iPads, Macbook, iMovie, and iDVD

When I go in other teachers' classrooms, I tend to find some of the cutest crafts. I am beginning to feel like my craft gene was replaced with a technology gene. Last week, all the craft gened teachers were in full working mode making the cutest Mother's Day crafts. I was left trying to figure out what I was going to do, when it suddenly occurred to me, use technology to create a gift worth keeping that has never been done before for the mothers. 

The assignment was to write a poem and create a video using the iPad where they read the poem to their mother and wished her a Happy Mother's Day. I wanted this to be something that the children could said they made all by themselves. With that said, there were all kinds of videos: videos of students looking down at the iPad, up the nose shots, weird angled shots, etc. I didn't say anything because this was their Mother's Day gift. After the students created their video, I showed them how to upload their video to my MacBook. 

The following morning, I took the first student that came into class and showed him how to use iMovie to put text in before his movie and then export the movie to iDVD. In iDVD, I showed him how easy it was to pick out a menu background and burn his DVD. After the first student was done, I had him teach another student. This actually worked out great, I taught only one student and the rest of the class was able to create their DVDs without my help.