"Living with Yourself" video tutorial


After watching "Living with Yourself" with Paul Rudd on Netflix, I felt inspired to try something similar. Despite having just basic camera equipment this trick is fairly simple to pull off. The most important thing is to have is a tripod. You also need to think carefully about your "stage".
The way it works is you need to film yourself in the two roles, thinking carefully about how you would interact with yourself. Because of this, it's important to know how your scene is going to work.

Shot 1 "Summer" me
Shot 2 "Working" me

The way I did it was to film my "Summer" self first, placing the Coke can on the table. Then, without moving the tripod, I changed and filmed my "Working" self, picking up the Coke can from the same position.

Once you've filmed both shots, it's time to take it to the editor. I used WeVideo, which is my go-to editor for almost every video I create. It's impossible to know whether you've filmed it correctly until you start working with the edit... I had to film myself a few times to get it right. This is why it's important to think carefully about your "stage" because if there are any variables, it won't work. For example, the first time I tried it, it was really windy and the leaves were moving around a lot. Therefore, when I tried to edit the two shots there was too much movement and it was obvious where they were put together. You also don't want to use a background where people are moving around.

Now, the tricky part was having the two shots interact... in my case, sharing the Coke can. This was done by cropping the shots between frames. The .gifs below show how the different shots are layered... "Summer" me puts the can down, and as soon as my hand is out of the way I remove that part of the shot so that the can is now visible in the "Working" me shot. Simple. Kind of.







Cómo hacer tu #AulaVirtual con Bitmoji 👨‍🏫👩‍🏫

Desde que estamos en confinamiento, y l@s profesores han traslado sus clases "online",
han salido muchas ideas nuevas para interactuar con nuestr@s alumn@s.
Y el último fenómeno son las aulas virtuales con la ayuda de Bitmoji... este es el mío...




¿Cómo funcionan? Pues, podemos añadir elementos de todos tipos, que al hacer clic sobre ellos llevan al alumn@ a un recurso educativo. Pueden ser páginas webs, archivos de Drive, e-libros, vídeos de YouTube, etc

Os voy a explicar cómo crear el vuestro... para que sea interactivo, el mejor recurso es Presentaciones de Google. Es la herramienta multiusos de Google que nos permite insertar vídeos, audios, imágenes, GIFs y enlaces.

El primer paso es el fondo y mobiliario... una opción sencilla es buscar las imágenes de Google con un fondo de pared y suelo, podemos establecer esta imagen como el fondo de la diapositiva. Al final del post, he puesto una plantilla para ayudaros a empezar.

Ahora vamos a añadir muebles... hay unas opciones diferentes, dependiendo de las cosas que quieres añadir. Lo más sencillo es insertar las imágenes desde la búsqueda de Google dentro de Presentaciones de Google...


Para buscar las imágenes sin fondo, buscamos con la palabra "transparent". Por ejemplo, si buscamos "sofá transparente", tendremos unos cuantos sofás que podemos añadir directamente a nuestra aula. Si no encontramos la imagen que nos gusta ahí, podemos buscarla en cualquier otro sitio y quitar el fondo utilizando una herramienta gratuita online que se llama remove.bg. Esta página web nos permite subir cualquier imagen y convertir en un archivo .png transparente.


Así, poco a poco, podemos construir nuestra Aula Virtual a nuestro gusto. Según las cosas que quieres presentar a vuestr@s alumn@s se puede añadir pizarras, televisiones, mesas, estantes, ventanas, marcos, etc.
Luego, podemos añadir el contenido. Como en el ejemplo mío arriba, podemos añadir los objetos que representan nuestras actividades. Podemos insertar imágenes, GIFs y cuadros de texto, colocándolos encima o dentro de los muebles o marcos.

Ahora podemos poner los enlaces... seleccionamos la imagen, GIF o cuadro de texto y damos a "Insertar" ➡️ "Enlace" (o CTRL + K), y escribimos o pegamos el enlace.

Ahora solo falta el Bitmoji... si no lo tienes instalado aún, recomiendo añadir la extensión de Chrome de Bitmoji. Con esta extensión podemos copiar o guardar nuestro Bitmoji directamente desde el navegador. Para el Aula Virtual, busca "pose" y hay una docena de posturas de nuestro Bitmoji con fondo transparente...

Bitmoji ImageBitmoji Image

Ahora se puede compartir a través de Google Classroom, Sites o como un enlace. Siempre recomiendo compartirlo como un Presentación "Publicado en la web" para que funcionan mejor los enlaces. Para hacer esto, vamos a "Archivo"➡️ "Publicar en la Web", y lo compartimos con el enlace que se genera.  
   

Aquí os dejo una plantilla para ayudaros empezar... plantilla #AulaVirtual
Bitmoji Image

"Online Teaching Hack" trick tutorial 💻👇

Last week, I shared a short video on Twitter with a cool video trick where my hand comes out of the screen to help a student. I had a quite a few people asking me how it was done, so I thought I would make a quick tutorial.


It's quite an easy trick... it's just about working out the layer order and the camera angles. The first thing I did was take a screenshot of a Google Meet screen and replace the camera screen with a green mask using Google Drawings. I then asked my son to help me record a short video with the Chromebook in front of him. It should look a bit like this...




After that, I had to film myself with a green screen behind me (I had to use a blue towel because all of my video equipment is at school) and a green screen in front me, in line with the bottom of the Chromebook screen. I then had to film myself, carefully pointing towards where the CTRL key would be in the edit...



The last layer was a picture of my living room, which has become my new "Online Learning Classroom"...



Then, it's time to put it all into WeVideo for the edit. Firstly, I had to remove all the green and blue from the clips and then resize them so that they all fit into shape. My timeline looked a little bit like this...


My "Learning Online Classroom" goes at the bottom, lined up with the Chromebook screen. On top of that is the student with his Chromebook... and then on top that goes my video, with a now transparent background. It needs to be carefully placed to line up with the Chromebook screen and so that the finger points more or less towards the CTRL key.

Finally, the result should look a bit like this...




If you want to try it and get stuck, just send me an email to ryangornall13@gmail.com and I'll try and help... Good luck! 

I Love You❤️... to the moon🌙 and back! Father's Day WeVideo🎥 Green Screen Project


The phrase "I Love You to the Moon and Back" from the popular children's book "Guess How Much I Love You" by Sam McBratney was the starting point for this project. It's such a beautiful book to read and share with young students about how Little Nutbrown Hare and Big Nutbrown Hare try to find ways to measure the unmeasurable love that they feel for each other. 
Therefore, for Father's Day this year (in Spain it's celebrated on 19th March, the day of Saint Joseph), I wanted to capture this moment with a special video message, using WeVideo.



It was really easy to do, and only really required a few objects: a step ladder, a green screen to cover it, and a few clamps to keep it in place... the rest was made using WeVideo stock media and text animations.
The set up should look something like this...

The most important thing is getting the camera in the right place for it to look right. I had to try it a few times to get it right, but once everything is in position I was able to film all of my students really quickly.
All I asked my students to do was: 
  • crouch down and climb up the step ladder 3 steps (not too dangerous),
  • touch the moon (I told them where it would be),
  • and finally look towards the camera...
Easy! Then, all I had to do was edit it... 

My WeVideo timeline consisted of 7 layers... firstly, the moon background video which is available in the WeVido Essentials Library. Above that goes the ladder illustration, which most closely resembled the size and shape of my real ladder. The next 4 layers are the different text elements that are timed to appear with the students actions. Finally, on the top I put the students video with the green ladder and green background. In WeVideo, it should look something like this...



I converted the video edit into a template which made it really easy to share with my younger students for them to simply add and edit their own recording.
Once I published the video, I have that found that the easiest way to share it is as a .GIF file. My favourite place for this is ezgif.com as I can convert my mp4 file to a GIF file completely in Google Chrome.

Finally, for me, the easiest way to share it with their families is via a QR Code that is linked to the .GIF file in Google Drive, which they can then stick in their School Diary. I do this in QRCode Monkey, which is great for creating personalised QR codes.




¡Feliz Día del Padre!
❤️🌙

"Querido Santa"🎅 Festival de Navidad de Infantil🎄

Este año decidí escribir una obra original para nuestra tradicional Festival de Navidad de Infantil en mi colegio. Todos los años buscamos una obra de teatro para enlazar las actuaciones de las diferentes clases de Educación Infantil. Entonces, mi idea era buscar cartas graciosas, bonitas y originales de niños y niñas de todo el mundo, escritos a Santa Claus.

Aquí comparto el guión y los vídeos de la actuación completo de "Querido Santa", por si alguien se anima a utilizarlo en su colegio...

Guión "Querido Santa"


Escena 1


Escena 2

Escena 3

Escena 4

Escena 5

Escena 6

¡Feliz Navidad!
🎅🌟🦌🎄🎁🔔





 

🎅Bola de❄Nieve Navideña☃ Proyecto de🎥WeVideo🎄


Para el vídeo de felicitación de Navidad de este año, me inspiré en el blog tutorial de Tricia Fuglestad y quería intentar hacerlo con las herramientas de G-Suite for Education y los Chromebooks. Para esta tu #appsmash usé Google Drawings, y por supuesto, WeVideo.

El primer reto era organizar las diferentes capas... hay un fondo, el alumno, la nieve cayendo, y el primer plano. Entonces, empecé a experimentar con Google Drawings y al final mi linea de tiempo en WeVideo parecía así...



En fin, tuve que crear una composición con Google Drawings, luego duplicarlo y añadir una máscara verde donde quería que apareciese el alumno y la nieve. 
Encontré una Bola de Nieve guapísima en freepik.com, y un decorado de galletas navideñas para el fondo en pngtree.com  
Puedes hacer click en las imágenes debajo para hacer una copia y utilizarlos para tu proyecto de Navidad. 

Hacer una copia

Hacer una copia
Una vez que has creado la composición, lo único que queda hacer es añadir la nieve y grabar a tus alumnos delante de una croma. Luego, añadirlos a la línea de tiempo en WeVideo...


Con mis otros proyectos de vídeo, me gusta convertir el vídeo al formato GIF porque en general son más fáciles de abrir y compartir. Mi convertidor preferido de GIF es EZGIF.com porque me permite hacerlo todo desde Chrome. Luego los comparto con las familias a través de un código QR con el enlace a Drive. Hago el código QR en QR Code Monkey, porque se pueden personalizar los colores, el estilo y añadir una imagen...



Si queires ayuda con esto mandarme un email a ryangornall13@gmail.com o escribirme un mensaje a @ryangornall13 por Twitter

¡Feliz Navidad!
🎅🌟🦌🎄🎁🔔




Snow Globe vector created by macrovector - www.freepik.com
Gingerbread decoration PNG Designed By 潭佳 from Pngtree.com
Merry Christmas on QR Code - www.freepik.es

🎅Christmas Snow❄Globe WeVideo🎥 Project🎄


For this year's Christmas Card video I was inspired by Tricia Fuglestad's blog tutorial post and wanted to try and recreate it on a Google-based platform. For this #appsmash I used Google Drawings, and of course, WeVideo.

The first challenge was figuring out the layers... obviously, there is a background, a subject, the snow falling, and the foreground. So, I started experimenting and eventually my WeVideo timeline looked a bit like this...



Basically, I had to create a composition in Google Drawings, and then duplicate it and add a green mask where I wanted my snow and subject to appear. 
I found a beautiful Snow Globe in freepik.com, and a cool Gingerbread decoration for the background in pngtree.com  
Click on either image below to make a copy and feel free to use it for your own Christmas Video project. 


Make a copy
Make a copy
Once you've created the composition, all you need to do is add snow and film your students in front of a green screen and add it to your timeline...



As with my other video projects, I prefer to convert the video to a GIF file as they're generally easier to open and share. My favourite GIF converter is EZGIF.com as I can do it all from Chrome. Then I share with the students' families by QR code which I create at QR Code Monkey, as it allows me to personalise the colours, style and add an image...


If you would like some help with this please email me at ryangornall13@gmail.com or message me @ryangornall13 on Twitter

MERRY CHRISTMAS!!!
🎅🌟🦌🎄🎁🔔




Snow Globe vector created by macrovector - www.freepik.com
Gingerbread decoration PNG Designed By 潭佳 from Pngtree.com
Merry Christmas on QR Code - www.freepik.es

PdG News

One of the projects that I have started this year at school is a weekly news programme with my students from 6º Primaria. Every week I have tried to cover some of the events going on at the school and then each week I ask for help from a few students to film it. 


The students have responded really positively, and each week more and more students are volunteering to help me. The perfect tool for making each News Bulletin has been WeVideo... in the 1st week I created a template for the news programme with school logo, title sequences and backgrounds which are all included in the WeVideo media library. Therefore, each week I only need to add the footage of the student reporter and the activity that we're covering.


G-Suite for Education makes the whole process really easy as I can begin the News programme script in Docs on Monday and collaborate with other teachers or students about what is going on. I can also easily share photos and videos of the different activities with whoever I need to through Drive. Then, to put it all together and share it with my students and their families, I have put it all into a Google Sites that also allows me to share additional information, extra photos and interesting links.





#GSHGasteiz19 WeVideo workshop

At #GSHGasteiz19 I was given the opportunity to offer a workshop about collaborative projects with WeVideo at the annual event organised by GSuite Hezkuntzan in Vitoria.


Since the GEG Spain event that I attended in Valencia in May, I've learnt an enormous amount about how to use WeVideo in my classes, and so I decided to prepare my own workshop.



Before my own workshop, I also attended Javier Simón's workshop, "OK Google, ¿Hablamos?" which gave me some really cool and interesting ideas about how to use Google Assistant with my students. I have a Google Home Mini myself, but I never could have imagined how it could be used in the classroom.

Javier Simón - "OK Google, ¿Hablamos?"

Once I arrived at the venue, I was also informed that my workshop was going to be live streamed via YouTube. Even though this made me a little bit more nervous about presenting my workshop, it was nice to know that my family and friends would be able to watch it at home.



I tried to structure my workshop, so that I could adequately describe how useful it can be in the classroom, but also giving the participants enough time to try it out. I took as many of my video and green screen resources with me as I could, for everybody to try out some chroma keying tricks.



I received a lot of positive feedback and I think that everyone that attended enjoyed the experience, but more importantly left with some ideas about how to use video with their own classes.


It was a great experience and a wonderful opportunity to meet so many enthusiastic and dedicated educators. 


Halloween Vocabulary

As part of the homeschooling lessons sessions I have been creating this year for my Infants students I decided to make a Halloween special!


Feel free to use and share, and I hope it's useful for your young learners.

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!
🎃👻🧛🧟🦇🕷


#TEFL #EFL #TESOL