A student cried in my classroom yesterday.

This is not an entirely unusual experience, since we get teary eyed quite often while reading some of our favorite novels - like when Salva, a Lost Boy refugee in "A Long Walk to Water," goes back to war-torn South Sudan to build wells for his people. Or in "The Tiger Rising" when Rob, a troubled boy whose mother died, finally opens up to his father and lets all of his emotions pour out. Oh, and lots of kids also got a little misty while reading "Rules," wherein a boy with cerebral palsy makes his first-ever friend.

So, crying is sometimes just part of the larger context of our classroom, and I've been known to shed tears, too.  No matter how many years I've read some of these books with my classes, it always feels special to connect not only with literature, but with one another, too.

Yesterday was different.

This time, one of my students stayed after school to work on a digital storytelling project that she is undertaking.  One of my language arts students and also an after school AV Club devotee, I've been encouraging this wonderful young lady all year.  Ever since she proudly told me that she is a folklorico dancer on the evenings and weekends, I've enthusiastically urged her to share her story.  I know that as teachers we're not supposed to earmark favorites, because they are all our kids, but I am so touched by this girl and her family.  With immigrant parents and a house on the other side of the freeway, her family makes time to drive her to school every morning.  Super studious, constantly in motion, and quite a chatterbox, she always has stories to share - like the morning after President Obama's executive order regarding immigration. She came right up to me, smiled brightly, and proclaimed, "Did you hear? The president forgives us and says we can stay. My mom cried last night, because she is so happy."

This student has worked for a week on writing a script about folklorico.  As her guide, my job at this phase of the production process is to offer suggestions on storytelling.  I began with the positive aspects of her topic, complimented her storyboard ideas, and affirmed that I thought she had a wonderful story to share.  Then, I tried to explain the difference between "showing" and "telling" when writing a script.  She nodded vigorously, but still seemed confused.  So, I referenced an entry from Julie Barda's class in last year's DigiCom Film Festival and pulled it up to use as an anchor video:

I think we only watched about 45 seconds before she started crying.  I immediately paused the video, worried.  Worried that I had somehow offended her, worried that she was discouraged, worried that I wasn't being gentle enough in my critique.  For the first time ever, I didn't know what to do or say when confronted with tears. I decided to wait her out, offer Kleenex, and listen.

It was a good strategy.

"This is a good story," she told me. "It makes me think of my mom and my experience in kindergarten.  It makes me think of my culture and how proud I am of what my family has done."

"Good," I responded. "You should absolutely feel proud to be who you are."

"And, I get it now," she said.  "I understand what you mean about my script. But I don't know how to fix it."

After a few beats, I asked her why she dances.  I asked her to think about what she feels when she dances and what keeps her showing up at practice every week.  I asked her why the long hours, the elaborate costumes, and the music are so appealing when other kids her age tend to focus more on Instagram and Snapchat.  More tears welled up in her eyes as she considered her answer. 

"Because. I forget everything else in my life, all my trouble and all my worry. I don't think about anything but the music and the steps and I feel joy."

And that perfect revelation was the heart of her story.  Sometimes, as a script writer, there are quiet moments when everything comes together and the story works out just right.  The key to digital storytelling is to write from the heart, and some of the most compelling stories that can be told are the ones about ourselves.

This morning, I arrived at work a few minutes later than usual.  On my desk, in a zip lock bag, there was an SD card with a sticky note:

There are a million reasons why I think gamification is an important tool for teachers to implement. I've read plenty of articles, set up a Tweet Deck column for #gamification, attended a phenomenal Minecraft session at #CUE14, and participated in a #caedchat to learn more. But, at the end of the day, there are a million reasons why I never really got the gamification ball rolling.  Here are a few:

So, with all of these questions and a complete lack of experience, I felt stuck in a kind of ideological purgatory where my professional goal of gamification didn't really seem all that attainable. For a while, it was just easier to put this on the back burner and get on with app smashing, digital storytelling, and 20% projects.

Then, I had the chance to learn about Class Craft from Ricardo Higuera at EdCampPS - and I finally found my entry point into classroom gamification.

My husband grew up playing D&D and all kinds of other role playing games, but I grew up in farm country and we just sort of...went outside.  So, coming from the standpoint of having zero experience with role playing games, I was amazed to find that Class Craft is easy to understand.  It also has a user-friendly interface, and is versatile enough that it can be implemented in any classroom.

Essentially, students operate both individually and in teams.  They take on the roles of three different character classes: mages, warriors, and healers. Each team decides how to balance the roles within their group and generates their own "recipe" for success. Students earn "powers" specific to their character class, and throughout the day the teacher acts as the Game Master.  The Game Master has a lot more than just a rockin' job title - they award points and control different aspects of the game.  For example, students work to earn XP (experience points) which help level up their characters.  Leveling up is good because it unlocks more powers. The Game Master can also dock HP (health points) for negative behaviors and players use up AP (action points) as they utilize their powers throughout the period.  The thing I love most about Class Craft is that everything is 100% customizable.

Here's a quick screencast to show you how I have customized the game for my students:

I implemented Class Craft immediately after EdCampPS because I just couldn't wait!  The first day, I used this Google Presentation to explain game protocols:

There was an immediate, observable difference in student motivation.  Classroom management has never been a significant issue for my classes, because I've always used a token economy that worked well to control behavior.  However, there are usually a few students for whom it can be difficult to find the right carrot - not to mention that I tend to focus much more on intrinsic motivation as opposed to extrinsic.  

Gamification matters because it motivates.  By introducing Class Craft, there was a new layer of energy in the room, a new excitement for completing daily tasks and working together.  Now, I fully understand that in order to be completely valid, strategies need to stand the test of time.  But, so far, it's so good! Students who haven't attended tutoring in a month or so were in my classroom every day after school this week.  More than half of each class spent at least 2 or more days in lunch tutoring, too. Group leaders are taking their role very seriously, helping to monitor and motivate students who struggle to stay focused.  Best of all, there is a hum of excitement and anticipation as we gear up for the Daily Event, spin the Wheel of Destiny, and dread the Book of Laments.

Class Craft is everything I wanted gamification to look like in my classroom, and the benefits of gamification are everything I wanted them to be.  I'm looking forward to reporting back after a few weeks.  Hopefully, I'll have even more positive things to say and an even bigger impact to share.

As a teenager, I wasn't interested in school.  School was a big, scary place full of people - which may not seem like much of a challenge at first.  Unless you're an introvert. Then, it's sort of tortuous.

In fact, I did pretty much everything I could to avoid homework (especially science), anything related to math (especially algebra), and tended to hangout in the library (where there were books, not people).  There were only two things I wanted to do: read and code.

I taught myself basic html when I was fourteen or fifteen, because I wanted to build a website. This was back when Geocities and Angelfire were the most accessible website builders available.  You could use the template they provided, or toggle the html view to customize. I've always been a creative person, and despite my work avoidance in the school setting, I enjoyed a challenge. So, I looked up some html guides and started teaching myself how to code.  For me, coding offered the same sort of refuge that a good book provides. And it's a skill that has stuck with me to this day. 

Because coding impacted my life, I wanted to give my students the opportunity to participate in the Hour of Code. Instead of limiting coding to just an hour, however, I decided to create a three week coding unit.  Students watched TED Talks from outstanding kids (including Thomas Suarez, a 12 year old app developer), experimented with coding activities on www.code.org, engaged in close reading of articles, performed collaborative close viewing of video resources, and answered text dependent questions. Though some teachers may be reluctant to use core instructional minutes for something outside the norm, I found that students were energized and excited by their coding experience.  They were eager not only to code, but also to research, plan, write, and share.

Here are some of the resources we utilized during the course of the unit:

Bringing an expert into the classroom to talk about coding as a career was an important aspect of our instructional plan.  Fortunately, a good family friend is a computer programmer and was willing to conduct two Google Hangouts on Air so that both of our blocks of students could ask questions about coding.  These Hangouts also provided a fantastic source for expert quotes, as our students conducted research to write an argument about coding and whether or not it should be taught in schools.  In sixth grade, the Common Core State Standards make a huge leap from writing opinion pieces to writing more formal arguments with a thesis and evidence to support a claim. To help students learn argumentative structure, I created aGoogle Doc template to support the process of research, constructing a claim, and drafting.

Digital storytelling is an important pillar of my classroom.  To that end, I regularly give students the opportunity to create some sort of video-based synthesis as a capstone to their learning.  This time, students create Public Service Announcements aimed at a specific audience to promote coding in schools. (Overwhelmingly, all of the student arguments were pro-coding, so a pro-coding PSA made sense.) Kids worked together to storyboard their concepts, pull evidence from their research, and record video clips to help tell the story of coding in the classroom. 

Here are two of their best efforts:

After focusing on coding for three weeks, I expected students to be a bit burned out to the idea.  However, I've been pleasantly surprised to find that students are still asking for time to code in class, and they are still sharing things they have made using code at home.  As teachers, that's what we want most - transferable skills that students continue to develop even after class has dismissed.

The funny thing about aging is that you don't realize it's happening until it's already happened. I have been blessed to teach in the same classroom for the last decade. I've taught mostly 6th grade Language Arts and Social Studies, but I've also taught 7th grade Language Arts and Social Studies, Video Production, and Associated Student Body government. 

This is the first year that I have felt like a veteran teacher. 

Maybe it's because we've had an influx of first and second year teachers, or maybe it's that I am no longer quite as peppy as I used to be if I don't get a full seven hours of sleep at night. Probably, it's the fact that my school is celebrating it's 20th anniversary this year. I guess it's hard not to feel at least a little older when you realize you've been around for half the life of an established school. 

My leadership class wanted to do something special to recognize our school's 20th year, so we decided to create a living history wall. The original idea was to collect photos from staff and past yearbooks, then create a bulletin board in the hallway to display them. Another group of my leadership students decided to work on a documentary film about our school's history and interview staff members who opened the school. When they started looking at footage of the interviews, one of my students said, "Wow. I wish we could share some of these clips with the school. Our movie is going to take a while to finish, but it would be cool to just show people the best of what we have." 

And just like when Marty McFly realizes that time travel really is possible thanks to Doc Brown's DeLorean, my students were super excited when I suggested the concept of augmented reality.  If you're unfamiliar with augmented reality, the concept is similar to using QR codes.  In both methods, additional content is activated by scanning an image of some kind.  In QR, the trigger image is the square code itself.  In augmented reality, the trigger image can be anything from a math problem on a page, to a building on your school campus, or a poster hanging on the wall.

Image Source

Students began to create their living history wall by requesting yearbooks and photos from staff and administration. They had a blast digging through the images, marking their favorites with sticky notes. Eventually, students narrowed the many photos down to a little over twenty based on the following criteria:

• Which photos depict a major difference between past and present?

• Which photos depict a clear similarity between past and present?
• Which photos depict a surprising aspect of campus, community, students, or staff?
  

Next, students previewed a ton of documentary footage to match various video clips to images.   In some cases, students found perfect clips from the staff interviews they had already shot for the documentary. However, students felt that some of the pictures needed a specialized script, so they wrote and recorded some of their own video commentary, too. While the videos were being filmed and edited, another group of students worked on laying out and stapling up the  wall itself.

Since augmented reality is a new idea on campus, students also posted directions next to the wall to help users access all of the content.

The "20 Years of Workman" wall debuted during Parent Conferences.  In preparation, ASB students filmed several video tutorials that aired on our weekly school news episodes. Several students even took turns acting as docents with a few classroom iPads in order to demonstrate the wall to parents and allow families without smartphones to participate. 

Of course, the best part about this entire process was watching the pride students took in their finished product. In the weeks following conferences, I continue to see students interacting with the content of the wall before and after school. 

Back in August, Jo-Ann Fox and I co-moderated a #caedchat discussion about classroom redesign. At the time, I had just finished redesigning my classroom, and fully intended to blog about the experience.  So imagine my chagrin when I realized that it's been almost two months since that Twitter chat and I have yet to blog it out!  Yikes.

In the interest of "better late than never," here's how my redesign turned out. Oh! And there's a "how to" video to boot...

Since I wanted to make a change in the design of my classroom in order to better suit student needs, I decided to poll my kids at the end of last year about what aspects of the classroom they enjoyed and what they disliked or would want to change.  We opened a Today's Meet room and they submitted their thoughts. One trend that I noticed is that the kids requested "bigger, better whiteboards" (I had personal size whiteboards for student use) or "whiteboard walls."  They also asked for "more cushy seating" and wanted me to "bring back the twinkle lights from Christmas time."  One kid even commented on the floor, saying, "It smells good in here and there is a couch like at my house which I like. But the carpet is kind of gross to sit on." (Which is true. The carpet in my classroom hasn't been cleaned in forever. I think they stopped doing that when the California budget started suffering.)

Interestingly, a lot of their ideas for what needed to change coincided with some of the thoughts that had been rattling around in my head.  So, I decided to make it official, sit down, and come up with a game plan...

Clearly, several things needed to change: seating, lighting, and creative space. But, where to start?

Since collaboration plays such a huge role in the dynamic of my classroom, the 42 desks had to be the first to go.  The only thing stopping me was a lack of anything to replace them with.  I'd always loved Alice and Barton Keeler's classroom renovation video, but never had enough cash to plug into a ton of brand new furniture for such a huge project.  Luckily, a school in my district closed for renovation and its old furniture went up for grabs. I snagged five 4x7' tables, which were kind of beat up but totally perfect. Whiteboard paint, I decided, would be an awesome way to refinish the table tops while giving my kids plenty of space to brainstorm, design, plot, and plan.

Forever ago, I read a blog post by the Nerdy Teacher about how he refinished the desks in his classroom with IdeaPaint.  I have instant gratification issues, so I visited two different local Home Depot stores and bought every last whiteboard paint kit they had in stock, plus a plethora of painting supplies. (Mostly because I just didn't want to wait the amount of time it would take for IdeaPaint process and ship my order.)

Here's how I refinished the tables:

A few tips not included in the video:

• Use foam rollers to ensure an even application of paint.
• Typically, whiteboard paint comes in kits that contain two jars of different chemical components. Once combined, there is usually a time frame in which the paint must be used. If the paint in the tray is expired and you need to open a new kit, change the foam roller and tray liner as well, so as not to spread any "expired" paint.
• Whiteboard paint has even stronger fumes than regular paint, so be sure to apply it in a well ventilated area.
  
• Use plenty of drop cloths and protect the floors/surfaces where you are painting your tables or desks. Spills are difficult to clean up!
  

After painting, the big question was what to do with all of the floor space freed up by having tables.  Since buying additional couches wasn't in my budget, I decided to track down some bean bags on sale. (I pretty much refuse to buy most things unless they're on clearance or heavy discount...my husband and I refer to that as "Jedi-Shopping.")  Since Back to School season is also Back to College season, I lucked out at Big Lots. Lamps, strings of lantern lights, and rugs also made it into my shopping cart.

Over the next year, I would like to add two new couches, donate the old couch to another classroom, and add some low tables for kids to use with the bean bags. I also found out that my classroom is slated to pilot Chromecast and have a couple of flat screen TVs mounted on the wall in order for students to use to collaborate and present.  So far this year,  students have made only positive comments about the room and seem to enjoy the flexible seating option and homey atmosphere the alternative lighting provides.

Visiting Japan to represent California education has been an absolute honor. The Japanese people have been incredibly welcoming and gracious as a whole, but most especially the teachers, students, and faculty at the schools we visited in Tokyo. We were lucky to observe and interact at a variety of schools, both public and private. After several very full days, I found that there is a wide range of educational environments students can experience. Each school seemed to have a distinct philosophy, climate, and instructional approach, just as in the United States. We were even fortunate to meet two female principals, which our guide indicated is less common in Japan.

Another almost universal theme in Japanese schools seemed to be educating the whole child, with a "mind, body, culture" approach. While our experience included visiting a wide range of classrooms, some of which were teacher-centered and some more student-centered, all of the schools had very rich elective and club activities for students to enjoy. Most students stay at school until 7:00 or 8:00 at night, participating in clubs, sports, or studying. At Tokyo Metropolitan Itabashi-Yutoku High School, we were served formal Japanese tea ceremony from by students and a "Master of Tea," who taught us the ritual in partaking. We also observed the calligraphy program, which was absolutely incredible to watch as students created works of art. At Sakuragaoka Junior and High School, we observed a very rigorous soccer club practice and a joyful home economics classroom where students were elated to share their sewing projects. Our visit to Nerima Municipal Nakamura Nishi Elementary was a particularly joyous experience, as students ran out into the hallways to greet us and happily shouted "Hello!" To commemorate the spirit of each visit, I made an iMovie trailer in the van after we left every school. (Since I posting this from the mobile app and can't embed video, check out my YouTube Channel.)

One of the teachers from Sakuragaoka graciously allowed me to stay in her home while we were in Tokyo. Her name was Tokoyo and she has been an English teacher for ten years. We exchanged many ideas, because this was her first year being selected as an 1:1 iPad classroom teacher and that is my ed tech wheelhouse! She loved the iMovie trailers and asked me to teach her how to create them - so we did! What a fun, international tech geek moment!

As I sit here writing this blog post, we are on the Shinkansen bullet train, heading to Kyoto for several days, then traveling to Hiroshima. As a side note, my students are following my journey on Instagram, which has been really fun! Connecting with my kids from another continent feels AWESOME.

More to come...

I am not a particularly adventurous person. Sure, I packed up all my stuff ten years ago to move to California, and yes, I do love a good road trip with lots of random stops at hole-in-the-wall places, but I am mostly the kind of person who orders the same thing off the menu every time we go out to dinner. My husband, family, and even my students have my Starbucks order memorized because I've been ordering the same drink since forever.

Conversely, I would consider myself an adventurous professional. When it comes to teaching, I am fascinated by possibilities and I don't hesitate to bring new ideas into my classroom - especially if I think it's what's good for kids. Introducing 20% Time, going mostly paperless, digital storytelling - being adventurous is essential to my effectiveness as an educator. And now, I am honored to take that adventurous professional spirit abroad as the 2014 California Teachers of the Year travel to Japan!

I'll be honest. When I first found out we'd be visiting Japan, I was 98% excited and 2% scared...or maybe 2% excited and 98% scared. (Thanks for that line, Owen Wilson.) So, this immediately became my mantra:

After facilitating a week of professional development on digital storytelling for PSUSD, I hurriedly packed my bags to meet Linda Horist, Michael Hayden, and Tim Smith at LAX to catch our flight. We are grateful to the Japanese Travel Bureau for providing such an amazing opportunity to visit beautiful Japan to meet its students and teachers over the next few days.

The flight was about eleven hours, which provided ample time to catch up on new releases and practice our Japanese phrases - Konnichiwa! Genki desu ka?

Upon arrival, we cashed in Japan Railway vouchers and took a bus to the Sunshine Prince Hotel, where the view was incredible. My first impression of Tokyo is that it is remarkably clean everywhere! Walking down the street, I am actually astounded that we are in a major metropolitan area.

Today, we will visit several schools and meet our home stay families. I am very much looking forward to interacting with Japanese students!

Sayonara! Ki wo tsukete!

This past year, my students took on the largest film project ever attempted at JWMS.  Jebari, one of my 8th grade video production students, wrote a really wonderful script about a boy whose parents are getting a divorce; the boy decides to get creative and seek lost treasure in order to solve his parents’ financial woes and save their marriage. Where does one find a sunken pirate ship and lost treasure in the middle of the southern California desert? At the Salton Sea, located at the eastern end of the Coachella Valley. Based partially on local lore, Jebari cobbled his script together from various versions of the legend of the lost ship and his own creative ideas.

When Jebari came to me with his project idea, I was immediately supportive because my favorite answer to give students is, “Yes!”  I thought his idea was original and the script had the potential to make an emotional impact as well. Jebari wanted to cast the movie with AV Club students and utilize video production classmates to round out his crew. All of it - the story, the performances, and the potential success of the project hinged on filming on location.  Though my students currently have access to a green screen and three-point lighting, Jebari and I talked at length about how much we needed to be able to film off campus. Enter DigiCom Productions and two of the producers of the Palm Springs Unified DigiCom Film Festival, David Vogel and Dr. Lee Grafton.  They graciously read Jebari’s script and decided to fund almost $1,000 of travel expenses for my students to be able to plan and execute two days of on location filming. We filmed at two different sites: the Salton Sea and a residential neighborhood in Indio. (Our school is located in Cathedral City, at the west end of the Coachella Valley.)

Here’s a look behind the scenes of “Lost Ships”...

Throughout the production of “Lost Ships,” my students and I learned two big lessons.

The first realization we reached is that movies are made in the editing room. The first cut of “Lost Ships” was over twenty minutes in length; the second cut didn’t get much better and sat at a solid sixteen minutes in length for the better part of a week as we scratched our heads and tried to figure out how to condense the storyline. After several more cuts and many hours, Jebari and his assistant directors and editors adopted a non-linear approach to the storytelling of “Lost Ships.”  It wasn’t until we all agreed to throw the script out and create the best story from the footage we had that my students struck gold.

The second lesson we learned involves some ideas about filming on location: You will always need to do a reshoot.  Before filming on location, my students drew extensive storyboards, tirelessly rehearsed their script, planned to accommodate for lighting changes throughout the day, and even then, they needed to do a reshoot.  No matter how prepared you are going into it, there will always be elements out of your control, unforeseen complications, and moments during post-production when you think, “If we only had a shot of _______.”  Hence, having the opportunity to revisit locations is crucial to creating the best product possible. 

Here is what Jebari had to say about filming on location:

Students worked for over five months to produce "Lost Ships" from beginning to end.  Their dedication and passion for this project really paid off, as demonstrated in their final product...

The cast and crew of “Lost Ships” were recognized recently at the California Student Media Festival as “Lost Ships” won an award for “Best Storytelling.”  Students were also staggered to learn that in a little over a week, “Lost Ships” will premiere at the Palm Springs International Short Film Fest as part of the DigiCom Best of Fest Student Showcase!  Also, Jebari and another student from my video production class, Gina, will receive all access filmmaker’s passes at Fest to be able to interact with adult filmmakers from around the world…wow!

Since Jebari is an 8th grader, he promoted to high school this past Thursday, as did two of the film's actors, Brent and Marissa.  Having been their video production teacher for the last three years, I will be honest and admit that I had a couple of tearful moment in my classroom after all my kids left.  Sometimes, there are groups of kids who have this incredible, beyond ordinary connection - with one another, with me, with the medium of digital storytelling. So, sometimes it’s hard to say goodbye. But I definitely know that these kids are destined for great things.  I'm looking forward to seeing what they do in the future!

**This entry was cross-posted on the CUE Blog.**

The library is eerily quiet when we enter, and the students are all business, their voices hushed, as they quickly set about rearranging furniture. The digital clock on the wall reads 3:30, and on a Friday afternoon, when school dismisses at 1:50, the library is one of the last places one would expect to see students. Jebari claps his hands to get the attention of the principle cast, while the crew adjusts their 3-point lighting. “Okay,” he says to his peers. “We are on location here until 4:30 today. Let’s make it count, and do this just like we rehearsed.” With that, they are off and running. And that, as seen through the tiniest of authentic vignettes, is the power of digital storytelling.

I’ve been making movies with middle school students for the last seven years, and I have to say that student film is one of the most important pillars of my classroom. In room 208, students have opportunities to tell digital stories throughout the year, both in my core content classes (6th grade Language Arts and Social Studies), as well as in the video production and leadership elective class that I have developed. Giving students the chance to realize their potential as authors and producers of original content is one of the most significant things I can do as a teacher.

According to the Common Core Mission Statement, “…standards are designed to be robust and relevant to the real world, reflecting the knowledge and skills that our young people need for success in college and careers.” In the workplace students will need to be able to collaborate, communicate, create, and think critically. Productive members of the workplace must be able to clearly articulate themselves in both speaking and writing; actively listen to others as part of a collaborative environment; persistently problem solve through careful analysis; and create original content. Digital storytelling is the perfect vehicle to develop these skills in our students today. See Common Core Standards

The writers of Common Core seem to understand the role technology plays in the dissemination of information and the self-publishing of work. The Common Core Writing strand 6 (K-12 literacy standards) says students should be able to, “Use technology, including the Internet, to produce and publish writing…” Furthermore, the visual and digital literacy inherent in student video production means that students will refine their understanding of how to tell an effective digital story each time they engage in the process. This type of learning is clearly reaching a depth of knowledge level 3 or 4.

Performance tasks are intended to measure student mastery of both content area standards, as well as expose the Common Core habits of mind. Student demonstration of mastery is inherent not only in the finished student product, but also in the process of writing, planning, executing, and refining digital stories. Hence, digital storytelling is the Common Core in action.

The process of creating student movies requires a great deal of cooperative learning. Being able to define a vision, manage time and resources, work together to overcome challenges, and successfully execute a group plan requires a strong collaborative ability. Often, instructional activities for a teacher’s typical lesson plan include structured opportunities to speak and listen. For example, students may be asked to think-pair-share the answer to a lesson prompt.

However, during the process of digital storytelling, students engage in almost constant communication that is far more authentic in nature than a structured conversation at a desk. When given the opportunity to make movies, some of the quietest students in my classes become the most vocal. The loudest students are often forced to listen by necessity, and every child is engaged. After all, what kid wouldn’t want the opportunity to make a movie? I have yet to meet one.

Few digital learning tasks require as much critical thinking as digital storytelling. As proverb asserts, “Necessity is the mother of invention.” Throughout every stage of production, particularly during the actual filming and during the editing stage, innovation is key. Finding new uses for old resources, resolving lighting issues, actively revising scripts to better communicate themes, and adapting on location – all of these are examples of the type of on-the-spot problem solving that is inherent in student film.

My students are middle school kids, and I have to say that after nine years of working with this age group – they are very poignant people with a distinct point of view and plenty to say. Giving students the chance to author their own digital content increases the ownership kids feel over their work. When students are invested, they are successful. And success – even a little of it – tends to increase exponentially.

Students who tell digital stories develop a transferable lexicon that can apply to more than one subject. For example, students must be able to understand and articulate how both writing and film utilize “transitions” as part of effective communication. Placing emphasis on the vocabulary of filmmaking gives students a common language to use as engage in the process of digital storytelling.

Ultimately, we seek to redefine learning in our classrooms. According to the SAMR scale of technology implementation, a task “redefines learning” when it would be inconceivable to complete without the use of technology. Helping our students shift from consumers to producers of media means that we are literally giving them the opportunity to redefine how they learn.

Student film making requires both flexibility and thoughtfulness on the part of the teacher. Video production with students is an activity that builds momentum over time; each year, I find myself wondering, “How far beyond consumption can this group of students go?” As a result, I strive to give them limitless possibilities by utilizing my favorite word: YES.

To share original media content with the world at large, taking their message to a broad audience, is an incredible experience for students of all ages. The most magical aspect of media production for an authentic audience is the consistency with which student products surge to new heights of quality. Knowing that the teacher is NOT the audience for student work provides strong motivation. For a student, being able to share digital stories via YouTube or Vimeo channels is like shouting their thoughts to the world.

Perhaps most importantly, video production provides students with the opportunity to stretch their own voice out into the world. As I read Common Core, it sanctions the idea that students must learn to live, think, and work “out of the box.” To that end, the core of movie making is really giving students the chance to do so authentically.