Myst V – first week finished

I thought it would be of interest to post my thoughts, conclusions and also comments from my class after our first week of exploring and using Myst in our classroom. 

I had my initial doubts whether the use of the game as a teaching and learning tool would be suitable for a class of children who have Spanish as a first language but after playing with the game I decided it would be a wonderful opportunity for developing speaking and listening skills. My thoughts were proved correct as the game has brought so much conversation into the class and with it more descriptive and interesting language.

Myst V – Day 5 The first Trailer

Today’s lesson was fantastic. The children knew, just as I did, that it was going to be a good one. They had finished writing their voice over scripts yesterday so they only had to edit them, tweak them into 30 seconds and rehearse performing them. It was an intensive lesson with lots of speaking and listening, probably more speaking come to think of it! But the end product was worth the extra work that they put in. They also had time to write their first rough draft for a descriptive poem based on Tim Ryland’s brilliant work.

This is the first trailer so I hope you enjoy it as much as I did.

The other trailers can be viewed on my blip.tv page

Tools used to create the trailer

• Audacity for the voice over
• Animoto for the initial video
• GarageBand (Mac only) for editing video and audio into a trailer

Using Prezi as a lesson starter

Prezi is an amazing online presentation tool that makes creating dynamic presentations very easy. I’ve only found out about this tool and I’m posting a rather quickly created Myst presentation for a lesson introduction tomorrow but I’m very impressed with it’s capabilities.

Some other uses for Prezi in the classroom

• Story boards – include children’s own drawings, video work, written ideas
• Lesson introductions on any topic if you have the time to create it
• Mind mapping ideas with small groups or as a whole class activity
• Instructions
• Directions
• Explanations
• Recounts that come alive

There are no doubt many more so feel free to leave your ideas in the comments. Have you used Prezi? What do you think about it?

Myst V – What we have found out so far (Prezi presentation)

Our Myst V Trailer

This is the trailer the children will use in class tomorrow to begin their voice over work. I used animoto to piece it together and I cut up the soundtrack with Audacity to a 30 second fit for the video.

Myst V – Day 3

The excitement and anticipation that this game has brought to my class is truly an inspiration. Before we had even gotten into the classroom children were asking me when we were going to do Literacy. It’s become their favourite subject with no exceptions.

I set up two chairs for hot seats and asked the class to recap on yesterday’s events. I use hot seats in the way wrestlers use their partners – children can tag others to get into the seat to talk and since we started using Myst everyone wants to talk. It’s a busy 5 minutes and the conversation is wonderful; I will have to record one session for you to listen to so you can experience the intensity of discussion.

Myst V – the beginning of our adventure

I have been reading all about Mark Warner’s uses of Myst in the classroom over the past couple of weeks and I just had to buy a copy of the game and find out what all the fuss was about. As soon as I installed it and started to play I immediately saw why it has been given such a positive response by many teachers as an inspirational teaching and learning tool.

Over the next 6 weeks I will provide a daily account of how I have used the game with my class, what skills they have developed from using it, the lessons I have taught and the work they have done so that you too might just decide to take the plunge and try it with your own class.