Tudors at Inspire 2Learn

On Friday, I was at Inspire 2 Learn to deliver a day on the Tudors to pupils from a Redcar school. Their knowledge was excellent and my lecture was taken over by them telling me what they knew. There then followed a trip down the 3D Tudor Street, dropping in at the Great Hall, local pub, peasant's cottage and the hunting lodge. Oh! And dodging the poo flung from an upstairs window. This, in turn, was followed by pupils using Kar2ouche to produce a presentation about life for the rich and poor in Tudor times and a visit to the Immersive Room to explore the lives of the Tudor Monarchs.

Screenshots of interactive presentations made in Mediator

It was an intense and busy day which the pupils seem to have really relished. In their evaluations, 41 out of 58 gave the day 10 out of 10. Typical comments included:-
"I liked the 3D, the screening area and the computers. Thanks."
"I enjoyed making a slide show on the touch-screen computers and watching the 3D showing of a tudor street."
"I especily enjoyed waching the 3d movie although I also liked the touch screen computers."
"It was very fun and entertaining. better than workin in pen in school."
Inspire 2 Learn's great facilities were enjoyed by the children. Redcar & Cleveland have a powerful educational tool to be nurtured and developed.

Scorpia Rising - Comic Life movie

As part of a literacy event, I showed teachers a video I had made from Comic Life. It covers the first chapter of Anthony Horowitz's book Scorpia Rising.  If you fancy having a go, or getting your children to have a go, there are a few points to note. Comic Life by default is portrait so you need to change the layout to landscape in Page Format. Now you should use each page as a single frame in order to tell your story. Export the video from the File menu.

My title screen

Crossing London

Making a break for it

Given the slip

I had some problems with my running my video so an alternative is to export your pages as images, import them into Movie Maker, set the timings for each slide and export it. Add a soundtrack and sound effects if appropriate.

'Fraid I haven't managed to embed a video clip in the blog yet.

Animation Club - final blog

I've had to withdraw from the Animation Club I've been running because of other work commitments. Progress has been slower that I'd hope due to me taking a holiday and half term. The children seem to have really enjoyed the experience and I've allowed them to run with their preferences i.e. some have not moved away from Pivot Stick Figure whilst others have become dab-hands at making and animating plasticine models, taking photos and importing them into Movie Maker.

Turner at the Tate

I was lucky enough to be invited by a school to accompany them on a trip to study some of Turner's painting at Tate Britain. What a day!

Gratuitous Turner painting - The Fighting Temeraire

An early start saw us getting a coach to Darlington to catch the train to London. Children were surprised by how far they had to travel. Once in London, the tube trip to Tate Britain was an exciting first for many children (and some adults). A short walk and we were at the gallery. Lunch, first, then a guided look at a few of Turner's paintings. Children responded well to questions and activities and the time soon passed.

A circular walk, saw us pass the Houses of Parliament, cross the Thames, see St Thomas' Hospital, listen to Big Ben bong three o'clock before re-crossing the river. Dinner was at the local Pizza Express and enjoyed by everyone.

London Eye an County Hall on a grey day

Houses of Parliament - waiting for three o'clock to ring

A large number of photographs were taken of the day and some video footage too. These will be used by the pupils back in school to improve their IT skills using Comic Life and iMovie on the school's Mac computers.