This was the first Media Smart workshop I attended. This workshop was before I even started taking classes to get my masters as a Library Media Specialist and I was a first grade classroom teacher. My friend, Kristin Polseno mentioned it to me and I thought why not try it out! I was so glad that I did!
The presenter was informative, supportive and an amazing overall presenter. I remember being so excited to go back to school the next day and try this out with my students. We had four iPads in our classroom along with a SMART Board so I was able to recreate what my group had created the night before in the Johnston library and project it on the board for the class to see. My students shared in my excitement and we spent the morning brainstorming what we wanted to create and how to implement these ideas.
Since we had been working on the silent E (“the silent e at the end of the word makes the a say A!”) we quickly decided to teach others about the silent E through a stop motion animation video. In small groups, students decided on words that follow the silent E rule and then began searching for examples of the words through old magazines we had, tools in the classroom, and their own drawings. They had to collaborate on who would take the pictures, who would adjust the props, the order in which it would all take place and how to adjust the pictures to make it look right.
This is their explanation of the silent e… “Super E”
A few other students made different videos, however, at the end of each year we have to pass in our iPads and delete all of the contents. I thought, no problem! I will be able to sign back in and retrieve our work when necessary to show future classes. Yet, when I went back to find the app I had used, I had difficulty. The app I found is different than the original one and it didn’t have me sign in so I can not find the previous videos we created. I was lucky to have found this one since I had used it on this blog in the very first LMS class I had taken. Lesson learned, SAVE ALL DOCUMENTATION!
On a separate note, this project took quite awhile between explaining it, developing our ideas, and creating our presentation. I do realize that our presenter had mentioned that 1st grade was a bit young for this type of activity but I do feel as though it would take an extended amount of time even with older students. As a classroom teacher I was able to pull this time out of different areas of my day and extend it since I was with the same students each day. As a librarian with fixed 30 minute blocks and 2 iPads to share between 26 students, this task seems more daunting. I have taken into account the fact that I am a new librarian and I am sure it is possible, yet at this time it does seem challenging.
As a librarian, I see implementing this type of activity into a before/after school club or a lunch bunch with a small group of students and or teachers who could then pass this knowledge on to others. Since signing up for the Media Smart Cohort, my plan has been to use the technology grant to request iPads for the two libraries I work in. This type of app and its endless possibilities are one of the main reasons I want to request more iPads. There are so many ways to utilize stop motion and in its basic form, it actually reminds me of the basis of coding. Stop motion is the foundation of animation just as coding is the foundation for computer programming. So although it feels as though this type of creation is new age, it also reminds us of the roots of where and how animation begins!