English language school in the heart of the Japanese Alps, and English language learners sharing their experiences online. Teachers post regular items about teaching, learning tools, events in the school, their day to day experiences living & working in a foreign country. Students post on whatever takes their fancy - book reports, festivals in home towns, postcards from business trips etc. A little Brit of England in the guts of Japan!
I took the long way round to get to work this morning, as I wanted to have a peep at the cherry blossom before the massive crowds rock along to the castle this weekend - and before the rain due this afternoon.
I also wanted to try out a new app I found for my iPhone (no, not instamatic!). The app is called Kinotopic (details here) and what it essentially does is freeze a short 2-3 second video clip. Why bother? Good question...what the app then enables you to do is 'unfreeze' a portion or portions of the frame with a swipe of your finger, where a repetitive motion is then looped into the otherwise static picture. You can add other effects (as here, a grainy sepia effort - I really couldn't see very well, editing in the bright sunshine so it was potluck).
What do you think - would you like to try out Kinotopic?
Well, I had a great time (until the hay fever attacked me). It was so good to see so many students past and present come and join us for a lazy afternnon by the river!
I was delighted Soichi could drop by & say hi - I used to teach him back in 1990! Anna-chan I taught when she was in elementary school, now asking about mummy & kids classes with her little sisters! Do I feel old?!
Yuki-chan couldn't eat anything because everyone wanted to catch up with her - meantime all the children ran themselves into the ground exploring river & rocks...one or two grazed knees!
Yet again we were blessed with lovely weather, a mountain of food and a small lake of ale. I hope everyone had enough?
Thank you all for coming, for sharing a great day out with us and for making it feel like spring has finally arrived :)
My class needed some extra practice with the dreaded drilling; they really do not produce any 'extended' language unless I use a taser. No, we don't have one, but...
When we used a teacher's book resource lately we had an absentee, so I joined and made one myself (OK! I like a quick colouring in as well!). This week the retrieval system the children use = half a dozen knackered, ripped, squashed, battered and lost artifacts. Hmm.
Have already made the flashcards available on Quizlet (click here)for the unit we are doing (but I don't think the mums bother, which is a pity - especially as they ask vaguely "how come there does not appear to be a great deal of progress being made"). So, in between classes I quickly photographed the surviving artwork on my iPhone, and then opened up the (new) Animoto app. Imported the pictures, changed the muzak, added a title & left it to cook. Whole process took less than 5 minutes (the colouring took longer!) & I had a nice 'job done' email by the end of my next lesson.
Now the free version of Animoto only gives you 30 seconds, and a limited choice of music. For more flexibility I like Stupeflix, and am happy with the paid up version as good value for money. For this,very much on the fly, a free 30 second cobble-job better than a poke in the eye I say.
What are your experiences with making slideshows in a hurry?
As you can see, there was no shortage of happy faces around the school in March, and lots of activity - important as it was still cold out & frequently trying to snow!
