6 Videos in 1 Month!

Before the CRCT break last week, Annie and I wrote down the students' ideas for videos, sorted those ideas into groups and let the students choose a first and second choice of which video they want to participate in making. Last Friday during a CRCT break, Annie and the students arranged everyone into 6 video groups. The entire ICS 5th grade is participating - fantastic!

Even better, the other 5th grade teacher, Ms. Hamilton and Annie figured out they could let the students split into different groups than they are normally in during the afternoons. So now, 5A and 5B distinctions are gone and students are working with classmates they may not have been in class with this year. In my opinion, this shows how great the teachers are and how excited they are to have the 5th graders working together in this way.

The video project groups are:

1. Interviews with 6th Grade
2. Friends
3. A Day in the life of Recess
4. Advice for 4th Grade
5. Memoirs
6. Digital Tour of ICS

Our initial brainstorming, planning & scheduling sessions took place yesterday & today, and I learned some important lessons:

First lesson, it takes a long time to get the students settled down and focused!! I'm so used to working with adults, I often forget that the students are new to many of these ideas & new to working within these groups. Explaining one concept can take longer than I anticipate, especially when the normal kid silliness, teasing and side conversations are also occurring.

Because of that, I learned my second lesson, which is that I need some good one liners to get the students' attention. I know that simply shushing them doesn't work; plus, they're old enough where I can say something (hopefully) quickly and semi-quietly that should get them to stop the monkey business. Annie is really good at it. I should have been taking notes. We'll see! Tomorrow the actual video taping begins...

CRCT Week

We're taking a break this week because the students are taking the CRCT standardized test all this week and Ms. Perry will be teaching science during the place of the Writer's Workshop this week. Our video collaboration is part of the Writer's Workshop curriculum, as it helps the students with storytelling...using video as a medium instead of traditional paper and pencil.

Exciting news: we got a friend to sponsor part of this project. He prefers to remain anonymous, so I'm going to refer to him as Mr. S (for sponsor). We are so grateful! Mr. S bought 4 plastic, kid-friendly video cameras that Ms. Perry and I hope to send home with the students as part of our project. The cameras arrived last week. I haven't seen them yet, but according to Mr. S the resolution is not great. He taped a test inside and said it's nearly impossible to see.

I'm going to pick a camera up tonight and do my own test. If we have to we can ask the students to do their taping outside during daylight hours on sunny afternoons and evenings.

Making Connections

Peter Jordan emailed me back. The community-based connecting expands!

Brigette,
This is so cool! I'm thrilled that you are using the work. I was just on a panel about the internet at Full Frame Documentary Festival and told them how excited I
was by how you are using Localfilms. How did you find out about the site?

Keep in touch. I'd enjoy seeing your thesis when you're done.

Peter

Reach Out Recess

Yesterday, we watched Speak Luvo Speak Jane (2005), from localfilms.org about kids whose parents have HIV/AIDS in South Africa and Kenya. Fortunately, we followed it with a funny movie made locally by Hein's older brother which had everyone laughing and enjoying good homemade comedy.

Today we watched Starring Us (2004), the earlier collaboration Ms. Perry's 2nd grade students, Steve Schaefer and I co-directed several years ago. Lots of laughter! Everyone has grown up so much they've forgotten how small they once were. They also got a kick out of how much higher their voices were. Ahh...the maturity of 5th grade.

Earlier during recess, we let the students do their own version of Chain Camera (2001), using a camera to video each other and then passing the camera onto the next student. We named it Reach Out Recess.

While the students went to Art, Ms. Perry and I downloaded the videos onto the computer. As a group during class, we watched the videos from recess and discussed what the students liked & disliked about each other's videos and what they learned from watching the videos. We discussed different ways to frame shots, lighting (keep the sun behind the cameraperson) and how to be aware of sound (easily done when there are lots of screaming kids in the background in recess). Another great day! The students are beginning to think visually and watch the videos as if they were the documentarians instead of the audience. Good stuff!

Localfilms.org

Yesterday we watched a film by Peter Jordan of Localfilms.org called The Children They Are Left With. Since many of the students are from other countries, including many from Africa, this initiated a fantastic conversation, where many of the students reflected on their lives before coming to America. Annie and I were thrilled at how the students internalized the movie and how moved they were by them. They asked some great questions and shared their stories. Today, it began to feel like we are getting somewhere!

I emailed Peter Jordan to tell him about the experience and included some photos:

Hi Peter,
I'm a graduate student in Communications at Georgia State University and have
been very inspired by your work. Thanks for making it available to view on your
website. As a mediamaker, I thought you might appreciate how your work is also inspiring
my current collaborators, the 5th grade class at the International Community School
in Decatur, GA. (www.intcomschool.org). My thesis project is a community-based video
collaboration with them.

ICS has a lot of refugee and immigrant children, and today we watched your film
The Children They are Left With to begin our conversation about documentary filmmaking.
Your film initiated some fantastic conversation! Afterward, Majur, who is from Sudan,
said it reminded him of himself and his home. Dilbar (from Iraq) and Farwad (from
Afghanistan) said it reminded them of their lives before coming to America too.
Thank you for creating work that is meaningful and so inspirational to these kids.
They ate it up! I'm attaching some photos for you.

Lastly: where did you get the plastic video cameras the kids use in your projects?
Is there a particular brand to look for?

Best regards,
Brigette Flood

Who's merging?

The purpose of this website is to document my community-based storytelling/video project and partnership with the 5th grade class from the International Community School (ICS) in DeKalb County, GA. ICS is a charter school whose mission is to provide “refugee, immigrant and local children with a remedial to advanced education at the elementary school level. The school explores and celebrates cultural differences in a challenging, nurturing, and intentionally multi-ethnic environment” (www.intcomschool.org). The class teacher, Annie Perry, and I hope to engage the students to the ideas and practice of using videography, digital photography and computers.