Green Screens in the Classroom

We all know what green screens are. The sheet type material that movie makers use to make backgrounds become something else. Why, am I writing about green screens? How are they beneficial in the classroom? Crazy, I know. But, when one of my friends did a presentation on green screens in the classroom, the information she provided shocked me. 

Using green screens in the classroom provides opportunities for many learning benefits, despite the almost unbelievable relevance of the topic. Students gain a deeper understanding of learning topics, what they have been studying, by using images, sound, and text that communicate their thinking and leraning to an audience. Not only are green screens used for basic storytelling, they are used to place students in an immersive experience in which they are the ones telling the story. 

Students are rarely told that they will be using a green screen in class for a project. Why not make this happen more often? Instead of giving a report on the importance of the declaration of independence, why not have the students assume the roles of our founding fathers and act out the actual signing? Incorporate a green screen by adding a background picture from 1776, and it gives the students the opportunity to see what things were like back then. This would be much better than a report or a written test, in my opinion. 

Some tips for using green screens:

Decide your background and plan accordingly. It is important to remember the purpose of the project, and not to get lost in the "coolness" of it all. Set up a place where you can have even lighting. Shadows distort the picture, and therefore defeat the purpose. Keep cameras still while shooting. Set the camera up on an even surface so that there will be no shaking. 

What have I learned? How will this benefit me as a teacher?

Green screens are actually wonderful tools to allow students to express their learning in a different context. By using green screens, students can tell a story, integrate learning across subjects, and most of all, be engaged in learning through an out-of-text experience. I would love to use this in my classroom one day. It could help me convey a difficult topic through visual methods other than just pictures and video. Green screens could be used for more than what you think!

The following pictures are examples of green screens in the classroom. The first picture is an example of students giving a weather report for the class to watch. This is how learning can be integrated across disciplines! The second picture is a good example of immersing students into a historical era by using a green screen. Students can even dress in costume to match the occasion! 

The following video is an example of students using green screens in the classroom. Overall, green screens are a fun and engaging way to express learning. The possibilities are endless!

https://youtu.be/c1npkEoEtos 

Reflection Blogs-Autism and the iPad

Hi again! I will be posting a series of reflection blogs for my 21st Century Teaching and Learning class. All of the presentations done by my classmates were amazing! However, I will only be sharing a few.

The first presentation I want to reflect on is called "iPads and Autism." It has been proven that iPads are an extremely helpful and calming tool to use with individuals who have autism, especially in the classroom setting, where it can sometimes be stressful for these individuals. iPads are portable, use a direct touchscreen, are a digital parallel to books, organized and predictable, help break learning down, and encourage independent learning. Amidst all of these wonderful benefits, iPads are also wonderful communication tools, whether you use them to share social stories (autistic students sometimes struggle with social concepts. A simple social story could be, "Learning how to be kind to others.") or whether you use them to help students who are non-verbal to have a full-on conversation with you. 
iPads have apps that allow non-verbal children to press a button to make a request, communicate developmentally appropriate words and phrases, and even learn how to get used to a routine during the school day. Autistic students need structure at the core of learning, and iPads easily provide that for them. Some apps that you can use to aid your autistic students are Brain Parade and Floreo. Both of these apps have the communication techniques in their programming as described, and are very dedicated to progress among the autistic community. As you can see, iPads are becoming a necessary tool for people with autism or other disabilities. This technology allows students to achieve much more than what they are being limited to with their disability. 

How will this help me as a teacher? What have I learned? How has this changed my thinking?
I will tell you, I used to hate the idea of using technology in the classroom. I am very old school, and I used to believe that it was a hindrance to have to include technology in my lessons. However, now that I have seen how much it can help our students and allow them to grow and learn and even flourish, my mind is changed completely. I plan to use technology in my classroom now, not as a crutch, but as an integral part of learning. I plan to allow students to choose whether or not they want to use technology to complete assignments, and to explore other types of tech that can be helpful to my students with disabilities. I can't wait to see what the future holds!

The following two pictures are examples of what apps for autistic students look like on an iPad. The first picture is of simple commands that can be used by non-verbal students. They press a button, and the command is voiced through the speakers of the iPad. The second picture is an example of a visual schedule for an autistic student. This visual schedule provides structure for the student and helps them not be anxious when a classroom change is happening. 

This video showcases how important iPads are for autistic students. It gives great insight to the struggles that these students face daily, and how the iPad can help. 

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=I7Tiyr-FEwc

STEAM Emaze

Here is the link to my STEAM Lesson Emaze!

https://www.emaze.com/@AOCRZZCCF/steam-lesson

iPads for Teaching and Learning

Here is a link to my newsletter on SMORE about using iPads in the classroom for teaching and learning!

https://www.smore.com/u98kp

21st Century Teaching and Learning

STEAM Lesson

My favorite lesson...the STEAM Lesson! This lesson was SO much fun, and my students loved being able to show their creativity. In my steam lesson, we read the story, The Lorax by Dr. Seuss, and built our own truffula trees! We began with a prediction chart, and all the kids were able to predict how many "blocks tall" their truffula tree would be. 

Next, my students predicted even further what their truffula tree would look like by drawing a picture. All the creativity and imagination that shined through their drawings was amazingly unique! I even kept a few ;)

Finally, we built our truffula trees out of math blocks and put fuzz balls at the top! I was amazed at how tall some of the kids got their truffula tree to stand. They were very determined! For assessment, I used a digital storytelling app that recorded the kids' voices telling the story of how they built their truffula tree and why we should take care of trees/how trees help the environment. It was a wonderful learning experience for them, and for me. Dr. Seuss is one of my favorite authors, so it was refreshing to reread a story from my childhood, and introduce it to a new generation in a way that they understood the central theme of the story while having fun and using their math/engineering skills!

Math Lesson

For my math lesson this semester, I focused on the relationship between numbers and cardinality (the ability to recognize that the number 5 can be represented by 5 objects {blocks, turkeys, etc.}) Before I began my lesson, I read the book "10 Fat Turkeys" and played the video "5 Little Turkeys." Reading the book and showing the video allowed my students to start associating the numbers we count with to actual objects, or in this case, turkeys. 




Next, we moved to stations. I set out several turkeys with a number on the belly. The students had to read the number and count out how many "feathers" they had to put on their turkey. I used clothespins for feathers to incorporate some physical movement, and also to make this station activity seem like a fun game! 

After that, I brought out my sensory bin full of fuzz balls. I used water bottles that had feathers and eyes glued to them as our "turkeys." Each student got a turkey. I verbally told the students how many fuzzballs to "feed" our turkey, and they had to individually count each one to put in the water bottle. The kids loved this activity because they got to feel the fuzzballs and have their own "turkey to feed." Finally, for my assessment activity, I had the students glue feathers onto a construction paper turkey and write the amount of feathers they glued. It was amazing how three little activities really livened up their motivation to learn! All I had to do was make it fun ;)