Appy Hour with YAKiT Kids!

Its Friday! Let’s break out a new App for “Appy Hour!”

Today, I got to hang out in Mrs. Short’s class at Echo Lake Elementary. Her class has been learning about what makes day and night and information about the sun. I was originally going to do the same Keynote Movie Activity I did with some Carver Elementary 1st graders a few weeks back, but I learned about this fun app from Alfonso Favale called YAKiT Kids that I just had to try.

YAKit Kids is an app that allows you to make any photo “talk.” You can take a new picture from within the app, or you can choose a picture you already have in your Photos. After taking or choosing your picture, you can add a mouth movement and extra items to the scene. You can even add additional characters to the scene to have a quick conversation. The only hang up I have with the program is that you can only record for 15 seconds, but this also can be good to have students be concise with the information they are going to record. My favorite part about this app is that it will automatically save your final video to your Photos. With many restrictions on the classroom iPads in place, this makes it extremely easy to upload the finished products to your computer using the Dropbox App–you would obviously need to make a Dropbox Account to complete this part.

Mrs. Short’s students had a blast making their videos today! I decided it would be more fun to have the sun explain a little about Day and Night since you can use the cartoon extras within the app to bring any object to life. Here is the quick example I showed the class and two great examples from the students! I can’t wait to use this app with more classes for other projects!

Talking Simple Machines

Over the past few weeks, I have been teaching students and teachers how to use Photobooth, Keynote, and Pixie to made “Talking Heads” of Famous Americans and Explorers. We have moved on from having only people talk, and now we are making inanimate objects come to life. The third graders at Seven Pines Elementary are learning about Simple Machines, so we decided to make the machines come to life to tell us about what kind of simple machine they are. The students have had a blast writing their scripts and recording themselves in Photobooth. Recording your voice is one thing, but being able to watch yourself while recording has really motivated students to want to write better scripts. This was the first time these students had done this project, so their scripts were a little short for my liking, but it was great hearing students telling each other, “I am going to add more to my script for my next one to make him an better expert.” I can’t wait to see what these kids come up with in the coming weeks.

Here is the example I showed the students:

Here is Isabella’s first Simple Machine video she made:

Robby did an awesome job on his!

Blabberize = #Fail – New Idea Emerges

I am a big Blabberize.com fan. I love it’s possibilities that allow users to make stagnant pictures “talk.” I love the fact that it is the student’s own voice that goes along with the project. I love idea of making inanimate objects “talk” and review content. All that being said, it is just not a reliable resource with our district’s network. I honestly don’t think it is totally our network’s fault. I think Blabberize.com itself is simply intermittent at best. In education, an intermittent resource is definitely not something you want to roll out to your students knowing there is a good chance it will fail by no fault of your own.

In steps a fun work around. I ran across this last May, but I didn’t pursue the project fully. I’m not sure who figured out all the details, but now that I am turning my back on Blabberize, I am fully endorsing this great idea!

Using Pixie, Photo Booth, and Keynote, students can become whatever person or object they want. Here are the quick basics:
1. Import a picture into Pixie.
2. Using the eraser tool, erase the mouth of the person or a place for a mouth with an object.
3. Export the picture as a .png file.
4. Using Photo Booth, students record themselves reading a script or interview keeping their face as still as possible during the recording.
5. Drag the movie and saved image (with erased mouth) onto a blank Keynote slide.
6. Line up the picture with erased mouth on top of the movie so that the student’s mouth shows through the open mouth.
7. Play slideshow, and BAM, your student is now a person from the past

This is a little more annoying than using Blabberize, but after playing with the program and doing the lesson with 1st graders yesterday, I am convinced they have more fun with this process rather than Blabberize. Here are two examples. This first is a fun example interview with Christopher Columbus I did with Alfonso Favale, a fellow ITRT, and the second is an example from a student in Mrs. Spence’s first grade class at Three Chopt Elementary. Enjoy!

Blabberize – My New Favorite

I am in love with a new (to me) program. Blabberize.com has been around since 2010, but I have never taken the time to learn it. After seeing the motivation it caused my students to want to complete their work, I am sold. Blabberize is a creative website that allows the user to bring pictures to “life.” Using a microphone, telephone, or pre-recorded sound file, you can manipulate a picture to “speak” in it’s own point of view. This could be used for making Famous Americans speak about how life was, or students could “interview” them. Blabberize could also be used to make inanimate objects “talk” and explain why they are important. I got this idea from Sarah Schmoyer, a Henrico County ITRT. I can’t wait to add this to my list of go-to programs to keep the students excited about learning. I found this quick How-To You Tube Video that helps walk you through the steps.

This afternoon, I simply showed off the Blabberize Website to my students to get them excited about using the program on Friday. I quickly let them know that they would have to write scripts to read before getting online. The last 10 minutes of class, the class fell silent with focus to write their scripts. We ran out of time before we could pull out the computers to start. Pranav took it upon himself to finish his script at home and taught himself how to use Blabberize on his home computer. Check out his work! Great Job!

http://blabberize.com/swf/blabberembedp.swf

Ancient Rome Blabberize

The country of Italy stopped by our blog to tell us a little about The Ancient Roman Empire! Can’t wait to have the students make these tomorrow!

http://blabberize.com/swf/blabberembedp.swf