Books, Movies, and

Today we started the voice-overs and it went very smoothly. We have already used iMovie and Garageband to do voice-overs this year so this was much faster and had virtually no learning curve. Compared to My Stop Action and iMovie for making movies, using the iPads and Book Creator took about half the time. The finished product was very different but making books instead of movies is another great way to involve students in their own learning.


• Both projects required the students to work with partners so teamwork played an important role.
• Movie making required more preparation time prior to starting with the technology.
• Students had more problem solving opportunities with the filming project.
• Students thought they remembered more of the content because they needed to use the information .

" When you make a book the information stays moving around in your head."

Blogging Character Diaries

 We are  working on diaries for White Jade Tiger from the perspective of the main character Jasmine.

http://bit.ly/yad1YV

The students are all into every chapter and they make sure that they don't read ahead to ruin the surprise. We read the novel together and do a vocabulary search as a class as the vocabulary can be challenging for some of them. Our class has many ESL students and like others a range in reading abilities. Before starting this project I worried about the readability of the novel. However, working together to read and explore the vocabulary we are doing great. The students are eager to read each chapter and the online projects, research and book making have spurred them on to great results.




Project based learning has united the class and helped them to take on responsibilty for their own learning as well as encouraged them all to participate. Success for all!!

Working On The Railway

Today we all worked on finding more information for our books that we are making. We are using Book Creator and iPads to publish research on the building of the railway through B.C.

We started by viewing video clips from our project website http://bit.ly/ykqoOj

Then we took notes and found old photos of the building of the CPR. We saved them to Dropbox, downloaded them to our iPads and used them in Book Creator. Tomorrow we will finish off making the books and adding voice overs.

The students worked in groups of three with Macbooks and iPads to complete this project. It was quick and they learned about the conditions the Chinese faced and the huge undertaking the railway was. They took to Book creator like ducks to water and are ready to take on another challenge.

Problem Solving Is A Team Sport

Amazing

My students set out to make videos of their last novel. They worked in groups of four and created scripts, backgrounds and characters. They use MyStopAction and iPads to create the stop motion animation and then used iMovie to add the voice overs.

They sprang into action and worked as teams to solve all the problems they came across such as:

• how to set up the iPad so it stayed still without a tripod
• how to get an extra light source (a student's iPhone)
• what to do if the video footage was shorter than the voice-over for a scene
• How to crop and zoom in in iMovie
• how to get the video from the iPad to the iBook using Dropbox








They all got along and all worked together with amazing results.

All in a day

Today my students were excited to get to work. They are making movies from the novel they shared in their literature circles. They have worked hard storyboarding, editing, scripting, and creating their sets and characters. They used iPads to shoot the stop motion animation and are ready to move on and finish up voice-overs.

Its been an exciting time and I am not sure who learned more..the teacher or the student. I am always impressed by their innovation and how quickly they pick up and run with every new project I give them! Nothing holds them back and the day flies by.


I learned:

• students can spend the whole afternoon creating multiplication raps
• they will jump at the chance to learn their timetables if they get to create the rap instead of listening to it
• e-portfolios and blogs inspire students to write and they will continue to return and edit past work as they develop new language competency
• they value each others work and are always sharing their work and encouraging each other
• problem solving is a team sport
• math can be fun

I still work on :

• organizing work time so that we have the right workflow to keep everyone moving ahead at their own pace
• encouraging students to take the initiative to help each other, and find something productive to work on if they are stumped
• taking risks and moving ahead to find better and more effective tools for students to use
• to grow as a learner everyday with my class