As a middle school art teacher I really have a challenging time getting my students interested in my class. Students still want art to be fun but they don’t want to do the work anymore. They want to express themselves but they are tired of drawing. I have found a few fun sites that might spark their interest and I think my newest attempt is to introduce some of these Web.2 Tools that I have found and use them as a reward for students who have shown effort in my class. I plan to introduce this first site by playing a very short animation that I have created at Me Moov.com.
After playing for a while I found that the commands were actually quite simple. An editor has many choices to make as he/she begins to create. I will ask students to come up with a simple theme, a question or a joke that they can create into a short animation. Once they have chosen a theme students will find the editing choices already narrowed for them. They can choose the gender of their characters, what they look like, color and style of hair, clothes, shoes, factual expression. Next students choose bodily expression and movement to fit their characters dialogue. Once they have completed that students (or editors) can choose to use word bubbles, signs, floating text or actual audio to express words.
As you work with this free tool, which by the way no need for downloading AND you can save your work on the site, you can edit as you go. With each movement you can return to the beginning and play back your animation to check for timing and fluidity. I plan to use this fun tool to also create some eye-catching tutorials or even just to introduce the 5minute drawing word for the day.
I’m going to keep exploring this site. If anyone has any other suggestions on uses let me know. I am all-ears.
Memoov (2008) Retrieved on March 8, 2010 from http://memoov.com/index.aspx
It is all about motivating your students. Memoov look like a wonderful application that I am sure you will put to good use!
ReplyDeleteHow cool. I'm sure you had fun playing with Memoov too. Great incentive to get those students motivated.
ReplyDeleteLeah,
ReplyDeleteI can relate to your challenges in keeping students engaged & learning about the Arts.
As a music teacher, sometimes there is the misconception that EVERYTHING should be fun at ALL times.
The 5-minute word for the day sounds great. Adding this tool will spark interest because it will be new for them!
Since the tool is free, perhaps give students the opportunity to create their own art term to animate. Provide a list of terms, put them in teams, and have them animate with memoov. If you model it for them, surely they will imitate! Just go for it - you will be surprised at what they will come up with. The good and bad results will help you tweak your lesson plan for next year!