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I'm conducting a month long blitz on using various forms of animation with my dozen or so classes. Part of my teaching assignment is to introduce new ways to "show what you know". And from my days 5 years ago taking photographs with a tripod and using Windows Movie Maker to try to animate the photos we have come a long way since then.  I continue to find this type of storytelling interesting, innovative and a very good way to motivate students. I have collected a number of resources along the way and tried to find ways to bring animation closer to the students. In the photo above, you'll see my 6 year old Mac Mini, a 5 year old school owned Canon Mini DV camera and a school owned monitor. I used this set-up this week as a demonstration animation station. I have it on a metal cart on wheels which allows me to move from classroom to classroom. National Film Board - Canada (NFB) Resources StopMo - Great site. 18 minute segmented step-by-step process for animation. Includes a detailed series of lesson plans which can be adapted to different grade levels. Software We're very fortunate to have an agreement with Tech4Learning to have Frames animation software installed on each academic image among publicly funded schools in Ontario. Mobile Animation Apps. for iOS For iPhone and iPod Touch I have had success with (free) LEGO® Super Heroes Movie Maker And just last week a student in grade 8 showed me a terrific app. for iPhone and iPod Touch called iMotion HD. Unlike the LEGO® app., which saves to the Camera Roll, iMotion HD does not save unless you purchase the full version for $1.99. We also use the animation instructional videos included with NFB's free (in Canada) PixStop Animation App. for iOS.  Three short tutorial films are included with the app. and are very good: "Three Principles of Animation",  "Flipbook" , and "Storyboarding". Steps in the Process I encouraged students to keep a few things in mind when creating their animations: a) Create a 3 panel storyboard which shows: beginning, middle, and end. b) Write next to your sketch the Action Sequence in each panel. b) Select no more than 3 characters to be the 'talent' in the animation. c) Tell your story in 10 seconds or less. d) Decide ahead of time whether you'll be creating your animation as a Pixilation with classmates, with toy characters, or with clay. Note: There are other animation options but these are three good ones with which to start. Teacher Created Resources: York Region teacher Dan Grant uses animation in his junior classroom and penned an article a while back for ETFO's Voice magazine on Stop Motion in the classroom. The best collection of templates and instructional videos around is by teacher Kevin Hodgson. His animation website is terrific. Update: This week we started storyboarding and creating backgrounds. A trip to No-Frills was necessary. Came back with about 40 cardboard boxes!

Animation Storytelling

As an antidote to Black Friday, which follows the American Thanksgiving, Storycorps.org is suggesting that Friday November 27th, 2009 be a "National Day of Listening". Here are a couple of guides if you decide this event would be a worthwhile part of your life: 1. Educator's Guide 2. Community Guide And here is a more kids friendly guide on how to record stories.

National Day of Listening - Friday November 27th

Our local Canadian Forces Base Anniversary Celebration was this past weekend. This story is one of about 8 stories from a group of students I worked with this year in a 4th and 5th grade class. I was contacted by a teacher who thought that adding original digital stills and voiceover narration to the speeches her students were writing would add to the experience. Boy, did it ever! I had the parents of these students tell me what an exciting time their children had creating their "digital speeches". In this story, the student describes a scene in the Arctic. He didn't have to search creative commons for the photos. His dad was the pilot of the plane and provided the photos from one of his search and rescue missions. As the student and I were finishing the story, his dad happened to stop by the school. We showed him the story. A very powerful and engaging 2 minutes of listening and watching followed. The look on the dad's face told it all. Patrick Lowenthal's research on Digital Storytelling in the classroom, on page 252, Chapter 18 of "Story Circle, Digital Storytellling Around the world" supports this "digital speeches" project. Here is what he found: Amplify Students' Voice "Perhaps one of the greatest benefits is digital storytelling's ability to reach the many "unheard and unseen students" in our classrooms (Bull and Kajder 2004). Storytelling gives students voice (Burk 2000). However, digital storytelling can give students voice "in ways that are not possible without the technology" (Hofer and Swan 2006: 680) because it can amplify a students voice. Further, it can help give voice to struggling readers and writers. (Bull and Kajder 2004)

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Animation Storytelling

National Day of Listening - Friday November 27th

Search and Rescue - A Digital Speech