Zeus, Poseidon, and Hades, Oh My!
Greek Mythology Comes to Life in 4th Grade
Greek Mythology is a Hit with the Green Screen!
Who would not want to be Zeus or Aphrodite for a day? How about Poseidon or Athena? This choice alone was a Herculean task for Mrs. Esposito’s Blackburn 4th graders. Many felt caught between a rock and a hard place like Scylla and Charybdis because they could not choose which character to become for their personalized learning project using everything from iPads to Green Screens. The students loved project based learning by reading and researching Greek Mythology characters. They also focused on where and why coined terms or phrases came from in Greek Mythology. Mrs. Esposito collaborated with Mrs. McCray, Instructional Technology Facilitator and Mrs. Hudson, Media Coordinator in order to complete the final phase of the project. First, we walked the students through a step by step process of personalizing learning using mobile learning with iPads, MacBooks, and their own devices for research, script writing and creating their performance. Parent volunteers helped students with practicing their performance and creating costumes. Next, we shared different ways of using a green screen with Macbooks and iPads. Then, we taught the students how to edit clips and incorporate Discovery Education movies and images as backgrounds. After, students learned how to upload the final their product to Edmodo. Finally, we taught the process of how to use Google Forms as a way to assess through reflection. Students rose to the challenge of truly becoming a character from Greek Mythology and excelled at project based learning.