Notecard Confessions
Notecard Confessions is one of the newer trends on social media that uses the a simple collection of note cards to tell an important story that often ends up being very emotional and powerful. I decided to explore this idea for myself to see how easy/effective it was or could be. I ended up creating a short, 2 minute video about Oskar Schindler, the man who saved over 1,200 Jewish people during the Holocaust. I thought this would be an appropriate topic because of my aspirations as a German teacher.
This video took about an hour to create, from research to actually filming. I first gathered some facts about Schindler and organized them in a storyboard. Then, I wrote them on note cards, being careful not to exceed 8 words per card - you don't want lots of text crowded on one card! In total, I had around 30 cards which was around 2:30 minutes. For the filming part, I used the app iMovie. I chose this over the default video on the iPad because of its editing capacity. While I didn't do much editing on this, I liked that it allowed me to film with no sound first, then go back and add music to cut down on background noise. I also used it to turn the movie black and white. There is definitely more editing and effects that can be done - the sky's the limit!
I think this project could be used to great effect in the classroom, as it really requires students to step into the shoes of the person whose story they're telling. They have to dig deep and understand the topic, how it can be understood, and the emotions it conveys. It doesn't have to be about people either - I could see it used on events like the Civil Rights movement. In my classroom, I think it would be an effective tool to teach about cultural events and people from the target language. Things such as Spanish colonization of Latin America, the Holocaust, or any number of famous people would be great subjects for students to investigate and present in this emotional way. Finally, another aspect of this how students who are uncomfortable speaking in front of others or presenting in a traditional manner have a way of doing a project without their voice or face involved.
I think this project could be used to great effect in the classroom, as it really requires students to step into the shoes of the person whose story they're telling. They have to dig deep and understand the topic, how it can be understood, and the emotions it conveys. It doesn't have to be about people either - I could see it used on events like the Civil Rights movement. In my classroom, I think it would be an effective tool to teach about cultural events and people from the target language. Things such as Spanish colonization of Latin America, the Holocaust, or any number of famous people would be great subjects for students to investigate and present in this emotional way. Finally, another aspect of this how students who are uncomfortable speaking in front of others or presenting in a traditional manner have a way of doing a project without their voice or face involved.