Monday, April 8, 2019

Green Screen in the Classroom?

How often do we find ourselves coming up with fantastic ideas for students to share their thinking during a unit, but we think we don't have the time or resources to implement?  I have been fortunate enough to work in 2 buildings that both had access to green screens.  My problem wasn't not having access, but rather monitoring students who were ready to record vs the students who still needed time.  Would I allow students to use the green screen in our makerspace alone?  Would I be able to schedule different time slots to avoid using it when another classroom had reserved it?  So many questions came to mind and it seemed much easier to just alternate the assignment to find something much easier (on me) for students to share their work.

One day, my nephew had called to tell me he wanted a green screen for his birthday.  Since I had a small budget and a Pinterest account, I browsed through to see what I could do to create one myself.  I discovered that most people don't actually use fancy expensive green screens after all.  All I would need is green fabric and some clamps.  For my nephew's green screen, I found fabric on sale at JoAnn (always use a coupon!) for $5.  I used PVC pipes to create the stand to hang the fabric.  It was so inexpensive and easy that I wanted one for my classroom, as well.  I didn't have the space in my classroom for a clunky PVC pipe stand, so I opted to just sacrifice a little wall space and used some binder clips for hanging.  Total cost of project: $5.62!

Now, my students have the access to the green screen whenever they are ready and it is convenient for those who need to go back and re record or fix errors.  My students are using it on a daily basis.  I need to keep reminding myself that this process doesn't need to be difficult and doesn't require fancy resources!  My students have created masterpieces on our makeshift green screen :)