Dauphin Island Expedition Reflection Videos, take 2

A couple years ago, I had my then 8th graders create reflection videos from their experiences at Dauphin Island Sea Lab (DISL).  This was one of my favorite projects I've ever done--even though it wasn't technically a "social studies" project, I think it was hands-down one of the most important and heart-felt projects that they did.  They really reflected on their experiences from middle school and their expedition and created wonderfully creative and heart-felt videos documenting that.

I decided to go ahead and do this project again, because I loved it so much two years ago, and knew--despite me not being able to go to Dauphin this year :(--these current 8th graders would love it and do great things with it.

During MAP testing week, students spent a few minutes writing their reflections about their expedition and experiences.  This would then serve as their narrative for their video.

After showing a few examples from two years ago and going over the requirements (see below), students set out to create some awesome reflection videos about their Dauphin Expedition.

I was so impressed with how these videos turned out!  All of the students created some amazing video reflections of their experiences and did so eloquently and so heart-felt.  Enjoy these videos below!  And click here for the full playlist of their videos.

African American Life in the 1800s Video Challenge

It is no surprise that I love a good video challenge.  We actually have done a video challenge this year already (Lewis & Clark), so the students knew the routine with this challenge: they would take the information that we had been talking about, reading, and studying all week and synthesize it into a movie (using iMovie) in one class period.  I sure do love a good challenge--especially a video one.

After learning about how African Americans lived in the 1800s in the US (both as free and slaves), students had to create a video in just one class period (they actually got until 8pm that night to get it uploaded to the class YouTube channel) that included all of the following information:

African American Life in the 1800s

Video Challenge Directions

---

past video examples

Your Video MUST Include:

• use information/pictures from Lesson 19 and the Zinn Reading
• at least 6 pictures
• sound (either spoken text or background music)
• at least 3 important details about African American life in the 1800s
• details about how free blacks in the south lived
• details about how free blacks in the north lived
• details about how slaves lived
• creative, engaging, and informative
• uploaded to the class YouTube channel by 8pm TODAY! (in iMovie, go to “share” then select “YouTube”--make sure you title your movie with YOUR NAME--then type in the YouTube account info below!)
• username: XXXXXXXXX
• password: XXXXXX

Once again, I am blown away at what these students can create when given a challenge and a limited time to do it! Check out a few of their videos below or click HERE to go to the entire playlist from 2012 and 2014. Bravo 8th graders!!

Lewis & Clark Expedition Challenge 2

A couple years ago with my last loop of 8th graders, we did a Lewis & Clark Expedition Video Challenge.  It went awesome.  The students loved it--they were glued to their macs for the entire class period creating and editing their movie, and they had to be: they only had ONE class period to get their movie completed and uploaded to the class YouTube channel.  However, they weren't going into this challenge cold turkey: we had spent the previous 2 days discussing the Louisiana Purchase, Thomas Jefferson, and Lewis & Clark.  They had a storyboard and a scavenger hunt activity to pull information from for their movie.

Here's the directions they were tasked with for their video (and note: they did have untit 5pm to upload their movie...just in case they didn't have time to do it in class and/or the YouTube class username/password was log-jammed).

After a quick intro in class (and a viewing of a past example), they got to work on their videos.  It was awesome seeing them so tuned-in and taking their work from the previous days and turning it into an iMovie. 

Check out a few of the students' videos below (or you can check out the entire Lewis & Clark video challenge playlist from 2012 and 2014 here)...I hope you are impressed with their one-class period video products as I am!

MRH Community Tech Project

In technology we just recently finished up our MRH Community Tech Projects.  Students were tasked with creating a video (using iMovie) that documents the aspect of the MRH Community that they chose to highlight in their movie.

Students could pick from the list of aspects to make their movie centered around that included MRHMS' metaphor: School as Expedition, MRH's cornerstone program, MRHMS club day, MRHMS adventure club, MRHMS' sustainability program, MRHMS' home visit program, Joe's Place, or MRHMS' bee and garden program.

Students set out and found pictures and videos to use in their movie along with student and staff interviews they set up and wrote questions for.

Overall, these MRH community videos were excellent!  Last year's tech class set high standards to what I was expecting and this year's class really lived up to my expectations.  Check out a few of their community videos below!

3 Branches of Government Project

In social studies we are currently waist-deep in our Early American Government Unit.  We have just learned about the separation of powers, checks and balances, and 3 branches of government system we have here in the US and where it came from (Articles I, II, & III of the US Constitution!).

Students were challenged to create their own project that detailed our government system in a medium that they felt would best showcase their learning and understanding of this concept.  They could choose from an iMovie, cartoon, song/rap, news article, or an infographic (check out the full project details here).  Once students decided on what project they were going to do, they set out to create their project that showcased all about the 3 branches of government.

First off, the variety and creativity of the projects that were turned in was astounding; not one project was like another (I love this!!), yet they all included the same information, material, and concepts!  I really love project-based learning, and I feel like this project definitely hit on that concept.  Students were able to choose a project medium that they could present their information and knowledge in the best possible way.

Anywho, check out a few of the various projects from below!  I hope you'll enjoy them--and find them as informative!--I sure did!

3 Branches Prezi

3 Branches iMovie

3 Branches News Article

3 Branches Infographic

3 Branches Song

Constitutional Convention Video Challenge

In social studies we have been completely immersed into our Early American Government unit.  Lately we have been looking at the creation of our Constitution (and other important docs that have shaped the US) and the Convention where it all began.

I remembered a couple years ago we did a Lewis and Clark Expedition Video Challenge in our Manifest Destiny unit, and I thought that a similar challenge would be a great learning activity for the students to do now!

Therefore, I created the Constitutional Convention Video Challenge.  Taking all of their knowledge, notes, and readings on the Constitutional Convention, students were tasked with creating a video (using iMovie) that included all of the following information below about the Constitutional Convention.

Students had to have their movie uploaded to our class YouTube channel by 5pm on the day they started working on their project (I gave them a little extra time after their class ended because it does take a little bit to export the video and upload it to YouTube).  Check out some of the students' videos below.  Keep in my they only had about 45 minutes in class to create these...but I am once again impressed with what these students can come up with!

 

iMovie Challenge

In tech class, we've been doing a lot with iMovie.  A couple weeks ago we did an iMovie trailer project that the students totally rocked.  This past week we did an iMovie challenge project, where students had to use certain elements (pictures, song) that were given to them and turn them into a movie where they all tied together.

As a class we went over several basics of iMovie and how to use it, but mostly the students took those basics and just began to play and experiment and figure out how to use iMovie.  Students also figured out how to use MacTubes to grab clips of other videos from YouTube, mix songs using Garageband, and find pictures from open-sources on Google images and use them in their movie.

Once again, these students' creativity was shining brightly in their work!  The vastly different stories they all came up with using the same pictures and song just demonstrates how all of them think differently about the same content.  It truly was a cool project to watch them create into their own iMovie projects.  Here are a few for you to enjoy.

Tech: iMovie Trailers

This year I'm teaching a technology elective again...and I'm thrilled!  I love technology, and love how it fits into our mission at MRH Middle School, so the fact that I get to teach an entire class just focusing on that is amazing.

This past week in my technology class we spent time creating our own movie trailers about US using iMovie.  The requirements for this project were simple: use iMovie to create a movie trailer that represents you!  After we watched my movie trailer I made all about myself, the students set out to create their own.  A lot of the students busted out their laptop or cell phone's video camera at home or outside or even at volleyball practice to get some footage they could use for their trailer.  Overall, I'm thrilled with how all of these came out.  A couple students even made our class pet rat Marbles her own movie trailer!  You must check that out here.

Check out all of the students' trailers below!  Each one is amazingly unique and does an excellent job showcasing that student!  Enjoy!

Public Service Announcements

In "Technology as Culture" class, students have recently wrapped up a project where they created Public Service Announcements (PSAs) that fell into one of these 3 categories: food security, global status of women/girls, or wildlife habitat and how it related to the world's population at 7 billion.

The idea for this project came from the website World of 7 Billion in which they were hosting a video contest for high school students.  Although my students aren't in high school, I still loved the idea of creating a PSA about a world problem so we followed the rules of the contest and created PSAs anyways.  Plus, in communication arts, 7th graders are just starting a huge world problems research project, so this PSA project was a perfect segue into that.

Students used this doc as their guide for what their project must include, and then set out to research the topic they chose and create a PSA.  Students worked individually or in groups of 2, and created some really unique 30-45 second PSAs.  Each and every one of the PSAs they created was well-researched and did a great job of detailing about their category and how it relates to the world population at 7 billion.

Take a look at their PSAs below.  I'm sure you'll be as impressed as I was with these 7th graders' PSAs...enjoy!

Native American Movie Trailers

This is one of my favorite projects we do in social studies--every loop I look forward to what the students come up with for this project.

Students were tasked with creating a movie trailer over one of the big three Native American civilizations we study in 7th grade: the Maya, the Aztec, or the Inca.  We spent a lot of time going over the lengthy "details" of the project and the rubric before the students were grouped together (in groups of 2 or 3) to begin their research on their civilization.  Each group had eleven questions they were tasked with answering before they began creating their movie trailer.

Students had a little over a week after they got their research questions finished to storyboard and film their movie trailer.  Once again, I was so impressed with what these 7th graders produced!  First off, every single one of the groups had their trailers finished and ready to be shown and critiqued on the due date (that has never happened before!).  I was so proud of them, especially with the high-quality movie trailers they produced.

Here is a link to the playlist for all of the movie trailers: 2013 Native American Movie Trailers

Below are some of the highlights of the movie trailers.  Enjoy!!

Metrolink Expedition, Part 2

Here it is!  The follow-up post to our Metrolink Expedition.  Students spent about a week in either art or tech creating Metrolink pieces: students created a Metrolink route, using pictures taken from the expedition as well as created videos that compared and contrasted the two stations the groups stopped at.


For the art pieces, students created a collage. Each piece represents a community with a MetroLink station. They created the sky from magazine pieces and represented their stops through photos that they took during the expedition.  When each collage is complete, all of the individual art pieces are connected to create a “St. Louis Block,” modeled after the Harlem Renaissance artist Romare Bearden’s, “The Block.” We have also created our collage in his style of art.  QR Codes are added to each work of art to connect the video projects created by the tech (video) groups also comparing and contrasting communities. 


For the video pieces, students took the videos and pictures they took on the expedition and created a video that compared and contrasted the two stations the group stopped at.  Students used the 5 themes of geography (MR. LIP) to first identify the different movement, region, location, interaction, and place within each station, and then used it to compare and contrast the stations together.

All in all, I am soooooo impressed with the art and videos the students came up with!  Seriously, these 7th graders continue to amaze me with their creative skills.  Take a look below at a few of the art pieces (nicely QRed with their video project linked) and videos from the expedition.  Enjoy! ...and if you'd like to check out ALL of the videos, here's the link to the 2012 Metrolink Expedition Playlist.

Metrolink Videos:

Metrolink Art Pieces:

Tech Culture

This year I get to teach an amazing class called Technology as a Culture, or Tech Culture for short.  I'm super pumped about this for several reasons.  First, it's a class solely focused on how our culture is centered around technology--how cool is that?  And secondly, the big culminating project for the year is that the students are going to make a video to be entered in Cooperating School District's Show-Me a Movie Contest.  I'm super pumped about this because I'm always so blown away by what students can create when given a little creativity and iMovie.  Stand by for more updates throughout the semester with this project.

The first project we did this year in Tech was kind of a culmination of learning different Internet-based programs and applications on the computer to get the kids familiar with the different programs/applications we are going to be using this year.  The first thing the students had to do was a Google image search challenge.  They had to do a scavenger hunt-type activity using Google images to try and find these 15 images and make sure they met all of the requirements (see sheet below).

Once students found their 15 images, they then selected 8 to focus their short movie around.  Students then took their 8 images and created a storyboard that was going to detail the 8 scenes of their story.  They could create a completely outrageous fictional story, or a believable one--the only requirement was that they had to use only the 8 images they selected.

After their storyboards were complete, students set out to create their iMovie (after watching this great iMovie '11 Basics video and with some iMovie instruction and how-to from Mrs. Mooney :).  Their movies had to follow these simple guidelines:

Once again, I was amazed at what only 2 days and a limited amount of iMovie experience these kids came up with!  We spent a day in class watching the short movies (see below for some of the movies) and critiquing them using post-it notes (one post-it note per video with two comments on it: something you liked, and something that could have been improved upon).  All in all this turned out to be a great starter project and I look forward to bigger projects and more detailed videos these tech students are going to come up with!  Stay tuned!

Defining Moments

At the end of every year at MRHMS, 8th graders create "defining moment" videos using their narrative essay they wrote in communication arts as their narration.  Students spend the good part of two weeks in both social studies and comm. arts storyboarding, recording, collecting pictures and videos, creating animations and graphics, and putting it all together (in iMovie) to create their defining moment.

For anyone outside of MRH, you may be wondering what exactly is a "defining moment."  The students helped create this short video explaining just that.

Now that you know what a defining moment is, it is time to share some of the amazing, heartfelt, moving, and passionate defining moments these group of 8th graders created.

All year in social studies students have created videos and done projects showcasing history, but they have never gotten to showcase their history...until now.  These videos combine all of the "techie" qualities the kids have displayed throughout the year with their own story--their defining moment--that are truly moving and inspiring.

After you watch these, take a minute and thing about: what is your defining moment?  What point in time caused your life to change?

Bellefontaine Cemetery: A Mobile Device Civil War Expedition

Yesterday was our Bellefontaine Expedition that I had recently posted about.  After worrying about it for a while--worrying about if the iBooks would work, if the kids would be able to find the graves, if the iBooks were written easily and had appropriate cemetery tasks and easy to follow--the expedition was definitely a success!

First off, we had a gorgeous morning--it wasn't too hot or raining.  We separated the 8th graders into two groups to tackle the two clusters (hence the need for 2 iBooks) they took off in pairs to complete this mobile device scavenger hunt expedition.  This was my first expedition I've planned using solely mobile devices (iPods, iPhones, or other smartphones) as our only "journal"-type documentation (usually we give the kids a journal book and pen and paper...not this time!).  The students could use their own iPod touch, iPhone, or smartphone as long as it could do the following:

1. Take pictures and videos
2. Be able to open and read PDFs
3. Be able to get the pictures and videos off of your mobile device once we get back to school (meaning, if you're planning on using your smartphone, make sure you bring in your connector cable so you can upload your pics and videos to your computer)

We also had our 20 school iPod touches to use too for the kids that didn't have their own device.  Once we got to the cemetery the kids set off, using their iBook and mobile device, to locate as many of the 26 Civil War figures they could.

At each located gravestone the students had to perform a task based upon who was buried there and that person's legacy.  Sometimes it was taking a picture, other times it was reenacting a battle scene that person fought in.

After several hours at the cemetery, we headed back to school to complete the second half of this mobile device expedition.  All of the pictures and videos the students took would be used to create a movie detailing how Bellefontaine Cemetery is important to the legacy of the Civil War and the people buried there.  Students were given a set of instructions and set off the rest of the afternoon to create their video.  

In just two short hours, the students blew me away again!  They created some amazing informational videos detailing about Bellefontaine Cemetery and its connection with the Civil War.  Below are some of the videos the students created.

This really turned out to be a great expedition and really fun to both plan, prepare for, and for the kids to participate in.  I know they learned a lot about not only this cemetery but the people buried there...and I think these videos below showcase that very well.  Enjoy!

Dauphin Island Expedition Reflection Videos

Well, spring break is upon us at MRH, however, that didn't stop me from spending a good chunk of my weekend watching--and MARVELING!--over these 8th graders Dauphin reflection videos.  Countless of them I had to watch over and over again, because they were so moving and their message was so true to their hearts.  I honestly don't think words can express how proud I am of each and every one of these students and the excellent work they continue to produce and amaze me with time and time again.

I started their reflection videos off with showing them the one I made myself, and after giving a few guidelines/requirements, I let them be their own guide as to where their reflection video was going to navigate them.  Below are just some of the amazing videos each of the 8th graders made.  Once again, I'm speechless with what these kids can not only produce using technology, but the words and phrases they use from their hearts to get their message across.  Absolutely amazing.

C-SPAN Student Cam

Over the past several months, three groups of 8th grade social studies students have been working tirelessly and fearlessly on C-SPAN's 2012 StudentCam competition video project.  Their task was to create a video reflecting this year's theme:

After spending countless hours--both in and outside of the classroom--researching, interviewing, filming, and editing, the three groups have finally finished their projects and have submitted the to the contest.  They'll all be anxiously awaiting the March 7th announcement of the winners, but until then they can relish in the fact that all three groups created fabulously detailed and creative projects that highlight the contest's theme.

Once again, I'm amazed by what these students can produce!  It is just incredible as to what they can come up with and then create using their brains and a computer.  Check out all three group's videos below, and stay tuned to see if any of them are national winners!

Lewis & Clark Expedition Challenge

In social studies we've spent some time lately learning about Westward Expansion and groups who "paved the way" for the US's expansion into the west.  One of those groups was the Corps of Discovery, or most commonly known as the Lewis and Clark Expedition.

To conclude our journey with Lewis and Clark, students were issued a one-class period challenge: create a short movie detailing the Lewis and Clark expedition.  Students were able to pull information from the National Geographic Lewis and Clark Expedition website, from the readings and storyboard activity we did in class, as well as information they gathered from the Lewis and Clark video clip they watched earlier in the week.

The students were given 6 simple rules that their video MUST follow.  These rules were:

1. Must use iMovie
2. Must use the images from the folder Ms. Pepin sent you (you don’t have to use ALL of the images)
3. CANNOT use any other images/videos other than what’s given to you!!!
4. Must give a detailed description of the Lewis and Clark expedition (you decide how you are going to creatively get this description across in your movie)
5. Must have music
6. Must finish BEFORE the end of class--export and submitted to the dropbox!

Once again, I was amazed with what my students were able to produce in just 45 minutes or less!  Although they only had less than an hour to do this, I was so impressed with what they came up with, and it really showcased a culmination of what they've learned about Westward Expansion and the Lewis and Clark Expedition.

Below you can view some of the submitted videos students came up with.  Again, these were created in less than an hour...they're not "polished," or what they'd be if the students had more time to work on them, but I think it is a great example of the excellent work students are capable of producing in a limited amount of time.  Super impressive! :)