1. Students came in and listened patiently to my review of basic rules for classroom behavior, expectations, and procedures. They were curious, though, about the “mystery project” as indicated by the daily agenda on the board. I didn’t keep them waiting too long.
2. We watched several videos about animation that used different mediums, allowed us to see the difference between smooth animation and choppy, and gave us ideas of different types of drawing techniques to use. We stopped several of the videos part way through to discuss their observations (why do you think the artist chose to use charcoal for this particular animation – dark tone with the smears and smudges, etc) and to point out specific techniques to the animation and allow students to watch for it to see its effect (drawing shadows of the next movement before you actually draw the movement allows for smooth transitions between frames without as many frames themselves). 
3. Students weighed in on their thoughts about the project and then got right to starting their storyboards. We’ll continue Thursday!

[kml_flashembed movie="http://www.youtube.com/v/imrIlUngOUM" width="425" height="350" wmode="transparent" /] Here's a great example of what we'd like to do.