Using Digital Media in my Class Curriculum

I have thought of a few ideas on using my camera in the classroom. I feel like I will use it most to take pictures of vocabulary words. When I use my own pictures to illustrate the vocabulary the students seem to respond better. The pictures usually come with a story and I can use this as a connection to culture and help the students remember better.

I have also just recently connected my classes to classes in France. The students have been emailing back and forth but I want to also start an Edmodo page to help initiate discussion using videos and pictures. Last week, I had two students ask each other what they eat for breakfast and then they looked at the camera to ask our sister class what they eat for breakfast. I want to post that video and have the students all comment on what they eat.

I would also like to take pictures and videos of my students throughout the year to create a class portfolio. I can put them all together at the end of the year to show the students how far they've come.

http://prezi.com/ocyh8nxpzkyh/digital-media/?auth_key=73b09d051681fd0fcbdad9c46b0e6e6272c751cc&kw=view-ocyh8nxpzkyh&rc=ref-831003

Thanks for a great class everyone!

Video Haiku

I enjoyed the idea this week's prompt but I wasn't hit with inspiration. I do like how my video turned out though. I wanted to make it in black and white since it was a "making memories" idea but I couldn't get the video to export out of Lightroom.

It was really easy to add the transitions and text in iMovie.

My grandmother shot a 39 in golf.


Video Haiku from Amy Lilly on Vimeo.

Movement

I call it the Hula Hoop Shake. A take on the Harlem Shake. There is definitely more shaking than hula hooping but they were willing participants and that's all I can ask for. It was fun to make.

The music is from creative commons. It is by Kevin MacLeod and is called Super Polka. (incompetech.com/music/)

Movement from Amy Lilly on Vimeo.

Home

This is my home. I wanted to create the feel of someone entering and looking around. I needed it to keep it short so I didn't linger or do any close-ups. In the end I tried to give the feel of "making yourself at home." I wish I had gone with that feel the whole time. It would've been a more interesting video to watch.

This is definitely a rough cut. I sped the playback speed up to 200% to make it faster (shorter) and I cut parts out. I need to figure out how to do some transitions. The music is from creative commons. It is by Kevin MacLeod and is called Radio Martini. (http://incompetech.com/music/)



Home from Amy Lilly on Vimeo.

Nostalgia

This video can be nostalgic in two ways. For me, it was a look back at birthdays past. If I could soundtrack it, you would hear the faint sounds of children laughing and singing the Happy Birthday song. The actor in the video is nostalgic for the birthdays when he was surrounded by family and friends and birthdays were a happy occasion. For the actor, this was a nostalgic video celebrating the life and memory of Dale Earnhardt.

Please excuse the sounds of my breathing and the focus being adjusted.

A special thank you to my actor.

Nostalgia from Amy Lilly on Vimeo.

Reflection

The American flag is a symbol of reflection for many. As soon as I saw the flag blowing in the wind, I knew I wanted to photograph it. I really wanted to get a water reflection but the day was to grey for it.

This first photo has an extreme vignette preset added to it and a preset called Grandma's Lemonade. I liked that the extreme vignette covered the houses in the background. I downloaded these vignettes from here: http://www.ononesoftware.com/products/lightroom-presets/?ref=demo_email_init.

This photo has the LR auto tone preset added to it and I saturated the red some more.

 

This photo again has the LR auto tone preset to it and I saturated the red and the blue and put a vignette around it.

 

Freshest

Fresh, home-made banana bread! I like to read food blogs and pictures are important to food blogs. Because like they say, "a picture is worth a thousand words." And this banana bread is as good as it looks.

This is the Lightroom version. I upped the clarity and made the S shape.

This is the original.

Snow

I failed taking pictures on manual. I was having trouble with the exposure. So these were the best ones I got. None of these were taken on manual. The second and third pictures were taken with the Sigma lens. There aren't very interesting pictures to look at but I liked seeing the difference between the two. The first picture is the one I chose to submit for critiquing. Two students "gnomed" my yard on Friday night. I loved it. 

f8, 1/4000, ISO 1600

f4, 1/320, ISO 1600

                                                                  f4, 1/80, ISO1600

Smile

Richard made us this homemade pizza with a smile.

I was supposed to travel to Pittsburgh this weekend where I thought it would be a great place to get some different pictures. But alas, Mother Nature tripped me up. I'm cocky about driving in the snow because I grew up in Beckley. Southern West Virginia receives snow falls that would have Huntington shut down for days. So I headed north despite the icy conditions. Halfway through my trip, at about mile marker 94 on I-79 N, I lost control. I zigged and zagged, spun and spun, and gracefully slid into the side of the mountain. Luckily, I didn't slam into the mountain. I was not hurt. I was able to drive right out of the ditch. At the next exit, I pulled into the Sheetz and discovered a rock stuck between tire and rim. I could hear the air whistling out. My sister, who lives in Fairmont, and her boyfriend came to my rescue. We managed to fix the tire and drive back to their house for the night. Saturday morning I took my car to Sears with hopes that everything would check out okay and I could continue on my way. Everything was okay; the fix-a-flat used to patch my tire was causing my steering wheel to shake at speeds over 50 but everything was okay. However, the weather was anything but okay. It was still snowing and Pittsburgh was receiving the worst. With my bruised ego, Alisha and Richard took me in for another night.

ISO 1600, f/8, 1/20

Horizon.

I took the first photo standing on a bridge past the art museum. It was about 4:30 pm, an hour before sunset. I like the layer of fog below the ridge line. ISO 1600, f/7.1, 1/500

I took the second photo at Point Park in Kenova (or Ceredo?). It was just after 5. The fog was so thick I couldn't see the river. I'm not sure this picture qualifies as a horizon photo but again, I like the low laying fog and the blue-grey of the sky. ISO 1600, f/6.3, 1/100