your seat as you wait impatiently in suspense for what comes next.  Have you ever wondered to yourself if that story could be changed ever so slightly so that it could literally come to life.  Now I know some of you just raised your hand, your eyebrow or smirked a little thinking hey Evan isn't that what movie studios are for?  Well in some way that's correct but how many of us have 1000's of dollars to put a movie together.  I know that I do not have that kind of money just like many other teachers as well.

You could try things out using Stop Motion Animation as an activity to extend the learning in your classroom.  How many stories have you read to or had your students read where you thought you could extend the learning by having them create a product, maybe an animated movie?  How about those social studies facts that could translate into an individual or class project?  Maybe some of those science experiments which yielded ground breaking discoveries.  Why not try it out and see what could happen.

Now I have looked through numerous websites and other resources to learn about how to create Stop Motion Animation videos and by far I am no expert on the subject based on what I have read.  I am just someone that can share a little information that could possibly offer up some fun and creativity for your students in your classroom.

The big question now is how do you start and how much is this going to cost?  Let me address the cost issues right now.  I am one of those big proponents for anything free or at such a low cost that it is ridiculous, because I am always looking for it due to working in education.  So let's take a look a a few things that you may have around you right now.

What you need: besides a location to create your stop motion movie which just needs to be a clear space.  A camera - that is the easiest one.  You probably have a few items that you can use that you did not even think about.

• Laptop
• Document Camera
• Digital Camera
• Tablet device
• Cell Phone

Supplies: there are a myriad of things that you can use and of course some of them can be free since you may already have access to them right now in your own home or there are students that have brought them into the classroom.  You can even, and I have done this, ask around to see who has some of these items that they no longer want.

• A light source
• Clay
• Play Doh
• legos
• Action Figures
• Dolls
• Paper
• Construction Paper

Now the most important thing you need to get started is the idea.  You want to make sure that you keep it to something that can be done fairly quickly where your students will succeed at it.  Once you have your idea set then have your students begin creating their story boards of the project.  You can provide students with a rubric that outlines your expectations, you can use Rubistar to create one if you want otherwise MS Excel or Google Sheets are good choices.  Have then write a script that can either be be done as a voice over or could be done as panels in the video.  Let them choose their supplies to create the video and then let them have some fun.  Let them be as creative as they want to be.

Now if you need to or want to use an App there are more than a few out there that you can use, but just to remind you of the title of my blog post.  We want to keep things on a budget, so here are a few FREE apps out there you could use.

• iMovie - iOS
• Stop Motion Studio - iOS
• PicPac Stop Motion & timelapse - Andriod
• Stop Motion Animator - Chromebook

This is just a few and by all means please share apps that you use in the comments below.

Quick and Easy Green-screening for School News

Have you ever wondered how they do all those neat effects in the movies or how they do the weather broadcasts on your favorite news show?  Its called green-screening, and it is a whole lot of fun and really easy to do.  Yes I said easy to do.

Recently a school in the district that I work for asked me about kicking their news show up a notch by doing something with green-screening and they did not know where to start.  

So, where do you really start?  I have worked with many schools to help them add green screening into their news shows and there is a different process to go through for each school( that is another blog post coming soon ).  So here is the good and the bad of what I have found for this school.

I have researched many different methods of green-screening and have found one that I like more than others for the school that wants to just get started and needs something that is really quick and easy to get started with that has a small learning curve.

The Good:
I like Green Screen by Do Ink, which is an iPad app, it is very easy to use and setups in seconds.  From launching the app to recording your first video takes less than a minute as long as you have your environment set.  But why listen to me ramble on here about Do Ink when you can hear about it from them.  

Since Do Ink is an iPad app, you will have to make sure that all of your resources are loaded onto iPad ahead of time.  Then it is just a quick three steps and you are off to the races with your green screen video. Once you have recorded your video you can save it to the camera roll and that's it, that's all.

• Step 1: Click the Plus Sign to create a new project
• Step 2: Add your background image/video and/or live video
• Step 3: Click the Record button

Well, there is something else you will need and that is the Green background.  So what do you do?  Do you have to buy an expensive green screen in order to do this.  That answer is no.  All you need is something that is green, or blue, either will work with this app.  Now I have been working in schools for over 12 years and every time I am in one there is always a bulletin board with a paper background on it.  Yep, I said it.  You can use that same craft paper that you use for your bulletin boards.  

The Bad:
With all of the good things that Do Ink has going for it, the only thing I found that could be considered as bad is the $2.99 price tag for the app itself.  Hey and if that is the only thing, I could really just leave it out of the blog post.

All in all it is a great app that is very easy to use and for both teachers and students in the classroom.  It offers up some wonderful opportunities to extend learning both in and outside of the classroom for students, at least the ones I have worked with, because they are excited to use the the app and to create something with it.  Oh and the possibilities are limitless for what they can do with it.  Give it a try and see for yourself how Green Screen by Do Ink can make learning fun in your classroom.

Video provided by Do Ink via Vimeo/Youtube

Image provided by Evan Herreid in association w/MeadowlarkES

Adjust your Reading Habits with Google Search Tools

Recently I was working with a group of fourth grade teachers on North Carolina Lighthouses and the comment came up from one of the teachers.  "Doing a Google search is difficult for some of our students because they are not able to understand some of what they are reading.  I wish there was an easier way for them to research material that is more aligned to how they read."  I let them know that Google has a built in feature that would allow them to filter their search results by reading level.  The looks I received from the group were more along the lines of how Mr. Spock raised and inquisitive eyebrow to Captain Kirk.  Of course the next thing I knew we were hip deep going step by step through the process of figuring out what to do.  I had not seen a group of teachers this engaged in a while and with a tool that I thought everyone knew about.  Boy was I wrong.  

If you have not used the Google Reading Level filter here is a quick three step tutorial on how to get things setup and working.

• Enter your Search material into the Google Search box.
• Click on the Search tools button after Google displays your search results.
• Click on the All results drop down menu and select Reading level

The search results will then be reorganized according to the reading level and displayed by Google in a table similar to the one below.  Google identifies the reading levels as Basic, Intermediate and Advanced.

One additional option with the table above is that it is functional, so you could click on Intermediate and it will reorder your search results one step further.

I have to say that I had a great time working with this group of teachers and they were very appreciative of the information that I had shared with and showed them how to use in a classroom setting with students.  Most told me later that they used the Google Reading level filter on their next research topic with their students.  

It seems, to me, to be a tool that does not get enough credit for what it could do for students.  So give it a try, and see for yourself, the next time you are working with students on a research topic to see if things make more sense.  

School News: Teachable Moments Can Be Awesome

There’s a phrase that gets thrown around a lot in education and in life called the Teachable Moment. 

Now this can be characterized by some sort of learning that is happening between students and teachers or between parents and children.  It can be planned out as part of an activity or it can be spontaneous.  Which is better? 

It would depend on who you ask as to the response you receive.  That in itself could be considered a teachable moment. 

Me I like, or prefer, the unplanned spontaneous kind.

That being said, I witnessed a teachable moment today while I was at a school and for me it was an eye opening experience.  While working with a school today on their first news broadcast you could say that everything that could go wrong went wrong.

•       The sound did not work
•       A computer did not power up
•       The teleprompter did not work
•       The camera kept shutting off
•       The crew was late

Hey it happens so we drop back and punt and prepare for the next day.

In the mist of the chaos, the students took it upon themselves to figure out what the problems were, how to fix them and how to help each other to ensure a successful broadcast the next day.

I became a bystander as I watched these students diagnose and work through the problems that had happened during the morning broadcast. 

As one student determined what the problem was they would gather the rest of the news crew around and showed them how to fix the issue. 

This was something that I had not seen in some of the other schools that I have worked with in the past.  Usually students would just accept that there was a problem and then leave and go on with their day, maybe hoping that the problems would fix themselves. 

I expressed to their faculty mentor that this was something that I had not witnessed in other schools and it was incredible to see coming from middle school students.

Yes it was a teachable moment for the students to fix the issues and work with each other but I think that it may have been more of a teachable moment for me in that it was something that I had not expected and impressed me greatly.

photo credit: woodleywonderworks via photopin cc

School News: Making A Difference

Well it is hard to believe that it is the end of the school year and I have not written my third installment of School News.  I have been working hard with a number of schools in the area to help them develop their news program from the ground up or to improve existing shows to make them more informative and interactive.   The teachers and students have expressed how much fun it has been to have a news show at their schools and that they want to keep it going each year.

When it comes to having a school news program within a school, I have heard a lot of the negatives.  From this is taking away from instructional time to why would students want to do this?  There are just as many pros as there are cons to having a news program at a school.  For those where negatives outweigh the positives I can only offer some testimonials from schools where it has made a difference, whether in the classroom or to an individual student.  

I asked some of the teachers that I have been involved with over the year to share their thoughts on the school news program and how, if any, it has effected their students, classrooms and schools.

What Educators have said:

• "Doing TV announcements was so motivational for my students. The hands-on guys took right to the technical aspect of setting up the equipment. Some of those guys were disengaged until we started videotaping."
• "Many of my students have also become leaders among their peers and much more confident overall."
• "The greatest benefit that I have seen from our school news is that the students are gaining a different understanding of responsibility and team work."
• "They have taken ownership of the show and have been faced with many real-world situations and have had to come up with creative solutions to solve problems that have arose."
• "The school news is the students' time to shine. Not only are they excited to be seen by the whole school, they really work hard to read carefully and speak clearly because they know that everyone is listening and needs the information they are presenting"
• "I have noticed that my students have become much more confident in their speaking abilities"

One of the quotes I appreciated the most was this one from one of our High School Journalism teachers.  "Two of my students plan to take the video broadcasting course during the North Carolina Scholastic Media Institute in June."  I know that she is very happy for her students that have taken it upon themselves to continue their learning through attending this summer institute.  

I along with my colleagues attempt to strive to help teachers to spark curiosity in our students to help make their goals attainable and to motivate them to succeed.  For the schools that I have worked with this seems to have rung true.  The teachers have sparked curiosity in their students to learn the process involved in creating a news program. Also, whether or not they admit to it, I think those educators have gotten the spark to continue to strive and learn as well.

photo credit: ASU_Cronkite via photopin cc

Preparing Rising 6 & 9th Graders with Multimedia

As a 6 and 9th grade teacher you prepare every year to get a brand new crop of wide eyed students that have no idea of what they are in for as they move into Middle and High School.  Most of these students will not get much information in the way of what to expect as they move from one school to the next.  This is a big step for either grade level.  So what can we do to prepare them?

Most of these students will not know what to expect until the first day of school.  It can be overwhelming to some perplexing to others and even frightful to a few.  So how do we help prepare our students for the next level of our education?  Well let's see if we can reach them on their level and make it fun and make it fun at the same time.  Why not create a real world scenario using Problem-Based Learning to have your current students design a video for incoming students to help ease their minds and answer some of their questions.

It makes a good argument for teachers to build off the Research Writing that falls into the fourth quarter curriculum.  As well it can bring in needed Information Technology Essential Standards that may not normally be seen in the classroom on a regular basis.

The Scenario:

You are a rising 6/9th grade student and you do not know what to expect from the school that you are getting ready to start in the fall.  What information would you want to know about ahead of time so that you are prepared on the first day of school?

From this your students should be able to:

research information about the school

create a list of possible questions 

produce a video outlining what a rising student would need to know.

So then it comes down to what do you need to know to be a 6/9th grader?  Have your students collaborate to come up with ideas on what the most important things are that they should share about the school.  Let them be as creative as they want to be, the sky is the limit.  Some of your students will more than likely surprise you with what they come up with.  

It is a great focusing activity for the end of the year as well for your students that might be starting to tune out due to the impending summer vacation.  Most will not even realize that they are doing something curriculum based or part of a lesson because they will be entrenched in creating a video project.  

Who knows you might have a up and coming screenwriter, director or actor in your class and this will become the launching pad for their career.  

photo credit: MACSD via photopin cc

What's In A House, What Can You Live Without?

So I recently decided to put my home on the market to see if I could take advantage of the recent uptrend in home sales in my area.  

When I decided to do this I panicked a little bit, not because I would have to keep my home clean - that is easy, because I would have to pack up all the gizmos, gadgets and other technology items that I use every single day!

The first week I was frazzled because I was trying to figure out what I could actually do without while my home is on the market.  

I sat down and looked at what I have and how I used it.  

The work technology vs. the home technology was an easy compromise because I figured I would not worry about the work tech except for my work phone.  

When it came down to figuring out my personal technology, that was the hardest part.  

What to do with all the actual gizmos, gadgets and computer equipment I own.  This is when the panic really set in.  

I never realized, even being a Digital Immigrant, how much I rely on technology in every part of my life.  With a lot of effort I paired down to what I thought I actually needed to keep.  

So here is what I did as my personal technology purge:  

• I need to have access to email but do I really need a computer or laptop for this?  
• I need to pay my bills, can I go old school and write checks?  
• Now the mobile devices, how many does one person really need to have at the ready?  

I also looked at my "massive" video collection I had amassed over the years and the video equipment that goes along with it.  I never knew there were places locally that would buy used movies and I was able to sell the box I had put together.   

So in a nutshell I reduced all of my tech down to one single computer that I do everything from.  I still have both my work and personal cell phones but outside of that nothing else.  

I was surprised that everything that I thought I needed I really didn't.  

As the weeks have gone by now I have come to a realization that maybe I really didn't need to have all of the electronic stuff around after all.  

I even noticed a change, however small, in my electric bill too and that was nice to see.  So maybe I really do not need to have all of that electronic stuff around me all of the time.  

Or maybe I just need to move more often.... Nah.  

photo credit: mystuart via photopin cc