Day 4 – New Tools

Today was about learning new technologies. First, the software order came in. This meant a quick discussion on how to best use InspireData and ComicLife within the project. Next, we discussed using a free online tool (Dropbox) to foster file sharing. Teachers were invited into Dropbox. Ms. Moran created a handout to help use this tool. Teachers can post student work into a shared Dropbox so that the fifth grade can upload it to the website. Finally, the  Adobe CS5 was installed into four fifth-grade machines. This was a more complicated process than originally believed, but finally we were successful!

Individually, each class is moving along well. Here is a brief summary, by grade:

• First – Students began working on their storyboards. We discussed the idea of a storyboard. Then we created sentence starters such as “Our favorite part of the book was__________” and “One interesting fact we learned was _________.” Students used these to help them plan out their storyboards. Next week we will create and find graphics to go with our storyboards.
• Second – Second graders interviewed their first author, which was very exciting. Afterwards, we went back to Pages to continue working on our webpage design. We discussed layering, shadows, text size and alignment. We also created a placeholder for our movies. Ms. Newman will help students put their finished products into Dropbox.
• Third – Students from both classes worked cooperatively to edit and finish their scripts. We practiced reading the scripts aloud to make sure the sentences sounded good. We also created prop lists, costume lists, and suggested background and sound effects to help us with filming. Ms. Moran showed Ms. Kubinyi how to use PhotoBooth. She will turn key this with her students during the week. Ms. Moran showed Ms. Schembri and several students how to “green screen.”
• Fourth – We continued working with Garage Band. Now that we have the newer computers, with the upgraded software, we needed to review some of the steps for recording and editing voices. We also practiced reading scripts with dramatic voice. Students need to finish recordings and to collect images for their podcasts (1 image for every 5 seconds of audio). We discussed file management to keep all images in one place. Students can use photos, images from the Internet, and/or draw images.
• Fifth – Ms. Heinz and Ms. Moran reviewed Adobe CS5 to determine how best to use these new tools to create the website.  Ms. Moran needs to make a simple handout to help students go through the steps of taking a pages document, importing it as an image into a web page, adding layers to put video and multimedia onto the page, and create hot spots for links. In addition, students will be using Garage Band for their next (second) book review. This is a new technology for them. We discussed how it will be introduced and used.

 There is still much to do, but we are really making wonderful progress. Everyone is working so hard and the third and fifth graders are taking their role of mentors very seriously.