Back to School Night Project with First Grade Students

With the goal to better prepare myself to provide trainings during upcoming Ed Tech Academies, I decided to adopt a classroom to test an an app smash that would produce a time-lapsed drawing with narration to serve as a Back to School Night Invitation. Above are two student samples. The videos were created using the following steps:

1. Students created a drawing using the Masterpiece app from Play Osmo. https://www.playosmo.com/en/masterpiece/ This can also be accomplished using the time lapse feature from iMovie on the iPad with a stand. Then export video to the Camera app.
2. Import video into iMovie from the Camera app to add the default Theme Music. Then make adjustments if needed. This includes trimming the clip and/or making speed adjustments. Student narration was added using the built in Record Audio feature. Video was then exported back to the Camera App.
3. The video was then imported into the Clips App to use the Effects feature to add Stickers, Emoji's and their name using Labels. An Open House flyer was added to the end of the video and then exported back to the Camera App.
4. Each finished video was then sent to the student's parents to invite them with the personalized invitation through Class Dojo. Similar projects can be shared with parents using Seesaw or Remind.

I look forward to training teachers in our Ed Tech Academies this app smash that can be modified to meet various types of student projects using the same techniques. Thank you Mrs. Padilla and students for participating in this project.

Ed Tech Coach

Mr. Fernando Argüelles has joined the Technology Department as the first Ed Tech Coach for our school district. His main role is to provide support to our Digital Learning Academy. His second priority are the nine Ed Tech Academies across the district. Recently Mr. Argüelles was certified as a Seesaw Ambassador and as a CK-12 trainer. He began training with Seesaw last week during our Day 2 of training with the Digital Learning Academy and provided in class coaching on Seesaw in 5 classrooms this week.