Thinking About Going Back to School

It is getting close to the time when classes will start up again.  Some states have already started.  I have spent a fair amount of time already planning for this next school year.  I have placed my orders and some are starting to come in, so next week I will start getting my classroom ready.  I decided it might be fun to share a couple of videos that some of my 8th grade students made about bullying.

We all know that bullying can be a problem at school.  Last year I challanged my students to create an anti-bully message with animation.  The students were asked to use simple construction paper in the style of South Park.  Beyond that, I let them come up with their own ideas.  I just helped them with the technical aspects of video production.  This first one has a technical issue with the voice not be alligned properly.  I think they added a slide at the beginning and forgot to move their audio over.  It still is pretty funny and clever.

 
In the next video the students created nice art but I think it would have been better if they had different students doing the voices.  The students in this group chose to have a narrator which makes it a little less exciting.  If you decide to create animations with your students, I would suggest trying to get them to be silly and create the voices much like the first video.


I don't know if this next video solves the bullying problem but the kids had fun making it.  It appears that Timmy looks a little different with legs coming out of his head.  It has a point but I'm not sure in the end if they really get along.

You can see other animations and films that my students have made if you go to Youtube and type in ksvoboda100.  I have the students work with Sam Animation software and a document camera.  It is easy and works great.  Editing is done with Videopad editor software that can be downloaded online.  We use an Ipevo camera.  I highly recommend Ipevo because the camera is just $69.  Sam Animation used with Ipevo is so easy to teach students.  We have also used the iPad Sam Animation App.  It is less complete but works well and is easy to learn.  If anyone needs any advice about all of this feel free to contact me.

The MEAP and My Animation/Film Class

My new 8th grade animation/film class students were challenged to have some fun creating motivational videos for the MEAP (Michigan Educational Assessment Program).  The students absolutely hate MEAP time because it's a series of tests.  Everyone gets stressed out about testing and most students would rather do without it.  I have six groups of students in this class.  They had just under two weeks to complete their videos.  One group was ready to quit my class on day one because they HATE the MEAP.  I went home and brainstormed how to use that negative energy.....Hence the "Ten Things We Hate About the MEAP" was born.  The boys ended up having so much fun and I think they learned to trust their teacher.  It wasn't difficult for them to come up with ten things they hate about the MEAP.  Another group created a rap which I think is totally clever.  The videos range from animations to film.  Have fun watching them.