IMovie and Podcasting

So for this week's adventure I explored iMovie. I really struggled with a topic for a movie because I'm not in a classroom (besides to observe practicum students) and no other part of my own life is that exciting that it is worthy of a movie. I wanted the movie to serve a purpose as well. My son was just diagnosed with a Pervasive Developmental Disorder about two weeks ago. For those who may not know what PDD is, it is a category that includes Aspergers Syndrome and Autism, probably two disorders most of us in education have at least heard of, if not have dealt with in the classroom. As a family we are trying to find ways to help our son deal with social outings, particularly those that are a break from his routine, which can be extremely challenging. Because Halloween was coming up, I decided to create a movie "social story" for McKail to prep him for what to expect during our Halloween weekend. McKail would then be able to watch the movie repeatedly, see himself and hear his name in the movie and know what to expect. The use of social stories is pretty common place in working with children with these types of developmental disorders. I wish I could say that our Halloween was flawless, which I can't, but McKail did love the Social Story and perhaps it did help out! It may seem very elementary in the word choice and the flow, but that is how social stories usually are; they are meant to be very simplistic but very reassuring at the same time.