Introduction Videos
Welcome Students from Colombia, Canada, and the Untied Sates. Greetings from our side! We have finally completed the first of our two introduction videos, and the kids and I are very excited and proud to share them with you. But, oh there is always a but, I am a bit long winded. Ask any of the students in my class, and they will tell you that I like to talk and explain everything thoroughly. It can be very annoying, this always looking for the teachable moment, but alas, what can I say- this is my calling. (Note: If you want, I recommend you skip ahead and watch the videos, but please come back and read this intro; it will help put what you see in perceptive. If you are a fellow teacher, parent, or new to this project please read here for clarification.)
Last week, as the sun stood guard over the sky and dropped her light through the many tropical trees on our campus, I was strolling the grounds of our school taking photographs of drinking fountains, lockers, pianos and the varying shades of light that was laid upon them. I had just handed out five digital cameras and two video cameras to a group of thirteen middle school students and had dared them to go out and see our school, the world, in a fresh, new, and poetic way. “Stay away from anything literal.” I told them. “Look for colors, shapes, and things that are interesting to look at. Try to see things from new perspectives. You are not taking pictures of anything. You are simply trying to show others how you see the world.”
“But what does this have to do with poetry,” they asked. “Photography is the best poetry teacher there is.” I told them. “It is our ability to pay attention to the world and see it in different ways that allows the poet in us to flourish. Words are just one we can experience poetry. Everything that surrounds us is poetic; we must simply learn how to give life to it. Today we will use images, later maybe sounds, eventually…once we can see, smell, taste, and touch the poetry of the world, we will learn to use words to describe it. In the meantime, see if you can find it first.” “How will we know?” They asked. “You will know trust me! It isn’t hard to find, you just have to be open to it finding you.”
There they were. Standing on top of soda machines, lying on the ground looking up at trees, getting up close and then walking away from objects they see everyday. They snapped shot after shot. Each class had well over one hundred images that they had collected from their time spent exploring our campus
Later in the week, we spent time learning about cropping, composition, contrast, and the importance of the editing stage in photography. The students, as class groups, voted and reduced their 150+ photos down to twenty per class. They collaboratively edited each photo, placed it in an iMovie file, and added music.
Here is their work. Please allow each movie to fully load before viewing:
Block D (Music- Looking Through The Glass by Stone Sour)
Block C (Music- Paradise City by Guns N’ Roses)
Block H (Music- Youth Of The Nation by P.O.D)
Filed under: General and
Hi! My name is Nohora and I really like you introduction videos. Also I’m trying to visit Hanna’s blog but it doesn’t work. I really want to keep in touch with her like that we could like work together or like share info. Please contact with me at my blog or Mr. Hide’s blog.
Hi! My name is Paula and I’m from Mr. Hide’s class. I think your videos are really cool. Wow, your school looks really big! Haha, well, bigger than our school at least. Good job!
Hey,
I really liked your videos, and i hope that you liked ours…i live in Snow Lake just so you know. I think that your vidoes were very well done and that I love your school! It is so nice and huge!! I used to live in Texas and I miss the big school that I went to, well I hope that you continue to post videos up because they are interesting to watch. So bye bye!
Katherine
Hi is Randy from Snow Lake Canada in Mr Fisher’s class and I would like to say that your school is very cool. You are so lucky to have that cool school like with all the stuff in it like the pools, theather, the warm, etc. Ya your school is alot better then ours.
Bye!!
Hi!
These videos are amazing! We watched them today in class, and I was shocked…our schools are so different from each other! We don’t have a pool or theater
You guys are so lucky! It’s only warm for about two months here in Snow Lake, Canada too…which I don’t really like, because I love warm weather. Better than cold, in my opinion. Anyways, you guys did an awesome job with your videos. Keep up the great work!
April
Hello Mr. Raisdana’s class. This is Toni from Mr. Fisher’s class in Snow Lake. You did a great job on your video’s and there are some amzing photo’s. You have a beautiful school, and I think it is really neat that your hallways are open. I am excited to be doing this project with you!
-Toni
Hi! This is Derek in Mr.Fisher’s class. I really enjoyed these video. You guys took really amazing photos. It is neat that you took a different perspective on things. For example, it was neat you guys took the picture of the climbing wall in the second video. Anyways, you have a beautiful school and I am really excited about this project.
Hi!
My name is Anna and I’m from Mr. Fisher’s class, I just thought that I would leave my opinion on your video’s. Overall I thought they were done very well. I like how you got to ground level or stood on top of things, it really made the shots more interesting. It must be nice having it be warm there all year round! Right now it is -40 degrees celcius in Snow Lake, Mb. I really enjoyed your video’s but I thought the endings could use some work, like fading it out.
Anna
Hey,
I really liked your videos, and i hope that you liked ours…i live in Snow Lake and am in mr.fishers class.we dont have a pool or a theater or any thing else so it was interesting to see what it was like there through video. I think that your vidoes were very well done and that I love your school! It is so nice and huge!!well I hope that you continue to post videos up because they are interesting to watch. i loved your video so keep posting. bii
peace out
Hey!
I am Ashley.M from Mr.Fisher’s class. I really liked your video’s. It must be hot there. Unlike here its like -35. Its really cold here. I wish I could go there. We don’t have a pool or anything here. You guys are so lucky. But it must be lots of money to get all that stuff. But I am going to go!
Bye!!
I looove these videos.
I like how you have all the flags from all the different countries pinned up on the wall. The pool is HUGE. I love it. It would be so cool if we had one of those here. The lake is fine too though. The theater is awesome. When I watched those videos I asked my parents If our family could move to Malaysia and then I could go to your school. it looks awesome. Anyways. Good Job!
Shyla
Hey AshleyM.
its 30 degrees in malaysia so it very hot everyday
fredrik
I find it quite funny that all you people in Canada think the weather must be nice here, you see I’ve lived here for 8 years and you may think it’s nice and warm but you’re wrong, its DEADLY HOT and not just sometimes either pretty much every day.
Mitch from Mr. R’s class