2nd grade Green Screen Living Christmas Cards

What: Created an iMovie of students reading the Christmas Story with their illustrations of various aspects of it floating behind them.

Materials:

• Copy of Luke 2 passage
• Student illustrations of various sections of the passage
• iMovie with green screen option
• PhotoBooth or some other program to capture video
• Green fabric or tablecloth
• Wall space to hang the green screen

Time: 1 week

Challenges: 

• Where do you publish? How do you share it?
• Budget time for the movie to render and upload if you're sharing.

Tips: 

• Film students off center so their illustrations can be clearly seen with their illustrations behind them.
• Make sure the green screen fabric does not have a lot of wrinkles.
• As with all filming, be sure to find a spot to film where there is a minimum of background noise.
• Type out each verse in large print, like a teleprompter, that you can tape to the screen. It will not be seen by the camera on the laptop.
• Be sure to remind students not to wear green for the green screen shoot.
• As soon as you film a student's portion, name the film clip so you can track the order and match the film to the student's illustration.
• Take high quality pictures or scan the students' drawings and name them immediately so you can match them to the film clips.
• Have students draw the pictures either landscape or off to the opposite side of where they were standing for best orientation in the movie.

Narrative:

The 2nd grade teachers and I wondered if we could create a living Christmas card of students reciting Luke 2. We made plans to shoot video of the children reading portions of Luke 2. The teachers asked parents to work with children to learn Luke 2. We taped a copy of the passage to the laptop to use as a  teleprompter. I found a large green piece of fabric and pinned it to the wall. The students stood in front of it and read their verse. I used PhotoBooth to capture the students' readings.

The students drew their pictures in class. We took pictures of them. Then we dropped them in the iMovie to match each clip. We followed the iMovie procedures found in this Green Screen Lesson. NOTE: No need to match the exact size of the illustration and video, iMovie will do that for you.

If using an iPad, you and your students may be able to edit the movie together with this app: Green Screen Do Ink

4th Grade Zoo Poetry

What: Zoo Poetry saved in a shared folder in Google Drive so students can read and respond to each other's writing.

Materials:

• Zoo Poetry written by students
• Google Drive with shared settings for entire class (Edit or View)
• Photos uploaded to a shared (View only) folder that students can use to illustrate their poetry (The photos used in this project were taken by the teachers on a trip to the zoo.)

Time: 1-2 weeks

Challenges: 

• Show students how to find shared documents.
• When sharing a folder with "Edit" permissions so students can save their work in a shared folder, you will need to consider the amount of editing they may do on each others' writing.

Tips: 

• Create a New Group in GMail Contacts for the entire class. This will make it easier to share files and folders with the entire class.
• Do not share Class folder as "Edit" until you have been clear about expectations of commenting on each others' writing. Let students "play" for a bit with commenting so they can understand the difference between informal and formal comments. 
• Be very specific about what good responses look in academic work. (TAG, Tell what you liked, Ask Questions, Give advice---Be specific!).
• Teach students how to "insert" a comment, rather than writing directly on another student's document.
• Have students create a folder with their name and subject name. Then they should share the folder "Edit" with the teacher. The teacher will be able to collect these papers and comment on them.
• Teach students naming conventions so that it is easy for you to sort their work by specific document titles.
• Introduce formatting options like font size and style choices as well as color, but be specific about when students can begin editing the text--during or after they type their entire poem.
• This method might also be done easily through Google Classroom if a teacher is interested in learning.

Narrative:

In a meeting with 4th grade teachers, they expressed a desire to publish student work in a shared space so students and the teachers could comment on writing. They wanted the teachers to be able to collect all of the work in one folder, rather than check several blogs for posts. The teachers chose Google Drive.

We found out that when you share a folder "View only" with students, they can't put a file in that folder. Similarly, when students share folders with teachers, "view only" limits the user from filing the folder in his/her own drive. So teachers and students should share with "Edit" rights or students need to make copies of the teacher files to save in their shared folders.

Although a Google Drive shared folder sounds basic, there are lots of management issues to address.

The teachers have reported that once the shared folder has been set up, students know exactly where to find the folder in their own Drives. They have been composing and commenting on each other's work without any reports of "sabotaging" each others' writing.

We may consider blogging in the future. The shared Google Drive is a great way to introduced shared digital spaces.

5th Grade World Awareness Green Screen Travel blog

What: First person narrative in the voice of a child from around the world

Materials:

• Student work: text and illustrations
• Quality, reliable data (Example: Culture Grams)
• Citation tools (Example: EasyBib)
• KidBlog accounts
• PhotoBooth (or any digital camera)
• iMovie
• Green Screen (green tablecloth or other material) hung from various locations

Time: 6 weeks

Challenges: 

• Locating creative commons images with proper citation can be tricky when many webpages do not publish the name of the photographer. 
• Taking clear green screen photos of the students that can be used as the base for another picture.

Tips: 

• Set up KidBlog Accounts prior to the unit.
• Flip the Classroom to some degree by recording how-to screencasts of trickier components. (Example: Green Screen in iMovie 11)
• Remind students that if they wear green, their clothes will look "invisible" on the final picture.

Narrative:

In a meeting with 5th grade teachers, the teachers wondered if a yearly tradition of a world awareness unit could include a digital element. The website resources they had been using for many years had begun to disappear. We found that some of these resources were moving to databases like Culture Grams, available through the local library. The teachers were interested in adding a blogging component so the students could capture their reflections on the "journey" of comparing their lives with those of children around the world. We scheduled an ongoing weekly tech lesson for Wednesday afternoons for each 5th grade class back to back.

I would also suggest trying Mystery Skype as a component to this lesson. The time zone factor is an issue, but something to consider.

Lesson 1: Basic digital citizenship. Students logged into their KidBlog accounts by the end of the class. They wrote their first blog entry in the character or persona they adopted for the unit.
Lesson 2: Images and Citation
Lesson 3: Green Screen how-to to add an avatar of the student in their "country of origin."

We had originally anticipated taking the photos during Lesson 2 on the green screen, but realized the image search and citation was a much bigger lesson. We had students locate an image that they would want to use for their green screen background that represented their country, then cite it as a post in Kid Blog. Many students had trouble locating credible images that were available as creative commons. The citation was also tricky as many students had little more than a URL to a photo file.

3rd grade KidBlogs with Word Clouds

What: Publish WordClouds to KidBlogs

Materials:

• Student work: text 
• Teacher account on KidBlogs
• KidBlog accounts for each student

Time: 1-2 weeks

Challenges: Opening a new tab and toggling between screens from WordCloud to KidBlog. Lots of keyboard commands for Copy and Paste. 

Tips: 

• Have students write out their WordCloud words before logging into the computers.
• Have students publish their list in KidBlogs as a first draft in case WordCloud hits a glitch. When WordCloud hits a glitch and you have to reload, all the student's text disappears and cannot be retrieved. But if the text is in KidBlog, they can copy and paste it into WordCloud again.
• Rather than print WordClouds, share them digitally by Saving them instead of Printing them from the WordCloud option menu.
• Set up the class list in KidBlogs.
• Publish the direct link to the Teacher's KidBlog login on a webpage that is easily accessible to students--possibly on a school-wide webpage that is bookmarked on their device.
• Keyboarding speed might not be fully developed so take time to explain Capitalization using Shift and how to find suggestions for misspelled words underlined in red. 
• If you have selected the setting which does not allow students to view each others' posts before you approve them, make sure you are able to approve posts during the first hour so students may view each other's work and comment.
• Always a good idea to discuss comments that are helpful and not helpful (T=Tell something you liked, A=Ask a question, G=Give advice). Be specific. Example of How Students Helped Each Other Achieve High Quality Work.

Narrative:

When meeting with 3rd grade, we had discussed the possibility of publishing KidBlogs. The teachers were familiar with WordCloud, so one teacher suggested that her class use descriptive words to create a Word Cloud to show the students' thinking about a famous individual.

Our first attempt was using laptops in the classroom rather than going to the lab. The laptops proved to be a bit glitchy with logins not being accepted which really slowed us down. Not everybody was able to participate on their own device during the first lesson.

When we were in the computer lab, students were able to login immediately and build on the login instructions for KidBlogs they had done in the previous lesson. The Toggle between tabs went much smoother the second time.

Students may want some time to play with the various fonts and colors as well as layout. But keep the class moving along so that they will all have the opportunity to save their final Word Cloud and post it to their KidBlog.

1st Grade eBooks

What: eBooks of Animal Reports, 2 formats (Google presentation and iBooks Author)

Materials:

• Student work: text and illustrations
• PhotoBooth (or any digital camera)
• iBooks Author with Apple ID
• Google ID with access to Google Drive
• Webpage (optional) with password protection. I used WordPress Premium.

Time: 2-3 weeks

Challenges: Publishing eBooks in a format that is accessible to all platforms

Tips: 

• Have assistance in filming students outside of the classroom individually for good sound quality and focus. 
• Name each student's video with their name directly after filming each one.
• When publishing video to Google presentation, it must be in YouTube first. Be sure to upload the videos as unlisted. Then publish behind a password on a website for privacy issues.

Narrative:

The idea for the Animal eBooks started in a 1st Grade Team Meeting where the teachers wondered if they could publish student writing to an eBook in which every student would have their own page. We brainstormed ideas for possible video content. We then scheduled a date a couple weeks in advance when the teachers thought they could realistically have their students prepared with published animal reports, complete with illustrations.

We put the date on the calendar and worked toward that. The teachers fit this project into an existing curriculum objective of informational writing. Students followed the writing process. They also worked with the teachers and aids to create brilliant detailed paintings and chalk drawings of their chosen animals.

On the day of the video, the students were all ready with the exception of one or two who had been absent or were absent. We were able to record in the hallway in 3-5 minute segments. We used PhotoBooth to film since our teachers have MacBooks. Both classes were video taped in a single day. I was able to coach each student individually on their speaking as they read from either a "teleprompter" (held by the aid) or from the back of their poster.

Having someone else, beside the classroom teacher, film each student individually is key to expediting this process in a first grade classroom. Some management tips include, naming each clip, immediately after filming with the students' names.

Full disclosure, for the first project, I did most of the behind the scenes composition of the eBooks and Google presentation so we could compare and contrast these 2 formats. My intention was to allow teachers to see what was possible, then discuss the best option. The first grade teachers were piloting this project for 1st grade. Our intention is to see how the students and family responded to having a digital version of their work. Then teachers could take on more of the tech aspects of inserting video and working with widgets in iBooks Author. However, this is a gradual release process.

We celebrated by showing the students the presentation in a "movie premiere" in their classroom.

This project would not have been possible without the solid foundation built by the classroom teachers of good writing, illustrating and preparation for the oral presentation. 

For many reasons, I preferred the Google Presentation:

1) More access to the end product for families since the Google presentation could be published on a website, rather than downloaded to a device.

2) Students were able to watch it as a "presentation" in a "movie premiere." 

3) Our school does not have iPads for student use so they could not reread the iBooks version on their own.

4) Google presentation mimics some widget features like "reveal" with animations.

Some advantages of the eBook format from iBooks Author:

1) On an iPad, students can reread the books individually, and hear their reports read aloud.

2) There is a pop-up feature on the eBooks that is fun to click and reveal answers.

Collecting our Thoughts

The purpose of this blog is to reflect on the use of technology in various ways with our students. We can keep track of what works and what doesn't and how our failures prompted us to problem-solve or abandon attempts and why. Our hope is that we can capture with honesty and humor our Stars and Wishes, our Wonders and Dreams. With this in mind, we invite you to contribute as we integrate Technology and Teaching: TEaCH!