Inkster

Capturing Enthusiasm One Clip at a Time

kstrachan Group 1, Participant Post ,

Making Movies

Over the years, I have dabbled in making short movies with my students for a variety of reasons. Some on camcorders with the mini tapes where the batteries consistently failed, others on my Canon camera with tiny images. Both set up for a nightmare in editing post project. It would be a collaborative enterprise, but it would still fall on me. Not this time. iMovie on iPad is a convenient and easy way to drop and drag your way into a quality movie with high student involvement every step of the way.

This year we read aloud Jacob Two Two Meets the Hooded Fang by Mordecai Richler which lent itself well as a feature film because of its size and storyline. It is a tale about a little boy who was always told he was too little and ends up becoming a hero. As we read, we started by creating a large story board to track characters and main ideas through drawing and writing. It emerged through class discussions that since we had iPads for a period of time, maybe we could make the characters come alive in a movie of the book and the rest was history.

The student engagement, commitment and cooperation were immediately evident. Once characters were selected, scripts were written by scene and by the actors. One student took on filming and direction; others were in charge of background music and spent hours experimenting in Garageband and doing voice-over narrations. Groups of students worked on props, made invitations and posters for our premiere.

We filmed over a series of weeks and students maintained their enthusiasm the entire time because of their ownership in the project. It didn’t stop there. To get a complete experience, actors created cast photos and bios, decorated a viewing room with a red carpet and invited parents to a Popcorn Premiere Party to celebrate their efforts and receive their own DVD for posterity.

Where it gets interesting… students with speech issues were determined to have speaking roles. Students with focus and attention issues were dialed in. A quieter student became the director. Dramatization deepened comprehension for all students.

It was a learning journey for me too. I was introduced to the lightning projector cable (which was great because now I use iPads as document cameras in other parts of my day). I learned what the sound limitations are of the iPad microphones for the next project. And finally, I learned to share large files through Dropbox saving me extreme frustration.

Believe me, I don’t own shares in Mac and I’m not selling anything new – many teachers make movies with their students. But for my learning journey, this was a student and teacher friendly way for me to step back and my students take the lead. Having easy to use technology is one of the keys, but without the iPads in first place, I wouldn’t be writing this blog. But that is a story for another time. 😉

Shelagh McGregor
Inkster School
Grade 3/4
Cluster 1971

Keeping the Definition of Innovation in Mind when Planning

kstrachan Group 1, Participant Post ,

Since the day I started reading the book, The Innovator’s Mindset by George Couros, I have tried to reflect upon my teaching practices and trying to refine the lessons or delivery so the lesson goal is being met in an innovative way. Having said this I would like to share a story…. A teacher from our school had created a wonderful movie with her students based on a book.  My grade 1/2 students viewed the movie and asked why that class had iPads and we didn’t. A fair question I thought, and I explained they were involved in a pilot project. There was a buzz in the class and some of my students voiced that they wanted to create their own plays and film them. This led to a discussion of some of the things we could do with iPads other than creating movies.  The students became so excited at the possibilities that a couple of students were willing to bring their allowance money to purchase an iPad for the class. After hearing this, I knew how important this learning and sharing tool was for them.

We began exploring ways we could get an iPad and as a class they thought they would need to persuade the principal to buy us one. Earlier in the year we had wrote a persuasive letter and had positive results so they felt they had a really good chance. Listening to all this, the definition of Innovation as a way of thinking that creates something new and better kept ringing in my head. I steered them in reflecting upon other ways people convince or persuade people. Some of the ideas that were generated were commercials, advertisements and songs. The students decided they wanted to create a song to persuade the principal in purchasing at least 5 iPads so we could do group projects (this was their idea!!)

Now, I do not own an iPad or have used an iPad but I was ready to learn alongside them or more likely from them.  So over the next couple of days we worked together creating a song which included why, some of the possibilities it would open for learning and building connections and sharing with others – let me tell you there were some very powerful conversations happening amongst these six and seven year olds. Plus it gave me an indication of their experiences with iPads. We used our document camera to revise and edit the song and then the Smartboard to practice singing different parts. I video taped them using my phone and then the students tried persuading our Principal with their song at 3:10 on the last day of school before Spring Break! The students were so focused and engaged that you could feel the excitement in the air… they didn’t even mind that they working until the last minute.

I was very proud of all of the students’ hard work and collaboration over the last couple of days. A lot of Language Arts outcomes were met as well as the Characteristics of an Innovator’s Mindset. Well, are you wondering what happened?….After Spring break, we had 5 iPads in our class (on loan) and the students felt so empowered by their creative efforts and seeing an immediate reward!!  This is the beginning of my journey and while I realize there will be bumps, wrong turns and even u turns along the way, with the appropriate support, I hope it to be a picturesque drive.

Alka Ambaram
Inkster School
1971 Cluster Group