Screencasting

What is screencasting? Well….it’s basically a way to capture the screen activity on a computer to create a movie that can be shown to an audience later. You can use screencasting to demonstrate the use of a software program, Internet research, Google tools, or anything else that you use on a computer. This is a very powerful way to communicate knowledge and ideas.

I began using screencasting this summer in order to provide professional development opportunities online for the staff in my district. Teachers in my district are required to create and maintain staff web pages using SchoolCenter. We offer classes on how to set up a home page, contact page, document manager, blogs, etc. I noticed that after each class, teachers still had questions or forgot some of the basic features. Now, the staff can watch a short video online and usually their questions are answered! Sure saves me a lot of time.

There are many different screencasting software out there, but my preference is Jing. It is free and very easy to use. I then upload my videos to Screencast. This site provides free hosting of screencasts, and then you can link to each screencast from your own site.

Check out my Screencast Google Site

Painting Doors

My school was recently painted. We used to have beautiful art all over the walls of the school, along with the teachers' doors. Now every hall and door is the same color: basic beige. Our art teacher has a program where students can paint the doors of individual classrooms. I took advantage of this and begged him to have my door painted. Luckily, I was one of only a few teachers who got artistic doors this year. (The rest will be painted next year). I chose my favorite artist Peter Max. The image is Heart Series III and I think my students did an amazing job. Thank you to Ellie, Izzy, Lilly, Jessica and Chanel for a job well done.

Photoshop is not just for Photos

My eighth grade students have been using Adobe Photoshop for the past few years. Photoshop is an incredible software program allowing users to manipulate images in many ways. You can simply fix a red eye in a photograph or create dynamic artistic projects using all the many tools available.
After playing with this program for several years, I realized that we could create computer animations as well. My students used different images in one scene, and then imported them into the animation creator. The results were outstanding and a few samples can be seen below.

Chris's Car Race

Matt's Mario

Emily's Fishtank

To see the rest of the projects, click on my Student Animations page.

I Love Roxer!

I have been using Roxer in my classroom for the past two years in my web site design class. It is a great way to introduce students to WYSIWYG (What You See Is What You Get) editing. The site offers many different options, including YouTube uploads, creative backgrounds, text and image design, and even a Google Calendar.

One of the best features is that students do not need an email address in order to create an account. I basically used the students' website topics for the web address. So, for example, one student created a site for a book report on Animal Farm: http://animalfarmhild.roxer.com

Here are some of my favorite student sites:
http://annie-cookies.roxer.com/ (History of Cookies)
http://cassandra-candy.roxer.com/ (History of Candy)
http://catherine-jk8.roxer.com/ (Jon and Kate + 8)
http://alli-broadway.roxer.com/ (Broadway)
http://moviemaking.roxer.com/ (Filmmaking)

Digital Storytelling

My 8th grade Project Technology class just completed a unit on Digital Storytelling. This is an excellent way to engage your students in the ancient art of "storytelling". Each student chose a topic in which they were interested and created a digital story. This type of activity can be used in many different classrooms, in all areas of the curriculum. At the end of the project, we watched everyone's "story" and many of them brought tears to my eyes! Samples of this project can be seen at my Google Site: Digital Stories Project

Google Historical Voyages and Events

Roosevelt Intermediate School, Westfield, New Jersey is part of "Google Historical Voyages and Events" - a website dedicated to the "explorers, voyages, events, and historical backgrounds of countries throughout the World." The "Google Historical Voyages and Events" website has contributions from schools all over the World, as they tell about the histories of their areas or study famous historical events and people. Our school has joined this project as part of a global learning experience. This project is open to schools all over the World. According to the project site: "We invite a 'global community' of schools to share this site with us. We can learn about each other's countries as we contribute to this site. Every community, every town, every country has a past." Thank you to Carol LaRow for creating this collaborative project!


Students in my 8th grade Project Technology class used digital stories to showcase the biographies and many accomplishments of their personal heroes. Digital Storytelling is the modern expression of the ancient art of storytelling. Digital stories derive their power by weaving images, music, narrative and voice together, thereby giving deep dimension and vivid color to characters, situations, experiences and insights. (Leslie Rule, Digital Storytelling Association) The images used in these digital stories were found utilizing Google Images. In some cases, YouTube videos were incorporated into the stories.

The Digital Stories Google Site: http://sites.google.com/site/digitalstoriesproject/
Who Is Your Hero? Google Site: http://sites.google.com/site/herowebsiteproject/

Google Teacher Academy '09

Thank You Kevin Jarrett for this great video! You captured the magic of our day.

Video Production in Education

I've been thinking a lot lately about the use of video production in education. For the past two years, I have been teaching a Video Production class to the 7th graders at my school. Students create movies on topics ranging from Public Service Announcements and Documentaries, to Drug Awareness and Bullying. Though most of the movies will never win any awards, my students have learned a very important new technology. As a matter of fact, many of my former students now create videos for other classes. Students in 8th grade are creating a movie based on the concepts they learned while reading The Secret Life of Bees. Another group produced a cooking show for their French class, with the entire show filmed in French.

I created a website for a presentation I am giving at the NJECC Conference at Montclair University in March. For anyone interested in using videography in education, there are some good samples as well as resources and documents that can be downloaded for use.

Please visit: http://sites.google.com/site/videographyineducation/

Celebrating Black History

I have the privilege of running my school’s Black History month assembly every year. It is a labor of love because I think it is so important for students today to understand the contributions of the many African American leaders who have formed the backbone of our nation. For the second year, we were honored to have the Newark Boys Chorus perform for us. They sang Circle of Life from Lion King and several other selections. Our keynote speaker was truly inspiring: Mr. Joe Rogers from the Dream Alive organization. He gave a compassionate and enthralling performance our students, staff and community will never forget.

In order to truly become one nation where all people are treated equally, we must never stop teaching our students about the past. We as teachers have a responsibility to help our students to move forward as the next generation, but also to ensure that they never forget the struggles of so many civil rights leaders who worked so hard to create a better world for us all.

I created a Black History video montage that we showed at the end of the assembly. Please click on the link below to watch this video:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ndf1S_tYiGs

Montclair University Web 2.0 Conference

Thank you for attending our workshop. Please let us know if you have any comments or suggestions. We are interested in knowing:

1) An idea that stretched your thinking
2) An activity you plan to use in your district

Pam and Laura

Our Power Point presentation can be viewed online:
http://tinyurl.com/friedman-paiva-presentation