A MOVING LESSON; THE KINDNESS CAMPAIGN

TRICIA FUGLESTAD

Student voice is powerful, Harry Potter is magical. What if teaching kindness could incorporate both? My quest to develop a lesson for creating kindness messages by students for students has evolved into a kindness campaign reminiscent of Harry Potter ’ s gallery of moving paintings. In this movie series, one would expect the framed paintings to remain still and passive images, however, they unexpectedly come to life, speak, and interact with the viewer. Much like this, the kindness posters transform seamlessly from still images to video with the magic of augmented reality to show us the artist with flapping wings symbolic of goodness expressively speaking their unique uplifting message.

These moving posters, professionally printed adorning the walls of the art room, are moving in every sense of the word. At first glance they look like graphic designs made by our current 5th graders. Each has a still photo of the artist overlapping hand drawn wings next to a printed kindness message over a solid colored background. At the bottom are instructions for scanning the QR code to activate the augmented reality. However, they are encapsulated legacies that capture the voice, expression, and mannerisms of children giving advice to children.

These layered images were layered with learning experiences as well. Students created them over a series of class periods with each step exploring a new lesson about kindness, animation, graphic design, expressive speaking, green screen effects, art, and augmented reality.

My hope was to have an entire grade-level display of kindness posters with unique kindness messages geared towards our student community. Developing these messages needed inspiration, time, and feedback. I made this worksheet for students to use as they read picture books, extracted the messages, and developed peer reviewed individual statements.

1. Developing a kindness message

2. Animating Wings

The animated wings were a symbolic visual representation of goodness reminiscent of angelic beings. They were made using the Do Ink Animation and Drawing app on iPads with this guide. These simple drawings were repeated three times in different stages of flapping to make a flipbook-style animation in the app ’ s drawing mode.

Some classes were instructed to make left facing or right facing wings. HINT: We duplicated the second set of wings and pasted them into the 4th position to make the sequence smoother as it loops.

3. Graphic Design

Students used the Do Ink Animation and Drawing App in the composition mode to set up their graphic. They used the text tools to insert their typed messages centered to the side opposite their wings over a pastel colored background. Then, they pulled in the animated wings into this composition, resized, placed, and timed them to flap in the location where the student will overlay a greenscreen video of themselves. We stretched out the length of the animation to 6 seconds and exported this as a video.

4. Green screen Video

Each student rehearsed using an expressive voice and small gestures as they spoke their kindness statement. They needed to angle their body to accommodate the wings and not move their back so the wings would appear to flap from behind them. I set up an iRig microphone on a stand in front of the green screen with an iPad (camera) on a tripod. It was important to not move the camera, not let the student move their back, and capture a clear audio recording. Each student chose a pose for the very first moment of their video then began to speak. This pose would become the trigger image for augmented reality and the still image for the poster. Recording students became an exercise in teamwork and kindness as they worked quietly from their seats making cards for hospitalized kids while waiting patiently for their turn.

5. Editing and layering

Students now had all the pieces to everything together. They used the Green Screen app by Do Ink to import the animated wings/text video to the bottom layer and the greenscreen video above. They made artistic decisions as they cropped and resized the greenscreen video until it fit slightly over the flapping wings. Then trimmed the two clips to match in length. Students saved the first moment of the video as an image for the trigger and the whole video for the overlay, which are the two files needed to build the augmented reality project.

6. Augmented reality

Setting up augmented reality is very simple in Eyejack Creator (desktop app). I checked out a class set of laptops with the free app installed and walked students through the simple steps of importing the trigger, overlay, and capturing the unique QR code generated with their content. This could have worked as a station in the room or I could have just set up the media myself. I had students check their code with an iPad using Eyejack app to test the AR. That was a magical moment.

7. Final Poster Design

Students completed the final step in the keynote app on iPads. I made a template with placeholders to help them resize and place their still image, QR code and select a background color that complemented their piece. This could have been accomplished in google slides as well. This image would be the poster design. It contained a small space explaining that the image would come to life using the Eyejack app so that anyone approaching the artwork would understand there was more to experience.

The kindness campaign was ready for display at the beginning of a global pandemic. Children began the school year learning from home through screens unable to scan the posters hanging in the art room. So, I scanned them all and recorded 12 episodes of messages that I could share with every class over time. In doing this, we were able to watch the posters come to life together virtually and reflect as a group on their messages. Children who were isolated at home were still able to learn from these students, see their unmasked faces, and hear them speak from their hearts to them.

Resources:

Kindness Campaign Lesson blog post with teaching resources: https://drydenart.weebly.com /fugleblog/kindness-campaign-20

Use this seesaw activity with a response sheet to help learners reflect, respond, and develop their own kindness message.

Scan the QR codes with the Eyejack app to see the artwork come to life

Tricia Fuglestad

Tricia Fuglestad, K-5 art teacher from Dryden Elementary School in Arlington Heights, IL, has a MATL in K-12 tech integration. She has successfully blended digital and physical art making with her transdigital lessons to expand the curriculum, give students an opportunity to explore new media, and find transformative ways for students to demonstrate learning dynamically. Tricia ’ s classroom is featured in educational publications and higher education textbooks. Her students ’ Fugleflicks, studentcreated, art-related videos have screened at international film festivals and won national awards. She has been recognized with many state and national awards for her innovation and dedication to art education.