WVSKPhillips Domain

Wow – here I was – taking a quick break from writing lesson plans for the week – just foolin’ and toolin’ around and look at what I stumbled across….Newtools!

Click on the “click here” button to see new possibilities. My thoughts for this in my classroom would be to use this when kids need a break from the usual routine, when things are getting stale, on early out days and class periods are short, and so on. Once you see how it works, you could also make your own options with your own curriculum and choices for how/what type activities and let kids draw from a hat. Then give them 20 or so minutes to get set, do whatever researching they need to do, practice, and then have them hit the stage! This would be lots of fun and the kids may not even realize they are learning as well as doing a little teaching.

I’ve posted before here about my love of Voice Thread and I just received an email from them touting even MORE to make Voice Thread better! If you’d like to read even more about Voicethread – check out their blog.

They’ve added the New York Library’s Digital Library with over 700,000 historical images that can be used in the Threads. VT has also improved its Flickr search and import capabilities along with adding Learning Modules which allow you to set options giving other’s permission to copy and use your VoiceThreads.

These changes and updates are awesome! What a great way to start a new school year with an old friend who has some fresh features?

When telling a story, words can convey so much. However, when you can tell a story using words, pictures, music, and your own voice – the power of the message becomes exponentially greater. Even those unenthusiastic writers may show a glimmer of interest when presented with this program as a medium to create a project.

Photo Story 3 is a free download for Windows XP and greater computers. It is a program that is very easy to learn and show others how to create their own digital movies, narrate them, set them to music tracks, and publish them for others to view. Students can create their own videos for just about any topic you can think of. Turn them loose with a couple of digital cameras and see what they can come up with. Don’t have any digital cameras? Use Flickr to search for photographs relating to the topic and have students use those.

Here are directions on how to download music to Photo Story 3 from a CD as well as general Photo Story directions. (The directions on downloading music were created by Melissa Given.)

There are some ideas and websites listed below for inspiration.

The following activities are just a few samples from TeachersInTouch.
* Learn how to create a farewell, end-of-year video file that will be remembered long after the streamers are cleaned up and the DJ has gone home. Using still images and text, you can create a video file complete with music and narration using Microsoft Photo Story.

* What I should have done in the holidays – Students always write a recount of what they did in their holidays. Here is a way to make their recount dynamic and more meaningful. Using Photo Story 3, students narrate their
recounts making their everyday recount come to life in visual and audio multimedia.

* In this activity, students create a Photo Story video file using still images, text, narration and sound files to advertise and promote sun safety. Throughout this lesson, students will gain an understanding and appreciation of their home climate and its affect on skin.

* Waltzing Matilda – In this activity, students are asked to analyse the meaning behind a well known song or quote. Students create a visual audio story using Microsoft Photo Story and synchronize it with a PowerPoint presentation detailing the song lyrics along with their own interpretation.

Websites with examples:

Digitalcamerasined – a wiki with resources on using digital photography in general in the classroom along with Photo Story 3. Lots of great ideas!

ReadWriteThink - Here is a website that has a lesson plan and activities using Photo Story 3 and/or Movie Maker from the ReadWriteThink site.

LearnOutLoud has an incredible library of podcasts and audio files free for the taking. The podcasts range from Aesop’s Fables to Greek Mythology to Ralph Waldo Emerson essays and Great Speeches in History. The podcasts can either be downloaded and listened in your leisure or streamed and listened to immediately. The only software you need is a program to listen to mp3 files. You can use Quicktime, Windows Music Player, or any other program that plays sound files with the mp3 extension. These are both free downloads and usually come already installed on many systems.

How much more alive would your class be if your students could actually hear Richard Nixon giving his resignation speech? Make history authentic with audio files of stories of slavery. How about bringing to your science class the latest in nanotechnology? The reading of The Road Less Traveled could encourage your students to enjoy further readings of Robert Frost’s works. Looking for something in the foreign languages genre? How about a daily Mandarin Chinese lesson podcast for your learning pleasure?

There are also video and audio files that are fee based. The Great Gatsby is only $4.99! Prices range anywhere from $1 to $25 depending on the download and whether you want CDs ordered with it or not.

This resource is an incredible one – not just for those reluctant readers we all have in our classes – but also for the enjoyment of hearing the spoken word as these wonderful files will prove, over and over again. Have students actually choose to listen these files as part of completing projects, reviewing for tests, or previewing for upcoming units of study. These files can be downloaded, burned to a CD or synced to a portable music player (iPod, Zune, mp3 player, etc) and played again and again.

Remember the song back in the late ’80s We Didn’t Start the Fire by Billy Joel? I’ve always thought that a great project would be to set the music to pictures, either for myself or as a project for students. Well, several people beat me to it and did a much better job than I ever thought about doing.

Listen/view for free from these links:

We Didn’t Start the Fire This page however has some advertisements at the top and bottom of the site that could be objectionable. You can however, get it set up and centered on the screen for just the video and the ads wouldn’t be visible to the classroom. Takes about 20-30 seconds to load and play. Will repeat until you close the browser window. The pictures are also clickable to websites with more information about each person/topic.

We Didn’t Start the Fire No advertisements on this site and I feel the picture quality is better than the first one.

HotChalk Lesson plan Excellent lesson plan for middle/high school history or music classes.

We Didn’t Start the Fire Ozteacher created a website with lyrics and video along with references to information on topics mentioned in the song.

Another Lesson plan site for WDSTF and includes a rubric for grading the essay developed throughout the lesson.

A lot of fun could be had with this type of project! Enjoy!