Disney Dreaming Photo Story

I had a great time making this little project. It was incredibly user-friendly, taking you through step by step and allowing a wide variety of modifications in font, color, and transitions, etc. I couldn't figure out how to put music on it, but that would certainly add something more--especially with a Disney soundtrack!

One of my favorite classes in college was a literature and film class. These days if someone writes a good novel, instantly the movie buzz begins. People long to see the characters they get to know so well on paper come to life on the big screen. Characters become incredibly important to people, and watching a movie can be a magical or infuriating experience. Using photostory in an English classroom is a way to allow students to be a part of that process, without taking lots of time for actual film-making, something that most schools wouldn't have access to. I found one website called "english teacher's friend" that listed different ways to use photo story or movie story. Some of their suggestions were to do biography on themselves or an author, create a trailer for a book, or use it to create a review. I think the last one would be a great way to recap the year. I believe in lots of different hands on, cultural experiences in studying literature, and having the students create a photostory review of our different experiences throughout the year would not only conjure up positive memories, but help them review all the major works of literature we'd studied throughout their year. It would be a wonderful refresher. They could also do a team project where they create scenes from the literature, taking several still pictures, and then working them into a sort of movie. The software is so accessible and usable, it wouldn't take the time or expertise that a real movie might demand, but would still give them a chance to bring a novel or poem to life in a unique way.

WebQuest Trials and Tribulations

Wow. This one was really hard for me. I fully admit that family visits made procrastinating this far too easy, but it was still a real struggle. I think what was most frustrating was that I couldn't really capture the vision of webquests in general. I looked at alot of really cool webquests, but I didn't see why the students couldn't have done those same wonderful projects with just a paper explanation and some links emailed to them. I don't understand the magic of a "webquest." So, I had a hard time figuring out how to make one that I would use in a high school English lit class. I actually, in the end, like my webquest. I could not figure out how to use a template, and by the time I'd heard back about the powerpoint, I was almost done making my webquest on the questgarden site. I cited the sources of each picture with a link "Picture Credit" on the bottom of the pages where I had pictures. I hope that is okay. I didn't think about it until I was done with it, so I had to go back and track down all the pictures I used again. Not a big deal, except for one. I could not find the exact picture again! I found one of the exact same pose featuring all the Bennett sisters from Pride and Prejudice, but the one I used on the webquest also had the mother. Oh well. I think it is a fun webquest, and I could see myself using it with a class as a fun introduction to Jane Austen, and I do think it takes some independent thinking to take in lots of different information and create journal entries that can tie them all together in an interesting way. Still, I'm not quite sure that I couldn't do a similar project without a webquest. The only thing is that the webquest has the active links on it to all the different Jane Austen sites, so the student wouldn't have to copy and paste or type them in.
It is a very basic webquest, but I hope it hits all the major components. If anything, it certainly made me want to re-read Pride and Prejudice! Mission accomplished.

Here is the link

Enjoy!