Creative Ed Tech
  • Home
  • Blog
  • Templates
  • Game Shows
  • Listicles
  • Trainings

My "force myself to write and be creative" Blog

Build Your Own Green Screen Kits

1/18/2017

4 Comments

 
I have been a huge fan of using Green Screens in education going back to when I first saw Hall Davidson demo it 5 years ago at a tech conference.  He inspired me to make green screen recording off all my AP History lectures. I started this back in 2008 when doing green screen video could only be done using a PC and some pretty heavy software like Adobe Premiere.
Below is an example of one my lectures on the Cold War. Side note... this project more than any other I have done in teaching FORCED me to really plan because I knew these could be seen by anyone outside my classroom... it was very empowering.  
Back to making your own making Green Screen kit. 
About a year ago I purchased the pretty affordable kit from Amazon but realized a few things in the time I had it:
1) I've never used the lights it came with.... too bulky and just not really needed. The lighting in most classroom is just fine.
2) It's a bit large. Both lugging it around and setting up the stands is not super quick. 
3) There is only one of them. When trying to have student groups use them, there was always a line of kids waiting their turn. 

So... my fellow TOSA team and I  took on the task of making our own. We already had a few iPad minis which we wanted to check out to teachers in our district (hey Jon Corripo, love the idea of checking out equipment!) and we wanted to make multiple of these kits to also be available for check out. Then we started starting shopping and sewing to create the kits you see below. 

Some of the pics below are from Mrs Schuett's World History class where you can see these kits in action. She is one of my district's middle school teachers and her students created video reports on Japan. It was the first time we were able to get these kits out in the hands of teachers and students. 

Lastly, if you want to make you own, here are 7 parts that make up our kit. 
Picture
1) iPad mini 2. At $269 it is THE tool. You can use other iPads but this cost and size are best suited for students. What makes it perfect is that on just one this one device you shoot, edit and share your Green Screen creations. As of now there is not an Android tablet and green screen program that can rival
2) Green Screen app by Do Ink. There are several other apps but this the most user friendly and robust in the app store. Plus they continually update the program with new and improved features.
3) iPad case: There are tons out there and if you have iPads I sure hope you already have some cases for them! We use "i-Blason Kido Series ArmorBox Kids Friendly Convertible Stand Case" from Amazon. 
4) Max Table Stand. You will need to keep the iPad as steady as possible to create a realistic illusion. You can try to use a tripod, but I find a stand like this one from Max Cases to be small and easy to use. 
5) Green fabric. For each of our kits we used 2 yards of fabric. At your local fabric store you will find lots to pick from. I would recommend a fabric which is lightweight and your color is flat; meaning it is not shiny and does not reflect light. My choice is often a jersey knit fabric because it's usually quite inexpensive, very light weight, does not wrinkle easy and stretches well. Back at home we cut the fabric ourselves and then, this very important, we folded one side over a few inches and sewed a seam. It is this seam where you will feed the PVC pipe. 
6) PVC pipe and coupler. I went with a 3/4 inch, small but still strong enough to hold up the weight of the fabric. You could make this one long piece, but we cut it into several pieces in order to make all of kit fit into one travel bag. 
7) Green socks: not needed but fun addition to put on hands to help make things "appear" from off screen. 

I didn't include a way to hang them but often time you can prop this up above a whiteboard or simply use a couple of other students to hold the two ends. 

The cost of all of these are pretty minimal. I mean seriously... PVC pipe is less that $3. Now, if you have iPads and covers, the biggest cost you will have is the fabric and that is very reasonable. To really do this well though, I recommend doing MULTIPLE kits. therefore your student can work in groups and not feel rushed. 
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Picture
Check this picture out which shows how you can utilize one of these green socks!
​Ranger Roland says "hello Mr. Owl!"



4 Comments

History Dinner Party

5/29/2016

1 Comment

 
This least week I helped out a history teacher friend of mine named April who was having her end of the year history class celebration. She was inspired to do a History Dinner Party lesson from a teacher Facebook Group. Here is part of this lesson
Picture
Along with researching and interacting with each other, the students were asked to dress up in character to add to the experience. I offered to add a little to this lesson by setting up a green screen and having the students get their photos taken. So, they were asked to do a little more research and to provide a image to use as their background. We set up a Google Drive folder and the students were responsible to add their image to the folder. 
We used only one iPad with the Green Screen by app from DoInk. One of the senior aides in the class was taught the app and the students took turns lining up for the photo. They would let the photographer know which image was their background and then strike a pose. 
After their "photo session" they mingled with the other dinner guests.
Picture
These are some of the finished images. 
Picture
And here is a gallery with more of these images.
 
1 Comment

    RSS Feed

    Recent Posts

    Libraries and "What I'm Reading" Template​

    Tough Talk... Political Conversations in the Classroom
    ​

    Goodbye Padlet

    #ArmMeWith
    ​

    UPDATE: The New Tab I Open In Chrome Is...
    ​
    Orbits

    Twitter Hashtags for Education

    Top Five Non Education Podcast Episodes of 2017

    5 Ideas For Your Home Page

    ​
    The Importance of Taking Notes

    8 podcast episodes you should check out

    ​Blocking
    ​
    Waiting for the Tidal Wave


    Be a power user when editing your photos

    Thanks Smartphone

    Episode V: The Classroom Strikes Back

    Is it too late to apologize to my senior English teacher?

    ​Want to make a movie? Have you heard of PowerPoint?

    ​
    Make Your Own Memes

    My 100th Blog Post

    What Is The Internet?

    Bingo for the Classroom


    Bring Star Wars Into Any Classroom

    Sticky Notes & Candy Wrappers from Google Drawing

    Top 15 Google April Fool's pranks

    ​
    CUE 2017 Reflections

    ​​
    Visual Primary Sources

    Twitter is like.... 

    My Top 10 Chrome Extensions

    ​Share Your Stickers

    I'm Not Really The Best Co-Worker


    So, You Want To Start A Podcast?

    What Does Your New Tab Do?

    My favorite Google Docs sharing request

    Build Your Own Green Screen Kits

    Need Music and Sounds for your next Project?

    ​What's In Your Bag?

    3 Tips for Teaching With Images

    ​6 Degrees of Wikipedia

    Candy Quiz!
    ​

    Am I The Only One Who Didn't Know About "Alt Codes"?

    Have you heard of Fiverr yet?

    4 Fake Headline Generators

    Hour of Code: Check... Now What?

    To Scan or Not Scan... That is the Question!
    ​
    #createwith
    chromebooks


    How little classrooms have changed

    Tips for having student listen to audio clips

    "I Finally Got Twitter!".

    YouTube Tools You Maybe Haven't Thought Of

    Ed Tech Cartoons

    9 Tools for Making Quick Videos

    ​
    Google Innovator Update

    Wish Me Luck!


    Agendas Using Google Slides

    Yes, I Used To Collect Comic Books

    So long Summer!

    On A Midnight Plane From Georgia

    History Dinner Party

    My Year By The Numbers
    ​

    12 Things Students Should Never Do on Social Media

    What's In A Name?

    I'm The Map!

    Historical Images in Lego

    Sharing Podcasts

    Ken Robinson is going to Check This Out!

    Code Monkey
    ​

    8 Student Blogs to Check Out
    ​

    Watering Rocks

    A "Bittersweet" lesson on copyright

    "Don’t Copy That Floppy" Software Piracy

    Fun & Games with Google Maps

    Bring Star Wars Into Any Classroom

    Fact vs Fiction

    CUE 16 Reflections

    Where, How and Why to find good copyright free images

    7 Reasons To Start Using Google Photos


    "School of Rock" & Project Based Learning

    Learn About Search

    More Ideas For Using Padlet

    Fictional Twitter Profiles

    Blogging... Who, What, When, Where, Why
    ​
    Newsletters


    Ed Camp 123 Reflections

    NASA's Apollo photos online​

    Creative Ways to use Tag Clouds​

    Virtual Reality: Apps, Ideas & Resources

    George Lucas Likes Ice Cream

    Top 6 Star Wars Parody Songs

    More Twitter Stuff - Visual Twitter Tools

    ​Sticky Notes to help understand Twitter





    ​
    Categories

    All
    App Smashing
    Blogging
    Collaboration
    CUE
    Digital-citizenship
    Digital Storytelling
    Flickr
    Google
    Graphic Organizers
    Green Screen
    Lang Arts
    Newsletter
    Podcasting
    Professional Development
    Project Based Learning
    Science
    Social Studies
    Space
    Star Wars
    TCM Resources
    Twitter
    Virtual Reality

Proudly powered by Weebly
  • Home
  • Blog
  • Templates
  • Game Shows
  • Listicles
  • Trainings