How a teacher uses animation to connect with Spanish speaking students

How an instructor at Rivera Early College High School in Texas used Krikey AI Animation tools to create animated lesson plan videos and used quick translate to generate Spanish versions of her video. Now she would be able to communicate and engage directly with Spanish speaking students in her classroom in a fun and creative way.

Summary

• Description: Darby Grant, an instructor at Rivera Early College High School in Texas, was looking for a tool that could help her connect with her Spanish speaking students. She searched on Canva and found the Krikey AI Animation App. After making a few test videos she came directly to the Krikey AI website and was able to quickly make a variety of videos from an animated unicorn scavenger hunt to a classroom rules video — and in a single click, translate them all to Spanish.
• Krikey AI Features used: Voice AI, Quick Translate, Animation Library

"Before Krikey I would have to rely on other students in the classroom to translate for me. It was difficult for me to make it equal for all students in understanding the lesson and participating together. My Spanish speaking students would sometimes be shy or embarrassed to say they don't understand what I'm saying. With Krikey Animation videos, now my Spanish speaking students will understand at the same time as every other student. They can participate more in the classroom and be engaged in the lessons." ~ Darby Grant, High School Instructor in Texas

Challenge

• A teacher wanted to connect with their students in their native language. This would help the teacher build a bridge with her students and ensure they felt included in the classroom.
• The teacher researched different AI tools but she needed to find a tool that was easy and intuitive and would give her full creative control of the script and visuals in a video.
• With two months of summer, the teacher needed to find an animation software tool that could help her create content quickly for multiple lesson plans and activities in the fall semester.

Solution

• Krikey AI Animation enabled her to animate an entire video in English and then in a single click of the quick translate button, she could transform her video entirely into Spanish.
• Krikey AI Animation supported her individualized lesson plans by enabling custom scripts, background images and presentation screen images.
• Krikey AI Animation helped her save time as she searched for a single tool that could give her a variety of visually creative ways to connect with her Spanish speaking students.

Time and Cost

• 3x faster to create a video
  • The first video took her just under two days to make, the second video took less than half a day and the time to create content grew faster from there. With the ability to create videos with custom characters and scripts, Darby plans to build a schedule of videos for multiple lessons in the school year.
• Priceless: Quick translate without relying on other students
  • Previously, Darby would have to rely on other students in the classroom to translate for her. She wasn't in control over how a message was conveyed or if a student would be willing to translate that day. Now, with Krikey AI she can directly communicate in a kind and creative way with all her students equally.
• Priceless: Relating to her students
  • With the rise of AI and gaming, the bridge between teachers and students has gotten more difficult to cross. Darby hopes that using AI Animation will be a way to bring joy and curiosity to her classroom and encourage the students to lean into learning in a positive way. She sees AI Animation as a bridge to reaching her students.

Use Cases

• Darby's first project was a scavenger hunt using the animated Unicorn and custom image backgrounds. She started experimenting with Krikey and has created a really unique and fun scavenger hunt video with clues that will play back as her students complete the activity in the classroom.
• With Krikey AI's quick translate feature, Darby was now able to translate first day of school videos, including one on rules and expectations around uniforms and personal care. She is also working on videos for her classroom Facebook and Weebly pages and also plans to use Krikey AI to make morning announcement videos with animated characters and scripts eventually written by the students. These animated videos will share the weather, current events and any other important school activity information.
• Up next, Darby has invited some of her co-workers and other teachers at the school to collaborate with her on more lesson plan videos. She used the collaboration invite feature in the top right of the Krikey AI video editor and aims to edit some of her videos with other teachers.

About the Customer

Darby Grant is an instructor in Aerospace Science at the Rivera Early College High School in Brownsville, Texas. She has taught there for more than 8 years and previously served in the US Air Force for more than 24 years. Her classroom is a JROTC classroom and is primarily Spanish speaking. She teaches dual enrollment psychology and Spanish learning students and also participates in the school's gifted and talented program.

About Krikey AI

Krikey AI Animation tools empower anyone to animate a cartoon character in minutes. The character animations can be used in marketing, tutorials, games, films, social media, lesson plans and more. Krikey offers an animation video editor that creators can use to add lip synced dialogue, change backgrounds, facial expressions, hand gestures, camera angles and more to their animated videos. Krikey's AI tools are available online at www.krikey.ai today, on Canva Apps, Adobe Express and on the AWS Marketplace!

How Krikey AI Animation was used by a teacher to connect with Spanish speaking students

Here is how one teacher was able to use Krikey AI Animation tools to make videos for their Spanish speaking students.

AI Text to Speech Spanish for Spanish Speaking Students

Darby had an idea to create animated videos for her students. She felt this would make them giggle, bring joy to the classroom and get her students engaged in participating. She was able to create her animated videos first in English using Krikey AI tools. When she was ready, she went to the top left of the video editor to click the Quick Translate button. In a single click, she could transform her entire video to Spanish and have a fully polished video in her students' native language. She used AI Text to Speech Spanish as part of the Krikey AI quick translate process to get her video generated in Spanish.

Cartoon Characters in Spanish

As part of her creative process, Darby was able to use different cartoon characters in Spanish in each of her videos. This would keep it interesting for her students and encourage their curiosity as they didn't know which character would appear in the next lesson. The Cartoon Characters in Spanish wasn't an idea she had initially when she started her exploration. Once she saw the quick translate feature was available, Darby immediately jumped on the opportunity to create animations in English and then turn them into cartoon characters in Spanish.

Magic Studio Templates for quick AI animated videos

With Krikey AI Magic Studio templates, Darby was able to quickly learn how to use the Krikey AI Animation tool. Within a day she was able to make her first video. The second video took less than half a day. Now her creative process is getting faster and faster and she has enjoyed integrating animated characters into her lesson plans.

"These days a lot of stuff is about AI and gaming so it's harder for teachers. We may not understand how to relate to the kids we teach. I was looking for something new and fun for the kids and trying to learn different AI tools myself. Krikey is fun and different and I hope it makes my students giggle and get interested in the lesson through animation. I want all my students to be equal and have the opportunity to understand and participate together without language being a barrier." ~ Darby Grant, High School Instructor in Texas