Head in the (Adobe Creative) Clouds

As a Seattle Public Schools teacher, I have free access to the Adobe Creative Suite, and I'm finally taking advantage of this. It's been on my to-do list since earlier in the year, when one of the esteemed History teachers and tech gurus at the school introduced Adobe Spark into his classes. Spark is like a more defined version of iMovie, and it allows users to create a veritable plethora of media presentations. I decided that I'd use it to create a short video to introduce myself to students. Last summer, I had decided to begin using a video on the first day of school rather than attempting to introduce myself, answer questions about curriculums, and introduce classroom exceptions, all within a 15-minute period when the kids are all fired up anyway. A video could be more memorable than my rambling, and would be available for later viewing. Being that much of my video revolved around classroom expectations and routines, as well as establishing my personality, I figured it would be best to make a new one for our virtual start to the year.

For the time being, I'm sticking to still photos, text, and voice-over for content. If I decide to add

Spark's interface is user-friendly and allows users to create the type of
short, engaging presentations that will be helpful to both teachers
and students who are using blended learning strategies.

 video, that won't be a problem. I started my video with a title card reading "Welcome to Intro to Literature & Composition with Mr. Wiener" next to a screen shot from last year's video. From there, I go into my personal history - where I'm from, my family, my education - then my teaching history - then personal philosophy and expectations (this is where I might bring in some video). I also added one of the music tracks provided by Adobe, though Spark does provide the option to upload your own music.

For a few of the slides in the presentation, I wanted to show multiple pictures on one side of the layout, but couldn't add more than one at a time. Fortunately, one of the Spark presentation options is a collage, so I didn't have to leave the program in order to create frame that included both images. Images are stored on the Adobe Creative Cloud, so adding the collage to the video project was simple and straightforward. 

Ultimately, I see a lot of potential in using Spark with students. I'm planning to assign them each to create a video similar to mine that introduces them to me and their peers. Other areas where I can see Spark being used on a regular basis are in vocabulary and reading. Students can demonstrate understanding of words by creating videos that teach the words in an engaging way. They can report back on independent reading by creating book trailers or video book talks. 

I still have a lot more learning to do with these programs, but I'm excited to finish my introduction video and continue on to make more.