The Be You! Project

Lesson One - Be Curious!

DIGITAL TOOLS: Cameras on iOS devices

RESOURCES:The Everyone Can Create Early Learner Teacher Book and the Everyone Can Create Photo book

PRIOR KNOWLEDGE: It’s helpful (but not necessary) if students already have a basic knowledge of how to use the camera on an iOS device.

1. Read the story to students. Focus on the “be curious” page. What does it mean to be curious? What are you curious about?
2. Take the iPads and go on a photo walk around or near the school. Have students take picture of things that they notice and are curious about. Model how they can use the iPad to get different perspectives (close-ups, bird’s eye view, etc).

Directions you can take from here:
- Use the images as writing prompts
- Let students use the image of the thing they found most interesting to launch a personal inquiry
- Create “can you guess what it is?” puzzles for classmates, using close-up pictures taken on photo walk

Click on the pictures to see the videos!

Lesson Two - Be Adventurous!

DIGITAL TOOLS: Keynote

RESOURCES: The Apple Teacher Keynote resources

PRIOR KNOWLEDGE: Some knowledge of how to use Keynote is helpful but not necessary.

1. Begin by talking about what it means to be adventurous. Try to highlight the fact that people’s definitions of what is adventurous can be quite different.

2. Have students work in small groups to discuss things they did during the summer that were adventurous. If they are struggling with the concept, give them some examples and once they start to get the idea, encourage students to contribute their ideas.

3. Now have each student brainstorm their own list of three adventurous things they did during the summer. If your students are old enough to understand the idea of “icons” have them also think about an icon that could represent each adventurous thing they did. If they are too young, this will require another discussion!

4. Once students have decided on their ideas and perhaps thought of icons to represent their adventures, you’re ready to dive into Keynote and the Motion Path. Use the information in the video tutorial on this page as well as information from the Apple Teacher website to help teach yourself and your students how to use Motion Path to show how adventurous their summers were!

Lesson Three - Be Kind!

DIGITAL TOOLS: Voice Memo

RESOURCES: How to Use Voice Memo, Everyone Can Create Music

PRIOR KNOWLEDGE: None

Darcy show us lots of ways we could use the not-so-well-known tool, Voice Memo, in educational settings.

- The main one that connects to the book is using Voice Memo to record and kind oral note to someone special, telling them why they are special and what you appreciate about them.
- Another way this could be used at the beginning of the year is for one student to record their interview with another student in the class and then present it as a way of getting to know them.

Other great ideas for Voice Memo:
* Recording soundscapes and using them as writing prompts
* Have students record their thoughts as a pre-writing exercise
* Record students oral reading and keep as a form of assessment
* Use Voice Memo as a way for students to talk about something important to their family our culture

If you’re really feeling brave, check out the resources on Garageband and learn how to layer on sound effects and music! Wow!

Lesson Four - Be Brave!

DIGITAL TOOLS: Apple Notes

RESOURCES: How To Use Apple Notes

PRIOR KNOWLEDGE: None

Setting goals at the beginning of the school year is a time-honoured tradition.

Apple’s Notes can be used in a variety of ways to support this start-of-the-year activity.

Notes can allow students to track goals via a checklist, a spreadsheet or even a vision board.

This lesson might need to be modified, depending on the age of your students. For very young students, perhaps they can start by learning the checklist tool in Notes. It is the easiest!

Lesson Five - Be Persistent!

DIGITAL TOOLS: iPads, iMovie

RESOURCES: The Everyone Can Create Video book, small toys (Lego, Playmobil, etc), a homemade or purchased iPad tripod

PRIOR KNOWLEDGE: How to use the camera on an iPad and some basic iMovie experience are helpful

This activity works best when students are in groups of two or three. Each group needs to start by agreeing on what toys they’ll use, who will bring them in to school and what little story or activity they’ll have their stop motion focus on.

Stop motion animation is really just a matter of three key things: A) keeping the camera or iPad still; B) moving the character and elements very small amounts between pictures; C) editing and putting it all together!

Stop motion can be tricky and at times frustrating. It’s a great way to teach persistence but be prepared to step in and help if you sense your students are getting part the point of learning!

Once the images are all properly loaded onto iMovie, the main things to remember are: A) eliminate the Ken Burns effect; B) shrink each image to the smallest time and C) get rid of transitions!

Celebrate every success! A group that works hard all day but only manages to get 5 seconds of film still did an amazing job! Remind them that it’s likely their first best try!

Finish off with a film festival - let each group share their videos with the class!

Lesson Six - Be Connected!

DIGITAL TOOLS: Apple Clips

RESOURCES: The Apple Teacher website and the Everyone Can Create Video book

PRIOR KNOWLEDGE: Some basic knowledge of how to use Clips is helpful but not necessary.

This activity could be done as a whole class or in small groups, depending on the age and ability of your students.

Start by choosing something that connects everyone. Maybe it’s a class or school mascot, a special classroom book or toy or event school t-shirt!

Work with students to decide on a path for the object as well as an orientation for the iOS device and an order for who goes when.

Now, following the plan, students can film their segments and then work together to edit them and polish off their work by adding music, or maybe a title poster or some stickers.

Once the Pass the Object Challenge is done, share it with parents or other classes. Maybe you could even challenge another class to do this…or challenge the whole school!

Wrapping It All Up - Part 1!

In this last Instagram Live, Darcy and Cari discuss ideas for other pages in the book as well as assessment.

Ideas for other pages:

Be patient! - As a class, use the time lapse function on your iOS camera and “film” something that takes time to happen, like a flower blooming or an ice cube melting. Use this as a springboard for talking about the virtue of patience and how patience can help us in learning.

Be different! - Allow students to show how they’re different by giving them choice in the tools they use to tell people about their likes, dislikes, etc, as a way to get to know each other!

Assessment: (a few tips from us)
The first time students use a new digital tool, don’t assess their product (but there’s nothing wrong with making observations about how your students handle new learning, creativity and collaboration)

Try to use these activities as a way to get to know your students as individuals, not as a way to mark spelling and math!

Allow students to self assess with these activities. Use the “what you see / what you don’t see” format. Eg: “You can see that I learned how to use the Ken Burns effect in my project. What you don’t see is that it took me several tries to figure it out and in the end I had to ask for help.”

Model that learning and self-assessment cycle for your students!