Group items tagged

"December is one of the most exhausting months of the year for teachers. The days are shorter. The weather grows colder and (at least here in Oregon) wetter. Students are anxious - whether it's a buzzing excitement for vacation or a sense of dread that some kids feel in homes that are unsafe during the holidays. And teachers are tired. They're tired of redirecting behaviors and tired of the mid-year pressure of the test and simply tired of the sheer energy it takes to be a teacher. It's no wonder that so many teachers begin playing holiday movies around this time of year. They want to create a sense of fun and escape and enjoyment, and a motion picture promises exactly that. Maybe that's okay. Maybe that's a part of creating a culture of joy. But for me, movies always fell flat. For my first few years, I showed a movie the day before the winter break. However, within minutes, kids were disengaged. They were passive. It wasn't special. My students could go home and watch a movie whenever they felt like it. It had me wondering . . . was there something that they could do in my class that they couldn't do anywhere else? Was this actually the chance to do something epic and make something memorable?"

"Students in Cathy Hunt's art classes are constantly blurring the lines between physically created art and digital creations. In one project, students created fish out of clay using old pinch-potting techniques. But the project didn't stop there. They then took photos of their creations and used digital tools to paint on the photos, adding color and design without fear that an unknown glaze would ruin their vision. Once they designed their fish, they developed a storyline featuring their creations for a stop motion animation created by the whole group. When the project was completed students had artfully blended the physical world with the digital one, using the best of both, and creating a finished product that can be put online and shared with the world. The impact of that project goes far beyond a shelf full of clay fish."

"Innovate is a verb. It's easy to talk about, far harder to do.  Yet, it's the DOING that matters most.  The daily grind in the details of the ebb and flow of progress forward, bit by bit. It's in the tiny microscopic changes we make that are often hard to detect until we zoom out, after a bit of time, and see the forward motion.   There is this panic of "Oh my gosh every school needs a makerspace" when our schools are FILLED with the resources we have to make.  Inside our kids and each other.  When we move, things happen."

"A small study, carried out by Michelle Riconscente, an assistant professor of education at the University of Southern California, offers some promising results, even with the necessary caveat that it was funded by the Motion Math app with a grant from the Noyce Foundation."

Where are our partnerships with tech companies in service of education? Our Literacy with ICT curriculum pales in comparison to these endevours initiated by the Singapore government. Where is our leadership to set wheels in motion to develop these partnerships and join the 21st century?

"Some of the animation links catalogued here will give educators very basic tools and histories of animation while others have the animation already created and set in motion, it's just a matter of sharing it with students. Educators need to decide which tool is best for them. If you want to create your own animation from scratch, then you want to go to sites such as Animwork. If you want to select from animation that's already set up for you then perhaps Explainia makes more sense."

"Jackie Myers, the 4th and 5th grade art teacher at Independence Elementary School in Yukon, Oklahoma, explains how to create a functional iPad stand using a cardboard box, duct tape, and a box cutter. Jackie used cardboard iPad stands like these with her students in April 2014 on a stopmotion video project. View examples of student work on: http://iesart.posthaven.com. Students used the free "Stop Motion Cafe" iPad app for their projects."

"A bit of software for Windows and Mac computers. Create stop-motion movies from webcam snap shots. Add an mp3 soundtrack. Export as a .flv video for upload to YouTube. Watch the terrible video I made to see how it works."

"Simply put, the key to increasing creativity in any organization is to make it start acting like a creative organization. Suppose you wanted to be an artist: You would begin behaving like an artist by painting every day. You may not become another Vincent Van Gogh, but you'll become much more of an artist than someone who has never tried. Similarly, you and your organization will become more creative if you start going through the motions and acting the part. The following are 24 suggestions to encourage you and your colleagues to jump start creativity in your group."

"Join young inventors and artists from around the world on Google+ to make awesome projects, go on epic virtual "field trips," and meet the world's coolest makers. Maker Camp inspires kids ages 13-18* to embrace their inner maker, get their hands dirty, fix some things, break some things, and have a lot of fun doing it. Week 1: Makers in Motion Week 2: Art and Design Week 3: Fun and Games Week 4: Science and Technology Week 5: DIY Music Week 6: Make: Believe"

"Gamification is a powerful way to engage students in the science and math classroom. The Universe and More, a nonprofit company founded by a high school teacher, has released a new game called Action Graphing. This iPad app helps students understand key concepts related to graphing.  Students will learn how to analyze and interpret graphs to model the motion of real objects.  They'll see how the slope of the line represents an object's velocity and the y-intercept of the line represents the object's position."

"Cardboard Automata are a playful way to explore simple mechanical elements such as cams, levers, and linkages, while creating a moving sculpture. This activity is easy to start but may become more and more complex as you become familiar with possible motions and imagine ways to artistically decorate your contraption. Cardboard automata use levers, cams, cam followers, linkages, and other mechanisms to make unique personalized creations."

"As a science teacher, this is the best project I do all year.  I have yet to come across a project where students are more engaged.  They want to come after school to work on it, they ask to take the project home to work over the weekend, students are shocked when the class period has come to an end, and they all want to skip their next class to continue working. The purpose of this project is to reinforce Newton's Laws of Motion through roller coaster physics.  The objective is to have a marble take the GREATEST amount of time to get from the top of the first hill to where the coaster ends.  This instructable has also been submitted into the paper contest.  I know the competition is fierce so please vote for me!"

Livebrush is a drawing application. It employs an easy-to-use brush tool that reacts to your gesture. By combining simple motion controls with brush styles, Livebrush offers a fun and unique way to create graphics.

"How to create their own animations using stop motion video techniques"