Crazy Talk Rappers

This is our 4th year running the A Better World Project, and it is ageing very well. We have come a long way from that first year. When we first started out we were using Blabberize to produce rapping images, then we introduced student performances. Eventually with the arrival of our first set of iPads, we began creating characters with even more movement using Morfo.

This year the project has taken yet another turn. We have pretty much removed student performances. We thought in retrospect,  that while some were very good, others really took away from the focus of the rap video. We also worried that some may have been misconstrued as being insensitive to the topic.We have left performance work as an extension option this year, meaning that only the high fliers will be doing this.

We had intended to run the project exclusively on iPads this year, working with Google Drive for collaborative lyric writing, Garageband for music production, Morfo for digital rappers and iMovie for the final video production, however that too has changed.

We purchased Crazy Talk this school year for 13 of our computers and it has really revolutionised the project. Using Crazy Talk our kids are able to creating digitalised rappers from almost any digital image. These rappers are capable of a great deal and really come alive for the students.

So we are back on the Macs, using Google Drive, Garageband, iMovie, Crazy Talk and Wikispaces.  The kids are loving it and so are we.

I have included a video example from one of our recent projects below. You can access all the projects from this year as they are posted and from prior years on the project wiki.

The Art of Storytelling and Illustration

We were fortunate to be visited by award winning author Janine Kimmel last week. During the 6 sessions she held, she spoke to our students about the writing process she goes through when authoring her books.

Do check out our complete post on the LRC Blog.

Mega Weeding Rampage!

Every year we weed old, out of date, musty, dusty books out of the collections. Let's face it they are not being read for a reason. Depleting the shelves in this way sounds harsh but removing books that are no longer relevant or in conditions to be read without rubber gloves, is good practice for a school library. It makes room for new, interesting titles but also makes it easier for students to identify the hidden gems, as they are no longer buried away on the shelves. It gives the library staff a chance to refocus book purchases and build important, relevant collections for the community, some of which will be in print, others digital. 

This week we have been on a mega weeding rampage and spending a great many hours amidst the dusty yellowed pages. We have now completed our mission and successfully removed many hundreds of out of date, non fiction books from the shelves. 

Yes our shelves are a lot emptier, but they now contain relevant, up to date dust free non fiction editions. We can now begin the job of restocking with relevant titles, that meet the needs of our students and teachers. 

Not everything is going out the door. While weeding the shelves we discovered a few very interesting titles that will remain in the library as examples of very old literature. These titles date back to the late 1800s and early 1900s.  They will go on display. We have also pulled a great many "cool" non fiction books that have been ordered in over the last few years, these are the gems that were hidden away and are now out in the open. They are going into a special "Cool Non Fiction" Display for students, which we hope will promote them and get them into the students' hands.

Here are some pictures of our piles of discards.

Library 2.0

On October 19th our wonderful Librarians and Library Assistant took the plunge and presented at the Library 2.0 Conference. They did a fantastic job both in preparing for and presenting at their first online conference.

During the presentation which focussed on our Learning Resources Centre, they shared  information about and images of the physical LRC, the different events and activities that take place here as well as the various displays and clubs that are run out of the LRC.  They also shared the virtual LRC, our centre's webpage and all of the resources within, including the online catalogue, The Shelfari Arrival Shelves, requests for resources and much more.


In addition to this they featured ABCICT, our teaching wiki, which is used on a daily basis by ICT Classes in the LRC, parents interested in internet safety resources, homework and areas of study, and teachers from around the world.

Another important area of focus during this presentation was the many applications that enable librarians and teachers to network, share ideas and resources, and learn from each other on a daily basis.

They also discussed the ways in which our Learning Resources Centre and its members of staff use web applications to maintain ever important channels of communication with the community and the world.



A few of the starring applications  that took centre stage in this section of the presentation were, Blogger, Twitter, Diigo, Facebook and Pinterest.

If you are interested in finding out more, do take a moment to check out the recording here.

Peace One Day at the LRC

One person can make a huge difference and Peace One Day's founder, Jeremy Gilley is living proof of that. Every September 21st, since it's foundation in 1999, Peace One Day has promoted peace around the world, through campaigns in the arts, sports, online and in Education.

The idea that "No matter how small, everyday acts of kindness can help make peace a reality..." (http://peaceoneday.org/)  is a power concept. If each of us can make a difference through our daily interactions with others, just imagine the change that can be brought about through slightly grander initiatives.

This year, the LRC did it's part for peace, on the educational front. Our ICT team, the LRC staff members and a member of the English team continued our work with a very special group of teachers from certain public schools in the San Vicente area. This work is strictly voluntary and run in conjunction with a small group of Canadian fundraisers who have made it their goal to do make a difference in the lives of young people, their families and education in El Salvador.

A year ago we embarked on a journey, in which we targeted a talented group of ICT teachers from the San Vicente area. The project involves working with the group on a wide variety of learning activities, exemplifying current methodology in teaching and learning with technology. The sessions are intense, packed with fun, exploration and reflection. The hub for this learning is the LRC's ABC Inset page in which resources are accessible to participants 24/7.

Today's session was the 5th of 6 in total, which will be held at the LRC. The focus was online gaming in education and online learning projects. Two special guest speakers, from our 8th and 9th grades , gave the teachers a first hand look at the potential that Minecraft and World of Warcraft offer for learning. The teachers, all of whom were excited by these ideas, ended up spending over an hour busily building and working together on our school Minecraft server.

During the second half of the day, the focus moved to planning an online project. In doing so, participants had to reflect on the different learning experiences they had been involved in over the past year. There were no limits imposed. The projects could have been large, small, done individually or in groups.  The teachers were responsible for identifying the age levels and skills, they wanted to target. Their choice of tools reflected each individual teacher's  situation, teaching groups and school settings.The planning was done using a shared template in Google Docs.

The range of projects that they came up with are varied and interesting: social networking using a Facebook page, an arts and culture blog for the community, using social networks to focus on reading, production and editing of videos, audio and images and  Geography and tourism through images and videos.

This phase of the project is coming to a close. It will end on December 7th of this year. This doesn't mean it is over however. The journey will continue. The learning will continue, through the collaborative efforts of those involved. The learning will happen at their schools, online, and as part of the learning community they have become.

Happy Peace One Day 2013!
Who will you make peace with today and every day?

Fun with Chromakey Suits!

Chromakey technology allows film makers to create special effects in the post production stage, such as generating the illusion of invisibility and applying imagery to the green areas. This is achieved by compositing/layering images or videos together. 

Students in the LRC have made good use of  this technology over the years by filming in front of blue screens and green screens and editing their footage on iMovie.

This year the decision was made to  take things a step further. We were very excited by the arrival of our special green screen gloves and body suits last week. The students had a great time trying them out and creating some very special effects. Here are a few fun pictures from the set.

Here is a short video which explains how to do this.

Wevideo, An Alternative Video Editor

We have been playing around with a web based alternative to Windows Movie Maker and iMovie. The application is called Wevideo. It is powerful, versatile and free.  This program will not do chroma key work yet and doesn't allow you to split clips, but apart from that it is a very complete toolset for video production work.

We just have begun using it with our students for video work that can't be done in our Mac Lab, due to booking issues. It will be presented to 7th grade Humanities students as one of several options for tools they can use  when producing their slave diary projects this fall.

  If you haven't tried Wevideo yet, you should. Here is a brief tutorial on how to use this free, online application for movie making.

Wevideo is available in the Google Chrome App Store,