Creating my own desktop movie on Movie Maker

   So I knew this project would take awhile. First I had to come up with a topic. That's always the hardest part for me. Since I'm not a teacher yet, I don't have a lot of experience to draw upon. So I took my daughter's 9th grade physical science book (since I'm going to be a high school science teacher) and started looking. I liked the information on the Introduction to Waves unit.

   No problem - I thought - I found some video of when we went to the beach, gathered some pictures and started putting them together on Movie Maker 2.6 which I had just loaded onto my computer. I had grand ideas but soon realized my video camera skills are lacking. So I took what I could and began my storyboard.

   Well, my computer is 6 years old but has a new operating system and all the updates, but somehow Movie Maker 2.6 wasn't very happy. It would randomly freeze up on me. So much, that I got to the point that I would save my work after every little change I made. So amidst many reboots, I figured out the narration and how to get the microphone to work. I wasn't too happy about my finished project - mostly because in my mind I had envisioned something grand and as a beginner I just couldn't pull it off with limited time and my lack of expertise. But I figure it's not too bad for my first ever desktop movie.

The next challenge was to build the movie - no problem right? The movie came out with a green line across the bottom and greenish color all over.Great! So we (my husband who has much more patience that I do with computers - and works with them for a living) downloaded a fix for it. That didn't work either. Luckily we have other computers in the house. So, next he tried it on his computer but MovieMaker really hosed up stuff on that computer. Next we invaded my daughter's room and used her newer computer - only 2 years old - I think. Since all our computers are on a network we were able to access all my work and build it on her computer. Yay! It worked! So after a frustrating week of making this video I do not feel encouraged to do this again anytime soon!

Here's my desktop movie - An Introduction to Waves. 

Inspiration Graphic Organization

Wow, I can't believe a whole month has gone by since my first post. Well Instructional Technology class has been keeping me busy. Since creating the newsletter I have created a concept map using Inspiration. A free graphic design program that I downloaded to my computer. I also created a hypermedia power point program that can be used as a review game and I learned about Google Docs and created a spreadsheet through that program.

I'll focus on the Inspiration assignment this time. I was already for using graphic organizers in teaching science. I think it is so much easier to remember concepts when they are presented visually and you can see the relationship between items. The inspiration program made it easy to create a concept map. The hardest part of the assignment was deciding what topic to do and how to arrange it!

The things I liked about the program

• ability to move graphics around, even whole sections at a time while connected with links
• easy to insert pictures
• easy to insert hyperlinks
• ability to color code sections
• plenty of work space
• free!
• easy enough for students to use
• Inspiration/Kidspiration websites had plenty of examples

I would recommend using Inspiration or Kidspiration to create concept maps for your classroom. I would also recommend that students try to create one themselves. It is fun!