Thanks to SD38 and their SummerTech Institute at Westwind Elementary School, I’m inspired and ready to start to another year of tech learning with Tecumseh students. In my role as Vice Principal, I am enrolling a Grade 3 class and teaching computer skills to Grade 5-7 students this year. Last year I dipped my toe into using iMovie on the iPad with students. Students in Grade 3 and 4 had no difficulty learning to take and edit photos, plan video clips, insert audio clips, airdrop and use templates to make their movies more effective. We made movies for a variety of purposes:
- A way of showcasing Remembrance Day art in the school to the Last Post
- Highlighting some of the items not always easy to share during student led conferences such as friends in class,
gymnastics skills and presenting practised, low pressure oral readings of text to parents.
- Event sharing including student interviews about using BookCreator for content area projects and presenting at the Celebration of Learning
Video Jedi, Dylan, from the Apple store did a great session on making iMovies in Richmond last week. 3 steps to make a movie
1. Import
2. Create
3. Share
Sounds pretty basic. I do find the process is easier on the iPad than on the computer but that could be because I’m more familiar with it. Dylan’s best advice was to BE ORGANIZED. The events folder is a good idea to hold content such as pictures, videos, voice-overs and other audio clips. The entire Apple team was very helpful and invaluable for their trouble shooting.
A fantastic online discovery has been the iMovie Trailer Planners. It provides the structure to help students storyboard their movies with fillable PDF’s for all 14 trailer templates that are included in iMovie for iPad, iPhone and the iPod touch. The planning sheet helps students to decide the appropriate trailer for the content and mood of the material being shared. The results are very professional looking and the limited amount of text requires careful selection of images. The sample of The Giver demonstrates how effectively the trailers can be used to demonstrate understanding of texts. Certainly a more engaging project than the book reports that I did in school. Virginia Bowden used the narrative trailer to have her gifted students to do autobiographies last year. Even the 4th graders came up with impressive results.
I am looking forward to sharing this material with VSB Teacher Librarians at their Kick-off/ Orientation / Speed Geeking event. It’s exciting that so many teacher librarians in the Vancouver School Board are enthusiastic about using technology to engage Kindergarten to Grade 12 students. I’m also excited about continuing the learning and discovery of possibilities with students and colleagues this year.
Inquire2Empower