YouTube Playlists

I’ve found recently that one of the greatest tools for me is the YouTube Playlists.  I’ve started making playlists of all the videos I use for different projects, trainings, and ones I just find fun!  The playlists are a great way for me to keep everything organized and quickly find my “favorite” videos for any particular situation.

Here are some of my YouTube Playlists:

Advisory Videos http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=5C6F8F69036B0356

Digital Storytelling http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=60469B44B5339F7C

Public Service Announcements http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=2099C40BB5F641A3

Stop Motion Animation http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=E80B3D6E5E96908E

Trainings – General http://www.youtube.com/view_play_list?p=3BC479598A375B43

Technorati Tags: instructional,technology,video,youtube,playlist,organization,education

Whiteboard Stop Motion Animation

I’ve been working with the 7th grade science class on their Evolution Movie project.  Essentially the students had to pick an animal and show how it evolved.  I introduced the project by showing students lots of examples of different movie styles they might want to use and by far the biggest hit was whiteboard stop motion animation. 

Here are two examples I showed:

 

I wasn’t sure exactly how we were going to do it but through some trial and error we figured it out.  Here is what we found works:

1. Students first created a storyboard of what their completed animation would look like.
2. Students then setup a camera on a tripod focused on the big whiteboard in the center of the room.  Some students decided to use a smaller whiteboard that was the size of a laptop.  This enabled those groups to rotate the entire board if needed – especially useful when the mammoth was hit by a boulder and did a 360.
3. Students drew on the whiteboard a box showing the areas the camera was picking up.
4. Students then drew within that area their animation.  A lot of problem solving went into when to erase an area, how to move the camera to make the scene move, and what to add and when. 
5. Students then added their pictures to WMM changing the duration of the pictures to .125 or .25 seconds.  To do this go to Tools – Options – Advanced tab – Picture duration.  Make sure to do this before adding your pictures to the storyboard. 
6. Students then narrated their animation to explain how their animal evolved. 

Students were so creative with this project.  Groups had brown bears changing to white in the snow, people riding elephants, giraffes necks getting longer, etc.  It was a great project and the tools and supplies you need are minimal.  Really you just need cameras, tripods, whiteboards (some groups used the little whiteboards), and whiteboard pens. 

I’ve done a lot of claymation projects in the past and I have to say that this whiteboard animation was a million times easier.  The project also took a lot less time then claymation as there is hardly any prep that goes into getting ready to create the animation. 

Technorati Tags: animation,whiteboard,stop motion,project,7th grade,evolution,movie

<---Cross post from Katie Christo's Edublogs site--->

3rd Grade ESL Students and Scratch

I work in the Middle School now but I started as an Elementary teacher and getting the chance to work with Elementary students is always such fun for me.  We recently did a project with the 3rd grade ESL students at our school that was fabulous.  The students were working on a thematic project of Following Directions.  This is especially difficult for ESL students as not only are they learning a concept but also a new language (we had ESL beginners and intermediates).  I got the opportunity to work with the students for an hour and a half block in one of our computer labs. 

I introduced Scratch to them (on a carpeted area in the middle of the computer lab) and asked them - How do you give computers directions?  We had a great quick discussion and a couple of the students had even used Scratch before.  Programming and directions all came out in the conversation and game designers and how they worked!  I then asked the students – How do you learn how to do something new on a computer?  Students talked about how they played with something to learn it.  I think this is so huge.  We don’t take advantage enough of our students ability to just jump in and try something. 

I showed students how to do some basics and then sent them to their computers.  Students were encouraged to play with the program for the next 15 minutes or so.  I then brought students back to the carpeted area and we talked about what they had learned so far.  I showed them a little bit more and sent them on their way again for 15-20 minutes.  By this point students were so engaged in what they were doing.  As questions arose that they whole group wanted to know we kept coming back and having discussions and mini how-tos that were directly related to what they wanted to know.  At the very end I reserved the last 20 minutes to show them the games and how to edit them.  The last 5 minutes we came together again and had a closing discussion about what they had learned, giving directions, and (most importantly to them) how to download Scratch.

It was just one of those special moments – the kids loved Scratch, had so much fun and learned so much in the process.  I’d love to hear your experiences with Scratch!

Image Attributions
Image: 'head scratch'
www.flickr.com/photos/92518741@N00/39300193
Image: Scratch Logo
http://scratch.mit.edu/

Technorati Tags: Scratch,ESL,Projects,3rd