Friday, November 30, 2012
Qwip recordings on Masks (why do we wear masks) prior to Paper Mache
This was a draft of a post I was working on last year - I think this app still has potential.
I am trying to use Qwip in my class but the students and I are having bit of a difficulty utilizing it. When I saw it advertised on a site, it appeared that I just had the kids "attach" a file to their recording. Instead, it looks like you need to hyperlink a photo with the URL of the QWIP?
Use the app or the site to attach audio
Tuesday, November 27, 2012
Toontastic : animated #digitalstorytelling #ipaded about Skyrim
As part of a recent digital storytelling project, I provided the students with a writing prompt of "what is your favorite moment," "summer vacation," "most embarassing moment.." something that involved the kids memories and it had a beginning, middle and end. I discovered some great Digital Storytelling resources from Tom Banaszewski
To help with the students writing and sharing of their file, they utilized the Pages app and sent the file to the class' Dropbox account
There have been plenty of animation projects in Mr G's class in the past with my students but this was my first time using this app with my kids. I think this app can be geared more for younger students, but it was nice the kids could draw their own characters and backgrounds and narrate/animate by hopping around, similar to the Photo Puppet app
Sharing wise, I have my issues in order to make this free:
- Student completes their film and types in MY email/password that I set up for the class account (Note: If student doesn't type in their own username/password on the Safari, they don't hit the network)
- After a few minutes, I have to check my Gmail account that I set up with when I initially created the class' Toontastic account.
- I click on the message within my email, which I then must view AND approve within the Toontube aspect of the Toontastic site.
- After reviewing, I can then share the site via Facebook, Twitter or an embed code. Since my students need to publish their own work, I need to send them their work to Edmodo
- I copied/pasted the embed code and sent a direct message to the student on Edmodo
- The student in turn would then have to copy/paste THIS embed code into their Kidblog account as their eportfolio. Unfortunately, through the app, students can't add in PDF files of their writing, so they had to embed their Toontastic along with a SCREEN CAP of their writing they did in pages.
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Monday, November 26, 2012
Saturday, November 24, 2012
Student made iMovie trailer: Life of a Teen
As part of my unit on 8th grade film making, I introduce students to the concept of how to shoot video on an iPad and the easiest way to learn editing - by creating a trailer
Check out my iMovie Prezi lesson:
How to create trailers on the iMovie app on Prezi
I was really proud of my student's work as he had no experience in film making nor video editing, he was able to shoot and publish this within two days AND post it into his Kidblog eportfolio
Thursday, November 22, 2012
Student creates 3d model of ancient Egypt with Minecraft
By teaming up with the 6th grade Social Studies standards, the students took their knowledge about Ancient Egypt and applied it towards the art they made in my class using Minecraft
See how this student showcases a model of his Minecraft world after studying Ancient Egypt. It helped out that he built upon his previous knowledge of Minecraft where we Dilated paintings and remade them out of Minecraft blocks.
The Disney Golden Age of Animated Movies Reborn, Thanks to Roger Rabbit - my review
In the 80s Disney was not exactly the force that it was in the animation world, going up against such forces as Don Bluth. Find out how they helped rejuvenate the animation genre and recharge the Disney golden age look by checking out my latest 80s animation article about Roger Rabbit and Golden Age Disney Animation
Don't forget to check out my previous 80s animation articles such as on Dragon's Lair, Pink Floyd's The Wall and Heavy Metal.
Tuesday, November 20, 2012
Students run class during Minecraft in Architecture project #Flipped
After I spent about 3-4 days allowing my students to create Dilated images out of Minecraft blocks, they then prepared for the next part of this Flipped Project
Feel free to utilize these tutorials for you class so that your students can start playing Minecraft with your content
The next Minecraft lesson allowed the students to create teams of four to five, the only catch was that they couldn't currently sit adjacent to each other so they could capitalize on the networking issue of Minecraft.
Each member in the team came up with a floor plan for a work of architecture based on their Social Studies subject matter. The 8th graders would design a Colonial Home, the 7th graders would do a Medieval Castle and the 6th graders would do an Ancient Egyptian Pyramid
- Spend five days to design a work of architecture based on your Social Studies content. Utilize the small groups created in Edmodo to discuss/collaborate
- Collaborate together to gather resources, build and survive the night as you are attacked by Creepers, Spiders, Skeletons and other threats.
- On the 6th-9th days we will begin a Round Robin style tournament where four members of a team will attack your home. One member of your team will remain to host the server and defend their home.
- The attackers have five minutes to get you. If anyone loses all of their health, they are done. After the five minutes is up and the leader is still there, you advance to the next round.
- I estimate to do these attacks for three days and then be done with Minecraft. The point is to set up natural defenses, mazes and other obstacles for the attackers, while still demonstrating knowledge of architecture of their content.
Stay tuned for further Minecraft posts as the students showcase their rerlections, and talk about their observations and challenges with the project.
Sunday, November 18, 2012
What challenges are you facing using Minecraft
Interested about Minecraft in Education? Watch as the students spend their third day building up their castles and pyramids, I had them reflect upon what they were learning via their small group in Edmodo and during some of these interviews.
Saturday, November 17, 2012
Greek Column art by printing from meat trays
A modified lesson plan that was shown to me from Dick Blick allows students to carve into styrofoam meat trays and print with them
The first thing that the students did was study the three styles of Greek columns: Doric, Ionic & Corinthian.The students came up with two sketches a piece, picked their best one and drew that on a piece of paper. The drawings were then taped down to a styrofroam meat tray and were redrawn to press the image into the styrofoam.
The students then studied prints, reliefs and carving techniques. I urged them that they were basically creating a rubber stamp. Whatever they wanted to print, they need to carve out everything around it using an X-acto knife.
Once the carving was done, the students used a palette knife to scoop out block printing ink or acrylic paint onto the stytrofoam. The brayer rolled the ink/paint around to level out the medium and cover over the styrofoam.
The students would then press the styrofoam onto a piece of paper and print the image as many times as possible until their print ran dry.
Once their prints were dry, they cut them out and arranged them on a 18x24 piece of black paper. My fellow art teacher recommended them utilizing some of the old text books. so the students ripped up pages from books to create a background for the prints.
Once their background was filled, the students then glued these prints down and arrange them in an eye catching composition.
