I'm Bored

iMotion

Hard at work!

Last week, I went to the TIES Educational Technology Conference. I learned a lot of great new tools and ideas.

One of the things I was most excited to try was the app iMotion. I saw it in the Maker Space (an area used to create) and had a lot of fun. I can envision all sorts of ways kids could use this for projects.

iMotion is a free app for the iPads that allows the user to create stop motion film. This week, I demoed the app to our 4th grade students then let them play and create their own short stop motion film.

I used play-dough to have the students try to make a ball move and change shape. Students collaborated and worked for 10-15 minutes, created a film, shared it with a classmate, and had a lot of fun.

I highly suggest this FREE APP!

Working together.

Creating.

Learning and Creating!

It doesn't seem like work--when it is this fun!

Taking Pictures,.

I got my husband to make me these stands for the iPads so they could remain stationary while filming

Art Research Project

Recently, our art teacher Mr. Moore asked me if I could help our 6th graders research artists for a project he was working on. Of course, I jumped on this amazing opportunity. We got our 6th grade teachers to collaborate with the project as well.

First, Mr. Moore previewed all of the artists that the students could choose from in art class. Students chose one artist that they wanted to research and create a piece of art in the style of. Then, I created a page of WEB LINKS that had websites where students could find information and images of the artist's work. Next, the 6th grade teachers took the students to the labs, and let them do a brief research project and explore their artist.

Once the research was complete, Mr. Moore taught the students about what makes a graphically pleasing "infographic" or poster. He taught them about fonts, color, layout, and headings. He also created guidelines for their research poster. (One of my favorite parts of this collaboration project was that Mr. Moore taught me how to match colors from the artwork. Wow! My life has changed for creating things on the computer! Collaboration really is great.)

I then brought the students to the computer lab with their classroom teacher. We used powerpoint to create our posters. I taught the students how to use tools to insert images, crop, create text boxes, find appropriate fonts, and change backgrounds. We reviewed how to site sources for the images they used. In the same time period, Mr. Moore had students create art projects in the style of the artists.

The projects turned out great! They are hanging up near the music rooms. Go check them out!