Tag Archives: reflective thinking

Lifelong Learning and Stop Motion

Today I made a thing:

One of the reasons I became a teacher is because I truly love learning.  As a teacher, my goal is to instill a love of lifelong learning in my students.

Today I taught myself basic stop motion animation.  I’m sure a ton of my students are able to create more sophisticated videos than what I made today, but I’m still super proud of my work!

Why?

I wanted to create a little introduction to start off my videos for when I read stories aloud online.  Over the years I’ve amassed a large collection of vintage school supplies, saving them for who knows what — a pandemic, I guess?  I chose to use my 100 year old anagram letters and a vintage chalkboard as manipulatives for my introduction video.  Since I’m working from home, I have more time to explore techniques and tech and so I decided to create a stop motion video with my vintage supplies.

I didn’t have a Q so I had to paint in a little yellow tail on an O.
Platform

I chose to use the Stop Motion Studio app our school district recommends:

I found the app incredibly straightforward and easy to use.  I made the video entirely on my iPad, taking only 30 minutes to complete.

In Stop Motion Studio, pictures are taken one by one to make the video.
Music

When you create a stop motion video in the Stop Motion Studio app, it is soundless.  You can add an audio voiceover, but I chose to save the app to my camera roll.  Next, I downloaded the song, “Library” by The Little Bandits from iTunes (there may be a TikToc video coming soon using that song…) and added a sound clip to my stop motion video in the Splice app. I could have used iMovie but I find it’s glitchy and doesn’t work well for me.  I prefer to use Splice and find it easy to use.

Editing the stop motion video in the Splice app.
Final product and Reflection

Reflection is hard for students to do after a project is complete.  Reflection is one of the most important tools one can practice to improve future work.  From looking at my video, I’m very happy with my first effort but it’s by no means perfect.  Where could I improve?

BC Core Competencies: Critical and Reflective Thinking.
  1.  The video is not level.  I could not get my iPad to straighten parallel to my work surface.  As a result, the off-kilter angle bothers me.   I will need to come up with a better solution for my next attempt.
  2. My lighting is a bit dark.   I like the look of natural light;  the dark shadows of artificial light bother me.   When I chose to start filming, it was overcast outside, darkening my video.
  3. The picture quality is a bit grainy.  The video is slightly out of focus.  My iPad is school district issued, three years old and well used; all quality issues I cannot change at the moment.  So for now, I will have to deal.
  4. I don’t like the start or end of my video.  I should have added in clips of a blank chalkboard, allowing the music to play out a bit at either end.
Next Steps and New Learnings

I will reshoot the video tomorrow, using my reflections to improve the overall quality.

I’m also really interested in TikTok.  I haven’t been able to get into SnapChat but I definitely see the draw of TikTok.  I love a good lip sync and I have been practicing a library-related song to share with students soon.

What new learnings have come your way lately?  I’d love to hear.  Please comment below.

🙂 Mme Zibin