Please! NOT Another
"End of the Year" Picture Slideshow
It's almost that time of the year again. Time for the infamous "End of the Year" picture slideshow. You know, the slideshow presentation that teachers create at the end of each and every year. The slideshow that takes hours to build with the hundreds of photos from the current school year. The slideshow that has little Timmy in the same pose, all by himself, thirty to forty different times. The slideshow where this "same type of picture" is repeated for each and every student in the class.
As a parent, you have to sit there, and once every 2 minutes, or so, of a 45 minute slideshow presentation (Don't accidentally look away or down at your phone) you might get a quick glimpse of your child. Of course, still standing in the same exact pose as the other hundreds of photos.
Then... there's the problem of providing a copy of this slideshow to all the moms, dads, aunts, uncles, grandparents, guardians, neighbors, and whoever else wants to see little Timmy in this presentation. I still see educators burning a CD disk for each parent. At least if you're going to go through all this work and create a slideshow.... please place it in your Google Drive and share to parents using a shortened link and QR code for quick, repeated access.
Now, before you start saying,
"Oh my gosh, this guy is such a Debbie-Downer about my WONDERFUL end-of-the-year slideshow!"
I'll give you the odds that maybe... just maybe.... some of these EOY slideshows are actually done very well. If these picture slideshows are your thing, and a joy for you at the end of the school year, then please.... don't let me stop you from the thrill of creating one.
Recommendation IF you go through with building a slideshow....
- Keep the entire slideshow between 2 - 5 minutes long.
- Add some catchy music
- Individual pictures should be kept at 1 second
- Small group pics 2-3 seconds
- Large or class size pictures... 4-5 seconds
- Most editing software or web-based programs allow you to sync each picture for a certain length of time. Most of my teachers use either Apple's iMovie, or the downloaded version of Window's 2012 version of Movie Maker. You can also play music in the background and run a slide show via Window's Photo Gallery or a Google Slide presentation.
- Do NOT burn to a CD.... whatever you do, please add to an online storage account and provide viewable access to anyone with the link. Our district uses Google Drive. Add to Google Drive, and change the "Share" permissions to: "Anyone with the link can view". Shorten the link with bit.ly or any other link shortener, throw onto a creative cardstock or printed Google Slide/Drawing graphic w/ a QR code, and send home to all your parents.
However, if you are still reading and haven't exited this blog post yet, how about I suggest some alternative ideas to the typical End of Year slideshow?
- Have a collage slideshow where each student has one slide with multiple photos from the school year. During the slideshow, have each slide show for 5 - 7 seconds. This way, each student is highlighted on their own slide which includes all their photos. Bonus: Print off each slide and provide to the parents on cardstock. Also, make the presentation digital with a link and/or QR code for continued quick access.
- Create a full video talking about each student. Use the above idea and narrate on top of each slide talking about memories with each student.
- Use Flipgrid! There are so many awesome ways in which you could use Flipgrid for End of the Year projects.
- Create a class Flipgrid topic and conduct student interviews with your students. Record each student being interviewed and turn all the videos into a Mixtape on Flipgrid. Or, download each student video and merge together using another program like WeVideo or Windows Movie Maker.
- Create a class Flipgrid to have your students record videos at the end of the year and over their entire summer vacation. Have it open to have students freely access and record whenever they want over the summer. Bonus: moderate the topic to view the videos prior to public posting.
Try this idea from my buddy, Meredith Akers: "Google Slides + Remove.bg + Reflective prompts = A Year in Review!"
Do you have a great, end of the year, slideshow idea? Please share in the comments below!
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