Creating Engaging Morning Announcements with WeVideo

-
By Dan Fitzgerald, eCoach and STEM Teacher @ North Glen Elementary School

Hello everyone! My name is Daniel Fitzgerald, and I'm the STEM Teacher and E-Coach at North Glen Elementary School. Over the past two years, we've been using WeVideo as a tool to build our morning announcements from a brief, over-the-loudspeaker statement, to a full production with students, staff, and community members getting involved, and our student engagement and excitement has never been higher!

I'm someone who loves making videos for our students and staff, and I've always tried to use that in my teaching and position at the school. I've found that editing software can often be overwhelming, and people who are new to the idea can be turned away by some of the more complex programs out there. Luckily, WeVideo has been so welcoming to teach and jump in on, giving both students and teachers an easy entry point to video creation and editing, yet with deeper opportunities to grow your skills and use more complex tools down the way - such as greenscreen effects, music, and over screen layouts.

One thing that I really appreciate about using WeVideo with our morning announcements is how connected it helps our school feel, and how much we're able to include student voice - especially during a challenging time like last school year. I remember starting last school year and creating video announcements for our classes, not sure how much I could ask from staff and students, but as they started watching every morning, both kids and teachers were reaching out to me about jumping in any way they could. Thanks to WeVideo's ability for collaborative projects and workspaces, soon I had students reporting our school's lunches and announcements daily, jokes of the day, teachers shouting out exceptional student work, and more! Students were so excited to share, I even had some students sending video reports from vacation spots, including pool-side weather reports (which I had to remind a few about keeping their Chromebooks safe and away from the water)! Our announcements also encouraged students to arrive on time in the morning to see themselves and their friends as newscasters and reporters.

With students in person, I can provide them with access to tools they may not have had at home, such as a greenscreen, and a quiet recording location. As we move forward, I'm so excited to be back in the building to continue growing our announcements team and production. To any other school interested in doing this, I highly recommend taking the leap and trying it out!

All AACPS staff and students have WeVideo accounts that are accessible on Classslink. 

For more information on using WeVideo for morning announcements:

What a more comprehensive tutorial on WeVideo? Sign up for OIT's 3 hour self-paced WeVideo course. Go to Unified Talent and search "WeVideo."

Popular Posts

Book Studies in Brightspace

-
Image
By Melissa Connelly, Behavior Specialist & Brightspace Campus Champion at Belle Grove Elementary, and Stacy Langhirt, 1st grade teacher and former eCoach, Severna Park Elementary Books clubs about technology, really? Yes! It was an awesome experience. When asked to facilitate a class during the summer of 2021, feeling a little burned out on technology we asked if we could try something new. Guess what the answer was a  resounding, YES. That is how a five week technology book study came to be using our new LMS, Brightspace. Facilitating a book study about tools and technology that we have available to us everyday and that our students are familiar with just made so much sense. We were able to share a wonderful text, Eric Curts' Control Alt Achieve: Rebooting your Classroom with Creative Google Projects ,  that was rich with ideas on using Google Workspace for Education in the classroom and we had conversations centered around those ideas that helped all of us to grow as e...
Read more

Computational Thinking: Its really not that scary!

-
Image
By Kerri Lambert, Instructional Technology Teacher Specialist Computational thinking. It’s one of those current, hot educational phrases that leaves most teachers scratching their heads and thinking, “Does this really apply to me?” Especially when most articles and books stress its relationship and importance to computer science.  However, the more I read, the more I’m convinced that computational thinking extends to all content at all grade levels. After all, at its most basic, computational thinking is all about the process of problem solving. And let’s face it, that’s something we all do, all day long!  So what exactly IS computational thinking? By definition, computational thinking is the process of breaking down complex problems down into parts, recognizing patterns, and devising a solution. It has four pillars or processes: Broken down into the processes, computational thinking seems a lot less intimidating. I mean, even cleaning the house can be broken down into comp...
Read more

Who to Follow on Social Media

-
Image
by Kerri Lambert, Instructional Technology Teacher Specialist In OIT, we are often asked how we learn “all this stuff” and how do we keep up with all the changes across our platforms. There are several ways, but one of our favorite ways is to peruse Twitter when we have a moment. This allows us to get information from one place and in the small snippets of time- and it doesn’t fill up our inboxes! If you are on Twitter and looking for people to follow, here are a few that we recommend. It’s no secret that OIT supports a variety of instructional applications and yes, sometimes it can feel overwhelming! But, many of the programs we subscribe to are active on Twitter. Not only do they tweet out updates or upcoming features, but also showcase ways educators across the country are using their products with students. This is also a great way to find out about learning opportunities such as webinars or conferences. Following the companies gives you the best of both worlds- updates and inspir...
Read more