imove

Our newest project is making a movie with imovie. Students are working on movies about our community. For time and convenience, I did the leg work by taking pictures of our community. I took pictures of places in our community and surrounding area. Students are using the photos to make a movie.

First, they had to plan by using a storyboard graphic organizer. They organized photos and wrote out what they were going to record about each pictures on the storyboard. This took them about three class periods. Some students even had to make phone calls to local businesses and ask questions about it to ensure accuracy in their work, while planning.

Next, students used a flash drive and put the photos into iphoto. From there they placed them into imovie and organized their photos into the photo track.

Third, they recorded their descriptions of the photos on to imovie. Finally, they had to edit their work. In addition, their movies will be uploaded to a global project that my class is involved in.

This project is an example of project based learning too. Students used writing across the curriculum, social studies, and 21st century skills.

Wordle and Reading

Today students read a passage in their novels; then created a character Woodle using http://www.wordle.net/ They were assigned to write words that described the main character in their novel. A brief discussion was given about words that we use to describe characters first.

Wordle allowed students to use their creativity to show what they know about a main character in a story, as well as improve their vocabulary and knowledge of descriptive words. Furthermore, it was a quick check of comprehension skills without answering questions. Their finished product will be used for a grade, and placed outside the classroom as artwork.

Project Based Learning

Our leadership project is a great example of project based learning. I covered numerous standards in this activity from Social Studies, Reading, Writing, and Technology Skills. Students were engaged in the research because they used the Internet. They enjoyed creating the keynotes because it allowed for creative thinking. Finally, they were extremely excited about the Wax Museum performance. They had to problem solve on how to make a costume that portrayed their character. A wonderful youtube video called "Colonial Day-How to Make a Costume" helped them come up with ideas.

On the day of the performance, students were more then ready to display their work and what they learned; as well as very proud to show their knowledge of Social Studies concepts and technology.

Students did a great job of acting and remaining calm during their Wax Museum performance even when older students tried to distract them. Good job, class! I'm proud of you.

Researching

For the past two weeks students have been working on their leadership projects. They have researched their leader using the Internet. Written a paper describing the qualities of the leader and accomplishments. Then compared themselves to their leader. Finally, they have prepared a keynote about their leaders.

The cumulative activity will be to hold a "Wax Museum" next week. Students will portray their leader and have their computers set up with the keynote running; so they can be viewed by our visitors.

I will post the results of the "Wax Museum" later.