An Idea for Welcoming Students Back to School!

I've been doing a lot of thinking about how I'm going to welcome to students back to school.

I want to incorporate technology, but I don't want to overwhelm them.  

I want to do something fun, but I don't want them to think my class is a breeze.

Decisions, decisions!

Finally, I decided to use video to set the tone of my class on the first day... but which program do I use?!

At TeachMeet NJ, I was introduced to PowToon, an online movie-making/presentation tool that uses fun animation, images, and templates to convey information.  Yes, this is currently in Beta mode, and you need to apply to get access to the site, I honestly think I waited less than an hour for log-in information!
Once I logged onto the site, I found it very easy to navigate.  It prompted me with, "Presentation or Movie", then gave me different templates to choose from to get started.

I selected a Mission template!  I think the students will like it!

Then, I literally went through and filled in the blanks.  They had a pre-made movie and I just changed the text and the images to fit my class.  The only issue was the timing.  If a sentence I typed was longer than the one prior, it messed up the animation and I needed to fix it.

But it was easy!  There is a timeline on the bottom of the screen and users can scroll through each second of the movie clip making edits as needed.

Overall, it took me about 20-30 minutes to make the video, but at the end of the day, I like the video, I like PowToon, and I definitely will be using it again!