An interesting tool I’ve begun playing with recently is a free download from Microsoft called PhotoStory 3.  The program allows the user to import digital pictures, do some simple editing, add effects, text, transitions and sounds, and the save the whole project in a Windows Movie Format (.wmv) video.  Here is a little holiday movie I made with pictures of ornaments on our family Christmas trees.  christmas-2008 The total time for this project including taking the photos was about 20 minutes.

I used this program with fourth graders to have them make individualized projects using the same initial photos.  For one project, the teacher allowed each student to take one digital picture while they were on their field trip to an apple orchard.  We then had all the students import the same pictures and they individualized their projects by creating their own effects, motions, text and music to make a memory movie of their 4th grade fieldtrip.  We’ll burn these to a cd for each child.

Another fourth grade project involved using the PhotoStory 3 software to create a story out of “planned photos” that the class created.  They decided what type of spooky/creepy pictures to pose for, brought props that included many of their Halloween costumes, and their teacher took the digital pictures with each child being the subject of at least one picture.  The students each imported these same pictures, but created their own storyline and ordered the pictures in a way that made sense to their story.  They also added text, motion and background music.

Another project idea I have for this tool that has not been implemented yet, is to have students create a promotional movie for a book they’ve read.  Pictures could be scanned from the book or students can create drawings in Paint or KidPix to insert as images.  There is even a voice recording feature where students can plan their own audio script and record themselves telling what they liked about the book, a summary or an exciting “hook” to get someone else to read the book.  The end result (in my mind, anway) would be similar to the old PBS program, Reading Rainbow, where just enough of the book’s storyline is shared to make you want to rush to the library to check it out and see how the story ends!

Older students could use this program to “harvest” images from the internet (giving proper credit, of course, for where their images came from) to create a video project with a theme that supports the social studies or science curriculum.  They could even do this is fine arts classes as projects to promote specific musicians, artists, genres, or time periods.

Now remember this is a free product, so it isn’t going to give you all the bells and whistles of a full-blown video editing suite.  It does NOT conveniently burn the movie into a DVD format that will play on a tv, but the .wmv format does play back on your computer and can be sent as email attachments to far away relatives.  Download PhotoStory 3 and try it out yourself!

Our school district has been using G-Mail organizational email for about a year now.  The program has a calendar feature that I’ve been using to keep my professional calendar as well.  A great thing about it is that I can access it from any computer I’m logged in on.  Considering the fact that I support staff in four different buildings and I also work occasionally from home, that is a great benefit.  (I have found a few weeknesses to the Google Calendar after using a Palm and also Outlook’s calendar, but I was committed to finding out how Google’s calendar worked, so I jumped in and I’m using it right now!)

This week’s tech tip is to learn to use Google Calendar feature and then SHARE your classroom calendar with colleagues with whom you share students.  For example, let’s say a middle school teacher has his lesson plans done for the next month and knows that there will be a test in two weeks on Wednesday.  He can put the details of the lesson plans (due dates, guest speakers, test days, ect.) into a special calendar (you can have as many as you’d like) just for that course.  The calendar can then be “shared” with whomever the teacher wishes.  One of his colleagues can check that shared calendar as she is doing her lesson plans and see that her students already have a major test scheduled on Wednesday in two weeks, so she decides to make the due date of her book report three days later, allowing the kids to put their best efforts into both her book report and her colleague’s test.

I think it would be extremely valuable to have a team of teachers all sharing their calendars with one another so that they don’t “overload” students with big tests, major projects, etc. all at the same time.  Teachers could also share the course calendars with students as well.  (For this to work, the students would have to have a Google Calendar account, but this could offer lots of other valuable uses of the tool as well. )  I know of a high school vocal music teacher who creates a performance calendar and shares it with her chorus members so they always have access to an updated performance calendar for the course.  If you use G-Mail for personal email or organizational email, look for the link in the upper left-hand corner of your screen to the Google Calendar and experiment with it.  Learn to use the tool and see if it would be a beneft for your particular teaching assignment!

As a teacher, your time is precious!  A great way to make the most of your computer usage time is to find a great list serve and subscribe to it.  A list serve brings the information right  to your email inbox.  You can scan it at your convenience and then even archive the message in your email program to refer back to at a later date.  Finding appropriate list serves is a little tricky, but one great site that has several that I think are valuabe is the web resource, Education World.  This is a great site for topic- and grade-specific lesson plan ideas, as well as tips on technology use, classroom managment, and lots of printable resources.  They also review other web resources and even have current events for kids that are great for elementary level.  The main navigation links include:  Lesson Planning, Administrator’s Desk, Technology Integration, Professional Develoment and School Issues.  This site offers several different weekly listserves that you can subscribe to.  Click on this link and you’ll be taken to their page that lists the various topic and has the sign up information.

Even if Education World is not the listserve that you think would be valuable for your particular teaching assignment, consider subscribing to another list that sounds more appealing.   This can be a powerful professional development tool for busy teachers!  If you’re not making use of listserves, take an afternoon to explore the idea and see what happens.  Do an Internet search on the phrase “educational listserves” and explore the results you get!