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!

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!!