I entered a contest for a classroom grant a couple weeks ago, and now it's time to vote people!!! I have until October 28th to garner as many votes as possible for my idea. The top 5 vote getters will be awarded $2000 and either an iPod nano or a flip camera to help make their ideas a reality.
Please vote for my idea at
http://bit.ly/dgSh79. If you put in my name in the "Enter keywords" box, it will take you to my idea directly. Thanks for helping out a poor teacher!)
PS, if you have a blog, and want to post this to help the cause, I'd love any aid that will help me spread the word!
Here's my idea, in case you were wondering:
Book Trailers
Description: My class has had a reading component to it for the last ten years, where my students read choice books and then tell me about their books in one-on-one meetings. I\'d like to add a technology component to the book chats where students can make book trailers (like movie trailers) about their books which we can post on our class website. It would give them an opportunity to share their books with each other, and have a creative option using their technology skills to earn credit for reading.
Learning Objectives: They will learn how to create mini-movies using a variety of computer resources at school including Windows Movie Maker. They will need to pick out key themes or events from their novels to put into the book trailers and find images and music that will catch the audience\'s attention. Students will also use storyboarding techniques to plan out their trailers.
Materials: Computers, music programs (such as Windows Media or iTunes), Windows Movie Maker (or another program of student\'s choice), youtube.com, and the internet. They might also use scanners or digital cameras to procure images for their movies.
Other Information: This is a new project for my classroom and will be used as one of three options for earning credit for reading in my classroom. I\'m excited for the technology potential in this project, and to have such a fun way to share great books with their classmates.
