Creating a tour of our school with summer school students

[Greg Noack]

I am so lucky to have taken Meg's class last week. I am teaching summer school and I now can implement the ideas immediately with my students.

We are going to make a movie tour of our school for new students. I am not sure if it will ever get used, but I don't really care, this is too fun.

I started today asking the kids what kind of movie they wanted to make ( I love giving kids choices). We talked about acting out a scene from Mouse and the Motorcycle, which we are reading, doing some vocabulary word skits, but they wanted to do the tour. I think they really wanted to do something that other kids would see.

So we brainstormed all the topics that needed to be covered and then sorted them. (At this point I am thinking, "this is teaching language arts! How many times have I done this as a pre-writing activity. How Awesome!" )

We then divided up the work. I gave them a few ideas on how to storyboard, then showed them a few examples from Meg's website. Then let them work. I gave them post it notes to make a storyboard.

I was concerned if they would understand the concept of storyboarding, but when I asked them about it, and asked if they had ever seen the storyboards in the DVD extras from movies, they were like ... "yeah, yeah, we know all about it.. leave us alone and let us get to work."!!!! How awesome is that!

I have to say, I was so excited by how excited the students were. Summer school is a drag, no doubt about it, and one of my students in particular hasn't smiled since the first day. Today he was another child. Animated, talking to others, coming up with new ideas. Meg is so right, tech has such potential to reach students who otherwise get lost in our pencil and paper world.

So when they thought they were done. I asked them to explain their board, we then collaborated as a class on each others work. We talked about how to film it, came up with some newer ideas. It was really exciting to see students who, a half hour earlier we sulking and not wanting to work, come alive and produce something so cool.

BTW, if anyone thinks this is fluff, try it. It is probably going to be one of the hardest things I have done. There are a million decisions to make when filming a movie.

I will try to keep this blog going as an example. If you have any ideas, let me know.
Thanks.
Greg

[Rhonda]

It's exciting to hear about your blooming project! It sounds like the creative juices are flowing, so keep up the good work. I wish you the best, and can't wait to hear how it's progressing! No matter the outcome, you are all learning and exchanging ideas that can be developed upon later!

[Meg Ormiston]

Greg!
I am sooooo excited to hear about your awesome project! I can feel the energy from your kids, the engagement, the excitement, the LEARNING! Can you think of a way to share the excitement, capture the WHY this is important?
Maybe in the out takes you can get video bits from kids to talk directly to teachers, and school leaders about the power of what you are doing. I want to hear their "voice" of the struggling learner, the excitement!
How long will you be with your summer school group? My Belfast boys arrive Friday, we could head out to the country for a day and work with your kids!
Thanks for keeping us all in the loop!