Motion Comics with @AdobeExpress #AdobeEduCreative #MakerEd

I wanted to share a clip of a video I assembled based on the motion comics my students created. Students used Adobe Express to create all of the images and pages of their comic. We took pictures using a green screen and the students used Express to remove the background and animate them based on their storyboard design they created. Here is an image of one of the pages.

The first graders were able to name their superhero and keep the mask and cape. This was such a fun process and showcased what can be possible using Adobe Express and looking for creative, engaging solutions to traditional curriculum items. In this case, plotting and pacing a story for a younger audience. You can follow more of these types of projects on Instagram, Twitter (X), and TikTok. 

@thenerdyteacher Students in my Innovation and Digital Design Class partnered with 1st grade buddies and used @adobeexpress to turn them into superheroes! Combining green screens with animation features once the background was easily removed, students were able to bring their storyboards to life. Check out my website for more info. #FYP #TeacherFYP #adobe #Education #MakerEd #teachersoftiktok #TeacherTok ♬ Marvel Studios Fanfare - Geek Music

Feb Challenge from Adobe Edu #AdobeEduCreative

There is a new challenge from Adobe Edu that you should check out. Watch this video from Claudio and see what you need to do.

📣New Creative Challenge Alert! 📣

Make it a game for your students with the all-new “Guess my Favorite Book” challenge!

Enter to win cool prizes for your class.

Get started now ➡️ https://t.co/LgPJWXqbfc

Have fun creating ✌🏾#AdobeEduChallenge #AdobeEduCreative… pic.twitter.com/oo0l2UjsrE

— ૮ℓαµ∂เσ ƶαѵαℓα ʝ૨. (@ClaudioZavalaJr) February 1, 2024

Here is my example I completed today. I will be doing this with my 6th graders in my design class. 

 

Draw and Translate on @AdobeExpress! #AdobeEduCreative @RebeccaLouHare

I wanted to share this quickly before I head out for the weekend. Adobe Express has introduced a DRAWING feature! Teachers and students have been asking for this for a very long time. The possibilities are endless and I can't wait to see what students and teachers create using tablets/touchscreens to draw. Adding drawing simply increases the creative abilities of students and teachers. It is very straightforward to use and will provide lots of different ideas. Here are a few quick screenshots I tool 

You can find the Drawing option under the Education and Suggested tap on the new.express.adobe.com homepage. You have the option to create from Scratch or use a template. Here is what I was able to whip up quickly. 

Look out Picasso! You can change colors, styles of brush, thickness of the lines, etc. This is exactly what I was hoping it was going to be and could not be happier. They also have decorative brushes! Look at the bats I created. You increase the size on the left and you can have all types of fun creations with the simple swipe across the page with the mouse. 

I am super excited about this new feature and I hope everyone that loves Adobe Express takes a moment to try it out and share their thoughts. 

Quick addition because I just saw this as I was about to post. You can translate into different languages. Entire documents! What?! Check this out!

Have you tried the all-new Translate features in Adobe Express?

🔹 Open a project
🔹 Click Translate on the top menu bar
🔹 Choose a language(s)
🔹 Click Duplicate & Translate
🔹 Watch the magic happen

Check it out...and have fun creating ✌🏾@AdobeExpress @AdobeForEdu… pic.twitter.com/4nzPpMiKPq

— ૮ℓαµ∂เσ ƶαѵαℓα ʝ૨. (@ClaudioZavalaJr) October 11, 2023

These are a couple of amazing features that are going to increase the creativity across the board for even more students and teachers. Check it out and share with your teacher friends!

Hugs and High Fives, 

NP 

The Engineering Design Process #MakerEd @AdobeforEducation #AdobeEduCreative

Hello friends! I wanted to share this example I made using Adobe Express that used Animate from Audio. It is super simple to use! You choose a character, choose a background, and record your audio. Adobe Express does the rest! I wanted to create a short video that explains the Engineering Design Process for my students in design class and this is what I was able to create. My favorite part is the last few seconds where I was able to use Adobe Express to have video running on different layers at the same time. It was just a fun think I wanted to see if I could do and I could! Check out it out below or click this link!

Hugs and High Fives, 

N Provenzano

Coolest Projects from Raspberry Pi #MakerEd

If you are looking for a fun way to bring a design challenge to your students, please take a moment to check out Coolest Projects from Raspberry Pi.

Coolest Projects provides all of the information a student and a teacher needs to be successful. The mentor guide really helps the teacher through the process. I love the student guide that was created that helps walk the students through the design process. From ideation, creation, testing, and reflection, the student goes through the entire process following the guided steps. 

Whether creating something using Scratch or something that requires physical hardware, there are plenty of different categories that students can submit their project to for consideration. I will be rolling this out to my 6th grades in the next week and I can't wait to see what they come up with for Coolest Projects. 

The deadline for sharing the projects for judging is May 11th. I am looking forward to seeing all of the amazing projects this year. 

Hugs and High Fives, 

N Provenzano

Minecraft and Literature #MakerEd #PBL

 I wanted to share a fun project that I created for my students when I had to be out of class for a couple of days. My middle school design students were working on a Design Thinking project, but could not work on it because the world was with me on my computer. I needed something for them to do that would have them think and create. It came to me quickly and I think it is going to turn out wonderfully. 

I gave students links to "The Raven" and "A Tell-Tale Heart". I like Poe and these were chosen for that reason and that they are both very short. I wanted students to be able to listen/read them in class. I used the YouTube videos of Christopher Lee reading them and you can find them both below. 

 

After reading/listening to these two pieces, students have to choose a scene from each that stood out to them and design a version of it in Minecraft. Students would start with a paper design and then move to Minecraft Education Edition to fully flesh out their design. They would post their design and multiple images of their completed build in SeeSaw with explanations of why they chose the scene and how they built it. Here is the example I created for the students to see what I was looking for from them. 

My sketch is very rough, but it conveyed the idea I had. 

I really thought I did a good job showcasing the eye here. 

The full scene from afar. 

If you want to see my SeeSaw post, you can check it out here. 

These students are very gifted builders and I can't wait to see what they can create using Minecraft Education Edition. I think this is a great way to allow students to demonstrate understanding and meaning of texts in a way that is comfortable to them. Imagine students building entire towns or homes of characters and explaining their symbolic value in the story. Themes, motifs, symbols, characterization, and much more could be discussed in depth through their creations. I think there is so much here worth exploring and I would love to hear how other ELA teachers are using Minecraft to connect their students to the reading. Tweet or tag me @TheNerdyTeacher and we can connect!

Minecraft and Design Thinking #MakerEd @PlayCraftLearn

My first lesson for my Design and Innovation class needed to be something that would engage the students immediately. Minecraft is huge in our Middle School and I thought that would be a wonderful way to get students thinking about design. Luckily, we have Minecraft Education Edition rolled out for every student in our Middle School.

The goal of the fist design challenge was to design a house for me. The students were not allowed to ask me any questions. They just had to build me a house based on what they think I might like. They were given 20 minutes to put together a prototype. The kids were understandably frustrated, but they all worked very hard to create something that they hoped I would enjoy.

We discussed the mostly completed houses and I would tell them what I did and did not like. Next, I allowed them time to ask me questions and dive deep into what I do like and what I need in a house. The reason they had to build the first house without the questions was to show them the value of listening and asking questions.

In design thinking, you want students to have empathy for the person they are designing and you can do that with the help of asking the right questions. Having the students see the value of asking questions allowed them to embrace this part of the design process. Kids love to jump to the ideation portion of design thinking because it is more fun, but they really need to spend time focusing on empathy.

The kids asked so many amazing questions and really focused on what I liked to do with my spare time and how I move about my own house. I could see they really were looking for questions that didn't just give them one answer (Do you like carpet?), but for questions that could provide a multitude of information (What do you do when you are bored at home?).

Minecraft is a wonderful tool for this intro to design thinking for students because it was so easy for them to log in and start crafting. Students were put up houses of all different shapes and sizes in a matter of minutes. That is what I was really hoping was going to happen and it was awesome to see them all working and helping one another. No grades really seems to help them take their time and try different things. One student built a red stone operated door that was protected by a golem. Ya, that was a weird sentence to write.

After their second version of the house, I walked the students through the rest of the design thinking process following the handout created by the Stanford d. School. I modified their handout that can be found here.  Next week, students will pair up and go through the design process with a partner and try to create the perfect vacation experience in Minecraft. This is their chance to really stretch and see if they can find empathy for their partner and really build something amazing for their partner.

  

View this post on Instagram

@uniliggett Knights designing and building using Minecraft Education Edition. Just the first lesson in our new design class. #MakerEd #playcraftlearn

A post shared by Nicholas Provenzano (@thenerdyteacher) on Sep 13, 2019 at 4:38am PDT

Here is a quick example of using SeeSaw to post images taken from Minecraft to demonstrate what was built.

Stay tuned for more exciting adventures in the design class!

NP

Back to work #DesignThinking #PBL

Today I go back to the proverbial front of the classroom.

Over the past two years, I have been working with teachers and building a makerspace for our school. It has been a fun experience, but I have always missed out on having "my" class and the challenges that come with it. Today, I will be teaching a class I will be building from the ground up.

Since I started at University Liggett School, there has been talk about creating a class for the 6th graders that would focus on problem solving and critical thinking. There was talk about a Makerspace class, but I did not want to teach a class on how to use 3D printers. However, teaching students how to approach problems and use different tools to create solutions sounded amazing.

I spent the past 6 months diving into what a class that is a trimester long might look like and I found myself drawn to the Design Thinking model of problem solving to create a base for the class and using that to jump to other design ideas. As a trained ELA and Social Studies teacher, I feel a bit out of my element, but excited to learn with the students and see what happens. I'm also excited to implement things I have always dreamed of doing in a class.

• Mindfulness - I will be starting each class with a few minutes of mindfulness. I am using the Calm app on my phone. My class is after lunch, so I want to take a few moments to calm the bodies and mind before asking them to dive into problem solving and critical thinking. I'm nervous to as Middle Schoolers to sit quietly and look inward for relaxation, but I feel it is important and I'm going to give it a try. 
• Portfolio/Project Based - This class is going to be based on what they create. Everything will be stored in SeeSaw and that is where my feedback will live as well. Students and I will be able to have an ongoing dialogue about their work and how it evolves over the course of the trimester. 
• No Homework - I will not assign anything that requires students to work at home. My goal is to create an environment where students are excited about their projects and want to work at home and share with their family. I refuse to add more work to their busy schedule at home. 
• No Grades - I will not be giving grades for this class. Students will have a 1 under the assignment if it is completed and we have met to discuss it or a 0 is the project has not been completed and we have not conferenced about it. I feel like giving a grade to a student who solves a problem one way and a different grade to a student who solves it another way is just not what this class is about. I also think by getting rid of the grades, students will be more likely to try big ideas and embrace failure instead of taking the easy route to finish the work. I could be way off here, but I love that I get to try. 

I have some ideas for projects that might be super fun, but I will have to roll them out and see what the kids think. I will be starting with the Wallet Challenge from the Stanford d.school and then moving to a Minecraft for Education challenge to create the perfect vacation destination for a partner. I will be trying Chindogu with my students to bring a fun, light approach to design and I'll see how students might repurpose underutilized areas of the school. I also have an idea for students to create a small line of products that people might want to buy and setting up an Etsy shop to see how that goes. IDK. Lots of ideas and I can't wait to see how much of it works and how much of it blows up in my face. If it does, than I'm modeling exactly what I want to see from the students.