Animoto Inspiration

Animoto is so easy to use that I fell for their advertising and jumped right into it. My excitement is what prompted me to create a personal Animoto first, but I soon realized that I could do much more with an educational account.  Definitely the way to go!  Now that I have viewed other more educational Animotos, I see the endless possibilities. 


The Animoto entitled Children Learn What They Live on Mrs. Marrone's blog inspired me to really think about what I could use Animoto for. 

Her blog is:  http://ktbgconnect.blogspot.com/search/label/Animoto

O'Connell School in East Hartford is in the first year of the process of becoming an IB (International Baccalaureate) school comparable to other schools around the world.  

The following quote is from the mission statement taken directly from the IB website:  http://www.ibo.org/mission/index.cfm

The International Baccalaureate aims to develop inquiring, knowledgeable and caring young people who help to create a better and more peaceful world through intercultural understanding and respect.

To this end the organization works with schools, governments and international organizations to develop challenging programmes of international education and rigorous assessment.

These programmes encourage students across the world to become active, compassionate and lifelong learners who understand that other people, with their differences, can also be right.

There are several broad themes that revolve around notions such as responsibility for the planet, how the world works, how we express ourselves, who we are, how their identify fits, their role into the world, and so forth. In addition to these themes, there are personal traits called leaner profiles that are emphasized as well:  students are explicitly taught to be inquirers, knowledgeable, thinkers, communicators, principled, open minded, caring, risk takers, balanced, and reflective.  Should you have an interest to explore more, the following link is a video of these profiles "coming alive."


http://www.ibo.org/programmes/profile/


Teachers have been trying to integrate our regular curriculum into the IB curriculum but as the shift to Common Core occurs, I think that process will become easier. 

 My future plan is to create some sort of Animoto that is based upon the themes or learner profiles or both.  If that proves too difficult, I also really liked Meghan's plant vocabulary Animoto.  I can modify that for almost any vocabulary I teach to ELL's.  


                                                      

http://meghaneduc584.blogspot.com/2012/04/animoto-take-two.html

After seeing a short video on the inclusion of digital literacy on the IB website, I am much more inclined to try harder.  However, I just have to say that I don't feel the blame is entirely in the teachers' hand.  Many of us are inclined to incorporate more technology into our classrooms but lack the technology or the training to do so.  However, in the words of Snow White: "you are never to old to be young..." so I will do my best to keep with the next generation.