Secondly, our teachers have been working extra hard on the project this year. They have been required to complete an online course developed in ProjectShareTexas that included a variety of movie-making resources. There were discussion questions to complete as well as activities that all helped with developing their storyboards needed for their video shoot. These are resources that will also be available for use in the classroom with students and can also be found in this wiki, Zombie Teacher Project. This has afforded teachers the opportunity to explore online learning and ways to extend the classroom beyond the physical building.
The greatest benefit for developing these video skills is learning how to create educational videos to use in the classroom. This next year, teachers will have access to YouTube Edu which is an extension of YouTube that has been filtered so students won't be exposed to undesirable content. Educational videos have been curated according to grade level and content area. This will be a great tool for flipping the classroom and blending learning opportunities. Utilizing these videos with Google Forms for video response opportunities or vialogues (meaningful discussions around videos) will help integrate educational videos in a meaningful way into the curriculum so developing excellent digital media skills is a must for educators today.
Here is a look at last year's winning video, Break the Silence by Kirsten Marcum, Jennifer Bailey, Ally Houchin, and Eryca Spiller:
Good luck to all the teachers as they descend on Midlothian and the surrounding area to capture video for their Zombie Teacher Project...at least for 24 hours, there is no need to fear the zombie...
