My most memorable school project

Reflecting upon my 6th/7th grade class that I taught, there were several memorable experiences (both good and others not so good) from that year. One that still stands out as unforgettable was when I introduced my students to iMovie.

I taught at an inner-city school where I witnessed a lot of disparity among the student population. When we started off the school year the students in my class were not yet very cohesive as a group; some cliques had formed from years of being in the same class together. This concerned me as I did see it was having a negative impact on some of my other students who were quieter and not considered as "popular" among the group. I felt at times like I was hitting my head against the wall trying to find ways of having my students connect more with each other.

After attending a most inspirational workshop with the Guru of Digital Movie making- Marco Torres - I felt compelled to bring some of his suggestions to action. I held a class meeting the following Monday and asked my students to brainstorm how they use technology in their lives every day; judging by the excitement of the students all wanting to share their experiences, I had a feeling that I'd reached common round within the group for a change. It was then that I had the "aha!" moment.

I was going to have my students work on a country project in the 2nd term; initially, I was planning on having them do it the old-fashioned way - work independently to research the country and hand in a written report. After the session with Marco Torres, I decided to "spice" up the project. Instead, I assigned students their partners and they were asked to research their country together; they were then expected to create a digital movie about their country and present it to the class. I tried using countries that were familiar to the students in my class so that peers could also rely on primary sources of information while researching their countries.

I held a 2 day research session with my students in the library where they were asked to find literature pertaining to their country and fill out a Research sheet in which they were asked to do the following:

1. find at least 3 different book sources about the country and record responses to questions on sheet from each source
2. analyze responses and determine where there might be some discrepancies in the information
3. discuss with group member how to determine which of the two conflicting responses is correct.
4. share your ideas with at least two other student pairs

They were also expected to select web-based sources of information which we did in-class. In doing this, students were expected to work collaboratively to fill out the sheet and to communicate their ideas not only between each other but to other peers. For the first time, I was beginning to notice a shift in attitudes within the class; those students who typically spoke only with their friends were opening up to other peers in their projects. In the process, they were beginning to learn more about each other as some of them were called upon to determine the correct responses if they had any prior knowledge of the country in question. This was just the beginning of a beautiful experience.

My students were itching with impatience to get started with their iMovies. When the day had finally come, I handed them a planning sheet on which they were expected to map out how they would put their information together about their country. They were given sites to choose from where they could download images, they were given the opportunity to bring images from home, and were encouraged to use music for their presentations. In all of the weeks I had taught that class, I had never seen such a high level of student engagement with the project! There was at most times a lot of focused, silent work happening; then there were those moments when students discovered something new about iMovie and were so eager to share with peers. I particularly found one of my more quieter students to be the most resourceful person with troubleshooting issues.

The class was bursting with creative ideas and all students generally appeared to be letting their guards down for a change when working together. There were, of course, the odd times when conflict arose over what content to use, how to present the content, and so forth. However, in large part, the students were collaborating well and showing a true team spirit, willing to help other groups and share ideas.

During our second last week of school, students shared their projects using a projector, Macbook, and some high-quality speakers to play the sound. The only thing that was missing was the popcorn as I must say the movies all had such a "Wow!" factor among the audience.

The outcomes of this project were that they not only mastered how to create digital movies but also the art of collaborating with fellow classmates, regardless of where they stood in the established hierarchy of relationships within the group. In fact, I saw over the course of the project, a higher level of respect toward those students who initially were seen as "unpopular", being included in lunch time conversations more and not being the last ones chosen to work with in day-to-day group activities. I also noticed that their personalities were beginning to flourish in the course of the project; I began to truly become acquainted with my students during this shared learning experience.

If you have a memorable learning experience you would like to share, please write it in our comments. I'd love to hear from my readers, too!