Fun with Lego Movie Maker!

Yesterday I went into Lakeview Elementary for my last CEL lesson plan! Although I am excited for the summer to start, it was bittersweet to say goodbye to my third graders at Lakeview! Because it was my last day coming in to teach the third graders about technology, I wanted to make my lesson plan extra fun! I decided to create a lesson plan teaching students how to use the app Lego Movie Maker. Lego Movie Maker is a great app for third grade students teaching them how to create stop motion videos. 

I started my lesson off by asking my students if they liked making movies with their friends, if they have ever written a story and if they have ever heard of something called stop motion. From here we had a discussion where the students told me about different movies that they have watched and then we discussed the different parts of each movie's story. I asked the students if they knew what went into making a good story. I received answers like: character, setting, conflict, and resolution. From here I explained to the students that we would be making our own stories and after be making them into a stop motion video. I had students brainstorm at their tables what their story was going to be about, who their characters were going to be and where it was going to take place. Once they brainstormed their ideas, I had the students  work with their elbow partner to fill out a storyboard worksheet that I made for their stop motion video. 

Once the students filled out their story board worksheets I allowed them to go to the PlayDoh bucket one by one to pick out three colors for their stop motion video. I gave the students about 15 minutes to create the characters and the different objects that they would need for their video. When I felt that the students were wrapping up their creations, I had them refocus their attention on me so that I could start to explain to them how to use Lego Movie Maker. Together, with my iPad hooked up to the mirroring tool on the projector, we went through the different features of Lego Movie Maker. 

Overall, I think that this was one of my most successful lesson plans this semester. I definitely have seen major improvements in my confidence and my classroom management throughout my time at Lakeview. For this lesson in particular I think that my classroom management was the best that it has been. Because it was my fifth time going into the class I felt like I had a good understanding of the classroom dynamic. I know most of the students names and because I was familiar with the student's behavior I could better anticipate how certain students would act during the lesson. For example, there is one student with behavioral problems who always causes trouble during class, but I have learned how to deal with his behavior and get him to focus during lessons. 

Link the example stop motion video I showed before we started working!

Although I have seen myself improve a tremendous amount in the classroom throughout this experience, I still have room to improve. For this lesson in particular I think that I could improve the wrap up for my lesson. Because I had so much to teach them about the parts of the story, stop motion and how to use Lego Movie Maker, I ran out of time at the end to do my lesson ending. I was only able to ask the students a few questions like "what did you like about Lego Movie Maker?" and "if you could make another Lego Movie what would it be about?" Originally I had the students coming to the front of the classroom to share their videos but since I ran out of time I couldn't do this. In the future I think that I should have a back up plan in case something like this were to happen again. For example, I should have a class Seesaw set up so that the students could still share their videos with their peers and 

comment on each other's works. 

Future Goals

1. Better time management.

2. Get to know students and their learning styles. 

3. Continue to improve classroom management. 

After this week's lesson I feel like I gained a lot of knowledge about classroom management. I've learned the importance of getting to know your students and understanding the way in which they learn. When teacher's have an understanding for the way that their students learn, it allows for them to create lesson plans that best benefit their students learning styles. Another thing that I learned this week was the importance of time management in the classroom. After I started my lesson, I quickly realized that the lesson I created was too long for the amount of time I had, luckily my teacher let me finish the lesson and take up extra time. In the future I will make better efforts to create lesson plans that will fit in the time that I am allowed. I can improve this by planning how long each step will take in my lesson plan. Overall, having the opportunity to teach the third graders at Lakeview elementary gave me valuable experience in the classroom and has helped me in my preparation for becoming a teacher.