Gloria McGriff Uses Funny Movie Maker

Happy Friday! I hope your last day before break is full of happiness and middle school humor. Recently I had the pleasure of chatting with my fellow techie, Gloria McGriff. Gloria is always looking for new ways to effectively integrate technology into instruction, and she regularly attends PDs and webinars where she snags new resources. One of Gloria's new favorite tech tools is Funny Movie Maker, a fantastic app that can bring much needed humor into instruction and presentations.

Integration Idea
Funny Movie Maker is a free app that allows you to put video of your own speaking lips as an overlay to any picture. It can be used anytime you want to promote increased engagement and a bit of humor. Gloria often uses it to give her students messages or directions, knowing they will focus more on directions when they are engaged. She used the funny movie below to remind her students about grade checks.

Imagine the possibilities. If students are doing a report on a famous historical figure, they could import a picture of that person and tell their history as a first person narrative. In math, students could "become the variable" and explain how the know what their value is. In science students could explain different phenomena by talking within an image or diagram. There are infinite opportunities to use this app within instruction. Gloria shared that she finds the app especially helpful for students that are timid to present and share. Theses students are able to find their voice and express themselves through using the app.

How to...
Using this app is as easy as 1, 2, 3!

1. Take your own picture, use one of theirs, or have a photo saved to your camera roll.
2. Use the scissor tool to cut out the mouth. 
3. Line up the space with your mouth and record!

Next level ideas
One of the best things about this app is that you can save it directly to your camera roll. Once a video is on your camera roll, there are many sharing opportunities.

• Insert the video into a Keynote presentation.
• Insert the video into an iMovie that is covering a larger theme. 
• Upload the video to Google Drive and generate a link. Create a QR code where others can access and view the movie!