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General instructions for the Virtual Classroom.

1. To share the movie, click on Share->QuickTime->Webstreaming
2. Go to the Virtual Classroom.
3. Log in using your school computer login. (Enter the enrollment key and update your profile if you haven’t before.)
4. Find section 2: Technology/Research Skills
5. Click on your class name.
6. Click on ‘Add entry’.
7. Click on ‘Choose file’. Browse for where your movie (not your iMovie file, but the new .mov file) is saved. Click on the file and then click ‘Choose’.
8. Click ‘Save and view’ to finish uploading your file.

When I was teaching Language Arts I wanted my last student-created booktalk to be an exceptional one. (I didn’t want a simple summary (probably from the back of the book) book report).

We watched the Spider-Man 3 trailer, looking for theme and symbolism. We then looked at a trailer storyboard to find the same elements of literature.

Students had read a literature circle book as a group of 4 and now they were ready to create the movie trailer.

Trailers needed:

1. 5 different scenes from the book
2. 10 different camera shots
3. an interweaving theme
4. 3 examples of text
5. a music soundtrack
6. to be 30-60 seconds in length

I tell you nothing teaches precision in words like a 30-60 second limit. If they were under, they didn’t have enough content. Over, and they were boring.

These editing skills transferred later into their essays and narratives. (Woo!)

A week with iMovie and then we were ready for the HJHS film festival. At lunch we had standing room only in the library (my obsession was long-building) as most of the 8th grade student body watched everyone’s trailers on an iDVD.

When do you have students asking for a copy of their book report to show off?

To share the movie, click on Share->QuickTime->Webstreaming

1. Go to the Virtual Classroom.

2. Log in using your school computer login.

3. Find section 2: Technology/Research Skills

4. Click on ‘Hofmann Poetry Portfolios’.

5. Click on ‘Add entry’.

6. Click on ‘Choose file’. Browse for where your movie is saved. Click on the file and then click ‘Choose’.

7. Click ‘Save and view’ to finish uploading your file.

1. In your GarageBand project, click on Share (in your top menu) and then Export podcast to disk. Remember where you save it, because you’ll need to browse for the file later.
2. Go to the podcasting virtual classroom by clicking here. (You may need to open a new window (File->New Window to be able to view the instructions here and work in the classroom.)
3. Log in with the same user name and password that you use to get onto the computers at school.
4. Fill in the required profile information. This site is closed to only people in our district, so share what you are comfortable with.
5. Type in the enrollment key that you got from your teacher and click on the Enroll Me button.
6. On the virtual classroom’s main page, click on the link for your specific hour.
7. This represents a student-made database of podcast files.
8. Click on Add Entry.
9. Type in your podcast description title and a short description.
10. At the bottom of the screen is a place to upload the actual podcast file. Browse for the file and then make sure to Save and view.
11. Now you can view other groups’ podcasts.

This tutorial is designed for use with the poetry portfolio assignment, but can be applied to other work.

1. Click on the iMovie HD icon in the dock.
2. Create a New Project
3. Name it with the assignment name, your class period, and your last name. (Example: ‘portfolio-4th-guy’). Save it to the hard drive by selecting Macintosh HD->Users->Shared and then click Save
4. Click on Editing -> Titles to add your text.
5. Make sure that your text is big enough to read. You will probably need to split up your sentences into smaller phrases.
6. Type single words as titles for emphasis.
7. You can use the slide to adjust how many seconds the animation takes and how long it pauses.
8. For pictures, drag your image from the desktop/documents onto the timeline/clip view.
9. To change the animation, click on the photo to select it. Click on Media->Photos and then Show Photo Settings
10. With the Ken Burns Effect on, the photo will slide in/zoom out in many different ways. Drag the top slide bar to zoom in and out. Drag the bottom one to make the animation speed up or slow down.
11. Your Preview bar has its own animation timeline. Click on the animation timeline to select which place to zoom in.
12. The hand lets you control the position of the photo. Click and drag to move the camera’s focus.
13. To add sound, make sure that you are in the project’s timeline mode first. Click on the clock to switch from clip mode to timeline mode.
14. Click on Audio to view your iTunes library, GarageBand songs, and Skywalker sound effects.
15. Click on a song and drag it to the second line in the timeline.
16. Click on the triangle and drag it to go to different parts of the timeline/project.
17. To shorten a clip, click on it to highlight it, move the triangle to where you want to cut it, select from the top menu Edit->Split Clip to make the cut.
18. Click off of the clips to deselect both, then click back on the clip that you don’t want. Press the delete key to get rid of it.
19. Click on Editing->Transitions or Editing-> Video FX to make your presentation more professional.

This GarageBand tutorial is designed for the Great Expectations Radio assignment, but can find many other uses. Screenshots taken from GarageBand running on OSX Tiger.

1. Click on New Podcast Episode
2. Save the file with the project name (Example: GE Radio) and then your group number. Don’t put your last name on it since it will go across the Internet. For our network, make sure to save to the Shared folder.
3. The default should work with the podcast artwork track, male voice track, female voice track, jingles, and radio sounds.
4. If you will have more than one gender, you can add more tracks by clicking on the menu at the top with Track and then New Track. Make it a Real Instrument, select Vocals, and then the appropriate speech filter.
5. Click on the Female (or Male) Voice. Click on the big red circle at the bottom of the screen to start recording. Get your content recorded first. Fancy jingles and zingers only go so far.
6. As you perform, make sure to watch the audio levels to not “go hot” and crackle your voice.
7. Now click on the Jingles. Click on the Blue Eye in the bottom left of the window.
8. Click on Jingles underneath the eye to then expand to different sample. Click on a theme song that fits your project.
9. Drag the jingle name onto the Jingles track in your workspace.
10. Hover your mouse on the end of the jingle. It will turn to a bar with an arrow. You can now click and drag to extend the length of the clip to match your podcast length.
11. Click on Radio Sounds. Make sure the Blue Eye is selected so you can find a stinger/sound effect to appropriately match/emphasize what you are talking about.
12. Click and drag any audio clip to move it where it best fits.
13. If you want to trim any clip, click on the clip to select it, move your timeline marker at the topto match where you want to cut. At the top menu, select Edit and the Split. Now click on the chunk that you don’t want and press delete.
14. Sometimes if you have trouble selecting on audio clip, click on the gray part of the control panel to deselect everything and then click on your target clip.
15. Move your purple triangle to the end of your podcast. If there is a lot of space between the end of the podcast and your purple triangle, there will be dead air when you export your podcast. (I ruined many a podcast before I realized that. I pass on the experiential wisdom to you.)
16. For the photos: These are going to be published online. Make sure that the photos you choose are yours, stock photo, or open license. You can’t just go steal some photos from Google Images anymore.
17. If any of the audio is too loud, you can adjust the individual track levels, measured in decibels. You can also adjust whether the track is in stereo or will come out of the left or right speaker. (Which is really quite cool when you think about iPod headphones.)
18. The plus button in the bottom left (next to the Blue Eye) is a shortcut to add more tracks.
19. Right now just Share to iTunes. Tune back later for how to upload online.