I need to also give a big shout of thanks to a number of students at HDCH that have been helping me and our school discover how we can effectively use video production in our classes, in our extracurricular program and also with our community. If you happened to be at the membership meeting this week you would have seen a couple of young men confidently running a video production unit. Their task was to film parts of the evening, including Mr. Siebenga's Principal's Report.
Our school recently purchased a video production unit, called a TriCaster . We have been busy learning how to use it and have successfully used it in Miss Baarda's English Language Learners classes as they were filming newscasts and practicing their English speaking. Creating a virtual news desk was as simple as putting up a green screen, which is just some of the ugliest green material I could find at the fabric store, and pushing a couple of buttons. Mr. Cook continues to graciously allow me to borrow a few of the young ladies from his English Media class to setup, film and produce these segments. I can't and don't want to do this alone, actually I don't want to do this at all. I enjoy seeing the students take charge and helping out when necessary. We, or more correctly they, are quickly getting to that stage.
The students that are helping with these events make things look so easy. They quickly take charge of the productions and I quickly get left behind as they learn how to properly setup a green screen and virtual set, add labels to live shot, and include scores and team headings on the feed. Today with only minutes before our event, the boys' volleyball match, went live I asked one of the students running the production this question, "Do you think we could interview the coach, save the clip, and play it back during a timeout?" His simple answer was "Probably, let's try it!" It worked!
My job today was simple - help carry things to the gym, help setup, help tear down, and I got to do the play by play commentating - most likely because I have a face that is perfect for off camera work - I think I will stick with teaching!
Well how does this nice story tie into my goals for technology and the purpose for this blog? I love to model how to use technology in positive manners and I enjoy seeing and encouraging students to develop their gifts in the area of technology. So far we have about 10 kids who are totally into working on this and we haven't even promoted this yet as an opportunity. I will definitely be needing and wanting more kids involved so if you think your son or daughter might like video production as an extra curricular activity please encourage them to talk to me about it.
We have great kids who really enjoy technology and it is their "thing". They don't see problems as roadblocks but rather as learning opportunities and challenges.
One of the issue that we noticed in filming the previous volleyball game was the producer not being able to communicate with the camera people - simple solution - "Mr. B, we need a laptop to setup a host conversation with Skype so we can have a multi-person Skype conversation through our Ipods." My response - "uh - OK" and another idea was implemented. It was exciting to later hear this from the producer, "Camera 1, zoom in on the server and camera 2 get ready for...", they make it look so easy!
Class Updates
Grade 9 Computers BTT
Mr. Wensink, a student teacher from Redeemer, continues to work with the class through the spreadsheet unit. He is doing a great job of helping students with some complex spreadsheet formulas, graphing data, and determining how best to display and format information. We also have completed the second period on our year long project about electronic waste. The students will soon be coming up with ideas for their projects and begin to implement them as they discover how the topic of e-waste fits into our world and how we as young Christians can have a meaningful and positive impact on a local and perhaps global scale!
Grade 11 Computer Programming ICS
Mr. Wensink, is helping students discover the purpose of looping and repeating code in Java Programming. Students have just completed a mini-project as they begin to build their foundation in computer programming. We have had some great learning opportunities to not only develop our programming skills but other learning skills as well. In our last bridge day, students investigated a real problem that the school is trying to solve. Through the help of this class, and their fantastic preliminary work, a real solution has been found. If you want to know more about this real problem simply ask them!
Our school recently purchased a video production unit, called a TriCaster . We have been busy learning how to use it and have successfully used it in Miss Baarda's English Language Learners classes as they were filming newscasts and practicing their English speaking. Creating a virtual news desk was as simple as putting up a green screen, which is just some of the ugliest green material I could find at the fabric store, and pushing a couple of buttons. Mr. Cook continues to graciously allow me to borrow a few of the young ladies from his English Media class to setup, film and produce these segments. I can't and don't want to do this alone, actually I don't want to do this at all. I enjoy seeing the students take charge and helping out when necessary. We, or more correctly they, are quickly getting to that stage.
The students that are helping with these events make things look so easy. They quickly take charge of the productions and I quickly get left behind as they learn how to properly setup a green screen and virtual set, add labels to live shot, and include scores and team headings on the feed. Today with only minutes before our event, the boys' volleyball match, went live I asked one of the students running the production this question, "Do you think we could interview the coach, save the clip, and play it back during a timeout?" His simple answer was "Probably, let's try it!" It worked!
My job today was simple - help carry things to the gym, help setup, help tear down, and I got to do the play by play commentating - most likely because I have a face that is perfect for off camera work - I think I will stick with teaching!
Well how does this nice story tie into my goals for technology and the purpose for this blog? I love to model how to use technology in positive manners and I enjoy seeing and encouraging students to develop their gifts in the area of technology. So far we have about 10 kids who are totally into working on this and we haven't even promoted this yet as an opportunity. I will definitely be needing and wanting more kids involved so if you think your son or daughter might like video production as an extra curricular activity please encourage them to talk to me about it.We have great kids who really enjoy technology and it is their "thing". They don't see problems as roadblocks but rather as learning opportunities and challenges.
One of the issue that we noticed in filming the previous volleyball game was the producer not being able to communicate with the camera people - simple solution - "Mr. B, we need a laptop to setup a host conversation with Skype so we can have a multi-person Skype conversation through our Ipods." My response - "uh - OK" and another idea was implemented. It was exciting to later hear this from the producer, "Camera 1, zoom in on the server and camera 2 get ready for...", they make it look so easy!
Class Updates
Grade 9 Computers BTT
Mr. Wensink, a student teacher from Redeemer, continues to work with the class through the spreadsheet unit. He is doing a great job of helping students with some complex spreadsheet formulas, graphing data, and determining how best to display and format information. We also have completed the second period on our year long project about electronic waste. The students will soon be coming up with ideas for their projects and begin to implement them as they discover how the topic of e-waste fits into our world and how we as young Christians can have a meaningful and positive impact on a local and perhaps global scale!Grade 11 Computer Programming ICS
Mr. Wensink, is helping students discover the purpose of looping and repeating code in Java Programming. Students have just completed a mini-project as they begin to build their foundation in computer programming. We have had some great learning opportunities to not only develop our programming skills but other learning skills as well. In our last bridge day, students investigated a real problem that the school is trying to solve. Through the help of this class, and their fantastic preliminary work, a real solution has been found. If you want to know more about this real problem simply ask them!
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