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You can read my full disclosure policy here.
I've received a lot of praise concerning the videos I've been making for my students during distance learning. Our school has been away for more than a month and it looks like we'll be finishing the year this year. A huge bummer, but necessary in order to keep our student families and communities safe.
We've also gone live with instruction and unfortunately for me, I'm not available during the day to host live sessions due to having my son and managing his schedule and services he requires for his ASD. Since I'm missing out on that time (I have amazing assistants helping me with the live sessions!) I make these videos to help supplement me not having that face time with my students everyday.
Disclaimer: I am not a fancy YouTube specialist nor do I claim to be. My tutorial today is for the everyday teacher who uses what's on hand. If you want to get serious and invest in anything, that's completely up to you. I don't have that interest or budget...but to each their own!
Equipment & Software
In order to create simple videos that will impress your students you'll need a few things to pull it all off. Here's what I use:- 13" Macbook Air
- IPEVO document camera (that's what my school has)
- Visualizer app (download from Apple app store)
- iMovie
- PhotoBooth
- Headphones with a microphone
- Canva (to create the graphics)
- *optional: ring light
Of course, you can use whatever technology you'd like, but this is my setup at home that produces the videos you see on my YouTube channel and what I send to my students. You can always upgrade these items through a simple search on Amazon or inquiring with your school to see what they have available.
Lighting
Much like with your photos, your videos are going to need the best lighting so that your end product are clear and visible for your students. In my apartment we get ample sunlight during the day, which is a great time for me to begin recording my videos. However, a ring light or something similar is a great (and an affordable option) for those who don't have natural sunlight as much as others.Once you get yourself set up with the right lighting and your tech is ready to go...you're ready for your first step in creating your video: recording!
Recording your videos
The first step in creating your videos is having your content ready to go. This could be your books for the read aloud, any anchor charts you want to hang in the background, or handouts you want to model. Think about what you want your video to be about and have those items prepped.
Using PhotoBooth or Visualizer App
- To record my intro videos I use the PhotoBooth app that comes pre-installed on my Macbook. I then drag the video to my desktop where it saves as an mp4 file.
- To record my modeling videos for assignments or my read alouds, I use my IPEVO document camera and the Visualizer app. This gives my students a birds-eye-view and keeps my hands free to model or read pointing 1:1.
- Within the Visualizer app I record using no sound. I'll add my voice over in the iMovie app.
Pulling your videos together in iMovie
Once I've recorded everything I need for my videos I open iMovie, another app that is pre-installed on my Macbook. iMovie does take a little bit of time to figure out, but with a little fiddling you'll get the basics very quickly.Step 1: Open iMovie and click on "Create New"
This will launch a brand new project in iMovie and it will give you the choice of Movie or Trailer - choose movie.
Step 2: Utilizing the Features
iMovie gives you a few different features that will enhance your video. They are:
- My Media (where you'll upload your recorded videos from earlier)
- Audio (the optional background music)
- Titles
- Backgrounds
- Transitions (how your media transitions from one slide to the next)
I personally only use everything except for Backgrounds - I have no need for them.
Step 2a: My Media
In this step, you should drag and drop the mp4 files that you recorded earlier directly into your project like it prompts you. I add a cover graphic that I created in Canva first, then my intro or content videos. Once I have my media in my project how I like, I'm ready to add background music.
Step 2b: Adding Music
This step is optional, but adds value to the overall quality of your final work. You can upload and use whatever music (i.e. from your iTunes) you want, just be wary of copyright if you plan to share the videos publicly. I stick with the included songs in iMovie, which are:
- Playful
- Simple
- Travel
The other songs are a bit intense, but depending on your project you may want to use them. This is where you can play around with the vibe you're trying to achieve.
As you can see, I have my graphic first, then my intro video, then my content video (in this case a read aloud). When I'm ready to add the music I want I drag and drop it into the space under my uploaded media (it'll appear as green).
Keep in mind: each audio clip is only about 1 min-2 mins long, so you'll simply copy and paste it for the length of your video.
Step 2c: Recording Your Voice Over
This is a fairly easy step once you get the hang of it. The great part is, if you hate it you can always delete that recording and start again.
Tip: Use headphones with a microphone to drown out background noise. Being a mom at home with a preschooler it's tough to find a quiet place in my house. But, my headphones with a mic really do help drown out unwanted noise.
When you're ready you'll click the microphone icon and it'll count down from three then begin recording. The media file will also play and I simply record my voice over it, in this case the text from the read aloud.
Tip: don't do one lengthy recording - rather, break it into pieces. It's easier to edit that way.
Step 2d: Editing your voice over and background music
Okay, so far you're doing amazing! See...once you play around with it, iMovie isn't as terrifying as it looks! Right? ;)
The next step is to edit and balance the background music and your new voice over. Obviously, the most important audio file is your voice over that is explaining the work or reading of the book. So, we want that to be the loudest.
Take a look at your voice over. It'll be the box above your music bar. There will be a line where you can toggle it up and down. This determines how loud or soft you want the audio file to be. For my videos, I turn it all the way up to 200%. I do this for ever voice over file in my project.
Now, I'll need to adjust my background music. I'm going to do the same thing: toggle this line but down to between 2-5%.
You can edit your music and voice over files however you wish, just make sure your voice stands out and it's drown out by any music you put in there.
Step 2e: Final Touches
This is the last step in iMovie to create your video! You have all of your media and audio files in, you've completed your voice over, and adjusted and fine tuned your background music. Now, it's time to add transitions and/or titles.
Transitions
A transition is another way to add simple things to your work that will improve the overall quality! So easy to do!
Just click on the Transitions tab and you'll notice a library of transitions open up. Find the one you want and simply drag and drop it between your media files. You'll see I use transitions between my opening graphic and intro video and one between that and my content video.
Titles
You can use titles however you'd like, I only use them at the beginning of my videos to display the topic for that particular video. It can be the name of the read aloud, the skill I'll discuss...anything. Just like Transitions, a library of titles will pop up and you can drag and drop the one you want. It'll show up as a purple box.
To edit it, just double click and change the text.
Saving and Uploading to YouTube
The most exciting part in all of this is when you've completed your project and you're ready to share it! Not every video needs to be automatically uploaded to a service like YouTube, so you can simply save it to your computer. Depending on the length of your video and how large it is, it may take a few moments so be patient.
In the upper right hand corner of iMovie you'll notice an upload icon. Click this and a menu pops up with how you'd like to save your project. Most often I upload it straight to YouTube so I don't have to save the file and use the space on my computer. I recommend that for those who have YouTube channels they want to upload their work directly to - it simply cuts out the step of manually uploading the video. However, if you plan to use your project in a different way, then saving it as a File to your computer is your best option.
The final cut
Here's my published video that I will send to my student families for a distance learning lesson on making inferences. You'll see how each step is pulled together to create a simple video for students.
To make the cover for my videos:
And there you have it! I hope this tutorial is enough to get you started...there are a TON of videos online of more in-depth ways to work with iMovie. For me, this process works and I'm all about working smarter, not harder.
Watch this tutorial in action!
Happy producing!
