I finally gave iMovie a try! I have wanted to try it for quite some time now. My brother uses iMovie to create family videos and outings. I always look forward to watching them. For some reason, I get overly enthusiastic when I view videos created in a movie theme. Perhaps because I love movies!
A few of my students used iMovie when they created their Genius Hour projects and I’m pretty sure I gave them an ‘A’ because I was very impressed!
So, in order to get started I had to clear storage on my iphone due to the fact that I have too many pictures and music taking up a lot of space. I had decided to use the iMovie app because I kept hearing about how user friendly it is.
Fortunately, I had the perfect opportunity to film my students during a group work activity on Technology Innovation. Every September, Donna McCreery emails from Junior Achievement. She shares many technology innovations invented by Canadians. In groups, my students worked together to brainstorm inventions to meet certain needs.
Group work does not always work well with such a large group but today, 95% of the students were engaged and their creative juices were flowing! Their ideas included a jumpsuit that adjusts to the size of the person. It will stretch if its too small or shrink if its too big. Another group came up with a robot design that will help them clean their room or finish their homework in order to have more time to play. 
One other group’s idea is to create an ExoSuit so that someone in a wheelchair can wear it and then walk around and even dance if they want.
Here is the iMovie I made!
There are numerous ways that iMovie can be used in a classroom setting. Appsinclass.com provides great suggestions of ways to cover Blooms Taxonomy in an iMovie. You will find ideas and examples for Creativity, Evaluation, Analyzing, Applying and Understanding.
As far as problems occurring when using iMovie, I am sure wifi connections can potentially be a problem. Our classroom has been having wifi issues regularly so it is nothing new. Some common problems are shared here. A few include, glitches, poor camera connections, slowed speed, or problems with exporting.
I am not leery about suggesting my students try to create an iMovie because they can teach each other and/or learn by trial and error just like I do. If all else fails, I will suggest he/she googles a “how to” YouTube video.
There are many ways to enhance student learning using iMovie. These include;
- Create engaging presentations
- Create How to Videos
- Provide out-of school experiences
- Use iMovie for classroom projects
- Digital story telling
- Create book trailers/reports
My first plan is to suggest iMovie to create a book trailer/report. I would love to share a book I love by creating a video. So much fun!
Jennifer Huber's Blog 
Isn’t it funny how students aren’t often more fluent in tech tools than us? I love that! So did you show your students your iMovie? Can you get them to critique it and tell you what they think you can improve on?
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Yes, most are more than willing to try it out!
No, I haven’t showed them but I will soon.
Ha Ha! I’m sure a few can give me some pointers!
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I love your video that you created! Great job, Jennifer!
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Thanks! I appreciate it:)
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Great post! I love that you were brave and tried something new. imovie looks like such a fun and cool tool for the students to use. I did have to do some detective work to leave a reply, tricky to find a reply option.
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It’s definitely a fun tool! I’ve always loved it.
I do know about the difficulty commenting on the blog. I forgot to put a message at the end of my blog this week to let my readers know. Oops!
Thanks for not giving up and figuring out how:)
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Very well done, Jen! I loved that you timed the music and the clips!! Did that take a long time? Where did you get your music from? I love the movie intro and credits at the end. Awesome!
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Thanks Natalie!
The video took about 35-45 mins. So, not too long. You just choose a format (includes the music) and then select the clips and the text. It’s very user friendly and a lot of fun!
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Real Enemy was quite a great time in my life. I was there for there first show in the Ward Street basement and actually was responsible for the recording of the live tracks on Life with the Enemy. I’ve got a bunch of pics I’ve been trying to scan and MP3′s of the entire Live set from Cleveland. I actually have photos of all the shows in the first NY/CT tour as well. I’ve been in email contact with Steve(bass) over the past year or so and trying to get it all together for him. Hello to Mike and anyone else from back in the day.Ned
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