Note Card Confession
I chose to do a project on Alexander Hamilton. When I was in third grade, I was particularly obsessed with the foundation of our country and I would read about the history of important historical figures for fun. Alexander Hamilton, Thomas Jefferson, Benjamin Franklin, and George Washington were my favorites. You bet I was excited when I heard that there would be a musical based on the life of one of my favorite historical figures! I decided to do a project on Alexander Hamilton in particular. If this were in my class, I would love for my students to pick a historical figure to do a note card video as well instead of doing a report on them. This project requires extensive knowledge of the “main character” of the video, so to speak. It’s also a really fun way to learn about someone from the past instead of reading a biography of them. Seeing these kinds of videos may even inspire students to go read more on the historical figure featured in another student’s video! Alternatively, it could be used as an introduction of students into class, should they choose to make a note card video about themselves.
The process is pretty easy and I feel as if students would find it entertaining. First, you need to do a little research on the life of the person you are featuring in your video. This may require multiple books or websites just so you can get your facts straight. In my case, it is disputed on which year Hamilton was actually born, so I decided not to include that bit of information. I have to admit, I took a bit of inspiration from the musical, Hamilton. Then, I planned out what to put on the note cards. I wrote each line on a numbered list in a Word document, just so I knew how many note cards I needed. Turns out, I needed about 50! I was writing non-stop! The next step was to put that text onto the note cards. It took a couple of tries to fit everything on the note cards, but I got it eventually.
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Then it came time to actually put the video together. I put particular thought into the setting of the video and the clothes that I wore. I didn’t want my clothes to be too distracting, so I put on a black turtle neck sweater to blend into the background. The process of revealing the note cards took some trial and error as well. After that, I put the movie into the iMovie app to edit it. I put a black and white filter over it to give it a vintage feel. I also put two piano songs for the background music since I couldn’t find one song that fit, but also lasted 8 minutes. When I saw the end product, I was pretty proud of myself! I hope that you like my video as well.