Or did my wife say institutionalize me?
I’ve traded the warmth of the Bahamian Atlantic for the cool marine layer of northern California’s Pacific. I’m in Monterey, CA at the Apple Distinguished Educator Institute (we used to call it “Apple Camp” but some ADE’s university administrators wouldn’t approve funds for such frivolity). This is my fourth institute of the summer (two more to go) and the only one that I’m an attendee at and not a facilitator for. It’s back to the future for me as I’m sharing a college dorm suite with five other ADE’s and we’re in the midst of decorating our room door for this evening’s contest.
I’d like to claim that our door tells a story, but other than the six of us getting to know each other and dusting off some of those arts and crafts skills, we’ve just been enjoying our “creative” time together and the other rooms’ doors. The rest of the week will be pretty busy as we have a full schedule of presentations, workshops, off-site visits, and final team projects to share. So I’d better sign off here before the R.A. comes around…
Well, maybe a dolphin or two or eight or ten. And the bluest water and widest range of blues you’ve ever seen. That’s professional development Florida DEN Institute style! It’s hard for me to put a strictly digital storytelling spin on the last six days of sharing because it’s really all about bringing it all together.
At the risk of playing favorites with team presentations, I am going to spotlight one project that not only tickled my funny bone, but fed my love of puns. Those who remember “The Dating Game” would love the bachelorette diamond (in the rough?) trying to blindly choose between (“don’t take me for”) granite, igneous (“we could have a hot time”), and sedimentary (“many layered personality”) in a multimedia lesson design to teach about rocks. After listening to and watching the presentation, students have to make the diamond’s choice for her based on scientific reasons.
And then there was one that used the credit card “priceless” format. What a great way to highlight or summarize just about anything. They focused on our learning experiences, but consider Shakespeare’s “Julius Caesar” - Conquering Gaul: 100,000 denarii; crossing the Rubicon and taking over the senate: 1,000,000 gold talents; trusting Brutus and ignoring the ides of March: priceless!
A cultural P.S. that may be a reflection of the times. On my only trip off the boat, Hall and I went looking for a steel drum band CD in Nassau. Nothing. Nada. Rien. Lots of blank stares until Hall found a guy willing to download some songs from iTunes, but he didn’t have any blank CD’s to burn them onto. Finally, some locals directed us just off the beaten path where we found one single album languishing in a stack behind the register. And then when Hall brought it back and played it, it sounded suspiciously like a synthesizer with sampled steel drum tones!
Managed to get the “Makin’ Movies” presentation in just before we had our on board, pre-cast-off, emergency drill. We reconvened afterwards with just enough time for Hall to do a little “camera calisthenics” (all the hidden features in your camera menu) and for me to briefly give the instructions for our modified version of “Lights! Camera! Action!’s” infamous door scene. Just hours later and after a formal cruise dinner, we reconvened to share and celebrate each team’s video. Of all the times I’ve facilitated this workshop, these folks had the least amount of time to plan, shoot, and edit. I was amazed at the quality of the finished products. From lions in bunks to getting loose in the engine room to boogeying with dinosaurs, teams made the most of the limited lighting and our makeshift green screen studio.
“You cannot do a kindness too soon, for you never know how soon it will be too late.”
–Ralph Waldo Emerson
That’s actually how West Chester East High School in West Chester, Pennsylvania’s winning entry ends. It begins with a series of close-ups and extreme close-ups of a distraught teen aged girl considering suicide. The first two-thirds are in black and white as we see her planning and some of the actions at school that put her in that state. An act of kindness at school fades the video into color and sends the action back to the girl’s home where she disposes of the tools of her planned end.
The West Chester students did a nice job of creating mood with the B&W footage and making us share her distress with the close-ups.
There is a nice symmetry to the whole piece since it ends pretty much where it begins: on the floor, in the girl’s bathroom. This time, however, the sound and the close-up of the bottle of pills hitting the garbage can puts a nice exclamation point on her change of mind.
All three T+L Student MovieFest videos are available at http://www.nsba.org/t+l/moviefest/index.cfm
Speaking of Pennsylvania, Jen Dorman over on the PA DEN blog has found some great digital storytelling resources.
Coming up - storytelling on the high seas.
Coincidentally, each of this year’s T+L Student Moviefest winners have tied their PSA’s addressing “How Can One Person Make a Difference?” to a historical quote or event. None is stronger than Bloomington, Indiana’s Lora Batchelor Middle School production: “Eva Mozes Kor - Making a Difference.” Eva is a Holocaust survivor. She survived Auschwitz and Mengele’s twin experiments. Her message is clear, “Forgive your worst enemy. It will heal your soul and set you free.” She goes on to state that our lives and our actions are like ripples in a pond. They spread and interact with others beyond the initial event, incredibly powerful words coming from someone who has suffered and seen brutal inhumanity like she has.
Some production notes - The narrator does a good job of setting up the story by speaking over the introductory video. Though Eva is speaking to us, she is not looking directly into the camera. Later on you hear her voice, but see an image of what she’s talking about. Transitions can be a distraction in most student videos, but this one makes very clever use of the “ripple” effect to underscore the message.
You don’t have to bring back footage from a death camp in Poland like the B-TV team did to make strong first person historical stories. Have sudents seek out relatives and neighbors with experiences to share. You will find that they often have artifacts to illustrate what they are talking about. And when they don’t, you can usually find a copyright friendly version to help put a picture with the words. The generations that have gone before our students are a treasure trove of learning. Kids’ searching for and mining that rich vein can lead to experiences that last a life time.
Next up: proactive lifesaving
All three T+L Student MovieFest videos are available at http://www.nsba.org/t+l/moviefest/index.cfm
Three schools will be sending some of their young film makers down to Nashville this fall to show attendees at the National School Board Association’s T+L Conference how a powerful message can be packed into sixty seconds. This year’s Student Moviefest challenge was to make a PSA (public service announcement) addressing “How Can One Person Make a Difference?” The winners at each grade level get a stipend to attend the conference and an iMac computer for the classroom to help further their creative endeavors. I’ll spend the next week looking at the three top entries and sharing what I think you can learn from them to help improve your students’ work.
First, I’m delighted to share the Club Aztecas video, “I Have the Power to Change the World!” from the Indian Knoll School in West Chicago, Illinois. They are the first place winner in the Elementary category. Their piece is a good example of making words come alive. They start out with a nod to the past by building on the famous “Ask not…” quote from JFK’s inauguration speech. Words and text then come alive with students declaring their power in a number of languages (a great way to honor every students’ culture and reinforce their worldwide impact) as text dances and pulsates across the screen. Add a nice (homemade, I presume) music track to keep up the energy and “echo” the message, and you have a winning combination.
Though this seems to have been done in Final Cut Pro, users of entry level programs like iMovie and MovieMaker can still bring text in over pictures and video in a way that makes text an important actor in the story.
Coming up, we’ll look at what middle schoolers learned from a Holocaust survivor and how high school students see one random act of kindness as a life saver.
All three videos are available at www.nsba.org/t+l/moviefest/index.cfm
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