Making movies has been an enlightening experience. It can be done simply but as I found, it takes multiple times taking the pictures and recording sound. There is always something that isn’t quite right.

I first mapped out my idea, using skiing around our pond as a metaphor for life. I brainstormed metaphors of skiing and life. Since the pond trail is a circle, it fit in well with thinking about life and coming full circle. There were many analogies that I thought about, light and dark, sun and cold to name a few. I stopped to take pictures of the things which I thought would be good subjects. The picture taking did help me think more about metaphors. But taking pictures of snow is difficult. Tracks I discovered are very difficult.

Another challenge at this time of year is keeping the battery in the camera warm enough so that it would take pictures. When I did this the first time, the pictures were too dark. First, I took pictures with a Canon EOS 10Dcamera with a 24-135mm lens. This camera kept freezing and didn’t quite capture what I was after. I used up all the available daylight by the time I skied around the pond and returned home multiple times to change out batteries. The following day it was -25 and foggy so I could not try to ski and capture light again. I had to wait until the following weekend to ski again as the sun is not up when I am home. This time, I borrowed my husband’s Nikon D300 camera with an 18-200mm lens. The day proved to be better as it was warmer and the sky was clear with more light. This time I was able to capture the sparkly snow! Also, the battery did not freeze up once so I could spend time getting the pictures I wanted without returning home to switch them out.

The sound also created some challenges. I used an Olympus Digital Voice Recorder WS-100 to capture the sounds of me skiing. This was really great. I had to improvise a harness for it so I strapped it to my daughter’s ipod arm band. I used hair bands to keep it from falling out. I then strapped it to my calf upside down just below the knee. It did great! In fact the sounds were too loud and I had to tone them down when I put them into Movie Maker. The other problem was that I had to edit over an hour of sound to figure out which parts I needed for my short story.

With each change, the story kept evolving. It changed as I made my multiple times around the pond. I would discover more ways I thought life was like a ski around the pond.

As I edited the hour’s worth of sound, I decided that I didn’t capture the chickadee sounds at the bird feeder like I wanted and since chickadees are very active at my feeder during first light, I hung the recorder on the feeder to capture more sounds.

In between skiing and downloading, there was time for talking. I kept talking to people about what I was doing. Of course my husband was the one who had to hear about what I was working on the most. He did not mind as long as his glass was filled with wine. I would bounce my ideas off of him and he would suggest things. I showed him my pictures and he suggested cutting out many of them. He also showed me how to edit them first in Photoshop and then import them into Movie Maker. I found out that there is not a way to turn a picture while in Movie Maker. (Actually, since I first wrote this, I figured out a way to rotate pictures in Movie Maker. I was just missing it.) I wished that I had known that I should not have taken any vertical pictures as this format doesn’t fit with the movie format which is longer horizontally. Oh well, to live is to learn.

So far this process has inspired me to think about how stories go together in a multimedia way. I now have more of an appreciation for the movie industry and understand why multiple takes is necessary. I also like how making movies has inspired me to think about telling stories in a new way. The only downside is the technical aspect and making it simple for the kids I teach. Since I teach second and third graders, their technical prowess is not quite as advanced. However, I do think they could tell a story and narrate it into a recorder. I have already done this last year with them. I would like to add the movie portion. We have flip cameras at school that would be great for this. In January, I plan to have the kids in my room tell a snow story. I am thinking of doing a science unit on snow and weather. The kids would have the option to tell a fiction or non-fiction story using snow as their main theme. I could show my example to spur them on.

I created a simple rubric for their story. I would look for four areas with in their story. First of all, their story must be in sequence. This is age appropriate of the kids I teach. Their voices should also be clear. We have been working on this all year. I also want them to play with their written story and have them take out and change a few common words and add a synonym which is “fancy”. The term fancy referrers to a lesson I recently taught using Fancy Nancy’s ABC’s. We wrote sentences using a fancy word. I think asking the kids to change three words would be very appropriate. The last area in my rubric is the setting. We have been talking in our reading about where the setting is so adding this detail to their writing would be ideal. I could but did not add another part to the rubric which is that all the work should be beautiful. I use this idea a lot when I am teaching to express to kids that they do their best work.

Thank you for this opportunity to go through what my students do to help me understand what I am asking them to do. I enjoyed learning new technologies like blogging. I find I must often take a class to force myself to investigate new things!

Final Digital Story: The Pond As A Metaphor to Life

Please visit this link to see my final video.
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Yho5aryi2fw

Question for my Final Project

How is the act of skiing around my pond a metaphor for life?

My Philosophy Video Reflection

I enjoyed making the video once I got started doing it. I enjoy thinking about why it is that I teach.

I wrote a script, recorded it several times until I got one that didn't have a dog barking or dishes being put away. I had fun finding pictures and reviewing the kids working. I got a little teary eyed at one point thinking of how much teaching means to me.

The obstacles I encountered were getting permission slips from parents of the kids. I also struggled with trying to match up the words with the pictures. When I went to add transitions, the picture would not match anymore so it took lots of fiddling to make them match. I also didn't like how the music went abruptly into the voice over. I had to ask my husband for help on that section. I like this process and find myself thinking of more and more ways I can use this in school.

Last year I had the kids write and tell about their names and we made a movie. This year I am having the kids write about their family members. I think that would be a wonderful movie time. I think my school is planning on having a movie night where we share the movies we are making in our classrooms with popcorn!

Here is my movie-yes I used the blues for music and used blue in the movie-that was intentional.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iHulL3Q06JU

Seasons

The first snow. It changes the world overnight. We thought we weren’t ready for it. The bikes are not yet hung in the garage. The last of the carrots were just picked a week ago and the garden tilled then put to bed. Now we must be ready for winter. The snow blankets everything, putting the work we still had to do to rest.
Even Nature is caught with the early snow. High bush cranberries hang bright red in contrast to their white blanket.
The big flakes of snow come down fast and heavy. Beautiful.
We search for boots, hats, mittens. What still fits?
Our youngest, Katlyn is ready to switch from riding her bike to sleds and skis.
She can’t wait until Rosie, the youngest of our dogs, is harnessed and ready to pull her in the plastic sled. Last year, they literally wore the bottom out of the sled with their multiple trips up and down the road. Katlyn laughs as she tells me how much fun it is to go fast behind Rose. Exuberantly, she explains about how much fun it is to go down the hill so fast that she passes Rose or wipes out. It doesn’t matter to her which one she does, they are equally fun.
I stop to admire the snow. I too love the change. The chickadees are chattering their song and visiting the feeder during the daylight. I stop to hear them too. Their songs so uplifting. I marvel at how they survive the long winter even though they can fit on the palm of my hand.
It’s perfect. 28 degrees, flat light, warm body, and cold cheeks.
As we continue to enter life’s many seasons, we must pause to enjoy the present, because too soon, it will be a memory and we will wonder if we took the time to enjoy it.

Sabrina's Journey

Sabrina’s Journey, “Do I Belong Here?” could be used in the classroom as a model for storytelling because it is still photographs with voice over. I like the clarity of the voice and the choice of pictures that matched her story. I purchased a Logitech set of headphones with built in microphone last year to record my students reading. I actually did something like that last year. I had the kids find out how they were named. I had them write up that story and then give me a baby picture. I scanned those into the computer and the kids read their stories. I made it into a video for all the parents to see. It was very powerful and wonderful to have the story of how they were named read by the kids. My only problem is the amount of time it takes to edit and put all of these things together. I need to know an easier way. I want high quality though…..
An after thought...Sabrina's story is powerful because it deals with connections within her community. Computers are a wonderful tool when the connections with real human beings are kept. When technology serves as a barrier, society goes downhill.

The Impact of Epic 2015

I think podcasting is a wonderful tool. I would like to see stories traded and loaded on individual iPods. In fact, I would like to do that in my classroom. As far as podcasting in a park and viewing those with something like Google Earth, well that is just amazing! What a new way to communicate. The interesting thing to me is that I believe that we need stories and should like communicating with others, in a personal way. I am curious about thinking how that fits in a society which is concerned so much about security. Podcasting could be used in the classroom by finding a link to someone who is say visiting a historical site. It’s a schema link. A schema link would be connecting something that is tangible to the student with a person or a place from the student’s life.

Fox Becomes a Better Person and School Train

I would assess Fox Becomes a Better Person by first having rubric with what I expected from the project. I would look for story elements, neat artwork and expression in voice. I would also look to see if the message of the story was evident to the viewer. I would give Fox Becomes a Better Person a 85-95% grade. Hannah clearly had an understanding of a folk tale. I wished her audio was clearer. Maybe a closer microphone? I felt she did a great job. I had a harder time with School Train. Partly because the music and the format didn’t appeal to me, but that is my own personal taste. I wasn’t sure at times what the message was. I would probably give School Train an average grade.

Why a class at the beginning of the year?

How I got here:

I wanted to take a class with blogging and webcasting. I saw Jason's flyer in the school district office over the summer, made a copy and forgot I placed it on the fridge to sign up! How did September come so fast? Now, I am figuring out how to blog. I think it might be fun!