Week 6, Thing 15

I'm trying diligently to stay up with my 20/20 Things this week and post to my blog about class from September 30th.  It looks like I only have weeks 7 & 8 to go (yoo who!) and then I need to backtrack to some things from week 4.  (By the way, I'm able to work on this right now b/c my husband is on a bike ride and my two year-old daughter has been napping since 4:00 pm- the question: do I wake her up or let her sleep?)

Speaking of my daughter, and getting to the actual point of this post, here's the link to the movie I created yesterday: http://webcontent.asd20.org/media/Hazel_lunch.wmv  I've been using FlipCameras with an eighth grade movie project the past couple of weeks, and they're so easy to use!  In fact, I just plain put away the other video recorders that use firewire cords b/c students struggled with rewinding the tapes the right spot, downloading video in a certain amount of time, etc. so I ended up doing more work than I wanted.  With the FlipCameras, though, students can definitely do it all by themselves.  I'm currently downloading Celtx to see how I can improve on some pre-production planning with students.  I've allowed students about four days of filming (20- 25 minutes each time) since students keyboard for the first few minutes, then I give a mini-lesson on things like filming tips, audio, rule of thirds, etc. before they head outside to film; then I allow about ten minutes at the end of class for downloading and viewing.  I'm in the middle of this project right now, so it's nice to see a lot of resources put together on the 20/20 Things page.  This is the first time I've done a movie making class with students, so I guess I'll see how it all turns out soon.  Then I can refine and teach it again next semester!  I based much of my instruction on the 2009 TIE Conference's keynote speaker, Dr. Tim Tyson from Mabry Middle School.