Photofunia, Mannequin Challenge, & Laura Randazzo

Here are a few things that I came across for classroom use this week. Please let me know if you’d like more info or assistance in putting any of these ideas to use in your own classroom. Enjoy!

Photofunia.com— Love the pic above? I created it on www.photofunia.com and it was super easy. There are lots of different “effects” or templates that you can drop photos or text into. My first thought was that I could make all of my presentation slides look awesome! Then I thought about having students use any number of the templates for all sorts of things– “getting-to-know-you stuff” at the beginning of the year, dropping into documents or presentations, etc. I know you’ll come up with something great! Be sure to share!

Mannequin Challenge— Have you seen this all over YouTube? Here’s an article from the NY Times all about it with examples (warning: not all vids are appropriate for school use because of song lyrics). Cinda in 6th grade E/LA and I brainstormed a few ideas to put this to use in the classroom–

•  Quiet the room– instead of calling out “freeze” to stop the moving and talking, call out “mannequin challenge”! Students will know exactly what to do and will hold still until you tell them to stop.
• Use it as an incentive. Students earn the letters “M-A-N-N-E”… and so on to earn a chance to create a class mannequin challenge video.
• Create a mannequin challenge video where students pose to show you a movement, skill, or understanding such as, “what does a reader look like?” or “what does proper use of lab equipment look like?”
• Make it a quick check for understanding by having students freeze in one of three positions to show you whether they’ve “got it”, “need more time”, or “need help” during transitions or when moving to the next step.
• Our school has really been encouraging students to be kind and stop bullying before it starts. Think about having students pose in a way that shows them helping others (work best in groups?). Students could then add appropriate music, caption, etc. to the video.

Laura Randazzo- Solutions for the Secondary Classroom— Laura has a fantastic website of tips, tricks, resources, and more for the secondary classroom. There is TONS of useful info here for you to peruse… and I hope you do. Though her site says she is “on a mission to prevent English teacher burnout”, I think anyone could find many of her posts helpful, creative, and fun. Enjoy!