The End of One journey Start of Another

Well what a Month.
As I write this I feel quite sad as it is the last Lunchtime I will spend at Windsor School, here in Christchurch.

I am moving to a new school and new challenges. I am looking forward to the change and I am excited about the future. Today the two year 3 children that I have been working with finished their interactive book. We have been using Textease (PC version). Some of you might remember a programme on the Acorn called Textease and you would be right it is the same thing redesigned and upgraded as a complete Suite of programmes designed for kids. WOW. I have even downloaded the APPLE version from the net and can run the demo without a hitch.
Dare I say it does what KIDPIX use to do very effectively.

Today’s Lesson is about the PITFALLS of trying to make DVDs with a committee.

I recently filmed the Year 4 show and with the use of iMove, I edited it for compiling onto VHS. I had the bright idea of making copies onto DVD as well.

Things to remember:
Use a DVD camera that just plugs in using FIREWIRE (For speed this is the best)
Make sure you have practiced making DVDs so that you are not under time pressures.
Leave yourself enough time just in case things don’t go to plan (Murphy has a lot to answer for).
Make one DVD then test it across a range of players –R seems to be more tolerant than +R. (Let me know if I am wrong)
Be prepared for the share number of Requests (40 DVDs can ruin any weekend).

Try to do the whole job using the same computer. Transferring across PCs and even across platforms is a recipe for disaster.

APART FROM THESE HAVE FUN.

Year One children can make movies Part Two

As promised here is the second installment.

We discussed what Narration is and whether we needed it or not. The children then discussed what sort of things our narration would be made up of. This is where our script came in handy. It helps refocus and keeps us all on task.

The children watched the rushes and made comments about how hard it was to hear people walking into school and how you can really hear someone reading. This introduced the idea of sound effects. After I watched the making of Troy I realised that every sound is a sound effect so we discussed how to have the sound of walking. The children said we should go out and walk. This was interesting in itself as the first couple of attempt sounded like stomping and marching when we played them back. On the third attempt we were pleased with our sound and moved onto the next effect, Children talking and laughing. For this we just stood around in the classroom and told each other a funny story. For reading a big piece of paper opened and closed repeatedly gave a nice page sound. I was impressed with their patience in waiting for the bell to ring so we could capture that sound as well.

The narration was done by a select group who volunteered.

NB: I believe it is important to give the chance for children to choose not to take a high focus position with this type of first attempt. Since the children have watched the final product there are more who are interested in having a go.

I then took all the raw film and sound home and edited it with iMovie. Again you can use any software, I just happen to have this one. Using Garageband the incidential music was composed.

I then copied the final product back to the DV camera. From there I copied the film to a VHS player at school.

And we all have a grand preview today and showed the children next door in Room 2

Year One children can make movies

Well after a busy couple of weeks, I am back with some small gems on ICT integration.

This past week I have had the pleasure of working with a class of year 1 children. They were all new Entrants when I first came across them earlier this year.

The big idea was to use the medium of movies to integrate language skills and communication through drama.

I set the scene. I asked the class if they remember their first day at school. They all had something to say about that. I asked if they thought a movie introducing how things are done in Room 1 would help new children. They all agreed that this would be a good idea.

Then I dropped the bomb shell about them making a movie and that they would be doing all the work.

We discussed roles within movie making. I broke the task into two days.

DAY ONE
Writing - I explaiined that a script needs to be witten so that we know what order things are going to be filmed in. With children this young it is a good idea to keep thing linear as this helps them sequence correctly. My role is as a guide for the group discussion and I wrote down all the things the children shared.

We then checked that we had the order right.

Next I explained the role of an actor and a director. The whole class had jobs.

Scene One 5 kids are coming to school with their bags. The directors (whole class) discussed how we walk and do we talk and have fun.

Scene Two Another group show how we take off our Bags and Hats and hang them on hooks. Again lots of talking about how the shot was to be done and what was expected from the actors.

Scene Three. etc. through to a final scene of everyone getting onto the mat when the bell rings.

Re kept filming until we had all the rushes (raw footage) done. The children then watched the rushes and commented on what they liked and what we could change to look better.

Everyone had a turn at acting and everyone had input into direction.

Next installment will go on about Narration and sound effects, yes, sound effects. After all, all good movies have sound effects.

Cheers for now
Chalky