Back on Board
Patty had attended a class on flipping the day before, and was eager to learn more from the same presenters (Sam Patterson and Cheryl Morris). I have been intrigued by flipping the classroom, but more as supplemental and review instruction rather than replacing classroom instruction. I also find it easier to implement any new ideas when you have a friend trudging through the trenches with you. My interest was also piqued because I knew Sam had brought his puppets to share. (Observation: it's easier for some people to use puppets if they are camera shy. 6th graders tend to go either extreme-camera hogger or camera hider.)
I love presenters who talk, demonstrate, and then let participants create. I chose something basic, The Preposition Song, so that I wouldn't have to worry about content creation. With puppets literally in hand, Patty and I giggled our way through our impromptu skit in front of a green screen. Content created, now what?!
Camtastic Camtasia.
After uploading the content from my iPad to my MacBookPro, I began to play with Camtasia. Some parts of the program were familiar to me, the reminded me a bit of iMovie. Other parts reminded me of interpreting my 2 year old son's garbles. Thankfully, I had my very own Genius Bar consisting of Cheryl and Sam-this preventing me from becoming frustrated when I hit a few walls.
And then my a-ha moment (called "Holy Buckets" at our house)...if the purpose of the video was to help students remember the Preposition Song, then I needed to include the prepositions in the video while the song was being sung. I tried to do something similar to the "follow the bouncing ball" visual, but I couldn't figure out the how. Thankfully, Sam found a Camtasia tutorial about adding captions to the video. I will admit, this part was time-consuming. I think I spent over an hour adding captions to one minute of video in order for the captions (prepositions) to appear at the same time the word (preposition) was being sung by the puppet. Phew!
Ultimately, we decided just one session wasn't long enough, so Patty & I stayed for one more.
Although the video isn't perfect, I think for a first try it was pretty good. The lighting on board made it difficult to use the green screen effect tips that we use in my classroom (three point lighting, wrinkle-free background, proximity to the green background, etc). Via Twitter, I conversed with Sam and Cheryl how much time good lighting can save in the long run.
Our production:
Our production:
iMovie, Camtasia, and After Effects
During the final few minutes of the session, I asked Patty to film me one more time with Tina singing the Helping Verb Song. Again, the skit ended in giggles as Tina continued to shed during the final moments of filming. Tina's footage sat on my iPad for a bit as my summer got busier. I'm glad that I waited because then I had time to think about what I could do with Tina's footage. I threw out the idea of comparing iMovie, Camtasia, and After Effects to see how the quality of the green screen would compare. (After Effects is out of my league, but Cheryl is an expert. I asked her if she was willing to try. From what I gather, she had to go frame by frame and move the framing dots alongside Tina as she moved. Even this was a minute of footage-it took several hours for Cheryl to complete. The quality of the green screen effect was the best of all three, but at the cost of time).
But the results will have to wait for another time.
