This tutorial is for basic users. By the time you finish watching the tutorials, you'll be able to make a basic movie with Windows Movie Maker (WMM). Learn the basics and then go from there. I've provided photos and a short video that you can use to make the exact same movie that we will be making with the tutorials.
Here is the fie that you'll need for all of the training videos.
Download it first and then unzip it and put it on your desktop. You can put it in your folder titled "My Pictures," but the course of the tutorials uses the folder from the desktop. The choice is up to you. For a video on how to do that,
click here.
Basic Level Series
In this tutorial. You will see how to put some a title and ending, along with some pictures and a short video. It will also include some effects and transitions. They are very short and very basic. You'll use the folder titled "Dogs" from the file that you dowloaded.
Questions about Windows Movie Maker
Some ideas on how to use Windows Movie Maker.
Book Reviews
I remember watching
Reading Rainbow when I was in elementary school. I can still sing the theme song by heart....."Butterfly in the sky....I can fly twice as high...." Well I’m sure you're singing the rest of the song in your head. The same idea that Reading Rainbow did with their show, you can do in your classroom. Students will be able to read books of their interest, and then you get to video-tape them giving a review of their books. Students would only need to provide about 30-60 seconds worth of information about their book. Doing so might include their favorite character or why they would recommend the book. They'll keep you busy with requests until your head spins!
Video Pen Pals
You can use video pen pals with the whole class or with individuals. It does take some time and I wouldn’t start with this effort until you know the basics of Windows Movie Maker. You'll also need to have another pen-pal class. Start with the videos and then move into letter writing.
Writing Dialogue
You can dub over cartoon videos or use a foreignlanguage video and "translate" English for it. You can use a site called zamzar.com to download videos that have been posted to sites like youtube or teachertube.
Narrating Your Own Stories (Kids)
Keep the stories short. Students can draw a four-page book and then explain what is happening. This works great for sequencing. You can either scan in the photos or just take digital pictures of them.
Your Own Educational Videos
We've all watched shows and thought, "Okay, they got that wrong!" Take your own pictures and ask your own questions. You can do this with words on the video or narrate what you want said. You'll just have to listen to your voice narrate, which can be painful at times if you don't like the sound of your own voice. (Who does?!)
Quizzes
I know it's a stretch, but you can put anything on black backgrounds with white words for all to read. You can time it so students only have an X amount of time to read and answer each question. Plus, you can pause the movie at anytime to explain further. Add some music and let them know that time is up when the song or jingle is over.
Claymation Videos
The artists in your class will be the best at this. Take two kids and give them a short tutorial on how to do it. You'll need some type of tri-pod (Gorilla tri-pod works the best) and some clay or things the kids can move around. Give them very little guidance – their imaginations won't disappoint you! The kids love making claymations, and it keeps the hyper kids...I mean kids with extra energy to learn...busy for 45 minutes wanting to perfect and add to their claymation projects.
One tip to remember is not to worry about the video being perfect. You aren’t a Hollywood producer. Delay the bells and whistles until you really know what you are doing. KEEP IT BASIC at first; a title, short video, and an ending. First, start with pictures of the kids in action and add some music in the background.
You can then show it the last ten minutes of class before the students head home for the weekend. The students will enjoy seeing themselves on the big screen. Trust me; it's worth the effort.