The Media Spot

The following PSAs were created by two third grade classes working in small groups which researched, storyboarded and scripted their pieces working with their teachers, Ms. Cutler & Ms. Kirksey, and me. Once the shooting scripts were ready, the teachers recruited some bigwigs from the New York entertainment community (who also happen to be 3rd grade parents at The Anderson School*) to collaborate on the productions. Students directed the productions, made decisions about shooting, collaborated on editing, and in one case filmed a documentary that I edited with them. The products are pretty powerful. Check them out, starting with "The Documentary Group", then see the summary of the process by Ms. Cutler, and production notes from our early discussion of PSAs.

We've accomplished some great things in the first 10 days of our 30-day residency at The Parkside School in Brooklyn (PS 130). The blog network is set up, first graders are making videos that will provide a window into their exciting school lives, we've developed a strong policy for online safety, and a framework for a technology plan is in place.

We've been making progress with our video production work at PS 32 in Brooklyn. We worked with the boys for 10 sessions to produce a 5 minute video, and showed the video as part of GSS's "Hero Project". "REAL HEROES" was the title, and it got a great response at the show.

Over a 6-day contract with 130 in the Windsor Terrace neighborhood in Brooklyn we've set up a free WordPress.com blog, developed and modeled classroom publishing projects for students, got them posting weekly announcements from the office, and helped the staff start to conquer their fear of school technology!

Good Shepherds Services (GSS) is bringing us in to produce a video with a group of middle school boys in their after school program at PS32.

Class 5-302 showed off their video productions to a packed library full of students and teachers yesterday.

Since December, class 5-302 has been adapting original poems into videos. The 5th grade created "List Poems" in the Fall in response to Walt Whitman's There was a Child Went Forth on their blog.

Class 5-303 showed off their latest video productions to a packed library full of students and teachers yesterday.

5-303 made 6 different videos out of the same set of video footage that they shot on their trip to the Brooklyn Botanical Gardens in February.

In case you've missed them, three videos have been posted to the Third Grade Blog at PS124

They are "video illustrations" to student writing projects. Video illustrations help an audience connect to writing, just like a photo or drawing would in a book.

3rd-5th graders at PS 124 reached the holidays with a good bit of multimedia production experience under their belts: typing, researching on the web, transcribing and creating original works on their blogs, and producing videos.

ESL students from 7 different countries worked with TMS and a theater teacher to create a stage piece that incorporated original video elements. It was performed in front of a packed house at NYC's The Kitchen in December. The kids communicated fluently in both media, and the crowd went wild!