For as long as I can remember, I have loved pictures. I love looking through photo albums on my computer as well as pulling out old photo albums at my house. I enjoy looking back at pictures and feeling almost as if I am there all over again, experiencing what I was experiencing in the photo. I think that photos can evoke many memories, both positive and negative. To me, photos are important because they are the closest we can get to capturing a moment to remember forever. Because of this, I am always the one saying, “Let’s take a picture!” or “Here, let me take your picture. You’ll want it to look back on one day.” Often, my family members will groan and not find it necessary to take a picture. When this happens, I remind them that one day, they might need the picture to look back on and remember life’s events. Pictures can be a great way to reminisce.
Because of my love for pictures, I was excited to have the opportunity to make an iMovie about my life. I was excited to have an excuse to look through old pictures at my house to pick the ones I wanted to use in my iMovie. The pictures had to begin at a very early date and conclude with a recent picture. Besides that, I was free to choose the pictures that I wanted to use in the video. I had to scan many of the pictures I chose to include because we do not have them in digital format. This is because digital cameras were not around when I was growing up. I thoughtfully selected the pictures I would include in my video. I have hundreds of pictures both at my house and in albums on my computer. I chose a picture of me when I was just four days old. After that, I chose pictures that I think describe my life’s events well. For example, I have a picture of my older brother, David, and me when we were very young. The next picture shows my grandmother, David, and myself when we met our brother Corey for the first time. After those three were selected and scanned, I selected various pictures that show my family through the years. I do not have many pictures from middle school because I would consider that to be a very awkward time in which I avoided the camera whenever I could. For the pictures that represent my life in high school, I chose a picture that shows a very hard time in my life, when David was badly injured when a tornado hit Union University. I also chose a picture of me in a play, as well as my high school graduation. Finally, I ended with a current picture of my family. I chose my pictures based on what I thought were important events in my life. I thought that such pictures would be good to include because they show events that made me the person I am today.
After my pictures were finally selected, I began making Powerpoint slides that contained my pictures and script. I made a title slide first, and then added a picture and script to each additional slide. When that was finished, I began playing with iMovie. I saved the slides and formatted them to open in iPhoto. Once I opened them in iMovie, it was easy to begin making the movie. I put the slides, which were saved as pictures, into the movie. Then, I began recording my voice for each slide. The last step was adding music to the movie. This was possibly the hardest step for me because I had trouble figuring out how to adjust the volume on the song. It had to be adjusted to the right volume so my voice could still be heard. After watching a couple of very helpful youtube videos, I figured out how to adjust the volume. Overall, iMovie was a fairly user-friendly program. I admit that I had more trouble than I expected to have as I made my video. However, the videos I found online were very helpful. I think that iMovie is user-friendly if you are used to making movies. I think that I had more trouble with it because it was my very first experience making a movie. Because of that, I cannot compare iMovie to other movie programs. However, I am grateful that I had the opportunity to learn about iMovie and more about how to operate the program to make movies. This could be very useful information for my future.
I enjoyed making this video about my life. It was neat to have the chance to reflect on my life so far by looking through pictures. I am glad that I have so many pictures and that it was hard for me to choose the pictures I used. Pictures are very valuable to me, and my plethora of pictures came in handy for this project. This is a project that I think would be neat to use in the classroom. I think that students would enjoy the chance to use a program like iMovie or PhotoStory. However, I understand that it depends on the age of the students. A video would also be neat to use to introduce yourself to your students at the beginning of the year.
Click here to enjoy my video!
Another task I have recently completed was making letter cards. The first step in this process was to cut out black lowercase letters using the die cut machine. I used the Zaner-Bloser style die cuts, which are commonly called block letters. After that, I used a single hole punch to punch holes on the letters. The holes were punched on the spot that one should begin writing that letter. For example, for the letter /t/, the hole went at the very top. It was interesting to see how people often begin their letters in different ways. However, there is a standard way that children should learn how to write their letters. It was neat to see this standard and compare it to the way that I write my letters. Once the holes were punched, the letters were glued to card stock. The paper had faint lines on it to serve as a "writing" grid. I glued all of my vowels on bright yellow paper and the consonants on purple paper. After gluing all of the letters on the paper, I laminated each paper and cut them apart. Finally, I made matching folders for the cards, labeling each one with the correct label. These too were laminated before being stapled together. My letter cards were finally complete! They are very durable, and I'm sure they will come in handy in the future. They are great to use to show young children how to write in the correct way. Children need to know where to begin their letters. What about you? Have you ever made letter cards for your classroom? If so, please feel free to share below! I would love to hear how you used them in the classroom.
Below, you can see a picture of my finished letter cards!
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