Technology Experiences for October

During the month of October, I learned how to use my webcam to video my students and then create a short video with the footage. It began with Kelly (thanks!) coming into my classroom to help me video a reader's theater my students were performing. We videoed pieces of each of the groups, then linked the pieces together so the whole play was performed in order, just with different groups performing the pieces. My class loved watching it, and they were really able to talk about how to improve their own fluency.
Next, I decided to video them as they presented their theme project. However, from each table group, they had to look at one another's visual aid and decided which one (or two) person (or people) would present to the class while being videoed. The elected students were videoed, and I made a short movie. The other students watched and took notes on what they thought made a great visual aid and presentation. We then took those notes and collaboratively created a visual aid and presentation rubric to be used in all future projects throughout the year. It was a very powerful experience for them, and I'm so excited to see their next round of projects!
From a teaching standpoint, this was all extremely easy and required almost no additional time for me to complete it. This is definately a use for technology I will be using frequently in my classroom!