Media Mavericks: Using Technology with Elementary Students

* I do firmly believe music helps attach new learning to student’s young minds. We all know how powerful visual images are (Thank you to Hall Davidson’s brilliant keynote address…) and when we hook these images to music it’s all the more powerful!

*Here’s another rap I wrote to help my students learn about clouds… Notice the student illustrations that are part of the video.

It’s easy being green… I don’t care what Kermit says. After much experimentation I’ve created my first video with several “green screen” scenes! My first attempts were with a dark blue background. And finally I procured a green one. The last few segments of the video were much clearer.

Enjoy this video constructed using Premier Elements and Windows Movie Maker…

*During the past school year, I’ve been using music to help my students retain  concepts we’ve worked with in class. This strategy has proved most effective in science!

*I don’t claim to be much a rapper… but my students do really enjoy listening to, and learning with rap. So, supply and demand… demands that I rap!

*Enjoy this rap I wrote to help my students practice and review concepts they learned during a science unit on weather.

* If you want to learn the latest and most exciting ways to integrate technology in your classroom, then I highly recommend the Discovery Education National Training Academy. Since returning home I’ve been asked a myriad of times the standard question, “How was your trip?” Each time I must honestly tell them I experienced the most amazing professional development opportunity of my entire career! And this is definitely not hyperbole!

* Reflecting on my trip, my mind passes over so many highlights. I’ll be sharing several of these in blogs to come. Forgive me if my approach is somewhat non-linear. When you enter the “technology candy store” you can’t help but dash from delectable treat to delectable treat!

*On Monday night we ended our day with desert training sessions. As we enjoyed key lime pie and ice cream we were given the opportunity to attend several mini-training sessions. During the day we were given a little preview of these sessions and one of them stood out to me immediately: Creating movies with a “Green Screen”.

* If you’ve watched the nightly news and have seen the weatherman standing in front of an animated weather map, then you’ve seen this technology at work. The amazing thing is that any of us can easily use this same technology to create videos, inserting ourselves into existing video clips (such as Discovery Education’s editable clips) and even into still pictures(also available on Discovery Education)!

* Being a second grade teacher, I knew how powerful and entertaining this would be for my young students. This session was definitely worth my time and full attention. Lance Rougeux presented this mini-session showing us how to use Premier Elements by Adobe to take full advantage of “Green Screen” technology.

If you have any of these programs you too can insert yourself into video clips or still pictures:

1. Premier Elements
2. Frames (Tech4Learning)
3. Windows Movie Maker (Using a patch described here: http://blog.discoveryeducation.com/streaming_a_to_z/2008/05/27/are-you-feeling-blue/)

* Sitting in Baltimore/Washington International airport awaiting my trip back to Portland, Maine; I had a lot of time to kill. That’s when I began working on my first “Green Screen” video. I decided to use the program Frames by Tech4Learning to do this. My video uses a stop motion animation I created. I also used a great still image from Discovery Education. I created this video to teach my students about animal adaptations.

*The video, Is “Anybunny” Listening, is posted below… Check it out!

* Would you believe that thismonster is what was staring me in the face when I entered One Discovery Place on Sunday night (June 1st)?  Granted I was a little run down and groggy from my flight from Portland, Maine that day.  Could I be hallucinating?  This was just too much… even at Discovery Education’s International Headquarters in Silver Spring, Maryland.

*I shook my head gingerly, rubbed my eyes and realized that the T-Rex wasn’t alive at all.  It was actually “sans-skin”, a giant fossilized model of a once ferocious prehistoric predator.  Wow!  What a sight to grace the lobby of such a magnificent building.

*After registering for the conference I returned to my home for the evening, the Crowne Plaza — Silver Spring.  My king sized bed beckoned to me, as my mind slowed down – filled with anticipation and thoughts about tomorrow’s Discovery Education Training.

 * It’s tall order to tell you, all about my experiences here.  I’ll most certainly find myself going on and on and on and on…  Well, you get the picture!  Suffice it to say, this has been one of the richest educational experiences I’ve ever had in all my life.  The presenters and trainers have been dynamic as well as inspiring.  The ideas have been challenging, yet accessible.  The work has been all-consuming, and oh so, gratifying.  I’ve learned so much… One blog could hardly do it justice.

* I plan to post again…  In my next blog I’ll share a few reflections from day two of my trip (June 2nd).