Sharing PD Day Expectations: Paper Slide Video Style

This morning in Yarmouth, Maine, Cathy Wolinsky and Mike Arsenault created a 106 second video using “Explain Everything” on an iPad to share expectations and directions for teachers for tomorrow’s district-wide professional development day.

This video was inspired by Paper Slide Videos, but rather than shooting a “one take” video (Common Craft style) they created a narrated slideshow using photos of teacher-drawn art. Contributing artists included Alice Barr, Melissa Noack, and yours truly. Mike and Cathy also contributed drawings. The plan is to share this video tomorrow following my keynote (“Why Play With Media?”) before breakout sessions begin. All the breakouts (except mine) are being led, facilitated, and taught by Yarmouth teachers. You really should check out the Google Site Alice, Mike and Cathy have put together for this district PD day. It’s exemplary. More schools should follow the lead of Yarmouth Schools and offer an “in district conference day” with rich, elective choices for teachers which are teacher-led. Thankfully the hand-drawn art in this video was a collective effort. If we’d used my version of “Nuts and Bolts” (the bottom picture in the image below) I think we’d lose LOTS of credibility with teachers tomorrow at the opening session. Thankfully Melissa Noack (a true artist as well as teacher) was here to save the day with her drawing!

This was a fun project and will hopefully both model “playing with media” for Yarmouth teachers tomorrow as well as communicate district expectations for this day of learning in a timely way. Learn more about “official” paper-slide videos on paperslide.wikispaces.com. Have you used similar video techniques to share messages with teachers and students at your school? If so, please share your links as comments.