Hey Y'all! It is almost game time and I'm getting super excited! Yesterday I worked in my classroom and I got a LOT of things together in my room! I was super excited that I managed to pretty much get it all done in one day. Today I had a lot of errands to run, but once I finally got home my tech brain started racing! I have made a vow to be more prepared this coming school year to eliminate stress.
Any-who... Have you ever been in a classroom and you have a question or need clarification on a test and you CANNOT move on until your question was answered? Well, I decided that I want to utilize technology in the classroom and create more "Mrs. Gregory's" when in fact, I can only be in one place at one time. After brainstorming for 2-3 hours with a fellow co-worker and picking the brain of a fabulous dear friend, I narrowed my plan down to two options. For each option I will list pros and cons. Option 1: Zoom Zoom is mainly a video conferencing app that allows you to create meetings and share it with others. I hoped on their website and started playing around. First off, I have a MacBook Pro (sorry PC users, I am going to be bias in this post). I was able to download the plugin for my Mac and run the program from my desktop. Essentially, I started a meeting without adding any participants and recorded myself. I was able to annotate on the screen and show what exactly I was looking at to the viewer. Once I was finished recording myself, I ended the meeting. Once ended, the program will convert the file and automatically save it to your computer (BONUS POINTS THERE!!!). It saved 3 files for the one video: an audio only file (M4A), playback file (M3U), and a video file (MP4). This program records video in HD1080. Now here is where it might get a little confusing for peeps that down quite understand the different types of files. The first two (M4A & M3U) are Apple ONLY files (i.e. you canNOT open them on a PC). Now this is fine if your audience is using Apple products but it's a slight problem if they aren't. IF this is the case, NO WORRIES - all you have to do is convert the audio only file to a MP3 file. There are plenty of videos and how to pages out there that can explain this so I'm not. The last file, the video file, is in the correct format to upload to another site to share. My review: It was a little difficult to figure out. You have to make sure that you have the file you want to record already up in the background before you get started. I did like the fact that it automatically saved it to my computer when I ended the "meeting" AND bonus points for saving it as audio and video file. As long as you don't need the audio file, this option is pretty awesome. Oh, and the maximum recording time with he basic plan is 40 minutes. It also records yourself on the camera as you are reading your document. It adds a little extra touch to the viewers and makes it personal. Click here to get started (and did I mention the basic plan is free?!) Option 2: Sceencast-O-Matic Screencast-O-Matic is a voice over screen program. This option also has a plug in for you to download so you can run the program from the desktop. This option is very user friendly. It has a window that you can size to only show the portion of your screen that you want your viewers to see. I personally liked this feature because I was able to minimize the screen to ONLY what I wanted my viewers to see and not the wasted space on my Mac. The record button is easy to use and it captures the audio very well. This program records in 720p (which is perfectly fine, but if your documents have a lot of pictures/videos, the quality of your video will not be that great). The max time to record a video is 15 minutes with should be plenty enough time. If not, just start a new recording. When you are finished recording, you have the option to save the video file, and you also have the option to upload to YouTube. My review: This option is very user friendly. If you are fresh to technology, I would totally suggest this program. The quality of the video is sub-par but it's not awful. It all depends on what you want to record. I really liked the fact that I could instantly upload it to YouTube without going to the site. I also liked the fact that I could show the viewers only what I wanted them to see from my screen. This program does leave a watermark at the bottom of the video. As long as it is not blocking the view of the document, I don't see an issue with this. This program is also free. Click here to get started. As far as uploading the videos, I would suggest Vimeo or YouTube. Both allow you to make the videos private. Vimeo allows you to password protect which is a neat feature but they cap you to 500MB/week for the free version. It all just depends on your preference. I hope this helps all of my fellow teacher friends. Please let me know if you need some help getting started! I would love to help! Contact info on the home page! Mrs. Gregory :)
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Happy Friday Y'all! I have a confession to tell you all. Last week I did my grocery shopping like I always do. As soon as I walked into Walmart, my jaw about hit the floor! They were already putting Back to School supplies out. What? (I was a tad confused) I mean we just celebrated America's birthday and all that patriotic stuff was already 60% off!
The unnerving feeling started hitting me in the gut, yep... you know which one I'm talking about. School is starting back in ONE MONTH! I became slightly depressed because I still wanted to enjoy some more of my summer vacation. Well as I began my week moping and realizing that school was right around the corner, a few of my 6th grade coworkers suggested that we all get together and have a paint night. Y'all... painting is one of my ultimate hobbies (even though I teach math)! I was so excited. Fast forward a couple days. All us girls got together (sorry Wells, Ponder, and O'Shields, girls only) and decided to paint some door hangers for our rooms. Thank goodness I picked something simple to paint because I ended up helping the girls out by sketching/drawing so they could paint. Maybe I could do one of those paint nights where everyone paints the same thing and I instruct. ANYWAYS.... back to my feelings. After I got together with my girls and had a fabulous night painting, I realized that I was very childish to not want my summer vacation to end. Y'all, I work with some AHH-MAZING people! They are seriously like my second family. Half of the stuff we were laughing about was things we did together throughout the school year. So I know this goes without saying, but I am SO happy that God placed me with my Sims family. Y'all rock! Love you all! |
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